Summer Institute for the Study of the United States

Required Readings:

1. Szasz and Szasz "Religion and Spirituality"  from Oxford History of the American West, 1994, and Szasz, "Epilogue" from Religion in the Modern West, 2000 (handouts provided)
2. Maps (handouts provided.
3. View Map Gallery of Religions in the U.S.

Monday, July 16 Field Trip – The Federal Presence in the West

8:00 a.m. Bus departs (bagels will be available; bring your own coffee)

We will be making stops at the Jordanelle Reservoir, the Northern Ute Indian Reservation, and Park City.

1. Articles about the Jordanelle  (handout provided)
2. James Galvin, "Water Table," pg. 539
3. Donald Worster, "The Challenge of the Arid West," available from: http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nattrans/ntwilderness/essays/aridwest.htm
4. Peruse the Utah Division of Indian Affairs: http://indian.utah.gov/ and the Northern Ute Tribe: http://www.utetribe.com/
5. MacKay and Cesspooch, "This is Ute Country," from Missing Stories (handout provided)
6. Hal Rothman, "Introduction," From, Devil’s Bargains, Tourism in the 20^th Century American West (handout provided)

12:00 p.m.    Uintah River High School. We will meet Marilyn Hetzel, Director of Ute Indian Tribe Education Department, and Larry Cesspooch, Ute Storyteller and Spiritual leader.

1:00 p.m. White Rocks Sun Dance Grounds. Those wishing to attend Sweat Lodge ceremony will stay at Cesspooch home; others will tour reservation by bus.

2:00-3:00 p.m.  Lunch provided

4:00 p.m.    Leave the Reservation

5:30 p.m.    Park City, dinner on own

8:30 p.m.    Leave Park City to return to SLC

Tuesday, July 17

8:15 a.m.     Coffee, tea available

8:30 – 10:00 a.m. "The West in Art"

Images of the West in 19th /20th century American art. This session continues the discussion on American art through the 20th century. – Kathryn MacKay, PhD, History,  Weber State College

Additional Sources:

1. Women Artists of the American West: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/
2. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum: http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/g_arto.html
3. Western Artists from Artcyclopedia: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/subjects/the_American_West.html

10:00 a.m.     Break. Coffee and juice available.

10:30 – 12:00 p.m. "The West in Film"

The iconography of the Western is the largest and richest of all the film genres, and Hollywood has burned it into the minds of moviegoers from Dodge City to Timbuktu. This will be overview of the major themes in the filmed images of the American West.--Jay Hart, Adjunct in History and English, Weber State University

Required Reading:

1. Gary Johnson, "The Western" http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/western.htm
2. From Film Site: http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.html

Lunch on own --join presenters for lunch at Lion House

Evening:     Dinner on your own

Wednesday, July 18 Field Trip: The Land and Resources

9:00 a.m.     Bus departs (bagels will be available; bring your own coffee)

We will make stops at: Farmington Bay, Antelope Island State Park, and Ogden.

“Water in the West” The American West is justly famed for its sunshine and wide skies. However, there is a potent combination of low rainfall and growing population in the West that ensures that water, or the lack of it, will remain another well-known feature of the region. --Justina Parsons-Bernstein, Education Specialist, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area

"The Great Salt Lake" The Great Salt Lake is a highly complex system, consisting of physical and chemical lake properties and environmental and societal subsystems. -- Daniel Bedford, PhD, Geography, Weber State

Required Readings:

1. Daniel Bedford, "Utah's Great Salt Lake: A Complex Environmental-Societal System," The Geographical Review, 2005. (handout provided)

Afternoon:    Picnic lunch provided.

3:00 p.m.    Meet the bus for trip to Ogden

5:00 p.m.     Ft Buenaventura.

"Recreating the Rendezvous"

"Rendezvous" was the name used for the annual meeting of mountain men and fur buyers during the Western fur trade era, where trappers would exchange beaver skins for supplies and goods they wanted. These events occurred between the early 1820s and the 1840s.
Nowadays, "Rendezvous" is used by those who re-create this past. Allegedly, the fastest growing pastime in the United States, reenacting in the West takes many forms. Enthusiasts of the American fur trade call themselves "buckskinners" and a long-time site for annual rendezvous is ft. Buenaventura.--Sue Barker, Past president and 19 year member of the Free Mountain Trappers re-enactor's club

1. William Gwattney, "Way Across the Wide Missouri: Western History, Memory, and the Lunatic Fringe," 2001 (handout provided)
2. David Glassberg, "Living in the Past" a review of Time Machines: The World of Living History, 1986 (handout provided)

Evening:    Dutch oven dinner provided.

                    "Historic 25th Street"--Beau Burgess

7:00 p.m.    Meet the bus  to return to SLC

8:00 a.m.    Coffee and tea available

8:30 – 10:00 a.m.  "The West: Everybody’s Moving Here"

This presentation will focus on Utah's place in the macro-demographics of the U.S. in the 20th Century. --Pamela Perlich, PhD, Senior Research Economist, Bureau of Economic and Business Research, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah

Required Readings

Additional Resources

1. Maps showing economic data

7:00 p.m.      Days of '47 Rodeo in SLC

Much of the heroic myth of the cowboy is now concentrated in rodeo, the West's own contribution to sport. Rodeo, once an exhibition of a buckaroo's riding and ranch-work skills, has devolved into show business.