Speak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's history

The past is never truly “in the past.” It’s all around us, it informs us. It speaks to our shared and to our separate identities. “Speak Your Piece” is a podcast where contributors share their insights and discoveries about Utah's 12,000 year (plus) human story. Hosted by Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian (Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement), and co produced by Chelsey Zamir, a new episode is released every other week, sometimes more, sometimes less. SYP explores the key arguments with new and worthwhile older publications, articles or websites; or delves into a notable museum, archival collection, archaeological report; or allows a respected writer, curator or historian to speak freely, sometimes about difficult history. SYP seeks to tell a history of Utah in a way you might not heard it before., told by the people who know it best: historians, writers, curators, archaeologists, rare book dealers, archivists, librarians and more. Speak Your Piece is recorded and engineered at the Utah State Library in Salt Lake City. Jason Powers is the sound and post-production engineer. The SYP logo is a photograph entitled "Canyonlands," taken by Utah outdoor photographer Al W. Morton, circa 1955, within the Canyonlands National Park (NPS). The lone man in the image is Kent Frost, looking over a series of needle rock formations located in San Juan County, Utah. The image and rights are owned by the Utah State Historical Society.

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Speak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's history

Utah’s Timpanogos Cave & the National Monument’s Centennial Year (1922-2022) (S5 E2)

September 18, 2022 • Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian, Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement • Season 5 • Episode 2

Date: September 8, 2022 (Season 5, Episode 2: 58 minutes long). Click here to see the SYP webpage which includes historical photographs and recommended readings. Caption for the above photograph: early explorers peering out from within a cave formation in American Fork Canyon's Timpanogos Cave. Courtesy of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument (NPS). Are you interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click here.

Next month on October 14, 2022 Utah’s Timpanogos Cave–which actually includes three linked caves-–will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a protected national monument. It was in 1922 that President Warren G. Harding signed Proclamation No. 15040, under the authority of the American Antiquities Act of 1906, to protect the caves for their "unusual scientific interest and importance." Before the monument closes this season on October 16 (or when it reopens in May 2023), we urge you to visit Timp Cave, and join in monument’s centennial celebrations.

Ranger Cami McKinney (program manager over stewardship & interpretation at the Timpanogos Cave National Monument, NPS) is Utah’s leading historian concerning the American Fork Canyon monument. She is the author of Heart of the Mountain, a History of Timpanogos Cave. A digital version may be available soon here, a hard copy version is available at the Timp Cave store.

McKinney started to work at the caves in 1997, and has loved digging into its history ever since. This episode includes the caves’ natural history, its human history–within and surrounding the caves–and finally its speleology. Ranger McKinney wants all of us to learn this word, which is a composite science, involving a cave’s geology, hydrology, biology, cave morphology and its changing microclimate.

Speleology is also all about the stalagmites, helictites, speleothems and anthodites – all the stunning formations created by millions of years of permeating water and minerals. Recently the monument has offered different kinds of tours including lantern tours early each morning. To learn more, look for “Centennial Lantern Tours” on the main page.

Topics discussed in this light and engaging SYP episode include:
(a) The history of timber harvesting, lumber mills, mining claims, mining towns, even the railroad up American Fork Canyon.
(b) The 1887 to 1921 discoveries and rediscoveries of the caves.
(c) The history of the NFS, and later in the NPS, and their work in protecting (It was a threatening mining claim which was a catalyst for calls for federal protection).
(d) The Native American history surrounding Timpanogos Peak and Cave.
(e) The history of the geological, thermal, and other physical forces which created the underground spaces.
(f) The early 20th century hiking clubs, including both the men and women, who were instrumental in the cave’s discovery and protection.
(g) The early local (Timpanogos Outdoor Committee) and federal partnership which built the trails, set up electrical lighting and more, for the cave.
(h) The legends and stories about Timpanogos Mountain and the caves.
(i) The multi-generational, Utah families and individuals, who have served to protect, guide and interpret within the caves for one hundred years.

Bio: Ranger Cami McKinney, is the Program Manager for Resource Stewardship and Interpretation at Timp Cave. She had been a ranger for 25 years. During this journey she also received her Masters Degree in Natural Resources at Utah State University. McKinney began working at Timp Cave in 1997, and has loved digging into the history of the cave and its canyon ever since. She is the author of Heart of the Mountain, a history of Timpanogos Cave.