Mountain Monograms...U Ever Wonder Y?

Mountain Monograms!

Pleasant Grove's "G" with Mount Timpanogos looming above.

For as long as I can remember, the big white "G" on the mountainside east of my hometown of American Fork, Utah has been a part of the landscape of my life.  Every time my parents would take us on a drive we watched for the "G" that presided over the neighboring town of Pleasant Grove.  I always wondered what it meant.  What did that big "G" stand for?  One late summer night I looked out the window and was amazed and enchanted...the "G" was all aglow. That was when I learned that the "G" stood for Pleasant Grove High School and that it was all lit up for Homecoming.

The "G" from the hiking trail.

According to Wikipedia, in 1921, a group of seniors put a block letter "G" on an unnamed peak west of Mount Timpanogos.  The first time it was lit was in 1929.  There was once a Pleasant Grove holiday called "G Day" when the letter would be lighted and the townsfolk would celebrate.  The holiday was discontinued due to revelers causing damage to the football field.  Recently students raised $5,500 in a "Light the G" fundraiser to keep the icon lit on special occasions such as homecoming and graduation.

Why a G instead of a P?
It bothered me a lot back then, that Pleasant Grove used a G instead of a P.  It just didn't make sense to me.  I was doing some research online today and I think I may have come across the answer.  In the high school's early years, their mascot was known as the Pleasant Grove "Grover."  in 1959, the mascot was changed to the "Valkyrie" and eventually became the "Viking" which is the mascot today.

Distribution of Mountain Monograms Across the West

Notice the line of dots along the I-15 Corridor.

Mountain Monograms
The hillsides and mountainsides of Utah and other western states are adorned with big block letters...like the Block U of the University of Utah and the giant Y above Brigham Young University. Lately I have wondered why there are so many of them?  I wasn't even aware there was a term for such things...Mountain Monograms.  A definition from Wikipedia states "Hillside letters or mountain monograms are a form of geoglyph (more specifically hill figures) common in the American West. These are typically created and maintained by schools and towns.  Ranging in size from a few feet to hundreds of feet tall, they are an important part of western culture, symbols of school pride and community identity.  Water towers play a similar role in other parts of the country.  There is a popular myth that hillside letters were built so that early pilots could identify towns from the air in order to drop off "air mail."

The Big "C" in Berkley, California

Berkley's Big "C"...The First Mountain Monogram
According to online sources, the first three mountain monograms erected were due to class rivalries at universities.  The first letter was built in 1905 on Charter Hill overlooking the UC Berkley campus as a means of ending an unruly rivalry between the classes of 1907 and 1908.

The "Block U" of the University of Utah.

Size...a little over 100 ft. tall.

The "Block U."
A few weeks following the (1905) building of the Berkley "C,"  class rivalry between the sophomore and freshman classes of the University of Utah produced a hillside "U."

Students Repainting the "Block U."

The "Y" of Brigham Young University

The "Y" is 322 ft. in height and 120 feet wide.

"Y Mountain."

The following year, 1906,  Brigham Young University proposed the first 3-lettered hillside emblem, "BYU." After building the letter "Y", the school decided that it would be too much work to build the remaining letters.

Students apply hot lime...1908

Dr. Harvey Fletcher, the renowned scientist who graduated from BYU in 1907, wrote about the first Y Day in 1906, "The students stood in a zig zag line about 8 feet apart stretching from the bottom of the hill to the site of the Y.  The first man took the bag of lime, sand or rocks and carried it 8 feet and handed it to the next man.  The second carried it another 8 feet and handed it to the third man and thus the bag went up the hill, each man shuttling back and forth along his 8-foot portion of the trail."

This year Brigham Young University finally became the owner of Y Mountain.  Representative Jason Chaffetz sponsored a bill that was passed by Congress, allowing BYU to purchase the 80 acres surrounding the "Y."

Hillside Letters Across the West...

Even the fictional western town of Radiator Springs has a mountain monogram.

Closer View.

Hillside letters have been a part of my life for so long that I really didn't pay much attention to them any more...until recently.  Pulling out of the drive-thru of the Boulder City Mickey D's, I noticed this on a rocky mountainside:

Boulder City, Nevada.

It was like a bolt out of the blue...there had to be a story in these letters that seem to be everywhere! On my drive home I noticed letters on the hillsides of Parowan, Beaver, Fillmore, Nephi and Payson...and there are many more.  There are an estimated 72 hillside letters, messages and acronyms across the state of Utah...over 500 across the West and Canada.   For example, there are 81 in California, 45 in Nevada, 59 in Arizona and 34 in Idaho.  The densest concentrations are found along the Mormon Corridor in Utah, Idaho and the Los Angeles Basin.

Hole N' The Rock...tourist attraction near Moab.

On your next vintage vacation in the Old West, keep your eyes peeled for hillside letters.  They could be found in any little town with a big hill or mountain nearby.  I can't wait for my next car trip!

Vintage Vacations...Spirit of Steamboat!

The Spirit of Steamboat

 

I am a Western Girl...I was born in the West immersed in the stories of cowboys and pioneers.  We tend to travel in western states, seeking out old mining towns and places where hard-bitten folks struggled to carve out a life in a harsh desert environment. As we gaze upon the ruins of their dreams, we can almost hear their voices in the dry winds that drift sand through the streets of their towns, stacking tumbleweeds against rusted barbed-wire fences. 

 

Yes, there are towering mountains in the West, mountains draped in the green of pine trees and lacy veils of tumbling waterfalls.  Mountain vistas are cooling to the parched eyes of a desert dweller.  My Mormon ancestors looked to the mountains as they crossed through Wyoming on the pioneer trails.  I am grateful to live at the feet of some of the most beautiful mountains in the West...but my heart is drawn to desert places and ghost towns.  

 

Wyoming Map

 

With only an hour's notice last Monday, we packed our bags for a quick trip to Gillette, Wyoming.  George's company does industrial painting and sandblasting...one of our specialties is water treatment plants.  In order to bid on the one in Gillette, George needed to attend a pre-construction meeting on Tuesday.  Gillette is 9 1/2 hours from Highland, located in the upper right hand corner of the state.

 

Bucking Horse on Wyoming License Plate

 

Anyone who travels in the western states knows that there are long empty stretches of highway.  Families may play "License Plate Bingo" on their road trips.  As a child I would watch for the bucking bronco on the Wyoming plates.  Nowadays, we listen to audio books when we travel...it makes the time pass a lot quicker.  We love the "Longmire" books written by Craig Johnson.  Walt Longmire, the crusty sheriff of fictional Absaroka County is an intriguing character.  The author weaves a lot of Wyoming history and lore into his tales.  In his short book "Spirit of Steamboat" I finally learned the story of the famous bucking horse...the longest-running license plate motif in the world...Steamboat.

"Steamboat"  A VB-25J

A transport version of the Mitchell B-25 bombers from WWII.

 

On a stormy Christmas Eve, Longmire and his friend Lucian Connally must find a way to fly a desperately sick child to Denver.  Finding a plane and pilot is proving to be next to impossible, but they finally end up on an old WWII plane called "Steamboat."  During the trip Walt recalls to himself the story of the famous bucking horse.  Known as the "Lord of the Plains" or the "King of the Hurricane Deck," Steamboat was a horse that could not be ridden. 

 

Steamboat was born in 1894 on the Foss Ranch in Wyoming.  He got his name from the whistling sound he made when he breathed, the result of slamming his head against the ground so hard that he broke the cartilage in his nose.  Solid black, with three white stockings, Steamboat enjoyed the attention he received in parades and Wild West shows.  He was docile when handled, but could not abide a rider.  Steamboat's whistle was the last thing many a cowboy heard just before hitting the ground.

 

"Old Steamboat"

 

In the mid 1930s, Secretary of State Lester C. Hunt commissioned  Denver artist Allen True to depict the horse and rider as the design for the 1936 Wyoming license plate.  He was the paid the "princely sum" of  seventy-five dollars.  There is controversy over who the rider is.  Many a Wyoming resident would like to believe it is their own grandpa, but it is widely believed that the rider is a composite of every cowboy who ever rode a bucking bronco.  And maybe...just maybe...the horse isn't even Steamboat.

 

Steamboat's Biography

 

Author Candy Moulton says, "...Steamboat is really the symbol of Wyoming in every sense of the spirit..."  Steamboat's story did not have a happy ending.  The legendary horse was injured on a barbed-wire fence during a lightning storm in Salt Lake City.  He fell victim to blood poisoning and had to be put down...some say with Tom Horn's gun.  According to legend, Steamboat was buried in Frontier Park in Cheyenne.  But some old-timers will tell you he was carted off to the city dump where he was destroyed.  I, for one, hope that isn't true.

 

 

I-80...the Lincoln Highway

 

The next time you travel west on the Old Lincoln Highway and see a license plate with the bucking bronco and his rider hanging on for dear life...I hope you will think of Steamboat and tip your (metaphorical) hat to the horse that embodied the Western Spirit.

 

 

 

 

A few images from Wyoming...enjoy!