H is for Honeyville

 

We have our very own H on the mountains above town.

Some may remember seeing the faint outline of an H on the mountains above Honeyville, up from Blue Rock.  Others are not aware that it exists at all, although somewhat less visible each year.  No one I have talked to seems to know for certain when it appeared.  Even to the longest of residents it has always just been there.

Being a trench, it can fill with snow and be visible for a short time as the snow melts.

See the light, snowy H?

Here is what I have been able to learn.

1. It likely appeared in the early 1930s (possibly a little earlier).
2. It was probably created by the local Scouts.
3. It was never finished.  It never got past being a trench that quickly filled in with growth.  The rumored plan was that they were going to fill the trench with rocks and paint them.  As filling the trench with rock was not particularly convenient, the project was abandoned.

You can hike to it and still see the trench.  It lies approximately 250 yards NNE of Blue Rock with a gain of about 300 feet.

Google Earth

The H sits on BLM land… just saying – if anyone felt like getting a permit to finish the project.

Looking for History

History is revealed in the journals. 

 

The mundane journals of each individual, could collectively contribute more knowledge than all the study of history has produced so far. 

 

To that end, I believe that there is a good chance that early, unpublished journals, could help us piece together more than we currently know about the early days of the Honeyville settlement.  Specifically, it would be interesting if any of the railroad men recorded their impressions of Honeyville as the Utah Northern Railroad passed through. I have listed some of those men below, and by chance, someone may have some family journals for inspection.  Failing further first-hand accounts, there is still much unknown about the early days of the town.

First engineer to pass:   Charley (Charles) Paul
First train crew to pass:   Evan Jones (engineer), George Farnes (fireman), Dan Roberts (conductor)
First roadmaster:   William Toombs

Other early engineer and crew members:   Mark Jones, Parley P. Jones, Pilip Phillips, A.M. Carter, William Sprount, William Hopkins, Colline Fulmer, Ed Lives, Chancey West.

I hope to yet post more as I continue to learn.

Mail

Mail delivery has certainly changed over the years.  It seems that early mail service in Honeyville was rather infrequent. At first BH Tolman served as the postmaster staring in 1879. He would have to wait for the mail train, which was generally late, in some cases by a week or more. Once per week he would go out in the evening after the day’s chores and deliver the mail. In 1883 the mail started to be delivered daily, generally during the middle of the night, which could be quite taxing to someone who still had work to do in the day and mail to deliver in the evening. Although mail was supposed to be daily the postmaster would have to wait nightly for the mail train only to find out that there was often no mail for Honeyville.  Mary Tolman took over as postmistress in 1891 and staffed the first post office when it was built.  There seems to have been several residents opposed to a post office, with the Box Elder New Journal reporting that some citizens were writing to Washington to forestall the opening of a post office.  The post office did open July, 1915.  The first post office was located across the street to the north of the Tolman and Son’s building.  The asphalt that ran to the front of the post office is still there. An excerpt from Mary Tolman’s biography states, “In July 1891 she was appointed Postmaster and held this position at different intervals but for a total of 18 years. During this time it was necessary for her to put mail on and take it off the midnight train. Not far from the station lived a boy who was mentally deficient and every night while she kept her lonely vigil, he would wait in the shadows of the station. As soon as the train left, she would grab the mail sack and run for the safety of her home and every night he would chase her and stand pounding on the door demanding his mail.” Mary lived in a home built by Franklin Hunsaker, and still standing at the corner of 6980 N and 2750 W. 

Not long after the new post office was built Mary’s daughter, Paulie Boothe, and Paulie’s husband Hyrum, who lived in the same house, took over the mail service and eventually made a little attachment to their home which served as the post office for several more years.

courtesy: Honeyville centennial DVD

 Over the years other people would take over the post office from time-to-time or take on rural routes as that became a necessity. At some date of which I am not sure the post office was moved to vacant building near the Honeyville store for a short time before the present post office south of the church was built.

Honeyville Post Office - 2014

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The Train Stations

Oddly enough Honeyville was better served by "mass transit" 100 years ago than today.  In fact for a time their were two rail lines making stops in Honeyville, one being the electric rail and the other the Oregon Short Line Rail Road.

Looking down at the intersection of 6980 N 2750 W I have superimposed the location of the station

This is labeled as Honeyville, and it is the correct building, but it seems misplaced to me

This is labeled as Honeyville, and it is the correct building, but it seems misplaced to me

The old train station was first moved to Corinne, then to Heber, and as of 2013, a parking lot in Heber

This is taken looking east

A clip from Box Elder News & Journal - 1917

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Links

Useful links for Honeyville history on the web:

Crystal Hot Springs
Box Elder County
Honeyville City
Wikipedia

The beginning...

This page is dedicated to compiling old photographs (1950s or earlier), links to old photographs, sometimes some histories, and some historical tidbits - maybe.  Mostly I want every interested person to be able to find old pictures of Honeyville, Utah.  Having grown up there I am surprised at how few historical photos are archived in any manner.

Any photos shared on this page will be available to all, but whenever possible proper credit will be given to the original source, and lacking that, the source from where I obtained them.  For those who would like copyright protection on their content I suggest registering with Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/choose/

So please pass the word around and upload any old photos of the town of Honeyville.  If you have old photos that you would like me to scan please email me.  I have a mobile scanner and can come to you to help get them scanned and archived.