Utah Heritage Foundation

Looking back at the historical center of many Utah towns, you have a handful of choices as to what could be considered the heart of the community.  Certainly a church.  Maybe a park.  Favorite restaurant.  A school or city hall.

How about a dance hall?  There were literally dozens of them spread across the state of all shapes and sizes.  Starting in 1848 with the Social Hall in 1852 as a modest gathering place for social dances in Salt Lake City, the idea spread to other towns remaining popular through the 1940s.  Arguably the most popular and most majestic of dance halls was the Richard Kletting-designed Saltair, which burned twice and now exists in its third iteration.

However, as we witnessed last summer on our members tour to Delta, one amazing dance hall lies in wait for a revival.  Van’s Hall on Main Street (seen above) isn’t open to the public anymore but is waiting to lure weekenders back for a swing around wood-grained floors.  There aren’t many like Van’s Hall left and it would take an acute effort to rehab the building.  Simply enough, there’s only two steps to take before you can dance the two-step there again:  1) raise enough money for rehabilitation, and 2) do the rehabilitation.  And they need help and interest to get it off the ground.

The Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah received word late last week from the National Park Service that they were awarded $48,000 as one of 19 new grants to help preserve and interpret the historic National Historic Landmark in Millard County.

Utah Heritage Foundation's members will visit the historic site on August 22 as part of our Discover Delta tour.  You can register for tour here.  Tour guide Jane Beckwith will be on hand to explain the preservation efforts at Topaz, including how this newest grant will be utilized.

These first-ever Japanese American Confinement Sites Grants, totaling $960,000, will help fund a wide variety of projects in a dozen states. They range from the construction of a new interpretive learning center at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming to the preservation of a stockade and jail at the Tule Lake Relocation Center in California. The Tule Lake stockade was used to imprison internees who spoke out to protest the injustice of their World War II incarceration.

The grants range from $5,000 for work at the Arboga Assembly Center in Marysville, CA, to $282,253 for the new Heart Mountain center in Park County, WY. Although these matching funds support preservation and interpretation efforts in 12 states, many of the projects are national in scope. This includes a project to collect and digitize the "stories less told" of Japanese Americans who were held against their will at the detention sites.

Come Discover Delta on the 2009 Day Trip for Members as this summer Utah Heritage Foundation embarks on its first members-only tour.   Come with us to Delta, a mere 140 miles from Salt Lake City and little over two hours drive, and home to the Great Basin National Heritage Area as well as several interesting and hidden historic sites.  The tour is open to all members of Utah Heritage Foundation and RSVP is required by August 18 to (801) 533-0858 x 107.  Just $20 gets you guided tours of each of the sites listed below as well as lunch in Delta City Park.

Full day's itinerary and slide shows.

Here's the abbreviated agenda.

10:00 a.m. - Meet at Great Basin Museum, 328 W, 100 N