OSHER 329 - Rural Voices and Immigrant Tales of Utah-Part II

The main purpose of this course is to encourage student interest in public history and the richness of Utah's ethnic and cultural diversity by bringing to the classroom seldom-heard stories that challenge and broaden our view of those drawn West by choice or by chance. A number of stories explore the journeys of those who contributed to the development of the state's business, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and mining. Some include the experiences of Utah Chinese "paper sons and daughters," homesteaders who "proved up," black families who lived in chicken coops, mountains that move, mines that fail, and women who were bruised on the front lines of suffrage battles. Several dip into down-right-different stories: the lore of cowboys, freedmen, mountaineers, outlaws, pony express riders, midwifery, women rustlers, and Utah's love affair with speed and sweets. Others trace matters of inequity, the course of prohibition, and the time when Utah union man, "Big Bill" Haywood, was vilified by the New York Times as the "most feared figure in America."