Darrin Smith's "Bridgerland's Cached Mementos"

01/16/2023

Who can tell me about this milling and elevator company in Cache Junction?

10/15/2022

I have recently obtained some really great billheads. I will be posting them in the future as I go through them. Many of them deal with Cache Valley along with other places in the west. So stay tuned.

Nonetheless, this was a great post for Cache Valley by the Utah State Archives! I'm grateful that they would post this!

10/02/2022

I just want to announce that I am releasing my first documentary DVD of the Logan Temple in its fullness, which I haven't done before. I produced it about a decade ago.
I was thinking last night, why not let the public and those who have wanted to see it be able to get full access to it? I thought it would be a great idea to release it on LDS Conference weekend.

This was a huge production for me to undertake. But, I was also in my element in doing so. I was very grateful to all those who cooperated with me, especially The Herald Journal to make it happen.

Just to let you know, all those who I asked, I mean everybody without fail, said yes to me asking for either favors, photos, voiceover talents, and whatever else I requested. To me, that was a miracle in itself! I was very grateful and still am since this made the production possible on a limited budget which was just under $1000!

So, for those interested in seeing just how the Logan Temple started and came to be, up to the point of laying the cornerstones, I think you will enjoy this historical presentation.

Darrin

This is a video about the history and construction of the Logan Temple which was built in the late 1800's by Mormons in Northern Utah. It features Brigham Yo...

09/14/2022

I passed this area as I was driving the kids on my bus to Logan High.

I saw what they were doing yesterday to the brick wall that was a beacon of Logan for decades. I believe every guy at Logan High since the 1950s has explored this area at least once.

Now it's going to be totally changed.

But alas, I've been working with the owner of the property and he has purchased some of my research dealing with the old Thatcher Mill.

Last year I went and took some pictures of this area and went below. It was a fascinating place with a lot of graffiti and a lot of history. It started out in the early 1860s and was from my understanding the oldest flour mill in Utah.

I'll be posting some of those pictures down the road of what it looked like from the back side. It was almost like a little wonderland.

07/29/2022

Here is still another article I found about Logan and its early beginnings. All because I was looking up the "Thatcher Mill"!

The Herald-Journal (Logan, Utah) · 6 Mar 1948, Sat · Page 1 & 7.

07/29/2022

I find it fascinating that as I'm searching for the term "Thatcher Mill", I keep on getting other references dealing with Logan and Cache Valley's history. This particular article is from The Herald-Journal (Logan, Utah) · 24 Jan 1948, Sat · Page 1 & 6.

I'm sure that many of you will enjoy the tidbits of information as far as the early history of Cache Valley goes. :)

07/28/2022

As I have been researching the Thatcher Mill, I also came across this ad in the local paper. It's a hodgepodge of various old grocery stores in Cache Valley. I thought it would be a great example to let folks know about what used to exist when our parents or grandparents went shopping to get their groceries before the big box stores came in.

When I was a kid, I remember when Safeway, Albertsons and Food King were on the same street. When they all came in along 4th North, it started to wipe out the old Mom and Pop stores. Luckily, I was born at the tail end of the era and can remember shopping in some of them when I was a youngin.

How many of them have you either heard of or been to? I bet most of you who read my articles didn't know that there were so many of them in the valley during this time.

The advertisement came out in The Herald Journal on June 14th, 1940, Fri · Page 5.

About 30 years ago, I wrote an article in The Cache Citizen about old neighborhood grocery stores and talked to the owners of some of them. It was a great article because I utilized the owner's perspectives of what it took to run them. I think that I just might resurrect and print it again sometime!