| Show THE UTAH NEWSPAPER HALL OF FAME When Utah Press Association began its Better Newspaper Contests in 1951 the General Excellence winner among the statelargest weeklies was the Box Elder Journal From that time through his active years as publisher his papers were consistently ranked in the contesttop strata even though the News directly competed with the Journal One or the other of the two papers repeatedly won the coveted General Excellence designation over the years and captured blue ribbons as well for Community Service an honor sought-after by the statepublishers because it reflected the newspaperinstigation and or editorial support of projects which benefitted the community it served The News and Journalcitations were all for civic improvements but three were perhaps the most notable One was labelled the most ambitious water development project in the cityhistory It included construction oflarge reservoir in Mantua Valley several miles up Box Elder Canyon above the town diversion canal penstock down the canyon an equalizing reservoir and related water service works Another wasdrive for construction ofnew high school and demolition of the older outdated one Though it wasna popular cause Brigham City people remember It was abso Tutely needed third in still another time period was re-leveling and widening of Brigham CityMain Street an engineering feat accomplished by removing the high center crown The work was accompanied by installation of new much-needed utility lines The papers were also recognized for playingleading role in such projects as establishment of the Intermountain Indian School construction ofcommunity center and initiation of Senior Citizens program to serve the area Such honors the publisher often said were the reward for hiring professionals and giving themfree hand plus encouragement As much as possible he employed editorial staff members who had collegiate journalistic training Still it was Clay who wrote the often hard-hitting editorials in support ofparticular objective Many times they appeared 461 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
