A History of Box Elder County

Corinine - City of Ungodly

CHAPTER 7 CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY T X he coming of the railroad greatly affected the population of Utah and Box Elder County with the influx of a significant number of non-Mormons among the previously isolated members of the LDS faith. From the point of view of the Mormons, this was not a particularly sought-for situation. They had, because of their religious beliefs, clannish nature, political solidarity, and problems with some elements of the frontier American culture, been forced to flee New York, Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois. The had come to the shores of Great Salt Lake to be alone and apart-to practice their religion with­out interference, and without pressures to conform to the norms of the surrounding society, which they considered un-godly, degener­ate, and corrupt. From the point of view of those whom the railroad brought, this was a country and a continent of manifest destiny. A great railroad linked the raw riches of the American West with the industrial might of the East, and the rest of the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Far East beckoned. As the tracks approached Bear River, the hungry eyes of those 124 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY who came along with the rails saw the location for their Utah beach­head. The spot where the railroad crossed the Bear would be the per­fect place for a town, an "American" town, a new town, free from Brigham Young's power. It was almost the northernmost point the tracks would reach in this part of Utah, and would be an ideal junc­tion for the great trade roads coming south from the mines of Montana. Ore could be brought by wagon to the Bear River and be loaded on the railroad for shipment to the smelters. Supplies could be taken from the railroad cars and shipped to Montana. Not only that, but there was the Bear River. A fleet of steamships could be built to ply the waters of Great Salt Lake, and ore from the mines being developed south of the lake could be brought across the lake and up the Bear River to the rail junction. It was a perfect location. In actuality, it was one of three sites under consideration by the railroad for a division point. The other contenders were Ogden and Bonneville. Odds were against the Bear River site, known at the time of its conception simply as "Bear River." Wags referred to it as "The Burg on the Bear," and in the journal of Jacob Zollinger-who passed through in 1868-by the inglorious moniker "Tough Creek." Ogden, an already-established city, was a Mormon town, and it was not conceived and laid out with a railroad in mind. Bonneville, five miles west of Ogden, was located on the railroad, and was free of Mormon influence. The Union Pacific favored the site for a time, but it was in a rather isolated location. The site on the Bear River had several advantages. Its location on the river provided "the only pure water in any abundance between the Wasatch and Humboldt Mountains" and the river made possible the irrigation and cultivation of hundreds of acres of rich soil in the Bear River Valley.1 The river was conceivably navigable, making pos­sible more commerce for the railroad and, of course, the town. It was the best location along the Union Pacific for trade with Montana, being but a few miles from the Montana wagon road established twenty years before by Captain Howard Stansbury. On 18 February 1869, John Hanson Beadle, vehemently anti- Mormon writer, editor of the Salt Lake Reporter, and author of dime novels visited the budding community and found the town com­posed of fifteen houses and a hundred and fifty residents. Although CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 125 Staff of the Daily Reporter in front of their office at Corinne in 1869. (Utah State Historical Society) Green and Alexander had by then completed their hotel, Beadle was not over-awed. He wrote, "there is no newstand, post office, or bar­ber shop. The citizens wash in the river and comb their hair by crawl­ing through the sagebrush. A private stage is run from this place (Brigham City) to Promontory, passing through Connor. The pro­prietor calls it a tri-weekley, that is, it goes out one week and tries to get back the next."2 Something caused the sarcastic Beadle to gain more confidence in the burg of Connor, for in March he returned to the banks of Bear River in company with Colonel C. A. Reynolds, Major F. Meacham, Lieutenant A. E. Woodson, General J. A. Williamson, Captain E. B. Zabriskie, Captain John O'Niel, Messrs. M. T. Burgess, S. S. Walker, M. H. Walker, N. S. Ranshoff, N. Boukofsky, and J. M. Worley. Beadle and his largely military entourage lunched on the grassy bank of the river, just below the crossing, and had quite a drinking bout. The next day most of the hung-over party located claims as near as possible to 126 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY the crossing on even sections of land, in hopes of the choice of this as the junction city.3 Tiring of the sluggish workings of railroad and government deci­sion- making machinery in choosing the junction city, the merchants of Corinne induced the Union Pacific to survey the site in trade for alternate lots in the new city. The survey was made during February and March of 1869 by John O'Neil, Union Pacific construction engi­neer, under the direction of J. E. House, the railroad land agent. The townsite, laid out west of the river, was selected in preference to the site of Bonneville, surveyed at the same time. Evidently, Mr. House was empowered to choose between the two locations.4 Corinne was not, like the wild and rowdy end-of-track railroad camps, just another mushroom sprung up in the night. It was a city whose conception had been planned and whose birth was antici­pated. Historian Brigham D. Madsen has noted that "With . . . specu­lations by the eastern press about the impact the Pacific road would have, and while the Mormon people resolutely prepared to stand off the influx of Gentiles, some far-seeing men began to wonder about the possible founding of a 'Great Central City' that would control trade to vast areas of the Intermountain West."5 These speculations took form in a report by J. H. Beadle to an Ohio newspaper in 1868. Beadle wrote that "Somewhere, then, between the mouth of Weber Canon and the northern end of the lake, at the most convenient spot for staging and freighting to Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, is to be a city of permanent importance, and numerous speculators are watching the point with interest. But the location is still in doubt."6 Beadle saw that the new city would challenge the Mormon capital; "at no very distant day Salt Lake City will have a rapidly-growing rival here. It will be a Gentile city, and will make the first great trial between Mormon institutions and outsiders."7 Beadle went on to predict that "It will have its period of violence, disruption, and crime,. . . before it becomes a permanent, well-governed city."8 From the very beginning, it was to be a great metropolis. The city was not laid out square-with-the-world, as were most Utah towns, but rather was platted with the streets running parallel to the railroad tracks, from southeast to northwest, with the Bear River as the east­ern boundary. The plans for the city were magnificent, and the city CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 127 plat mirrored the grandiose scheme in the minds of the founding fathers. The grand plat of the city encompassed an area of three square miles, extending much farther than the city ever reached, indi­cating the hopes and plans of the visionaries who built the town, in anticipation of a huge growth. The city blocks were generally 264 by 280 feet, and the first eight blocks running west from the river, facing the tracks, were each divided into twelve lots of twenty-two feet each. Moving away from the railroad, the next row of blocks on each side were laid out in the same manner, and the rest of the blocks contained six lots (of double size) each. Through the center of each block ran a sixteen-foot alley. Each block was 132 feet deep. One whole block was set aside for a university, another for a Catholic church.9 Lots were put on sale 25 March 1869 by J. A. Williamson, a rail­road land agent.10 On the first day, some three hundred lots were sold at prices ranging from $5 to $1,000 each, reaching a total of from $21,000 to $30,000. Within two weeks, five hundred frame buildings and tents had sprung up, almost like mushrooms in the night. By summer the sale of lots totaled $70,000. It has been estimated that the Union Pacific held interest to a sum of $100,000 in the new metrop­olis. 11 J. A. Williamson, the first "mayor" before the town was incorpo­rated on 19 February 1870, is given credit for naming the city.12 Some reports have it that Williamson named the town for a famous actress of the day, named Corinne La Vaunt. After an exhaustive search of records of the time, Rue Corbett Johnson found no record of an actress of that name.13 That Corinne LaVaunt is perhaps a fictional actress in a French novel is made a subject of consideration by J. H. Beadle, who in mentioning the name, states that Corinne is "not without pleasing association in itself for people acquainted with modern French literature, it being the name of one of madame De Stael's most fascinating books." There are also claims that the city Corinne was named for Corinne Williamson, daughter of J. A. Williamson. There is ample evidence that Williamson's daughter was named before the city, as witnessed by Beadle, who in his Utah Daily Reporter states that the city was named for the general's "beautiful and accomplished daughter-Miss Corinne Williamson." Later, dur- 128 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY Corinne c. 1870. (Utah State Historical Society) ing a fund drive, it was r e p o r t e d that "General Williamson led off wit h a h a n d s o m e d e c o r a t i o n for himself and ' t en dollars for the young lady after whom this city was named'-Miss Corinne Williamson."14 At its founding, Corinne City and her founders had almost the whole valley to themselves, as there were only two other settlements within any proximity: Brigham City, bastion of polygamy and the United Order five miles away, and-about an equal distance to the north-a tiny settlement now known as Bear River City. A descrip­tion of the valley in 1869 comes from the pen of J. H. Beadle: Corinne is sixty miles north and twleve west of Salt Lake City, occupying the same relative place on Bear River as the other does on the Jordan. It is at the railroad crossing of Bear River, midway between the Wasatch Mountains and the spur known as Promontory, some eight miles from the lake, and in the center and richest section of Bear River Valley. The western half of this valley, unoccupied except by one small village of three hundred Mormons, contains half a million acres of the finest farming land; of this one-fourth is cultivable without irrigation and the rest CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 129 would be made fruitful by moderate watering, while an extensive stock range of the richest kind extends westward and northward. The elevation is 4,300 feet above sea-level; 1,000 feet less than that of Denver; 2,000 feet less than Cheyenne; 3,300 greater than Omaha; surrounded north, east and west by lofty mountain ranges, and on the south by the Great Salt Lake. It is thus the cen­tral point of a beautiful valley, fifteen miles in extent with a loca­tion unsurpassed for natural beauty.15 After the gold, silver, a n d iron spikes were driven, a n d the coal and wood smoke a n d s t e am h a d cleared away, t h e wild t e n t city, known as "Hell on Wheels," t h a t followed the c o n s t r u c t i o n gangs from Omaha to Promontory did not evaporate, as did the smoke and steam. Instead, the saloons, gambling houses, brothels, a n d other dens of iniquity found what was hoped to be a permanent home in Corinne.16 So it was that Corinne welcomed and gathered to her breast any and all who would come; not only the railroad workers, gamblers, store keepers, hawkers, t r a n s i e n t s , b u t also men of business and industry, the gentile merchants of Salt Lake City a n d Ogden, who were fleeing economic disaster at the hands of Brigham Young and Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution. Corinne was wild, a result of the last big push to Promontory by the Union Pacific, b o r n in a boom, and subject to all the ills of such. Alexander Toponce said of the camps just east of Promontory, "It seemed for a while as if all the toughs in the West had gathered there. Every form of vice was in evidence. Drunkenness and gambling were the mildest things they did. It was not uncommon for two or three men to be shot or knifed in a night."17 When those same elements coalesced at Corinne, it was every bit as bad. In the background of all this was a more stable, respectable pop­ulation, which remained after the transients either moved on or took up residence in the town's boot hill. It was the efforts of these men of commerce that brought Corinne to the measure of glory that she enjoyed and the success she achieved for a time.18 These men realized that, for their city to succeed, it needed struc­ture, law and order. As soon as lots were put on sale and settlement began in earnest, a city organization was set up. General Williamson 130 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY was chosen as mayor. A city council was organized, a city marshall appointed, and a city attorney named.19 The city was not incorporated and granted a charter by the Utah Territorial Legislature until a year later, o n 18 February 1870.20 A municipal election in C o r i n n e , o n 3 March 1870, r e s u l t e d in the selection of J. Malsh as mayor over W. H. Munro, by a plurality of 112 to 100 votes. There were charges that some had voted illegally, and the election was called a tie. The winner was chosen by drawing lots, r e s u l t i n g in the "election" of M u n r o as the first real mayor of Corinne. A new city council moved quickly to appoint a city attor­ney, a n d passed ordinances against the erection of tents or canvas-roofed houses on and around Montana Street between Second and Seventh streets, prohibited polygamy forever within the city limits, and designated the Utah Reporter (under the editorship of John H. Beadle) as t h e official city newspaper.21 The hopes of the founders of Corinne were high-that in this town, free from the Mormon influence, a new order might be estab­lished, and, s u p p o r t e d by t h e vast throngs of the Gentile element, surging westward because of the railroad. Corinne might become not only the Queen City of the Great Basin, but the capital of Utah.22 Corinne was the first money center of Box Elder County, and it r e m a i n e d such for a n u m b e r of years. The city's first bank was opened by Hussey, Dahler 8c Co., t h e name later being changed to Warren, Hussey & Co. In t h e summer of 1874, J. W. G u t h r i e and Company opened a bank, which became a private bank operated by Guthrie. Other banks included the Bank of Corinne. Perhaps the jewel of Montana street was the Central Hotel built in 1874 by H i r am House at the corner of Montana and Sixth streets. It was a substantial two-story brick building. H i r am House built the first Corinne municipal water system. House, who was wounded by Indian arrows on his j o u r n e y west in 1862, became a life-long resi­dent and promoter of Corinne. The water system, installed in 1869, used a steam-operated p u m p to draw water from the Bear River into a large wooden settling tank. It was t h e n sent t h r o u g h the central portion of the city in a wooden pipeline. The system was discontin­ued in 1876, a n d water from the river sold from door to door at twenty cents a barrel. In 1891 the old system was cleaned, repaired, CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 131 and put back into operation, serving until 1912.23 Among House's Corinne enterprises was a cigar factory. He also operated the ferry across the Bear in 1870, and helped build the bridge a few years later.24 It was House who purchased the city bell, for use in case of fire, emergency, or celebrations. According to old documents, a Mr. House (probably Hiram) constructed a steam-powered sawmill on the banks of the Bear River just east of Corinne. Logs were floated down the river to the mill from the timber country to the north until the supply ran out. The mill was then moved to Marsh Valley, Idaho.25 When the old water system was finally replaced in the early years of the twentieth century, one of its promoters was William F. House, son of Hiram, who was also instrumental in bringing electricity and tele­phones to Corinne. Henry House, Hiram's brother, who served as a scout on the plains and was a rider for the Pony Express, also lived in Corinne, and is buried in the city cemetery.26 The infrastructure in place, the business enterprises of Corinne could grow. Those enterprises of Corinne reached far and wide. With the help and support of the gentile merchants of Corinne, trade was opened to the vast territory of southern Montana, Idaho, and west­ern Wyoming, allowing the products of Utah to be exported to those areas.27 During its peak, the freight trade in and from Corinne was tremendous, and was boosted by many of Corinne's prominent citi­zens. About four hundred mules and eighty heavy wagons operated night and day. The six-hundred-mile (one-way) trip to Montana took ten days and nights. If ox teams instead of horses drew the wag­ons, a trip to Helena, Montana, sometimes took six months. Rates from Corinne to Helena-or any other point along the way-were $7 per hundred pounds; passenger fare was $75 one way.28 As many as five hundred freight outfits assembled at Corinne at one time. Mormon men came from the surrounding areas in large numbers as teamsters or guards on the freight lines.29 The chief commodity shipped south from Montana to Corinne was ore. Food and other supplies made the trip in the other direction. One of the notable Corinne businessmen, John W. Guthrie, shipped produce (principally eggs and butter) from Corinne and the surrounding area to the West on the Central Pacific Railroad. His business was of such proportions 132 HISTORY OF Box ELDER COUNTY as to require a warehouse-store 132 feet long and 22 feet wide, with a cellar r u n n i n g the whole length.30 D u r i n g this time Guthrie for­warded 240,000 p o u n d s of powder and 125,000 p o u n d s of case goods.31 He did much of his trade in Cache Valley, where he bought large amounts of produce. It is said that he bought eggs for fifteen cents a dozen and sold t h em for fifty cents; b u t t e r for twenty and twenty-five cents, a n d sold it for twice as much. D u r i n g Guthrie's long career in Corinne, he not only operated his shipping enterprise and his bank, but served for a long while as mayor.32 Another of the colorful characters of early Corinne, who deserves more than passing mention, is Alexander Toponce. Born in France in 1839 and emigrating to America in 1846, Toponce rode with Russell, Majors and Wadell before taking a job as a teamster with Johnston's army. A brother-in-law of Hiram and Henry House, Toponce gravi­tated to Corinne and operated a merchant freight line to the north. After he retired from active business on the line, he rented wagons and teams to traders. In his reminiscences he mentioned prices of some of the goods as follows: sugar, $1 per pound; flour, $30 or $40 to $125 per hundred; pork, $1 per pound; and eggs, $2 per dozen.33 Toponce was a "commission man" for the meat shipping business, which grew up around the large slaughter house built by an eastern company, which drew to Corinne the livestock and dairy business of the surrounding area. By use of the railroad refrigerator system, the business became quite large.34 In 1873 Toponce organized a company to build a canal from Sulfur Creek to Corinne, about sixteen miles, for purposes of irrigation and power. In 1874 he built a grist mill and operated it until 1883, when it was incorporated into a larger com­pany. Toponce also served as mayor of Corinne. He tells of one of the more unusual parts of the j ob in his reminiscences: Everybody that had any grief of any kind brought it to me to fix up. Sometimes I could fix it up with masonic funds, sometimes I could use the Odd Fellows' money and at other times what little funds the city had in the treasury. Corinne was the first station out of Ogden on the Central Pacific and when people tried to beat their way to California, the conductor put them off at Corinne. The first thing the first man they met would say to them was, "Go see the mayor." Very rarely I could get help for these people from CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 133 the county. And very often, I could arrange with the railroad for cheap rates to get the people to California or to some other point whre they had friends or relatives. Sometimes I had to go out on the street and take up a collec­tion. I recall one occasion when a woman and her four children were put off the train because of some defect in her ticket. She was promptly advised to call on the mayor. By consulting with the local agent, I found that it would take fifty dollars to get the woman and her children to California. So I went out and raised the money while they waited. I would go into a saloon and step up to the bar and throw down a dollar for the barkeeper and say, "Everybody come up and have a drink with the mayor." Then men in the saloon would all line up and order their choice and when they had tucked it under their belts, I would then tell them about the woman and four children. Then I would say, "Now, boys, it is up to the City of Corinne. How much will each one of you chip in?" I would pass the hat and take up a collection and go to the next saloon and repeat the program. Very few of the men would refuse to donate, after having had a drink with the mayor, and some of them would "chip in" liberally because they were in town to spend their money. In an hour's time I had raised the money for the tick­ets and the woman and her four children left on the next train.35 Not only did Corinne have the freighting trade with the north, but t h e railhead also b r o u g h t the farmers of t h e local area to the town. The farmers of Cache Valley, Marsh Valley, Gentile Valley, Malad Valley, Bear River Valley, a n d s u r r o u n d i n g areas braved the long drive and thick choking road-dust, traveling day and night to reach the gentile railroad city with their heavily-loaded wagons of grain. Business was so good and the area from which the railroad drew so vast (it was t h e only railroad crossing t h e c o n t i n e n t ) that long lines of wagons waited for hours, days, and sometimes weeks to unload. The farmers were generally paid from twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents a bushel for their wheat at Corinne.36 Several com­panies were active in the freight trade from Corinne. Among them were names which are well-known to h i s t o r i a n s a n d laymen like Creighton & Monroe, Fred J. Kiesel, Wells-Fargo, Auerbach, the Walker brothers, and the Bambergers. C o r i n n e was also, for a t i m e , t h e h o m e of General Patrick E. 134 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY Connor, the arch-enemy of Brigham Young and the Mormons. Connor (born O'Connor) had come to Utah in 1862, and established Camp Douglas (later Fort Douglas) on the foothills overlooking Salt Lake City. Because of Young's efforts to stop mining and Connor's belief that mining would be the most effective way to populate the t e r r i t o r y with n o n - M o r m o n s , he encouraged it w i t h every means within his power including giving soldiers under his command leave to prospect. His efforts brought h im the title "the father of Utah min- •>•> ing. Patrick Connor built a smelter on the banks of the Bear River at Corinne for processing ore brought by freight wagons from the min­ing areas of Montana. Later, when valuable ores were discovered in t h e O q u i r r h Mountains, the ore was shipped across the Great Salt Lake to the Corinne smelter, leading promoters to proclaim Corinne, the "Chicago of the West." Corinne had the distinction of being the only city in m o d e r n times whose streets were literally paved with gold. Due to the crude smelting methods used in early days, there was much of value left in the hugh slag piles which accumulated around the smelter. Evidently some enterprising citizen, exasperated beyond endurance at having to wade through the thick clay m u d which made quagmires of the streets and sidewalks in which pedestrians sank to their ankles and the heavy freight wagons sank to their axles during the spring and fall rains, conceived the idea of crushing the useless slag and spreading it on the streets and those sidewalks which were not made of boards, to help keep the traffic from sinking out of sight while plying the thoroughfares of town. Many tons of the slag were used to improve the streets and more was dumped behind the abut­ments of the new bridge over the Bear River; enough slag was left to keep the streets in good repair for years. In the 1880s improved meth­ods of smelting caused mining experts to come browsing through the slag piles and smelters of Utah. Those of Corinne came under inspec­tion, and were found to contain $20 worth of gold to the ton, even though the ore h a d been smelted once. Some twenty railroad cars filled with Corinne slag were hauled away to smelters employing the newer, more efficient methods. Now the only remains of the immense slag piles are behind the abutments of the now-abandoned CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 135 bridge on the old road at the east end of Montana street, and beneath the now-paved streets of Corinne.37 The ambitious men who founded Corinne did not wish to settle only for trade on the railroad, especially when valuable minerals were found in the Oquirrh Mountains on the southern tip of Great Salt Lake. A new phase of shipping was opened in Utah with the begin­ning of trade by steamboat on the Great Salt Lake. The first of the lake's fleet of steamboats were built by Patrick Connor to haul tele­graph poles and ties for the Central Pacific in 1868 and 1869. They were the Kate Connor, the Pioneer, and the Pluribathah or Pluribustah. Connor realized that a great deal of time and money could be saved if steamboats could connect the mines with the rail­head, and Corinne, with its smelter built by Connor and location on the transcontinental main line, was the logical connection. The choice of Corinne was bolstered by a report that the Bear River was eighteen feet deep and three hundred feet wide at Corinne.38 During the years 1868-72, the Great Salt Lake was rising, and the mouth of the Bear River was deep enough for navigation by boat from the lake, even though in 1843 John C. Fremont found it blocked by sand bars. The one obstacle to navigation of the Bear River was its meandering course through the marshes near its mouth. The distance from Corinne to the lake is about six miles as the crow flies, but by the river, according to C. A. Dahl, first captain of the grand steamship City of Corinne, "the distance seemed more like thirty-five miles which took several hours to navigate from Corinne to the Bear River Bay of the Great Salt Lake."39 A discussion of the possibilities of Corinne as an ore transfer port to the railroad appeared in the Utah Tri- Weekly Reporter in May 1870: the use of Corinne as a river port was strongly supported by the editor and further momentum was given to the proposal by the sup­port of the miners on the lake's southern shore.40 One of the first commercial voyages to Corinne by a lake vessel was made on 4 November 1869 by Connor & McNassar's ninety-ton schooner bringing laths from the mills at Black Rock on the south­eastern end of the Great Salt Lake.. About a week later a load of sil­ver ore came to Corinne from Stockton in Tooele County via Black Rock aboard the Pluribustah.41 The Pluribustah or Buster, a schooner 136 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY with a load capacity of 100 tons, was built in the spring of 1869, by General Connor. A ship named the Viola was built on the south shore for use in the lake trade. In June 1870 the Kate Connor was refitted as a side-wheeler. The Pluribustah was also converted to haul ore in June 1870. This great boom in the lake trade aroused the citizens of Corinne, who wanted to have a ship of their own plying the waters of the great inland sea. Public interest was mobilized in 1870, with the help of three men, promoter Wells Spicer, Judge Dennis Toohy, and coal-mine operator Fox Diefendorf. The City of Corinne as the ship was to be called, was to be one hundred thirty feet long and was to have three decks, and a seven-foot-deep hold capable of carrying three hundred tons. Propulsion was to be by means of rear-mounted paddle-wheel. Launching was tentatively set for the end of March 1871. Of the $40,000 needed for the project, $4,000 was raised by appeals to the public from soap-box pulpits by the light of coal-oil lanterns and bonfires. The remainder was provided by private investors, Fox Diefendorf being chief among them. A siding was built from the railroad's main line to a dock near the crossing of rails and river at the east end of the city, and the grand steamship began to take shape. Captain C. A. Dahl, one-time propri­etor of the Valley House in Salt Lake City, became the skipper of the City of Corinne. He was sent to San Francisco to meet the new ship's engines which had been ordered from marine engine makers who served the Great Lakes trade, Girard B. Allen and Company of St. Louis and Chicago. The engines reached San Francisco via the long route around Cape Horn. California redwood was used for the hull and beams of the ship. Though work was progressing, the projected launch date came and passed before the engines arrived on 8 April. The machinery was proudly exhibited in Corinne. On 20 April the boilers were installed, followed by the wheel shaft, the decks, and the cabin stanchions. A site on Clinton's Island on the lake's south side was chosen for the wharf, and work commenced to construct the necessary docks. Launching of the City of Corinne was set for 23 May, and all Utah took notice. The Kate Connor left the Jordan Landing on 20 May at noon, to be present for the launch of her rival. Arrangements were CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 137 The steamer City of Cor inn*. Elder County) rhich was built and launched in 1871. (Box made with the railroads for a special train to carry visitors from Salt Lake City. People came from Ogden and Kelton, as well as from other points on the railroad line and from surrounding communities. Hundreds attended the ceremony when they commenced at 11:00 A.M. The vessel was christened with a bottle of wine by Miss Jennie Black, daughter of a justice of the peace. The fastenings were hewn away, and the new ship began to glide down the ways accompanied by the cheers of the crowd. After moving about twenty feet, the vessel stopped. The ways near the water's edge had sunk into the mud. The crowds dispersed throughout the city while builders and crew went to work to free the ship. After about seven hours, the wild chiming of the bell in the Presbyterian church's tower announced to all that the "Queen of the Western Waters," the great sternwheel steamship City of Corinne was afloat. The celebrants, many of whom had spent much of the day in the saloons, flocked back to the river for a look at the great ship. The ship duly launched, the throng returned to town for a "remarkable" ball in the Opera House, which lasted most of the night. 138 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY The ship made a trial run on 9 June 1871, with an entourage of fifty guests, while soundings were taken in the riverbed in prepara­tion for the maiden voyage of the proud vessel. The City of Corinne left for Lake Point on 12 June 1871, its first commercial voyage, with a load of lumber, a few orders of goods for the mines, and wire for the Western Union Telegraph Company's line to the Oquirrh mining town of Ophir. The vessel returned on 14 June with forty-five tons of ore in 1,150 sacks for the Alger smelter in Corinne. The Alger works were not, however, prepared to begin refining ore. The day after the City of Corinne returned to its berth on the Bear River, a schedule of regular trips was announced, to begin 19 June. There were to be three trips a week, leaving Corinne for Lake Point on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Return trips were to be on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The ship's arrival in Corinne was timed to meet the Central Pacific's westbound passenger train. The schedule was followed until late July, when it was adjusted to once a week. In the middle of August, regular trips were canceled, and the ship waited for business. During the summer of 1871, the City of Corinne and the Kate Connor competed for the scarce business. That summer marked the peak of lake freighting and passenger travel. Even though it was reported in September that the great sternwheeler's chief stockholder, Fox Diefendorf, was disenchanted and planned to sell the ship, both boats wintered in Corinne, where they were cleaned and overhauled for the season ahead. In February 1872 the City of Corinne was sold to H. S. Jacobs and Company of Salt Lake City which had ties to the Lehigh and Utah Mining Company of Mauchunk, Pennsylvania. The company planned to use the vessel for trade connecting Corinne, Lake Point, the Lakeside Mining District, and the islands. However, it came to be used for private shipping between Jacobs's smelter at the south end of the Great Salt Lake and Corinne, as well as carrying excursion par­ties. The fluctuating inland sea was, during this period, in the rising portion of her cycle. Eventually high, sluggish backwaters caused by the high lake level left sand bars at the mouth of the Bear River, and in about 1873 the City of Corinne was marooned out in the lake, far CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 139 from the city for whose glory she had been built.42 The ship's base of operations moved to Promontory Point, Monument Point, and then to a point on the lake below Kaysville, the nearest point on the lake to Salt Lake City. From there, the ship carried excursions for another ten years, and the port became known as Lake Side. When the rail­road was finished around the south end of Great Salt Lake, the steamship's dock was moved to Lake Point. In 1880, when James Abram Garfield, candidate for president of the United States, visited Utah, he took a ride on the great ship. In the emotion of the moment, the vessel was re-named the Garfield-the name City of Corinne having no meaning any more. Later the name was also given to a bathing beach and smelter nearby. The Garfield was moored to the bathing pier and became the restaurant and hotel for the resort. The final blow to her tarnished dignity came when her proud banners and tall smoke stacks were removed. She was only a floating building. When fire destroyed the resort in the late 1880s, the ship burned to the water line. Its charred and rotting skeleton was visible there for many years.43 The Kate Connor was sold to Christopher Layton of Kaysville, along with "some flat-bottomed scows" probably towed behind the boat to haul ore. Legend has it that she eventually sank, and was left to rot where she went down. Somewhere on one of the old river channels in the Bear River marshes lies the rotting hulk of the Pluribustah. When the lake trade folded, the promoters of Corinne turned their attention back to the city's first love, the railroad. They con­ceived the idea of building a railroad from Corinne to the shipping points of the north and organized the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake Railway. The route was surveyed as far as Malad, Idaho, a distance of fifty miles, and ten miles were graded, but many difficulties, most of them apparently financial, brought the project to early abandon­ment. 44 From there, it was downhill for Corinne's grand hopes. A study of its history reveals at least three reasons for the decline of the "Gentile Capital of Utah." First, the drifting away of railroad construction crews and traders after the transcontinental railroad was completed in May 1869. 140 HISTORY OF Box ELDER COUNTY Corinne began as a construction camp, and was the last permanent settlement along the Union Pacific line. As such, it attracted railroad workers who sought diversion from their labor. When that segment of the population eventually moved on, Corinne lost its appeal to a certain element, and became a little quieter. Second, moving the railroad junction or transfer point between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads to Ogden was a severe blow to Corinne. Though the tracks met at Promontory, it was iso­lated in a high desert valley, far from established roads, from popu­lation centers, a n d did not have an adequate supply of water for a large community. Because of its location on Bear River, and near the route to Montana, Corinne's founders thought it the ideal spot, and promoted their town with almost religious fervor. Still Corinne did not prevail. In the words of S. H. Goodwin, Although the two railroads selected Promontory as the junction point, Fate, and Brigham appear to have picked Ogden. Seven days after the celebration at Promontory, Brigham turned the first shovel of dirt at Ogden for what was to be the Utah Central Railway connecting Salt Lake and Ogden, and this line was com­pleted and open for travel January 12, 1870. Some time late in the summer or early fall the disputed point as to where the junction of the C. P. and U. P. Should be, was settled in favor of Ogden, when the former purchased the interest of the U. P. In fifty miles of the line from Promontory toward Ogden, for $3,000,000 and leased the remaining six miles. Upon the completion of this transaction, papers unfriendly to the "Only Gentile City in Utah," published articles under such headings as "Promontory Being Abated," and in which occurred such expressions as "Poor Promontory! And poor Corinne!"45 Third, the Utah Northern Railroad built n o r t h from Ogden. Even after the moving of the transcontinental terminal to Ogden, Corinne still h a d its huge freighting business with the vast t e r r i t o r y to the north, which kept the city very much alive. In 1871 the idea was con­ceived to build a narrow-gauge railroad n o r t h from Ogden through Weber, Box Elder, and Cache counties, and on into Idaho. The Utah and Northern Railway was organized on 23 August 1871, and ground was b r o k e n in September. The tracks reached Franklin, Idaho, in CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 141 early 1872.46 The goal was to extend the line to Montana and take over the team-and-wagon freight business which belonged to Corinne. The Corinnethians, undaunted, built a branch line in June 1873 to connect it with the Utah and Northern at Brigham City. For a while the pendulum of success seemed to swing in her direction. The Mormon church was not a railroad giant, and "as the tracks moved farther north, crews [Mormons locally available for building] became fewer and fewer in number. Construction problems, plus the depres­sion brought on by the Panic of 1873, caused the church to recon­sider railroad building."47 Mormon church leaders sold the line to the moguls of the Union Pacific, including Jay Gould and Sidney Dillon. The renamed Utah & Northern was built to Preston, through Red Rock Pass, up Marsh Valley, along the Portneuf River, and up the canyon at Inkom. The tracks extended to Pocatello, joining the old Gold Route (the freight road), north to Ross Fork, site of the Fort Hall Agency, and then to the Blackfoot River, sowing the seeds of the town of Blackfoot. From there, the Utah & Northern laid its track to Eagle Rock, coming upon Matt Taylor's bridge, built over the Snake River in 1863. Eagle Rock had been a prosperous stage and train sta­tion, but its fortunes changed when the Utah & Northern shops were moved to Pocatello. Pocatello became the railroad town, and Eagle Rock became the Mormon town of Idaho Falls. In the spring of 1880, the Utah & Northern railroad tracks crossed into Montana through Monida Pass. From then on, the freighting days of Corinne were at an end, and the huge freighting wagons became relics of a past glory. Corinne's old freight mogul, Alex Toponce, penned the description of Corinne as a dowager: "The buildings were without paint, stores and dwellings stood vacant. Many of them were torn down or moved out on farms. People lived in houses rent free. Corinne men were found all over the west. The few who remained lived on the hope of what would happen when the irrigation water was brought on the broad valley.48 The railroad, which Corinne's founders thought would put the sword of victory into their hands, proved to be double-edged. Corinne was eventually severed from the silver rails which had been her crown. Perhaps Corinne's epitaph was penned by the fire-breath- 142 HISTORY OF Box ELDER COUNTY JS Corinne looking east from 5th Street about 1870. (Utah State Historical Society) ing newspaper editor of her glory days, J. H. Beadle: "The history of Corinne is the history of something near a thousand towns in the 'glorious, free, and boundless west.' In a new country, when the first towns are laid out, everybody speculates, one makes money and nineteen come to grief."49 Alexander Toponce, in his reminiscences, wrote: "It was one story that Brigham Young had pronounced a curse on Corinne as a 'wicked Gentile city' and predicted that grass should grow in the streets. Some grass certainly did grow on some streets."50 Adolf Reeder said that Young pronounced his curse when he visited Brigham City to reor­ganize the stake in August 1877. It was also on that occasion that the Great Colonizer delivered his final public address, only ten days before he died. According to Reeder, Young said that the city would go down and never regain its former size, grass would grow in the streets, the buildings would be torn down and barns would be built of the materials, and the Bear River would go dry.51 The population of the city declined. Many of the old business buildings were torn down. The Central Hotel was dismantled, and its CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 143 materials used to b u i l d a substantial brick b a r n which still stands (1998) on a farm west of Corinne. The grand Corinne Opera House, in which Tom Thumb, William Jennings Bryan, and Maude Adams performed, and where i n n u m e r a b l e Shakespearean plays, science lectures, m i n s t r e l and medicine shows, lectures were held, was sold in 1884 to J. W. Guthrie for $300. It eventually became the meetinghouse for t h e Corinne Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ENDNOTES 1. lohn Hanson Beadle, "Scrapbook containing editorials and dis­patches from the Salt Lake Daily Reporter (and other newspapers), October, 1868-August, 1869," Microfilm in Utah State Historical Society Library. 2. Ibid. 3. Frederick M. Huchel "Corinne: The Ghost of a Queen," paper sub­mitted to Dr. Larry C. Porter, Brigham Young University, 23 May 1969, 36. 4. Brigham D. And Betty M. Madsen, "Corinne, the Fair: Gateway to Montana Mines," Utah Historical Quarterly, 37 (1969), 105. 5. Brigham D. Madsen, Corinne: The Gentile Capital of Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1980), 5. 6. Cincinnati Commercial, 17 October 1868. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid., cited in Brigham D. Madsen, Corinne, 5. 9. Original plat may of corinne, Utah, copy in my possession. 10. Ray M. Reeder, "A History of the Founding, Rise and Decline of Corinne, Utah," M.A. thesis, Utah State Agricultural College, 1939, 11. 11. Madsen and Madsen, "Corinne, the Fair," 108; .S. H. Goodwin and Committee, Freemasonry in Utah (Salt Lake City: Corinne and Corinne Lodge No. 5, F. 8c A. M., 1926); Bernice Gibbs Anderson, "The Gentile City of Corinne," Utah Historical Quarterly, 9 (1941), 141; John Hanson Beadle, Life in Utah, or The Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1870), 509. 12. Anderson, "The Gentile City," 142. 13. Rue Corbett Johnson, "The History of the Drama in Corinne and Brigham City, Utah, 1855-1905," M.A. Thesis, Brigham Young University, 1954,6-7. 14. Madsen and Madsen, "Corinne," 106, quoting Beadle "Scrapbook," 15 March 1969; Utah Daily Reporter, 5 November 1870 and 3 April 1871. 144 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY 15. Beadle, Life in Utah, 509. 16. Anderson, "The Gentile City," 145. 17. Alexander Toponce, Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce, Pioneer (Ogden: 1923), 176. Born in France, Toponce fortunately commited his col­orful life to his memoirs in 1919. They were originally published in Ogden by his widow and some Masonic friends shortly after his death in 1923, at age 83. A later edition was printed by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1971. 18. Alexander Toponce, Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce, Pioneer (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 146. 19. Salt Lake Telegraph, 13 April 1869. 20. That was due to the fact that no cities were granted their charters in Utah until 1870. Until then, all Utahns were, in effect, squatters. The com­ing of the railroad brought a formal survey and the granting of charters and deeds by the United States. Corinne's charter and Brigham City's (Brigham City was founded in the early 1850s) came in the same year, 21. Madsen and Madsen, "Corinne," 113. 22. Anderson, "The Gentile City" 144. 23. Anderson, Corinne," 17-18. 24. Ibid., 18. 25. Forsgren, ed., History of Box Elder County (Brigham City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1937), 127. 26. Anderson, Corinne, 18. 27. Anderson, "The Gentile City," 144. 28. Anderson, Corinne, 10-11; Anderson, "The Gentile City,," 146-147; lohn C. Hunsaker, "Corinne in 'Boom' Days," in Adolph M. Reeder, ed., Box Elder Lore of the Nineteenth Century (Brigham City: Sons of Utah Pioneers, 1951), 114. 29. Anderson, Corinne, 11. 30. Edward Tullidge, Tullidge's Histories (Salt Lake City: 1889), 245. 31. Anderson, "The Gentile City," 146. 32. Edward Tullidge, Tullidge's Histories, 243. 33. Anderson, Corinne, 11. 34. Hunsaker, "Corinne in 'Boom' Days," 114. 35. Toponce, Reminiscences, 228-31. 36. Hunsaker, "Corinne in 'Boom' Days," 115. 37. Anderson, "The Gentile City of Corinne," 147; Anderson, Corinne, 5. CORINNE: CITY OF THE UNGODLY 145 38. Bernice Gibbs Anderson and Jesse H. Jameson, "The Saga of the Good Ship City of Corinne," S. U P. News, April-May 1959, 13, 35-36. 39. Huchel "Corinne: The Ghost of a Queen," 60-61. 40. Anderson and Jameson, "The Saga of the Good Ship City of Corinne," 35-36. 41. Ibid. 42. Anderson, Corinne, 6. 43. Anderson and lameson, "The Saga of the Good Ship City of Corinne," 35-36. 44. Anderson, "The Gentile City of Corinne," 149. 45. S. H. Goodwin and Committee, Freemasonry in Utah (Salt Lake City: Corinne and Corinne Lodge No. 5, F. 8c A. M., 1926), 8. 46. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah, 1540-1886 (San Francisco: 1889), 757. 47. Betty Derig, Roadside History of Idaho (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1996), 15. 48. Toponce, Reminiscences, 233. 49. Frederick M. Huchel "Corinne: The Ghost of a Queen," 95. 50. Toponce, Reminiscences, 231. 51. Frederick M. Huchel interview with Adolph Reeder, February 1969.