Below is an article that appeared in the Salt
Lake City Tribune about the history of Helper, Utah
Magazine lists Helper, Utah among
top 10 Old West towns
By Mark Eddington
The Salt Lake Tribune
Tombstone,
Deadwood, Dodge City - and now Helper, Utah?
Eastern Utah's "Gateway to Castle Country" would seem out
of place with the first three Old West staples. But that
could change.
True West
magazine has named Helper one of the Top 10 True Western
Towns of 2006. The Carbon County city six miles north of
Price finished 10th. Sheridan, Wyo., topped
True West's
chart. (Tombstone, Deadwood and Dodge City did not make the
list.)
"We're certainly grateful for the recognition," Helper
Mayor Joe Bonacci said Monday. "Helper will never be a large
commercial center; it's not located in the right place in
the county. So we're trying to preserve and sell our
history, to make Helper a tourist-friendly community and
attract as many people as we can."
SueAnn Martell, director of the town's Western Mining
and Railroad Museum who submitted Helper for the
periodical's consideration, says
True West is
honoring towns that preserve their Old West past in hopes of
spurring state and local governments to fund historical
preservation efforts.
Incorporated in 1915, Helper is known for its ethnically
diverse - Slovenians, Italians, Greek, among others - mix of
miners and railroaders who kept the town humming back in its
heyday. But Martell says fewer are acquainted with the
town's Wild West side.
For instance, outlaws Butch Cassidy and Elsa Lay
reportedly met the train at Castle Gate just outside Helper
in April 1897 and robbed the Utah Fuel payroll of $8,000.
The Cozy Rooms, Carbon and Idaho hotels - along with the
Regis and Kiva clubs - doubled as dens for booze and
brothels.
"Helper has always been called the town with more bars
than churches - and we still do have more bars than
churches," Martell said in a recent interview.
Now - with the latest honor - she hopes the town snags
more tourists.
"Helper has always been thought of as a mecca for
railroad buffs, " Martell said in a news release.
"Now we will have people from all over the country coming
to celebrate our outstanding Western history."
The four-floor mining and railroad museum - with its
photos and artifacts detailing Helper's history from 1880 -
serves as the town's historical focal point. Helper boasts
60-plus sites on the National Register of Historic Places.
Martell says the entire city of 1,800 people has been
characterized as a living museum, especially with many of
its buildings dating back to the early 1900s.
Harold "Pudge" Nielsen, deemed by many denizens as a
living monument, does his part to keep the past alive.
Wearing his trademark engineer hat, the 84-year-old
retired railroader serves as a volunteer guide at the museum
and keeps the model train there rolling and visitors buzzing
with stories about Helper's storied past - tales about Babe,
the black madam with the flaming red hair who ran the
bordello at the Carbon Hotel.
"It was pretty wild," he said. "I used to deliver
groceries there as a boy."
Helper librarian Paula Hatch says the ghosts of
yesteryear linger, even though the streets are now much
quieter and more civil.
For starters, the mines and the railroads no longer
employ as many workers, and many of the bars and all of the
bordellos no longer are in business.
"It's a wonderful town, but it is a very economically
depressed area," Hatch said.
"We love to have tourists come because it is such a
beautiful place. We have a lot to offer if we can get the
people here."
Martell and other members of the Single Action Shooting
Society's Castlegate Posse are doing their best to trigger
more tourism. Clad in their Western best and packing period
pieces, they stage mock gunfights at Helper's Family
Heritage Day each June.
"It's our biggest event," posse member Darrin Teply said
recently. "It gets bigger every year."
meddington@sltrib.com
