Secret Salt Lake City

by Jeremy Pugh, Mary Brown Malouf

Where can you find a chunk of the Matterhorn enshrined at a Utah ski resort? What is the origin of Josepa, the Hawaiian ghost town in the desert? And why is Utah called the Beehive State? You hold in your hands the answers to these questions and more in this guide to the oddities, wonders, myths, and legends of Utah’s capital city. Secret Salt Lake City opens a window into the weird, the bizarre, and the obscure secrets of the city, some of which are hiding in plain sight. Founded by religious pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1847, its one-of-a-kind origin story makes Salt Lake City a rich backdrop for frontier grit, culture, and curious relics. Did you know that there is an alphabet hidden in your computer that was invented in Salt Lake City? What is the significance of the religious symbols on the Salt Lake Temple? And how did Sherlock Holmes solve a fictional mystery in London that originated in Utah? Lifetime resident and author Jeremy Pugh and Mary Brown Malouf unlock these mysteries and more to pull back the curtain on the secrets of Salt Lake City. This isn’t your traditional guidebook, and it will enrich your visit to the Crossroads of the West.

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2021

About the author

Jeremy Pugh is a writer living in Salt Lake City who, in one way or another, has been writing about culture, history, and the outdoors in Utah for more than two decades. Formerly the editor of Salt Lake magazine, Pugh is a freelancer and consultant writing for SKI, Lonely Planet, and Salt Lake magazines. A lifelong Utahn, Jeremy travels widely but always returns home to the mountains where he bikes, hikes, and skis as much as possible. He invites you to share your SLC experiences on Twitter and Instagram at @verydynamite and read his writing at @VeryDyanamite.com.

Reviews

[Michelle Stimpson]

This book is so much fun -I devoured it in a couple of days. It's filled with hidden art, historic sites, natural phenomena, and legends. Of the 84 entries, I've seen an impressive 28, and I've made a list of others that I want to see. There are plenty of places featured that I've been, but I either didn't see or didn't know the secret behind the place, so I added those to my list, too.

There are plenty of things in this book I do not want to see: anything to do with murder sites, ghost sightings, cemeteries, bars, or two-headed taxidermy. But I can imagine someone wanting to go on a creepy tour of Salt Lake City and this book provides a great list!

I've lived in this city for 29 years and I'm super excited to find more things to explore here, but my favorite thing about this book is it's tone. It doesn't take anything too seriously, and yet it's massively respectful of the myths, legends, and religious underpinnings of many of the stories.

I will definitely be picking another of the authors' books, 100 Things to Do in SLC.

[Matthew]

I don’t know why it’s called Secret Salt Lake when it show cases Utah and Nevada.