November 1996 Blazer

John F. Dallin and the wreck of the Mable Davis

THE HISTORY BLAZER I ArEEIITS OF UTAHS PAST FROiV THE I Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake Citv, LTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 John F. Dallin and the Wreck of the Mable Davis MANYSK IFFS, YAWLS, AND STEAMBOATS have met their demise on the Great Salt Lake. Devotees of Utah's briny not- so- deep know of several such craft and of their disastrous endings. The Timely Gull was shipwrecked in 1858 when a gale loosed it from its moorings near Black Rock and swept it against the southern end of Antelope Island. Its wreckage served for many years as a reminder that the lake is a dangerous body of water. In 1875 an attempt was made to tow John W. Young's little steamer, 3he Lady of the Lake, from the beach at Lake Side to Lake Point. On the passage she broke loose from her fastenings and sank to the bottom. The jaunty little side-wheeler Susie Rirer lasted on the lake only two years in the early 1880s before she went down while anchored in a storm. The lake's largest boat, The Ciry of Con'nne, later renamed General GarjieZd, ignominiously burned to the waterline in 1904. These are all craft familiar to students of the lake, but few have heard of the Mdle Davis. The violent wrwkage of this obscure sailboat on the western shore of Antelope Island in August 1886 nearly ended the life of John Finch Dallin. Dallin was a 54- year- old Englishman whose father, Tobias, had joined the Mormon church and brought his family to Utah. Tobias became one of the premier fisherman on Utah Lake, and his sons were skilled sailors and fishermen. The family eventually moved to Springville where some of the Dallin boys, including John, fell away from the church and becarne political and social mavericks. John stayed involved with Utah Lake, but also launched a career in the brewing business, which created problems with Springville City since it was a dry town. This trouble prompted him to move to Thistle Valley in Spanish Fork Canyon where in 1879 he built the Thistle Creek Brewery and got a license from Utah County to make and retail beer and liquor. When Dallin sold his property in Thistle to the D& RGW Railway Company in 1886 his interests turned to the recreational development of Utah Lake. This, oddly enough, is what took him to Garfield Beach on the Great Salt Lake in late August of that year. He bought the sailboat Mable Davis and planned to move it to Utah Lake where he hoped to run an excursion business during the rest of the summer season and eventually open his own pleasure resort on the freshwa-ter lake. His immediate problem was how to transport the sailboat to Utah Lake. First, he planned to sail from Garfield, on the south shore of Great Salt Lake, to Lake Park, a resort on the east shore just west of the present town of Syracuse. From there he would load his boat on a railroad car and convey it to Utah Lake via the D& RGW. Since Dallin was a seasoned sailor, he had no fear about making the solo trip to Lake Park, and with high spirits he loaded what he considered to be enough food and water for his voyage and set sail. ( more) A propitious south wind briskly moved the little craft toward Lake Park. An hour into the voyage, however, a gale arose ' that drove the boat toward the rocky west shore of Antelope Island. Large waves were running, and even though Dallin was still a mile from the beach he could hear the growl and roar of the breakers pounding the rocks as darkness approached. Unfamiliar with the shore, he did not dare risk beaching the boat but dropped anchor and endeavored to keep the craft away from the shore till daylight. The wind howled so fiercely that Dallin feared the anchor cable would snap. As he fought the violent storm, he worked up a temfic thirst and grabbed for his demijohn of water. The cork had worked loose, and the earthen container was contaminated with salty bilge water. He drank it anyway. At about 3: 30 A. M. the anchor gave way, and the boat was swept toward shore. When the boat struck land, Dallin threw ashore a blanket, some clothing, and a sack that contained a can of salmon and a pound of cheese. Then he jumped landward. The boat was now completely at the mercy of the breakers. It rolled over twice and in a few minutes was dashed to pieces on the rocks. Completely exhausted, Dallin lay down and dropped into a fitful sleep. When dawn broke, he began to search for water. Unaware that the east side of the island was occupied, he wandered along the west shore all day driven by thirst. He grew weaker, and his tongue dried and began to protrude from his mouth. Fearing that he would die, he wrote a note and stuck it on a shrub, It included his name, where he lived, how he happened to be on the island, the direction he was traveling, and what to do with his body. As he plodded on, mirages in the form of people and houses formed, only to disappear as he neared them. Dallin finally began to work his way toward the central ridge of the island. He rested frequently and wrote two more notes that he placed on points of rock. On the ridge he got a faint glimpse of what appeared to be a farm, but he had seen so many mirages that he paid little attention to it. He trudged down the eastern slope hallooing every few steps in hope that someone might hear him. In his weakness he stumbled and fell over brush, stones, and small depressions. About nine that night he lay down to rest, periodically waking and yelling for help. Eventually, Dallin heard voices, and then human forms appeared. After he briefly explained how he came to be there, the rescuers took him to a nearby house that belonged to Frederick Meyers, a partner in the Island Improvement Company. Dallin rested for a day and the next morning boarded Meyer's cattle boat for the slow trip to the mainland. The boat landed about three miles above Lake Park. A man named Layton drove him to the bathing resort where Dallin caught the evening train to Salt Lake City. This disastrous adventure fded to discourage Dallin in his quest to provide recreation on Utah Lake. The next summer he had a sailboat on the lake and was offering excursions to pleasure seekers. In 1888 he established the Geneva Resort close to warm springs on the shore of the lake near the present site of the steel plant that bears the same name. Sources: Dale L. Morgan, Z h Great Salt Lake ( Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973); Clayton J . Holt, his to^^ of Antelope Island ( Syracuse: Syracuse Historical Commission, 1994); Salt Lake Daily Herald, September 1, 1886; Salt Lake Tribune, April 4, 1888; Provo Territorial Enquirer, June 17, 1887; T. C. Hebertson, " Writer Recalls History of Geneva," Provo Herald, March 27, 1949. THE HISTORBLYA ZER is 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 [phone]. WllOl ( RC)