IV

The
Brighton Village

To complete a discussion of Balsam Hill Cabin it must include some description of the Brighton Village. The village was part of the Brighton experience and many of the memories were a result of the times shared at the Balsam Inn, the Brighton Store and the stables of Ern and Molly Green.

In 1987 Dick Morris,Dr. Richard P. "Dick" Morris was my father, 1915 - 1993. along with others, gave a presentation at the Whitmore Library describing the early days of Brighton. He prepared this map as a visual aid to walk the audience through and around the Brighton Village. His labeling of Pine Street and Prospect Ave should be reversed. Also, an argument could be supported that he meant to date the map as 1931 instead of 1921 since the Wasatch Mountain Club did not begin construction of their lodge until 1929.

The Balsam Inn

Most of the property that housed Tom Davis' Balsam Inn and the Green's Stables was originally sold by Robert A. Brighton to George Grantor on July 14, 1906.
The first Balsam Inn in 1916.
Tom Davis' first store is in the background to the right.Because the location of the road entering Brighton has changed over the years, and differs greatly from the original plat map of 1890, it has a much different look today. James D. Moyle, in his book "Remembrances", refers to the stables as "Grantor's Stables" and notes that the road used to go right through the middle of it. Tom Davis had operated a livery stable and been a merchant in Murray before his life in Brighton.Tom Davis' death notice Salt Lake Tribune February 12, 1936. Mrs. Davis was the former Mette Grantor.

Through a series of curious transactions,8/30/1912 - George Grantor to Arthur T. Burton Agreement to sell plus personal property;
6/17/1913 - George W Grantor Declaration of Homestead;
6/17/1913 - George Grantor to Dora Rippe Croft Warranty Deed;
12/14/1913 - Dora Rippe Croft to MC Davis Quit Claim Deed. by 1913 the title to the property was in the Davis name.

The first structure built on the Balsam Inn property was a small general store that Davis operated prior to 1910. With the growing popularity of Brighton, the expanding number of private residences and increasing accessibility, caused by improved roads and better vehicles, Davis decided there was room for an entity to compete with the Brighton Hotel. In 1912 he built a large, three story log structure with a capacity of accommodating 40 guests and named it the Log Cabin Hotel. In 1914 Davis changed the name to the Balsam Hotel, then in 1915 the name was changed, once again, to the Balsam Inn. By the 1920s the inn had become a popular establishment both in summer and winter. The Wasatch Mountain Club used it as a base for snowshoeing and skiing trips until they built their own lodge, beginning construction in 1929.

"There was nothing like the Balsam." recounted Marj Parrish SmithMarj Parrish Smith interview February 10, 2009. Marj, age 92, is a close friend of the Whitney family. about her days spent in Brighton in the '20's and '30's. "We had our gang of girls and there was a gang of boys. Nobody went especially with anybody. We just got together. We'd put on the old Victrola in the big room they had on the lower level of the Balsam and danced. And that's the way we had a good time. Oh, we had fun! We were all depression kids. We didn't have television or anything like that. But that's why we had so much fun. We just had to make our own fun."

Marj continued, "Johnny Bamberger and the twins...I forget their names; they'd play poker on the veranda that went around the Balsam. They'd ride their horses up and climb over the balcony and sit there and play poker. And they'd throw firecrackers when we were walking down the road." With a smile in her voice and a slight chuckle, Marj added, "They were just terrible; they scared us to death. Of course we were silly, giggly girls and they were a lot older than we were."

Tom's son, Paul, had begun helping his father and mother with the operation of the Inn when Tom became ill and died in Brighton on Friday, February 7, 1936, at the age of 57. It was the middle of winter and the road up Big Cottonwood Canyon was closed due to excessive snowfall. Severe weather prevented Tom's body from being taken down the canyon until the following Sunday. Eleven skiers, with son Paul in the lead, hauled Tom on a toboggan down the canyon to the upper power station where a vehicle met the skiers and transferred the body to be prepared for services and burial.Salt Lake Tribune February 10, 1936.

The Balsam Inn had become quite a hub of social activity, hosting dances and other activities. In July of 1936 the Pine Nuts Ball was staged at the Balsam which was well advertised and described in the Brighton Pine Bugle, a small, local, daily publication.The entire 1936 Brighton Pine Bugle can be seen in a separate document.

Advertisment
Salt Lake Tribune May 21, 1939.On Saturday, March 20, 1937 there was a cross country ski race from the Silver King Mine in Park City to the Balsam Inn in BrightonSalt Lake Tribune March 21, 1937, pg 21 where awards were given and a small celebration staged. That evening, shortly after the racers left, the Balsam Inn caught fire and was destroyed.Salt Lake Tribune March 22, 1937, pg 18.

Paul, now the proprietor, rebuilt the structure, albeit a smaller one without lodging, which served simply as a small general store. It was called the Balsam Corner Inn. That too, was destroyed by fire in July of 1941. Davis rebuilt a more ambitious building and skiers began referring to the newest facility as the Davis Club House.
Salt Lake Tribune July 19, 1941
describing the burning of the Balsam Corner Inn.Richard
Peterson was more widely known in Brighton as "Pokey".
See the Brighton Pine Bugle August 10, 1936 issue.

Boyd Summerhays, who was a ski patrolman in Alta in 1947, was asked to temporarily help out the patrol-less Brighton Ski Area which he agreed to do. Boyd stayed on with the Brighton patrol in 1948 then served a couple of years in the military. When he returned in 1951, he went to work at the Alpine Rose Lodge under the tutelage of inn keeper Henry Florence. While there, he met and married co-worker, Arlene Olsen. In 1954, after Florence sold the Alpine Rose to Dr. Guy Wight, Boyd and Arlene purchased the Inn from Paul Davis, renovated the structure and operated it as a restaurant under the old name of the Balsam Inn.From an interview with Boyd and Arlene Summerhays March 30, 2009.

It was a rough year for Summerhays in 1959. Fire seemed to plague the restaurateur. A small cabin behind the Balsam Inn burned in March.
Salt Lake Tribune March 8, 1959.

Later the same year, in the afternoon of October 7, Boyd was preparing for the evening's dinner. While cleaning the broiler a spark escaped igniting a nearby wall. The structure was lost entirely, leaving only the porch and some partial walls standing.Salt Lake Tribune October 8, 1959. This time, it was never rebuilt. Foundation remnants are visible today on the still vacant lot west of the stream that heads north down the canyon. The Summerhays' did, shortly thereafter, reopen their restaurant in Salt Lake City under the name of the Balsam Embers.

Green's Stables

Originally owned by George Grantor and probably run by Tom Davis, the stables existed for many years. It's not known exactly when the Greens took over operations of the stables, but most people who remember the facility associate it with the Greens.

Stables c1905.
Brighton Hotel and the James H. Moyle cabin in the background.
Photo courtesy of Adrienne Aldous from the Moyle CollectionButlerville is an area that can be roughly described as that area encompassing the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon; the Old Mill, Cottonwood Heights, etc. Butler Elementary and Middle schools reside on Twenty-Seventh East, south of Fort Union Boulevard. The Butler family was large and prominent in the area. Neri Butler,The 1880 census lists Neri Butler as head of two households, next door to each other, and two wives: Emiline (31) and Mary (25). Mary was Molly's mother. It's not known if he was a polygamist or had divorced his first wife, but still maintained her household next door. a logger and sawyer, had three sons and eight daughters. He also had five brothers, having at least eighteen children between them. One of Neri's daughters was Mary Elizabeth Butler, born February 18, 1879. She was always known as Molly.

Alvin Green was a farmer who lived with his wife and children on a road amongst five Butler households.1880 Butler Precinct Census. One of Alvin Green's children was Ern Green, born Ernest Valorus Green on January 11, 1880. In the 1900 census, Ern is listed as living with his widowed mother and seven siblings and working on the family farm in Butlerville.

When milling in the canyon began to slow as a result of lumber being shipped into Salt Lake via rail, Neri Butler and his brother Alva, purchased an old steam mill that was located behind where the Mount Majestic Manor is located today; near the base of the Crest Ski Lift. Later Neri bought out his brother and on a cold morning in 1884, Neri built a fire in the boiler of the steam engine for the day's work. It exploded and killed a worker named John Smith. Neri's eyes were badly injured in the blast, but he recovered. Neri rebuilt the damaged boiler and continued sawing lumber for many years. In 1900 he sold the mill and it was moved out of Big Cottonwood Canyon.Asa R. Bowthorpe, "History of Pioneer Sawmills and Local Canyons of the Salt Lake Valley".

In the summers, Neri continued to live on the site in a small log cabin with his daughter Molly. Molly kept cows, which was one source of milk for Brighton residents for whom she also did laundry.
Butler Cabin after it was dismantled, moved and reconstructed.
Photo taken March 2009

Molly Butler married Ern Green on November 14, 1914. By this time Tom Davis was fully involved with his new Balsam Hotel and by 1918 the Green's had their name on the stable barn. In addition to running the stables, Ern also provided firewood for Brighton residents. He built a mechanism for Molly's laundry facility that powered her washing machines with a water wheel. He used diverted water running through a slew from the Lake Mary stream near the Butler cabin.Randy Doyle, area manager for the Brighton Ski Resort, recalls seeing the remnants of the slew when the Crest lift was built in 1990. His brother, Michael, still has one of the washing machines that Molly used to have hooked up to the apparatus. He also used the same power source, to operate a sawmill, for cutting firewood. In 1992 the Butler cabin was dismantled, log by log, numbered, then taken up the hill and reassembled near the base of the Snake Creek Ski Lift.

Sources that recall the twenties and early thirties say that Ern was the primary operator at the stable and that Molly stayed in the background, busy with her other endeavors. Jim BrownJames T. "Jim" Brown is my uncle, my mother's youngest brother, born in 1927. remembers Ern's warnings of not returning the horses "with any sweat on their necks. So you had to be careful of that and stop running them as you got closer to the stable."

Molly and Ern Green 1918
Photo Courtesy of the Whitney Family CollectionJim continued, describing the pair as he remembers them in the late 1930's: "Ern was sort of a gruff fellow, certainly not with impressive education. And Molly was sort of a plain ... fairly ample woman. But, Ern you avoided if you possibly could; he was a rather cranky fellow." Jim added with a chuckle, "If someone was going to be dumped in the stable trough (which wasn't a terribly uncommon thing to have happen) then it was done when Ern wasn't around."

Another description of the stables and Molly was offered by Leland Sheets. Leland, born in 1934, is the grandson of Heber Sheets who purchased the Brighton Store from the Brighton family in the early 1900's.

"The Brighton Stable was located on the right side of the canyon road just at the beginning of the Valley. The local kids acted like they owned the place as we spent a lot of time there. Actually, the stable was owned by Molly Green. She was a salty, kinda rough, tanned, weathered, tough, wrinkled old lady. We loved her! We helped with the animals and shoveled manure. As we were full of fun and loved a practical joke, we took particular pride in sometimes telling the SLC dudes that a frisky horse was nice and gentle. Or we sometimes told the dudes that their choice of a good horse was really a mean animal. We loved to watch kids who didn't want to ride a big horse choose the Shetland pony. That pony was one mean critter and dumped most of them off."

Jim described the stable facility: "There was a little office and an outdoor area where the trough was. One of the stables had hay in it. We used to play in the hay ... when Ern wasn't around. Some of the stalls had an opening in the back as well so the horses could go out. If you had been running the horses at the end, one of the things you didn't want to do is to let it run into the stall while you were still sitting on top or you would be knocked right off."

One of Molly's sisters, Emmorette Butler Tapp, died young leaving two small children to be cared for. Clive and Della Tapp were raised by Molly and Ern.In the 1910 Census Clive is 3 and Della 4. Molly Butler is listed as head of household and her occupation is "washerwoman." In the 1920 Census Clive and Della are living with Molly and Ern Green. CliveClive may have also been known by the nickname "Dort". worked at the stables for several years. In 1930, Clive was 23 years old and Janet Brown OakfordJanet Brown Oakford is my aunt, my mother's sister, born 1921. recalls how good looking Clive was and noted he was quite an attraction for all the young girls in camp.

In the early forties, Rob MorrisRob Morris is a son of Thorton "Spide" Morris and a nephew of my grandfather Ben Morris. recalls, "Ern wasn't often at the stables; he spent most of his time in the little cabin across the road and Molly ran the day-to-day operation."
Molly Green c1945
Photo Courtesy of the Whitney Family CollectionErn died on April 4, 1942 as a result of stomach cancerErnest V. Green death certificate. and Molly continued running the stables until livestock and domestic animals were banned from the watershed canyons in 1953.Salt Lake Valley Health Department Health Regulation #14 under authority of Section 26A-1-114 Utah Code Annotated, 1953, as amended. http://www.slvhealth.org/envRegs/
reg14watershed.html

Molly and Ern had acquired the property across the highway from the stables in 1936. Their small log cabin, now unused, but still standing, is on the southeast corner of Pine Street and the Big Cottonwood Highway. She also acquired the large piece to the east of the little log cabin in 1951; originally the north third of the H.W. Lawrence parcel.

Boyd Summerhays reminisced about Molly as he got to know her in the fifties after the stable had closed. "Molly was a very quiet lady, a very kind person, kind of reclusive; lived by herself. Everybody liked her. She never had a cross word with anybody; just a kind lady. She used to come over to the Balsam Inn and drink coffee and talk .Once in a while she'd come over and drink a beer."

Molly did, however, have a sense of humor, recalls Rob Morris. "A lot of tourists came up and rented horses. Molly gathered everyone around and told them there was gonna be a grab-all. Each person contributed something that was worth just a little bit, like a dollar bill or something. She'd get 10 or 12 people to put things in, then she'd put a big pot over it. 'Ok now everyone get around the pot', she'd say, 'and on three I'm gonna raise the pot and whatever you grab you get to keep.' Somehow, she'd put fresh horse manure under the pot instead of the valuables. She got everybody excited then asked, 'Ok, everybody ready?'... She quickly lifted the pot and the people would reach in, hoping to grab a small treasure, but all they got was a handful of manure. 'Looks like a lot of greedy people here!' Molly would exclaim. Then she gave back everything the people put in after a good laugh."

Mary Elizabeth (Molly) Butler Green died on April 26, 1963. Her Brighton property was transferred to Clive, his wife Thora Nielson Tapp and Della Tapp Reynolds. It was later sold to Ethel B. Fotes in 1968. Shortly after Fotes bought the property a new shake shingle roof was installed on the little log cabin on Pine Street and a new concrete floor poured inside in an attempt to shore up the sinking structure. That was the last that was ever done to it and it sits the same today, barely visible over the willows that have surrounded it.

The Brighton Store

The exact dates are unclear, but William Stuart Brighton operated the first store in Brighton. It was in his original cabin built near where the hotel eventually sat. His granddaughter, Stella Brighton Nielson, described it as "...a small store in their first cabin that stocked a few staple groceries, canned goods, etc. Not such a variety as today. Always a grab bag for candy."

In 1895 Robert A. Brighton sold some of his Silver Lake Summer Resort lots, Block 2, Lot 8, to his brother, William H. Brighton and in 1897, Block 2, Lots 6 & 7. William H. Brighton built the store that most people remember in the Village, but is now gone. It is displayed in the pictorial history below. According to Stella Brighton Nielson, William H. Brighton built his store in about 1900.
Bernard Rich's Store Sept. 1917.
The Balsam Inn is on the left and the Rich home on the right.
The photo is taken from near the porch of Brighton's Store looking north.
Photo Courtesy of the Whitney Family CollectionFrom all accounts William and his wife Clara, ran a fine store and sold delicious home-baked goods, but their time there was short and they subsequently leased it out. In the Salt Lake Tribune dated June 21, 1903 is referenced: "R.J. Lambert will have the store and post office this season as usual." Lambert had leased and operated the Brighton Hotel in 1898 and 1899 and had several mining claims in the Silver Lake area. The post office in Brighton was not established prior to 1901. Letters prior to 1901 bore a Park City postmark.

Exactly when is unclear, but William H. Brighton sold the store and property to Heber Spencer Sheets. Sheets was a long time employee of the Salt Lake City Water Department and a partner in the Woodruff, Sheets and Morris Coal Company.Nothing has been found to suggest that this is, or is not, Dr. E.D. Woodruff, the partner in Brown, Terry and Woodruff and a property owner in Brighton. Also, it is not known if the Morris is Richard P. Morris described in the next chapter. Richard P. Morris (1855-1925) did, however, own the Citizen's Coal Company, was Salt Lake City Mayor from 1904 to 1906, the grandfather of Dick Morris and a property owner in Brighton. His son-in-law, Ambrose John "Jack" Greenwell, ran the store for a couple of years then handed over operations to Heber's son, Leland Sheets, who ran the store until 1945.

There was also a home located near the store that had been owned by Bernard "Ben" Rich. Rich had made an addition to his home in which he also operated a small store. Sheets purchased that facility as well and rented rooms in the home which he called the Brighton Inn. Again, the date of this transaction is not clear.

Lee Sheets built a dance floor behind the Brighton Inn in about 1920. Janet Brown Oakford describes the facility: "I remember it during the depression when the CCC boysThe Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942; part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. were up there working on the trails to the lakes and they would come to the dances. There was the platform next to the store and they had dances with a record player, not orchestras ... you know this was Brighton. This was a central place where the young people gathered. My parents wouldn't let me go to all the dances ... they thought I was too young. But the Critchlow girls could go.
The dance floor behind the Brighton Inn in Winter.
Photo Courtesy Adrienne Aldous
from the Moyle Family CollectionIt was made of wood, as I recall, and not very big, maybe 40' x 40' or so. Not very big, but a place for people to congregate. The store stayed open late to sell soda when there was an activity there. The CCC boys were nice. They loved working there because it was hot in the city and so cool in Brighton." Dick Morris also claimed it was an area where outdoor movies were shown.

Leland Sheets (son of Lee Sheets and grandson of Heber Sheets) also described the dance floor his father built: "The summertime workers and local adults liked to hike to the surrounding reservoirs especially Lake Mary - and they liked to dance. A dance hall was built on the south side of the store with a half wall surrounding it. Many is the hour I heard the most favorite music of them all, the Beer Barrel Polka. Sometimes the people from SLC, who wanted a cool beer or two, couldn't handle the beer and the altitude. I was hired to walk them around and around outside the dance hall to sober them up enough for them to drive back down the canyon."

In 1945 Sheets sold the store to Juel Bosen. Juel had owned and operated small restaurants and delicatessens in Salt Lake. Some may remember the rubber tired, multi-car train that Bosen ran around Brighton to the delight of any child with fifty cents to spare. The train was stored between rides on the old dance floor. Bosen and his family ran the store until 1960 when they sold it to Ray and Mildred Watrous. Bosen moved to Long Beach, California where he continued in the food and beverage industry.

Everest Raymond Watrous had long ties to Big Cottonwood Canyon. His uncle, Earl P. Watrous, made the first claim on the Lindell Lode in 1904, near where the Spruces Campground is located today, and built three small cabins to live in and service the mine. Ray's father, Everest, was involved with Earl in the mining and Ray was born in one of the cabins in 1909.Biography of Ray Watrous, Chapter Six, by Tom Watrous.

Ray was a hard working man and made many improvements to the store. He remodeled the building extensively, including new windows, a new concrete floor inside, a covered front porch and an improved kitchen.

Ray tore down the old Rich house, enlarged the parking area, then built the log Bowery which he intended to rent for family reunions, church parties, etc. That is the building that houses the Brighton Store and Cafe today.
Building the Bowery.
Photo Courtesy Tom WatrousHe also remodeled the cabin directly west of the store for him and Mildred to live in. Ray's daughter, Tish, managed the store for the first five years while Ray continued to operate his Home and Garden Variety Store in Salt Lake which he sold in 1965. Afterwards, he devoted his full attention to the Brighton Store.

Ray was a friendly, amiable man and seemed to genuinely enjoy his customers. He catered equally to the cabin owners and the daily visitors to Brighton. He not only served good food, but sold a nice selection of groceries, camping and hiking gear, fishing tackle, candy and interesting gifts and trinkets. In order to help sell one of the large, decorative beer steins that featured a clear glass bottom, he enticed the potential buyer with a colorful reason why the bottom was clear. He claimed, "When a man was in the local pub and he saw his wife come in unexpectedly looking for him, he could put the stein up to his mouth as if taking a drink, thus hiding his face, and then look through the bottom of it to see if she was coming toward him!" Ray was a merchant.

The next owner was Brighton Village, Inc. They took possession in May of 1974 and controlled the store for three summers. Brighton Village, Inc was an absentee owner, and the store seemed to have trouble operating efficiently and effectively. The location tended to attract a questionable, but consistent group of "regulars". Dick Morris referred to it during those years as "a cheerless bordello."

Then along came Don and Jolene Despain who put the essence of "owner-operated" back into the little general store and restored the character of the small, historical Brighton icon.

Don bought the store from Brighton Village, Inc. in 1976 and had designs of opening a ski touring center that first year. But it was a drought year and no significant snow fell until January 20, 1977. Despain was the first store owner who remained open for the winter season, trying to capture some of the business generated by the growing Brighton Ski Resort. He added a ski rental shop in the upstairs part of the Bowery and got the touring center off the ground in 1978. According to Don and Jolene the touring center concept "was so new, the forest service didn't really understand how a cross country touring center worked so they didn't let us charge track fees. We had a donation box set out at the beginning of the track. After 1979, the forest service let the touring center charge track fees. The fee was $1.50. We feel the Touring Center was the most significant thing that we did because there was now a reason to stop at the store in the winter--before that, people just drove by to get to the ski resort."

Jolene described another addition to the little village store. "We started the Blind Miner Restaurant in the fall of 1980. Don wanted to do some nicer food and he wanted to do food that he could change and buy ingredients that were fresh in the market. So we changed the menu weekly and cooked whatever we wanted to. Don cooked and I made the desserts. We were open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. I think we charged $12.50 for soup, salad, appetizer, and dinner. There were usually three choices of entrees. Eventually, the prices went to $21.00. The building of the sewer put a damper on things since they closed the road unannounced and we could have reservations which people couldn't make or worse yet, we could be stuck at the bottom of the canyon with no way to get the food up the canyon. It was difficult to run the restaurant so we closed it the second year of the sewer construction."

In the fall of 1993 the Despains sold the store to Boyne, USA who had purchased the Ski Lifts from the Doyles and Jensens in 1987. In 1995 Boyne attempted to restore the little log structure that had served Brighton's guests and residents for nearly one hundred years, but when the east side was inspected the logs were found so rotted that restoration was not a practical possibility. The store and cafe operations were moved to the Bowery and the old store was razed.

Relegated to only memories were the countless hours spent by generations at this familiar Brighton meeting place; front porch rides on the mechanical bucking horse, soft ice cream, trips to the only phone in Brighton for many years, the diggers, juke box and pin ball machines and Ray Watrous' famous Brighton Burger of which he claimed, "Seven days without a Brighton Burger will make one weak."