S2, E28: This Salt Lake City Park Used to Be a Prison

If you’ve spent any time in Salt Lake City, you’ve probably been to Sugar House Park. But about 75 years ago, instead of runners, sledders, playgrounds, and soccer fields, you would have found something very different:A prison.For nearly a century, the land that is now Sugar House Park was home to the Utah Territorial Penitentiary and later the Utah State Prison.And its history gets pretty wild.In this episode of Small Lake City, Erik digs into the story of Sugar House Park and the neighborhood around it—from the failed sugar beet experiment that gave Sugar House its name to the construction of Utah’s first territorial prison.Along the way, we get into some of the prison’s most fascinating stories: an incredible number of early prisoner escapes, prominent Mormon leaders like George Q. Cannon being incarcerated during the federal crackdown on plural marriage, and the controversial trial and execution of labor organizer Joe Hill.Then there’s the question of how a prison sitting outside Salt Lake City eventually became surrounded by one of the city’s busiest neighborhoods—and how 575 prisoners were moved to Point of the Mountain in 1951.Even tearing the old prison down became a story of its own.Finally, we look at the decades-long effort to transform the former prison grounds into the roughly 110-acre Sugar House Park we know today, along with the connection between the old prison property, the park, and Highland High School.It’s a story about how dramatically a place can change while traces of its past remain hidden in plain sight.This is the strange history of Sugar House Park.Follow Small Lake City for more stories about the people, places, history, and culture that make Salt Lake City feel a little... smaller.50% Off Minky Couture Blankets: softminkyblankets.com/SMALLLAKECITY Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time Support the showSmall Lake City Calendar, add for all the events coming up straight to your iCal, Google Calendar, or Outlook: https://42b1ul.share-na2.hsforms.com/2NEaCwuBsSH-fY1z5Hr7DkgJoin the Small Lake City Discord: https://discord.gg/TYNzMhCxeKSubscribe to the Newsletter! https://www.smalllakepod.com/newsletter-landing-pageInstagram: @smalllakepodYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@SmallLakeCityPodcastTikTok: @smalllakepod