| OCR Text |
Show THE WTORY BLAZER ATE M'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State ~ istoricaSl ociety 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. LT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 Vernal's Unique Parcel Post Bank BACKIN 1916, WHEN BANKS PAID 4 PERCENT- IN TEREST-- O n Sa~ iIlgs- aCCOuntst, he of . Vernal found a novel way of saving money in the construction of its new building. Vemd, in Uintah County, Utah, Was settled in 1879, 32 years after the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. In 1861, yeam before settlement of the Uinta Basin, a party led by Daniel H. Wells had been sent by Brigham Young to investigate the area. They reported that the land was useless except for ' nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and to hold the world together. .. ." As a result, colonization efforts were delayed until the late 1870s. When the original Bank of Vemal opened its doors on December 14, 1903, out-laws- including Butch Cassidy- roamed the area. The bank had a bulletproof screen and a steel-lined counter for protection. Officers of the bank in 1903 were S. M. Browne, president; W. P. Coltharp, John Reader, S. R. Bennion, and Harden Bennion, directors; and N. J. Meagher, cashier. The town prospered. In 1916 W. H. Coltharp ( a son of W. P.) decided to construct a new building to house the W. P. Coltharp Mercantile Company. He offered to let the Bank of Vernal use the front comer as its new home. But putting up a brick building in Vemal was not an easy matter. The nearest brick kilns were located in Salt Lalre City, and the closest railhead was 120 miles away. Not only was it expensive to purchase the building materials, but the problem of shipping them to Vernal appeared insurmountable. Then N. J. Meagher and W. J. Coltharp found a unique solution. At that time, freight rates were $ 2.50 per hundred pounds, while parcel post was oniy $ 1.05. Postal regulations, however, allowed sending no more than 50 pounds per package and 500 pounds per shipment to one address. So Coltharp had the bricks mailed from Salt Lake City to Vernal in 5,000 50- pound packages addressed to different residents in the area. The curious parcels took an unlikely route. To reach Vernal, about 150 miles east of Salt Lake City, they went by Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Mack, Colorado, then by narrow- gauge railroad to Watson, Utah, and finally to Vernal in Star Route freight wagons, a journey of over 400 miles. For a short period of time, both the Vemal and Salt Lake post offices were flooded with tons of packaged bricks. Not wanting to miss out on a good thing, other Uinta Basin residents began ordering goods sent by parcel post. A Veml Ekpress headline on June 2, 1916, read, ' Government Loses $ 30,000 Yearly on Basin Parcel Post." The article reported that local merchants were ' ordering every pound shipped by parcel post which can be gotten in under the 50 pound limit." Where the ( more) normal volume of parcel post handled in the Basin had run about 81,000 pounds a month, the preceding month reported 167,000 pounds. During this period 10,000 pounds of salt, 12,500 pounds of flour, and 8,800 pounds of sugar were shipped into Vernal by parcel post. Other items normally sent by high1 that began arriving in the Basin by parcel post were groceries, pitchforks, brooms, water hydrants, produce, auto tires, feather beds, and blacksmith tools. And of course the system worked two ways; Uintah County residents started shipping their goods to other areas by parcel post. The Vernal Express reported that ' Recently outward shipments have been made, 85 sacks of copper ore, cans of honey, cured hams and pork, eggs, and many other articles." Some ranchers were even sending various crops to market in Salt W using parcel post. It was not long, though, before two postal inspectors arrived to investigate reports in Washington, D. C., about tons of undelivered mail. Fortunately for the Bank of Vernal, its bricb were delivered before a change in U. S. postal regulatio. n. s. . s e. t , a . l , i., m . i t,- . o . f 2.. 00- pounds a . * ? . . o. n p. a ckages sent from one person to another iii a given"& y: '*' * ' " "-. The new Bank of V e d opened for business on February 26, 1917. Because it was built almost entirely of Utah materials, the Veml Erpress hailed it as ' an advertisement for the state. " Today, as Zion's First National Bank, the fine brick building is most remembered as a monument to the remarkable solution its original owners found to the problem of obtaining materials for its construction. See Linda Thatcher, '' Vernal's Unique Patcel Post Bank," Beehive History 6. niE HISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. 950803 ( LT) |
