Dottie Grimes of the Emery County Archives presented a slide show for the Emery County Historical Society at its monthly gathering. Along with the slide show, Grimes told of the oral histories from county residents which are being gathered for the archives. “We are still asking residents of Emery County to come into the archive’s office and give their oral histories,” said Grimes. “These oral histories are very important. Along with the oral histories, we are asking residents with historical photographs to bring them so we can scan them into the archives’ collection.”
Grimes explained the goal of the archives is to make these histories and photos available to the public, and to preserve the history of Emery County. She added that all the collections in the archives have come through donations from the public. “We are gathering the photos to digitize them and display them on the internet,” added Grimes. “Our goal is to gather stories from the ‘Greatest Generation’, our oldest residents. This generation is described as the Greatest Generation because it is composed of those people who saw travel by horse and buggy through space travel. We need their stories,” said Grimes.
Grimes’ slide show included photographs from the construction projects in Emery County over the years such as the Swinging Bridge and the projects completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. She displayed many newspaper headlines from the Wasatch Front of the opening of the “Mystery Lands” and the “Wonderland” which was how the reporters referred to the San Rafael Swell.
Photos were shown and stories were related about the Great Depression and the residents of Emery County during that period. Another facet of Emery County history is the brave residents who served in the wars. Grimes asked for photos of the men and women in their military uniforms.
The Emery County Historical Society will meet again on Nov. 11 for a salute to the Veterans in the county commission chambers at 6 p.m.
Historical Society learns some Swell history
"Dottie Grimes of the Emery County Archives presents Many Voices, a slide show and oral histories of Emery County. "