Springville, Utah
Springville is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. The population was 20,424 at the 2000 census and by 2004 had been estimated at 22,507. Just minutes south of Provo, Springville is treated as a bedroom community for commuters who work in Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah. Springville calls itself "Art City".
Located in Utah Valley, Utah County, Springville is about midway between the north and south borders of the county to the east of Utah Lake at approximately 4,500 feet in elevation, at the foot of the Wasatch Range.
One of the most important features of the Springville location is Hobble Creek, a stream draining the modest watershed of Hobble Creek Canyon. Springs from both forks of the canyon feed the creek above what is now the Hobble Creek Golf Course, but irrigation keeps Hobble Creek from flowing perennially. These springs and others north of town give Springville its name, although it was first called Hobble Creek.
Native Americans of the Ute tribe occupied land in the well-watered valley. They hunted and fished, but left no written record of their lifeways. The first such record of these people is in journal entries of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition, which left Santa Fe for Monterey in July 1776. The Spanish fathers leading the expedition were delighted to find many Utes living around Lake Timpanogotsis (Utah), and felt the Indians, including those living on Hobble Creek, might be subject to their missionary efforts.
Aaron Johnson led settlers to Springville in 1850. Mormon settlers displaced Native Americans and relegated them to an "Indian Farm," located on poor ground, unfit for farming, at the mouth of the Spanish Fork River near the Utah Lake. Mormon settlers developed subsistence farming for fewer families than was hoped, due to lack of water. Some Springville farmers turned to hauling freight from California twice a year. Following the Civil War in 1865, other farmers turned to raising cattle and sheep. Completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made rail shipment of stock to market possible, so stockmen used more intensive grazing practices. The railroad also helped make mining products profitable, and many mines started to be developed. Beginning in 1878, Springville merchant Milan Packard built a railroad to bring coal from Scofield to Utah Valley. The Rio Grande Railroad bought out the line in 1882.
Like the Native Americans before them, Springville stockmen lived in the valley during the winter and grazed their animals in the mountains in summer. Valley precipitation is generally low, six to twelve inches per year. Above 6,000 feet elevation, precipitation in the mountains is 20 inches to 30 inches annually. Most of the water comes in the form of winter snow. Stockmen over-used grazing resources. The stock consumed most of the grass from the hillsides, leaving surfaces unprotected from summer cloudbursts and spring runoff. The resulting floods and mud flows nearly caused abandonment of some rural communities.
The results of land abuse prompted community leaders to call for federal help for their problems. In 1902 Albert Potter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture surveyed the mountains. His report, coupled with pleas from community leaders, brought in the recently created U.S. Forest Service to manage area forest resources, including grasslands above Springville.
During the stockraisers' struggle with grassland use, area farmers were looking for ways to find more water for irrigation. They also invited the federal government in by applying the recently passed Newlands Act (1902). The new law loaned federal money to local groups to develop water projects in arid or semi-arid regions of the country. The Strawberry Project was the result of farmers in Utah Valley trying to use the Strawberry River to irrigate their land. Springville's "Union Bench" was a beneficiary of the project, and led to formation of Mapleton City out of Springville benchland. Springville farmers grew sugar beets as a cash crop. Local companies built a system of factories to process sugar that sold nationwide. Fruit farms expanded at the demand of national canning companies like Del Monte.
Following World War I, L.F. Rains established a steel plant north of Springville to take advantage of his coal interests in Carbon County. He formed the Columbia Steel Corporation at Ironton in 1922 to make pig iron. He negotiated with J.W. McWane to use iron to make cast-iron pipe in facilities adjacent to the Ironton plant. He also invited Republic Creosoting Company to establish a plant to use coal tar, a by-product of the coking operation at Ironton. This industrial complex employed Springville men.
In 1921 the U.S. government passed a law to assist states with highway construction. Several companies from Springville organized to take advantage of the opportunity. Springville families including the Clydes, Strongs, Sumsions, Reynolds, Whitings, Thorns, and Mendenhalls benefited until the Great Depression eliminated federal money. In 1936 construction of roads and other public works was part of the recovery plan and Springville contractors again were active participants. Springville was said to have had more contractors than any other town of its size in America.
During World War II, Springville's young men and women served in military efforts, and its contractors built many defense installations. Following the war, Springville developed water from springs in Bartholomew Canyon and installed two new electric generators to improve the power supply.
During the 1960s, the Utah Department of Transportation was busy with construction of the Interstate freeway system. These roads took traffic out of the towns and increased the speed and safety of automobile travel. The new freeways also made possible travel for work from Springville to many places in the county and beyond. Springville became a bedroom community for industries such as Geneva Steel, for Brigham Young University, and for an array of businesses in Salt Lake City.
Springville is noted around the state for its art museum, and it also has a business district. However, removing traffic from the city also removed it from the Springville business district. The net result has been a reduction of retail business activity in Springville. Nevertheless, Springville's population has grown steadily since the 1920s, reaching 13,950 in 1990.
Springville's largest employers include Stouffer Foods Corporation, with over 500 employees, and Valtek, which has more than 400 employees. There are five elementary schools and one junior high school, one middle school, and one high school in Springville. Most of the community are LDS and attend twenty-nine wards in four stakes. The Presbyterian Church has been active in the community since its establishment in 1880.
Utah's Oldest Hatchery in Springville Still Producing Fish
For nearly a century, the Springville State Fish Hatchery has not only produced millions of fish for Utah's public waters but has also been a landmark and a place of destination in Utah County. The hatchery consists of two facilities on the east and west sides of Main Street. The west hatchery is located next to the Division of Wildlife Resources' Central Region office, 1115 N. Main St.
What's happening at the hatchery this year?
Springville's efforts in 2004 include stocking fish into almost 50 public waters throughout Utah. Just more than 50 percent of those waters are urban fisheries located mostly along the Wasatch Front. Springville also contributes to fish stocking in larger bodies of water, including Vernon, Tibble Fork, Deer Creek, Echo, East Canyon and Piute reservoirs, Panguitch, Silver, Puffer lakes and lakes on the Payson Mountains.
The hatchery you see today is not the same hatchery you may have visited in past years, even though the structures are the same. The east hatchery has been closed to visitors since 2001 in an effort to lower the risk of whirling disease contamination and the entrance of other invasive species and parasites that could force the hatchery to close.
The west hatchery is still open to visitors, but also faces the same risk and is slated for closure in the near future. Visitors are still welcome to visit the hatchery's visitor center, located in the red brick building across from the DWR's Central Region office.
Visitors can learn more about hatcheries and their role in Utah's aquatic program, along with viewing displays of fish feeding, egg development, fishing equipment, boy scout requirements and — always a hit — a large showcase aquarium full of big fish! The visitor center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
History
The hatchery's history dates back to the early 1900s, when only one fish hatchery existed in the state and the need for additional hatcheries was recognized. As Utah's State Game and Fish Commissioner noted in the Biennial Report of 1909, "In order that the people of the counties of the State might enjoy the benefits, recreation and pleasures of fishing in their neighboring streams, it became necessary to provide additional Hatcheries in the several localities favorable thereto. So, the legislature of 1909 directed the commissioner to establish three additional Hatcheries as follows: one at or near Springville, Utah County; one at or near Fish Lake, Sevier County, and one at or near Panguitch Lake, Garfield County. I accordingly built Springville first."
The original hatchery was built on the east side of Main St. between 1907 and 1908, and began producing fish in November 1909. Springville City transferred to the state of Utah a seven-acre tract of land on Spring Creek, about one mile north of the city on the line of the Denver and Rio Grand Railroad. The Fish and Game commissioner and chief warden did not consider this an ideal location, however. They went farther up the creek and found a more ideal, three-and-a-half-acre site, which contained several large, productive springs. These springs were used to operate a gristmill when the city was first settled and are the reason the city was named Springville.
The hatchery located on the west side of Main Street also utilizes these same springs. Formally known as the Springville National Fish Hatchery, it was owned and operated by the federal government. Due to budget cuts, the hatchery was transferred to the Division of Wildlife Resources in 1976, and now both hatcheries operate as one.
Jasper Bird of Provo was appointed the first superintendent on Nov. 20, 1909. Since that time, the Springville hatchery has had a total of six superintendents; Jasper Bird, William Witney, John Ford, Ern Underwood, Doug Robinson and, most recently, Richard Hartman. The past and present supervisors and their crews have and are still contributing to the success and pleasure of anglers throughout Utah.
The Springville hatchery currently has five full-time employees: Richard Hartman, Ben Giles, Morgan Williams, Dale Liechty and Karen Scott.
The hatchery today
The springs that flow into the "Mill Pond" remain intact and supply good quality water to the hatchery, with a temperature of about 58° F. This temperature allows fish to grow at an average of one inch per month. The springs have historically supplied an average of 7,630 gallons of water per minute but, because of the drought, the yearly average has dropped to an all time low of 4,488 gallons per minute. As expected, this directly affects hatchery production and stocking.
In its first year of production, records show the hatchery produced and stocked 2.5 million trout. Historic fish production records report the highest year in fish pounds produced at the hatchery was in 1982, with 220,000 pounds of fish produced. The highest number of fish produced was just over 24 million fish (mostly walleye fingerlings) in 1979.
Since its opening in 1909, the hatchery has raised or stocked rainbow, brook, brown and cutthroat trout; kokanee salmon; grayling; yellow perch; channel catfish; black bass; largemouth and smallmouth bass; crappie; bluegill; walleye; wipers; and June suckers.
With the continuing drought, Springville's production as fallen from a yearly average of 180,000 pounds to an average of 120,000 pounds of fish a year. Even with its age and the continuing drought, it remains one of the largest production hatcheries in the Division of Wildlife Resources' hatchery system.
Article provided by Utah Department of Wildlife Resources.
William Witney mentioned in the above article is my great uncle.
The Springville Museum of Art is Utah's oldest and most beautiful museum for the visual fine arts. Designed by Claud S. Ashworth, this Spanish Colonial Revival style building was completed in 1937 as an art museum. It was dedicated by Apostle David O. McKay to be a "sanctuary of beauty and a temple of meditation." This WPA project was made possible by the city of Springville, the Nebo School District, and the LDS (Mormon) Church. A well-matched two story wing was added in 1964, a gift of the Clyde Foundation. The Springville art movement began at the Springville High School in 1903 with donations of works of art by John Hafen and Cyrus Dallin. Selections from the museum's noted collection of over 1,500 works of Utah and American art are shown on the second floor. It was with the establishment of the National Spring Salon in 1922 that the museum and its collection became nationally recognized.