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Show Tb wm itt wm jm tb tsiwss Fruit Heights fanned to get water system By TOM BUSSELBERG FRUIT HEIGHTS Water is a most precious resource in Utah. It was that concern for water that led to formation of Fruit Heights as a town back in 1939. A population of 100 was required before an area could incorporate so residents had to wait for a baby to be born, that year. Today, it has blossomed to about 4,200, with "equally as many living to the east as to the west of the Mountain Road," notes Belva Provost, Pro-vost, city administrator. Sam Raymond was the town's first president, a position he held for 1 9 years (see related article, this issue). Incorporation paved the way for an $8, 100 bond issue. That would allow for piping water into town. Until that time, residents had to carry water from the canyons ca-nyons something many of today's to-day's residents still remember. Volunteerism, pitching in, was a byword back then that is seldom seen in Davis County or elsewhere these days. That spirit of cooperation coopera-tion was tied to survival and included in-cluded keeping streets maintained, water coming in or whatever functioning. func-tioning. The Mountain Road that bisects the city used to serve as an Indian trail and was the main highway until un-til U . S . Highway 89-9 1 was built 40 or so years ago. Names like Driggs, Taylor and Raymond are listed among the area's first settlers. Samuel Driggs engineered, and James, Pleasant Green and Allen Taylor started a ditch from Bair's Canyon, crossing the road south of Sam Raymond's old home, running north, parallel to the Mountain Road. That ditch was probably the first irrigation ditch of any size in what then was considered part of Kays-ville, Kays-ville, the history compiled by Alpheus and Ivy Harvey says. "That ditch was considered quite a project. It provided the only drinking drink-ing and irrigation water available for years (until 1940.)" The oldest home still standing could well be the Grandison Raymond Sr. home at about 200 North Mountain Road, near where Sam Raymond lives today. The 1857 rock home was considered exceptional ex-ceptional for the period. Most were hewn from logs in those days, adobes coming later. It was also a much larger structure than neighboring neigh-boring dwellings. Bair Canyon is named for John Bair, who came in 1855 and built a home on the south side of that canyon. ca-nyon. He also constructed a sawmill saw-mill about where the rock loft now stands. It furnished most of the wood for the early homes of the area. Webb's Canyon, north of Bair's, was apparently named for a Chaun-cey Chaun-cey Webb, who lived in that vicinity, vicin-ity, but apparently only for a short time. His name surfaced in 1851 census data. A brickyard provided more brick in the construction of homes and businesses "than any other in Kaysville," the history notes. It was located above where 2nd North joins Highway 89 and was closed about 1913. The town even boasted its own stage coach station at about 150 North Mountain Road between the two red brick Raymonds' homes. The route went from Salt Lake City north through Weber Canyon. When the train came through Weber We-ber Canyon, passengers got off at Uintah and traveled by coach to Salt Lake City. The city once boasted orchards like Lee Jost's. His 27 acres boasted 1 ,450 cherry trees. Population Popula-tion has skyrocketed, more than doubling in the past decade. The city hall is located in the old Rock Loft, a building that has seen many uses over the years, with the top floor at one time serving as a restaurant and dance hall. It's use as a commercial hub passed into history along with an old service station run by Archie Green on the corner of Green's and Mountain Road. But the arrival of the Weber Basin Aqueduct in 1957 allowed for the blossoming of new life, ending en-ding dry spells that sometimes meant a water turn only once every three weeks. William Butcher was the first with commercial fruit-growing operations and his descendants are still in the fruit-growing business. Arthur Butcher reportedly had the first Gleason Elberta peach orchard. As one history has it, he and Heber Burton had Model T trucks and used to haul fruit to Salt Lake City. The trip would take two days and sometimes they returned with their fruit unsold. During the depression, they even had to pay return freight on unsold fruit. Peaches sold for two bits or 50 cents a bushel. The Old Rock Loft is now the place Fruit Heights City residents know as their city hall. It has seen many uses over its long history, even housing a restaurant and dance hall upstairs, years back. I ' ? .i t J ; .,. 1 - t mi mi - m Milium .. ,, & . . k " 1 " mtjttmt ,,,i8iiMidiafc' -if"'"'""'- ill " i v ... w ,' -"S'vrv - -. - : Zi lr-' x - " i h j": ' i ; ... m y'mm, J This old home, although currently uninhabited, has seen much history in its 1 30-year-plus history. The old Raymond home, it is surrounded by other homes where descendents of the original settlers still live, including "Bishop" Sam Raymond. |