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Loading...The Tooele Transcript Bulletin has published Tooele County news since 1894. Here is a flashback of local front-page news from 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago that occurred during the first week of December.
Dec. 3-5, 1996
Due to the latest allegations that the plant was unsafe, incineration opponents asked Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to stop operations at the chemical weapons incinerator in Rush Valley.
Mick Harrison, a lawyer for Greenlaw, Inc. wrote a letter to Leavitt asking him to “order the immediate shutdown of the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility, including the cessation of all incineration as well as nerve and blister agent handling operations.”
Harrison also warned the governor that “tomorrow may be too late.”
Later in the week, the Tooele area water year was off to a good start. Even though the water year was only two months old, precipitation totals registered above average.
“We started off the year really well,’’ said Carlos Garcia of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “It makes me smile from ear-to-ear.”
Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 1971
Concerns about how the closing of the International Smelting and Refining Company plant at Tooele would affect the economy of the area, Gov. Calvin L. Rampton requested the Utah Manpower Planning Council to study the problem.
In a letter to R. Thayne Robson, chairman of the Council, Gov. Rampton said: “Events the last few weeks concerning the closure of two industrial smelters and the attendant closure of a number of mining operations throughout the state are of utmost concern to me.”
Later in the week, Mountain Bell Telephone Company crews were finishing the installation of a new underground telephone cable from the Tooele Central Office to Stansbury Park.
The project got underway early in November when they began laying two large cables containing a total of 600 pairs of individual wires.
Starting from Erda, they first worked toward Tooele. Only the last few splices remained on this section and workmen were about to link up the second half of the cable which stretched from Stansbury Park to Erda.
Dec. 3-6, 1946
Tooele City had struck water at 358 feet in the new deep well which was being drilled, making a new epic in the development of Tooele City.
Face-to-face for several years with a critical culinary water situation, Tooele City officials, almost in desperation, authorized the drilling of the well as a last-chance effort to secure an added supply of water.
The extent of the supply in the new well had not been determined as of yet, said City Manager Dale James.
Later in the week, Tooele Smelter officials reported that local operations were expected to be maintained as they have been for the near future, under the provisions of the present railroad embargo, due to the coal strike.
Normal coal shipments to Tooele had ceased, except for a trickle through independent truckers. There was no suffering reported up to now, but several were out of coal and the have-nots were expected to increase daily. The local schools had supplies to last until Christmas.
Dec, 2, 1921
It was decided at the mass meeting on roads held in the courthouse last Saturday evening that a vote be solicited from the citizens of this county to determine the sentiment of the majority of voters as to whether they support the Lincoln Highway or Wendover route.
The voting will be complete during the week and it is expected that this much-disputed road question will be brought to a head when the sentiment of the majority is expressed.
Commissioners C. Avin Orme and Perry Gillett were present at the meeting by special invitation, and 149 representatives from Tooele, Ophir, St. John, Clover, Stockton, Lincoln and Erda.
Sports Editor Mark Watson compiled this report
