 |
Helper, Utah National Historic District -- Helper is Utah's Christmas Town, a stop on an old Denver and Rio Grande Western route Comstock Historical Society and Virginia & Truckee Info:Virginia Truckee History -- Links -- Photos -- Discussion |
Helper's Worth a Stop -- So is Price and Castle Dale, Dinosaur Central
D&RGW 5371 Maintenance of Way Equipment
Helper is home to a Union Pacific yard containing a hardly used historic Amtrak station
Dinosaur Diamond -- Castle Country -- Energy Loop
Helper is easy to miss if you're in a hurry. It's north of Price on Highway 6, and there's a few good reasons to slow down in this area. First, from Wellington through Price onto and through Helper, the cities and county NEED MONEY! I have never driven this stretch of road without seeing someone getting pulled over. Repsect the locals, go slowly and most important, STOP AT HELPER!
I personally like Helper because it's a non-Mormon town founded and run mostly by the railroad. For a history of Helper, see Online Utah . Below is my article about Mormon history in Utah and the highlights of non-Mormon towns.
Since Online Utah did such a good job writing a concise history of What Makes Helper Different, I will use this page to flesh out some ideas about the contention between Mormons and non-Mormons in the Utah Territory. A town like Helper really highlights the difference.
        |
Mormons make up only 2% of the US population and were once associated with Church-approved polygamy. This makes them an easy target for criticism, mostly undeserved. I can't tell you how many crazy theories I've heard about Mormons, but I'm not here to defend them. I just ask that you set aside some possible preconceptions and see the Mormons for what they are -- the most persecuted religious sect in American history. JUST TRYING TO FIND SOME ISOLATION Despite most people's belief that Utah is completely Mormon, this is not the case. Brigham Young led the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley and said, "This is the place." This quote is so famous they've named a park for it in Salt Lake City. What Brigham Young meant was to say, "This is the place, such a forlorn and desolate place, such a difficult place to live that even the Indians avoid it. The foreign government of the United States will leave us alone here. We will turn it into an oasis." And they did create civilization in the desert, witness Salt Lake City. THE MORMONS FLED AND FOUGHT THE FEDS The Mormons have never had a true lock on Utah. In 1847 the Mormon desire to be left alone led them to settle on land outside the United States. Later came the Mormon War, which wasn't so much of a war as an insurgency by the Mormons against troops approaching Utah through Wyoming. If not for a figure named Kane, Mormons might have been extinguished in their infancy. To no avail, soon the Utah Territory was formed and the Transcontinental Railroad came through. The Mormon's were once again under control of the United States -- along with the railroad came plenty of non-Mormons into Utah. Now, the Mormons are critizicized and ridiculed right through today, often for baseless reasons. I won't address all the false claims about Mormons, I will say this: Mormons may have done some of the things they are accused of, but the chief reason they are feared is for their political organization. ABOLITIONISTS WERE RISK-TAKERS In the pre-Civil war era, Mormons were an abolitionist voting block. They were chased out of the Midwest not for their religious views, but partially because in Kansas and Nebraska in 1856 the Civil War had unofficially started. The Kansas Nebraska Act said that it was up to the new states to decide if they were free or slave territories. This encouraged pro- and anti-slavery forces literally to go to war. Beyond political organization was economic organization. When Mormons organized to join an industry they often put the competition out of business simply through efficiency. Leaving out a long story, the economic advantage got the Mormons in more trouble than any religious views. Despite their financial acumen, Mormons were always discouraged from mining because of the pure profit motive. Most mining work and exploration was left to the "Gentiles." While Mormon towns were like Europe in making the Church the center of town -- these Gentile towns followed the secular American practice of placing a railroad station and a courthouse at the center of town. When I travel through Utah, the first thing I look for in every town is the town center. Then I look to see if there's a Mormon temple there, and whether the streets used the Mormon system of number streets by the hundreds with a direction, ie 100 West, 500 South, West Temple, 10000 South. While nearby Price is a Mormon founded town with the typical street system and town center, Helper has always been a wild place. Helper is in Carbon County, known as the most liberal non-Mormon county in Utah. Helper has a Golden Rule Mission and a homeless population. Along the creek are signs saying that you need permission from the city to camp near the river. The most obvious sign of Helper being a non-Mormon town is its brothel history. Until the 1970's the local authorities looked the other way and allowed a brothel to operate in Helper, a throwback to its mining history. |