Town #54: LINDON est. 1861

The town of Lindon is located north of Orem. It was originally called Stringtown and was an outgrowth of Pleasant Grove just to the north. When the town applied for a post office, the town name was changed to Lindon. It was named after the linden tree where the mail used to be dropped off.

When we found this sign, we were not the only ones getting our pictures taken by it. Two college age girls were also there, so we helped each other out with the photos. It was nice to have both John and I in the picture for once.

We tried to find the town sign for Pleasant Grove that day, but we couldn't find it. If you happen to read this, Harmony, we could use some help.

Town #53: OREM est. 1919

Orem, west of Provo, was originally known as the "Provo bench". It was incorporated in 1919, in order to secure water rights for the farms that dotted the area. Orem was named after Walter Orem who owned the interurban railroad between Salt Lake City and Provo at the time. Orem is now more urban than rural now, and it is the home of Utah Valley University. I found their sign to be slightly more interesting than Provo's. At least it was more substantial.

Town #52: PROVO est. 1849

North of Mapleton is the city of Provo. Provo was the first city settled outside of the Salt Lake valley. It was named after the trapper, Etienne Provost. My grandfather was born and raised here. Provo is the home of Brigham Young University. I enjoyed going to school here, but their town sign is really boring. They should use all that university talent to come up with a better town sign.

Town #51: MAPLETON est. 1870

This is from that same warm spring day last year. Mapleton is northeast from Spanish Fork. It was an outgrowth from Springville to the northwest. This was the sign on the very edge of town.


In the middle of Mapleton, we found this bigger, fancier sign. All the kids wanted to get in this picture. I never know if they are going to participate or not.

Town #50: SPANISH FORK est. 1852

I'm sorry that I haven't posted any pictures for months. I am now nearly a year behind again. I think I intimidated myself by starting out with trying to write a little bit of history for each town. I think that I will have to cut back on that for now just so that I can catch up. I kept wanting to do a post, and then the thought of all the time it would take to look up something on the town and then write about it would stop me from doing anything. So from now on, the posts will probably have less history and be more pictures and personal observation.
It was a nice spring day last year that this picture was taken. ( I'm ready for some of those days again!) We saw several Utah County towns on this day. This was the first after a trip to the local antique store. That is a great old sign.

Town #49: RUSH VALLEY est. 1856

For those of you who may be following these posts, just so that you know, I am posting these photos a year after they were taken. I hope to be able to catch up and have more up-to-date posts on our progress through Utah soon. This is the last photo taken last year.

Rush Valley is situated south of Tooele in the middle of sagebrush country. Rush Valley is made up of the two towns of Clover and St. John which were combined at sometime into one town. It covers a large area. It also included the town of Vernon for a while. This area was also its own county for a short time. I don't think students are any longer memorizing the name of Shambip County.

This is one of the more interesting old buildings in town. I believe it was used as a firestation at some point.

Town #48: CASTLE DALE est. 1880

Our last stop on this trip through Utah was at Castle Dale just north of Clawson. Castle Dale is the county seat for Emery County. It is a coal mining town. They also have a natural history museum and a big pioneer museum. It was the last area that Brigham Young sent pioneers to settle before he died in 1877. Castle Dale was also the first community to have a high school in Southeastern Utah. I was just happy that all the kids decided to be in the picture this time.