|
Austin Bulloch (sophomore at Weber High School) entered the "Mountain Whispers of the Past" essay
contest in the Spring 2006 competition, which was sponsored by a local
chapter of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. Here is his first place
research-backed essay on one of the valley's primary historical
events: The rise and fall of Swineville.
There is a legend that is so amazing, and yet only few people know
the real story. That story is the tale of a town once known as
Swineville. This place with the strange name is Ogden Valley’s own
Atlantis, for it exists underwater at the bottom of Pineview Reservoir.
When I first heard about Swineville, I was surprised to find out that the current recreation spot was once the home of early settlers. I wondered about Swineville, and if there are still houses under the water. As a kid, and even to this day, I asked “What happened to that town?” and “When did they leave?” Most importantly, I wondered “Why?”
Related Items:
Through my research, I got my answers. I learned that Swineville was a very prosperous town during the late 1800’s to the mid 1930’s, and that it was a large part of the economy of this valley during its time. Swineville had a successful creamery, the McDonald’s Slaughterhouse (and I don’t mean the one with the golden arches!), and 47 artesian wells.
Now you’re probably asking, “What in the world is an artesian well?” Well, I’ll tell you. An artesian well is a large amount of confined water that is under pressure. In fact, there is so much pressure, that the water is forced to spew up almost like a fountain. Imagine the valley full of wells that are like fountains. The water from these wells was pure because it came directly from the ground, trapped in mass quantities, so it wasn’t contaminated by other forces. This fresh water became the talk of the town, and soon everyone wanted some of it.
Swineville didn’t just have water. It also had a trolley track that stretched all the way from Ogden and went through this small town. The trolley was used to transport supplies and people into the valley. Parts of this track still exist, but only in the canyon. That track was the major factor in the early economy, because the McDonald’s Slaughterhouse sent meat to Ogden and other areas to be sold. Of course, there were many farmers who sent their crops too. Without the trolley, it would have been extremely difficult to get herds of cattle seven miles to Ogden, or rather trying to get a whole harvests worth of crops safely down the canyon. So you can see how important the trolley was to valley citizens.
Back then, the Slaughterhouse obviously didn’t have refrigerators, but they did have an Ice House. The Ice House was a big water-tight shed full of ice that was used to keep meat fresh until it was sold. That’s one reason why McDonald’s was so successful, because the meat wouldn’t go bad if the owners didn’t need to sell it at that time. The Ice House also helped keep meat fresh for valley customers during the spring and summer. Swineville had other industries, such as saw mills for cutting trees and wood willow that was abundant there. Peas and beets were also common crops of the town.
By now, you’re probably wondering, “What kind of name is Swineville?” Swineville got its name from the Slaughterhouse filled with pigs that would crowd around the trolley tracks. Whenever the trolley came by (which was usually twice a day), all the pigs would squeal and oink, so people called the place Swineville. However, the original name was Eden, seeing as it was a part of the town.
Swineville once had a large epidemic of whooping cough, a disease where people have horrible coughing attacks that make them run out of breath. This disease can damage internal organs, and it killed several people from Ogden Valley during the late 1800’s. Some were buried in the small Swineville graveyard called the Moffett Froerer Cemetery.
Times changed in Swineville and brought disaster. The government put pumps on the artesian wells so that water could be used in surrounding areas, and this ultimately destroyed the town. The pumps produced over 811,000 gallons of water every second and over 16 million gallons in one day. Two thirds of Ogden’s water supply came from the artesian wells. While Ogden was thriving from the increase in water, Swineville was dieing a slow, painful death. The McDonald’s Slaughterhouse had to go out of business because they didn’t have enough water. The creamery also had to go out of business, and many farmers couldn’t produce food or feed their animals without the abundance of water they once had. The automobile came in the 1930’s and people didn’t need to the train anymore, so the trolley came to a stop. The people of Swineville had once felt that they had too much water (be careful what you wish for, you might just get it), but now there wasn’t enough left to keep the town alive.
In the 1930’s, the government (Bureau of Reclamation) decided to build a dam next to Wheeler Valley to supply power to Ogden and the valley. Suddenly, the people of Swineville had more water than they bargained for. Everyone was very mad and upset, but they had no choice. They had to demolish their houses and build them somewhere else. They were forced to leave. To top off all the madness, the government only paid them 10 dollars per acre! The people from Swineville were furious from getting swindled out of their land for so cheap. They had to pack up and go, but before they went, they had to dig up the thirteen bodies from the cemetery and move them to Huntsville to get reburied. This upset many families, because they wanted their loved ones to rest in peace, and this was not peace. The people got robbed of their town for such a small price, and they could do nothing about it.
Swineville had seen better days. A woman who was born and raised in the little town said, “When the water began to rise behind the dam, Swineville died a horrible death-- it drowned.” --Beulah Thompson. So the town of Swineville came to an end and was covered with water and got a new name: Pineview Reservoir.
For many people, the town was forgotten. Very few people knew about it, including me, until I began to hear rumors of a town beneath the dam. After my research, I was still left with many questions, like “Where did all the people go?” and “Is there anything still left of Swineville, the sunken town?” I read and found that many of the people moved out of the valley, and only three families stayed here. After learning about the problems of this town, my last question still remained, “Is there anything still left of Swineville? Or is it just forgotten story?”
Then, I remembered, “The graves! The graves were moved! They are still in Huntsville!” I got my mom to drive me to Cemetery Point. I was mildly pessimistic, and didn’t expect to find much. When I got to the gates and went inside and realized how big the cemetery actually is, I looked high and low and found nothing right away. Just as I was about to give up, I found something remarkable on the far end of the cemetery near the eastern gates: MOFFETT MEMORIAL. I remembered the words from the book, saying that the Moffett-Froerer Graveyard, in Swineville, was moved to Huntsville in 1936. I looked at the large polished stone memorial and read the names to myself as I began taking pictures. The cemetery was silent and peaceful, and it actually sits on an overlook above Pineview Reservoir. I had finally found the answer to my last question, “Is there anything left of Swineville?”
The answer is YES! Evidence of Swineville lies in the ground at Cemetery Point. The head stone at each grave site looks like an ancient tomb covered with lichen, but they are there, all of them. The thirteen graves of people who once lived are what is left of a town called Swineville: a town buried in history.
Works Cited
Newey, LaVerna Burnett. Remember My Valley. Salt Lake City, Utah: Hawkes Publishing, Inc. , 1977. 45-49.
Ashton, et.all. Swineville: Memories of a Drowning Town. Snowcrest: Students, 1990, 1-15.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed