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Show DAILY HERALD 12 Sunday, September 7. 2003 "X stories about local GOT HISTORY? The Daily Herald is looking for interesting history for this weekly page. Make suggestions or submit material by to Executive Editor Randy Wright, rwrightheraldextra.com. Or mail to the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 717,.Provo, UT 84603O747. No phone calls, please. -- . -- .0 nn -n You say m a, I say o-n- Ti-Wa-da A my sterious Englishman, Mormon folklore and Indian languages all offer possible explanations about the origin of the name Tooele I The following appeared in the Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 57, No. 3, 1989. It is reprinted here with permission of the Utah State Historical Society. George Tripp 27, 1847, just three after the arrival main body of pioneers into valley of the Great Lake, Brigham Young and 16 other men crossed the Jordan River and followed the California immigrant trail west to the south end of the Great Salt Lake. The purpose of the trip was to examine and evaluate soil, water, timber and other natural resources of their new home. After bathing in the lake they continued westward into the north end of the Tooele Valley. The Mormons are credited with naming Tooele, but ever since the christening people have wondered where the name came from. Capt. Howard Stansbury of the U.S. Topographical Engineers, who surveyed the valley of the Great Salt Lake (1849-50- ), reported, "this is called Tuilla Valley' by the Mormons." July place Tule Valley because of an alleged abundance of tules or bulrushes growing there. As the story goes, the word tule was distorted by Thomas Bullock, Brigham Young's secretary, who rendered the word Tooele, It's hard to believe that a man of Thomas Bullock's cornpe- - : tence would have had so much trouble with a simple four letter word. - ,t - - - ,t , a" X European connection? Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt has been credited by some with naming Tooele after a (now Hungarian) town named Mattuglie. The g is softened so the the pronunciation approximates Andrew Jenson, assistant church historian, pointed out that this version of the origin of Tooele is impossible because Elder Pratt did not visit Austria until 20 years after Tooele was settled and named. There is considerable evidence that Tooele is of Indian derivation. In his book The Ad-- . ventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., Washington Irving refers to Indians known as Tooelians who lived in distant and infrequented parts of the country. The similarity between the two words, Tooelians and Tooele, seems more than a coinSpelling change cidence. The name was originally Although Bonneville, as far as is known, never came closer spelled Tuilla, but for some tin known reason it was later to Utah than his headquarters on the Green River in changed to Tooele. Where the name Tooele came Wyoming, he could have heard from bits been a fascinating of the Tooelians from his lieu. tenant, Joseph Reddeford Walkmystery since pioneer days. Several versions of how Tooele er, who passed through northwas named have been in circuern Utah on his way to Califorlation for a long time. Some of nia. Bonneville may also have them are so that the heard of the Tooelians from : only logical explanation for trappers or Indians who visited them has to be that some old-his camp. Regardless how the timer passed them off on an un-- Tooelians came to Bonneville's attention, his journal records ' suspecting tenderfoot who acthat they were living somecepted them as factual The "Englishman" stories fall where in western America in into this category. When asked the 1830s, about 15 years before for his impression of the valley, the arrival of the Mormons in an "Englishman" responded, Utah, "it's too hilly." In another verJ. Lyman Fawson, a researcher for the Historical sion, the "Englishman" answered that "it's too willy." (too Records Survey, uncovered other versions of how Tooele remany willows). Physically the ceived its name, including an afvalley supports neither of the above tales, The valley floor is fidavit of Eliza Rowberry Nelso level that a Tooele farmer son, daughter of John Rowber-r- y, could spot stray livestock as far one of Tooele's original settlers. away as Grantsville, and water is too scarce to support many Born in Tooele on February willows anywhere except along 29, 1852, she stated that while the banks of the valley's few riding with her father on the small perennial streams. overland stage between Tooele and Salt Lake Cijy in 1867 she Scarcely more creditable is the story that the original intent heard her father tell some of the pioneers was to name the on the stage that an In-- Shoshoni links Florence Garcia, a resident of Salt Lake City, a fluent . , Shoshoni speaker, and a great then-Austri- ( ,f a I - (Shoshoni) or "tu-wada" (Gosiute). In addition, "tuu-wet- ... W St when Parry asked her mother's , opinion, she too was in agree- ment. "j Finally, the author's son, a resident of Grantsville, Utah, asked his neighbor, Lawrence "Larry" Bear, a Goshute Indian, " about his family's surname and was told that up until his father's time the family had gone but since then the by ' name had been anglicized to Bear. ;j Based on the evidence uncov- - v ered and presented here, it ap- - ;J pears that Tooele comes from the Shoshoni Ian-: guage of which the Goshute '. tongue is a variant, and that Tooele County and Tooele City were named for the Bear farm-rsome of whose members still $ reside in Tooele County as of lJ 1989. s a 1- - " a, Photo courtesy Tooele Transcript-Bulleti- Tooele's Main Street looking south. y. dian chief named Tuilla (or Tooele) had lived in the valley before it was settled and, although he was not living when the pioneers came, they named the valley and the settlement af- ter him. Fawson also contributed statements by Capt. Jack H. Ferguson, a retired army officer, who on two different occasions, first in 1918 and again in 1939, said that it was the belief among the Indians (Goshutes) of Tooele County that a chief named Tooele (pronounced "Chooele," a name that consti tuted an expression of respect) had lived in earlier times. More challenges The Nelson and Ferguson statements have been chal- -. lenged on a couple of points. Both indicate that Tooele Valley was named after an Indian chief. Such an office was, however, unknown among the Goshutes whose basic social unit, the family group, was limited in size by the severely restricted food and water resources of the arid valleys they occupied. The leaders of these bands were usually the father, grandfather, or uncle of the followers. The fact that chiefs (as the whites understood the term) were unknown among the Goshutes does not, of course, rule out the possibility that the valley could have been named for the leader of a Goshute band who lived in or near Tooele. Others have challenged the possibility that Tooele could be of Indian origin because of the letter "L" it contains, a letter that is unknown in the Shoshoni y, ; for who can ride, according to "I strapped him on HERALD DAILY t I Utah State Historical Sodety: On the Web at www.history.utah.gov, or u While Jonathan Law taught advanced rider's training at the E Center in West Valley City, his long-tim- e biking friend asked him if he wanted to race a motorbike on a much smaller scale on a pocketbike. In two years time, Law took a Big Wheel-size- d pocketbike through about a dozen races, some local, some in Nevada and some m Calif ornia where he won first place. About three months ago, crouched on his 45 pound, pocketbike with a 13.5 horsepower motor, Law of Orem broke the pocketbike land speed record. The big moment was broadcast for the first time on national television on Wednesday. The "Ripley's Believe It or Not" show followed the to the Rocky Mountain Raceway in West Valley' Ciry where he reached 55.8 ' ' . mph on his three-folong, two-foo- t high bike, leaving the old land speed record of 36 J , mph in the dust, , . These bikes are more fun," Law said "It has everything a full-siz- e bike has. It's just smaller. You're lower to the ground ' and because they're smaller; J' people are more fearless." "Pocketbikes originated in Liquid- -cooled ot ; , all his bikes when he hangs out age to get his first bike, but he grew up on motorcycles. When Law was a baby, his father, Lawrence, would take asleep just leaning against me. I think that was something that him for short, slow rides around the block near their home in San Diego. As he grew older, the trips ' grew longer. Lawrence Law 6 years he "When about was Johnathan Law's father old, I took him with me on a . road trip up to Utah," Law's father Lawrence said on his cell phone after he pulled off the road on his motorcycle in Italy more than 15 years ago and are pretty big in Europe Tehachapi, Calif. said Mike Bischoff , 34, a me"I strapped him on the sissy chanic and friend who introbar on the back and sometimes duced Law to pocketbikes and he'd fall asleep just leaning sponsors him through against me. I think that was Bischoff s store, Mountain something that really got him West Pocketbikes, one of the interested in motorcycles." three stores that sell the miniaLaw's first motorbike was a ' ture bikes in Utah. ' tiny Honda Z50 dirt bike that Bischoff, who also races the he'd ride around with his friends. Now he has six motorpocketbikes, said the trend is one of each kind. growing in Utah, and they carcycles There's his touring bike, his ry the same risks as " d bikes. cruiser, bis dirt bike; his sport Had pocketbikes been bike and his newest his around when Law was pocketbike. On top of that, Lawrence younger, he might have been one of the first to hop on, since Law said Jonathan has 50 more children fit better on the mini toy replicas of motorcycles at bikes and there is no age limit the house in Orem. really got him interested in motorcycles." . full-size- 1 with the Utah Valley Sport Bike Association, of which he is president. About 45 members and others who come along ride around together every night. They pile into the Del Taco parking lot north of Frovo High School between rides. The group ranging in age from 17 to 50 years has done this for seven years. First members hung out at Circle K, then Maverick, now it's Del Taco, "Everyone sees us around," Law said. "We ride, hang out at the parking lot, talk about bikes and ride again. The best part is taking girls for rides." "The association tries to safety, courtesy, wearing protective clothing and anyone is welcome to come ride with us," Law said "We want to separate ourselves from the typical reckless ' guy on a bullet bike." When he's not rkfing or racing, Jonathan Law runs an au-dvideo company, Sound-- scape, out of Midvale and teaches about once a month at the Advanced Riders Training race school at the E Center in West Valley CSty. pro-rho- ' J fvV I Searc ..gs --rResc" recSrlo te 'poten' ' ,eri ( io j I Julent ThontrsoH can be reached at or ithompsbnheraldextra.com. 344-25- 59 - J ! phone He gets plenty of use out of the Law. In Europe, some people put training wheels on them sissy bar on the back and and adjust them to go slow so can ride. their sometimes he'd fall 11 Law had to wait until ' George Tripp was president of the Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Orem man racing motorcycles of all sizes THE : a" -- d Julene Thompson ? ' "tnu-weeta- - Cali-fornia- ns 'J granddaughter of Little Soldier, , the leader of the first band of ; Indians the Mormon pioneers met after entering the Salt Lake : Valley, when asked if she could think of any word or words ,1 v that sounded anything like ," Tooele, suggested which means black bear. Robert Steele, a western ' Shoshoni, and at the time of contact a member of the Ibapah '.' Goshute Tribal Council, agreed ., x with Garcia, and added that a family of that name were then X living in Skull Valley, Utah. May T. Parry of Clearfield, j Utah, the daughter of Moroni Timbimboo, and the great Z granddaughter of Shoshoni Chief Sagawitch, agreed with Garcia and Steele that Tooele . had likely been derived from ." ' ; language spoken by the Goshutes in Tooele Valley. Supporters of the possibility of a Shoshoni derivation for ' Tooele point to the name Pocatelio, a leading Shoshoni chieftain for whom the city of Pocatelio, Idaho, was named with its prominent "L" sound. Some have suggested that even though the true English ; "L" sound may not be found in the Shoshoni language, certain words or letter combinations to an untrained ear could be construed as having that sound. This possibility must have occurred to the compilers of the Inventory of County Archives who worked in Tooele County. In response to an inquiry made by them the Bureau of Ethnolo(or "tu-- " gy suggested "tu-adata"), which means black uncle, as the closest approximation to Tooele they could find. - - |