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Show Logan named after trapper & explorer - Ephraim Logan ByQUIG NIELSEN Logan city's name came from Logan Fort which was named for the nearby Logan River. The river reportedly got its name from an early trapper, Ephraim Logan, an explorer of the Cache Valley region in the 1 820s. At least that's what Utah Place Names, a Utah Federal Writer's Project in 1938, recorded. An information sheet from the Cache County Chamber of Commerce, however, tells a different version. It says, "They chose the name Logan, after an Indian Chief who had been very good to the white man." Take your choice. The City of Logan was founded in August of 1859 when a young man, William B. Preston, in company with his sister's family, arrived on the site. Preston said to his brother-in-law, John Thatcher, "John, this is good enough for me! ' ' And good enough it was. They had selected a striking strik-ing location on the foothills of the rugged Wasatch Mountains. Situated on a bench of old Lake Bonneville, it overlooks the mountain-enclosed Cache Valley. Near is the mouth of the gushing Logan River that races down Logan Canyon the year round. Settlers liked Logan. At the close of the first year 256 people were Listed. Each year the number multiplied surprisingly fast. The Thatcher family was considered among the most important of Logan's founders. "In 1859, Hezekiah Thatcher was believed to be the wealthiest man in Utah, with the exception of Brigham Young," wrote Milton R. Hunter in his book about the colonization of the West. Thatcher had made his wealth in the gold fields of California. After Logan was established, other Mormon settlements began springing up in Cache Valley and southern Idaho. Twenty-five settlements were founded in the area within the next six years. Source: Hunter, "Brigham Young the Colonizer"; Writers' Project-1938, "Utah Place Names"; Cache County Chamber of Commerce Information Sheet. (Quig Nielsen is an information officer for the Museum Mu-seum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City.) |
