Ann's Birthday Portrait

Day of the Dead Altar and Montage

First Day Of Snow

To celebrate the first snow in town (Salt Lake City, 2008) here is an old photo from the Teton Valley area depicting two men in a horse drawn sleigh.  The sleigh is a low slung type typically used for hauling freight or timber, as opposed to a passenger sleigh for jaunting across the Russian countryside.

The State of Utah Wine Affairs Bureau, 2008

We are happy to present the state of the Lamberti Bocca Noir grape harvest for the 2008 growing season. One of the most successful harvests in recent times, we pulled in a hair under 150 pounds of grapes, de-stemmed and crushed for 16.6 gallons of must for the initial fermentations.

This is up from 70 pounds in 2006 (a late season hail storm damaged about a quarter of that crop) and 48 pounds in 2007 (birds, heat, and ???). This year the protective nets got on early, and the vines were well maintained. For the record, Growing Degree Days (10 C base, March 1) was 3165 at time of harvest (Sept 28, 2008). Heating Degree Days (SLC station since July 1) cumulative was 27 at time of harvest compared with 7 last year. For what it's worth. More stats to come.

Likewise, a good turnout of wine grape pickers, destemmers, and stompers. More photos of the 2008 Wine Stomp can be seen below:

Completion of the Teton Valley Railroad - 1913

By 1913, the Union Pacific railroad had completed a line from Aston, Idaho to Victor, five years after offering the first "Yellowstone Special" on June 11. 1908. The rail dead-ended in Victor, and steam trains were turned around there on a wye (a triangle shaped junction that allowed a trail to back up and turn around.) Passengers heading to Jackson, Wyoming then took a carriage, or later, a bus, over the Teton pass, which by then was still a difficult, though not impossible, journey. The photo above shows the inaugural train - UP #684 - with a second engine and at least 6 passenger cars, probably somewhere between Driggs and Victor. The photo below, given the position of the boxcar with people standing on it in both photos, is probably taken on the top of a car on the track, either before or after the first train rolled through. The population shown in the photo below most likely represents the sum total of residents in the Driggs/Victor corridor.
More information about the UP Victor line (circa 1965) here.