There we learned the story of Priscilla Jacobs. She was in a church meeting in the Tabernacle back in 1870. She was wearing a pouch around her neck filled with silkworm eggs in order to keep them warm. During the meeting, the worms hatched and started to crawl out of the pouch and all over her! She quickly left the meeting with two men to find food for the worms and to get them off of her!
From there we headed to the Wells Fargo building. The building used to be the Thatcher Opera House. The building housed 800 guests, dressed in their formal attire back in the 1800s. But in April of 1912, the opera house burned down. The same day that the Titanic sank. (They were both on the front page of the newspaper that day!) To this day, no one knows exactly what happened to start that fire or why it burned down.
The next stop took us across the street to the Caine Lyric theater. Back in the day, there was a man who worked at the theater. He was murdered during one of the practices by another stage hand, reason unknown. It is said that since that day, he has haunted the theater. It is said that even know, the ghost reappears in the upper stage, laughing, during the Shakespearean play, Hamlet.
The next stop, around the corner, was the Hallmark Coppins store. Above the sign stays the original name of the building, J.R. Edwards. The building used to belong to Mr. Edwards, the owner of the saloon. The students of the Utah State Agricultural College used to go to the saloon at night to drink. The president of the college did not like his students going there. He went to visit Mr. Edwards to ask that he deny his students access to the bar. But Mr. Edwards liked their business, so he did not agree. This started a bunch of fighting between the two men. It finally culminated when the president came for another discussion, Mr. Edwards waited behind the door and smacked him in the head with a 2 by 4. Knocked the president right out. Mr. Edwards was fined a whole $5 by the Sheriff!!
Right next door is the Bluebird Chocolate Factory. Well, what used to be the Factory. Now it's the restaurant. The college students, after the incident with the president, were forced to break into the saloon at night to steal the alcohol since they were banned from the saloon. And Mr. Edwards was not a fan of that. So he went to his friend who had a bear and asked if he could borrow the bear. He brought the bear to his saloon to scare away the college students at night. The next morning we went back to the saloon and found that once again his alcohol had been stolen! He went to check on the bear to see what had happened, but instead found a huge hole in the back wall. The bear had smelled the sweet candy in the Chocolate Factory and had busted through the wall and was found eating all the candy!
The last stop was at the County Courthouse. It used to have a jail in the basement where bandits were kept. One Valentine's day, there was a fight at the dance. It ended with the Sheriff's nephew being shot! The Sheriff was not a fan of that! So he went hunting for the criminal and after a couple of days, found him and locked him up! The gallows were right outside the building for those criminals!
We had a great trip!
This was a fun trip! I think it's great that the kids use actual history for their writing!
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