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Station Historical Images
Cans of Milk Being Loaded on a Train ca. 1900
The Union Pacific Railroad intercepted the area in 1873, followed by the Denver and Rio Grande in 1881-82. For many decades, the railroads served to transport milk and agricultural produce to processing plants and urban markets. The first milk receiving station was established in 1890 near the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Milk in ten-gallon cans was picked up by train and taken to Salt Lake City. In the coming years, milk was shipped to areas as far south as Eureka, Silver City, and Mammoth. At one time, before WWII, forty dairy farms operated in the Vineyard Area (Our Vineyard Heritage, pg.5, 171-172).
Man Fishing on Utah Lake ca.1910
This area was the site of one of the most popular entertainment and recreation areas in Utah, the Geneva Bathing Resort, attracting trainloads of visitors as far north as Ogden and as far south as Manti. The resort even had its own railroad spur. The railroads brought visitors to the resort, making regular stops near the shore of Utah Lake. At the height of its popularity, the ten-acre resort featured a hotel, a clearwater lake beach, two heated swimming pools, a pier and diving platform onto the lake, a dance pavilion, and even a zoo (Our Vineyard Heritage, pg.5, 204).
Group Walking and Sitting at Geneva Resort Area ca. 1920
This area was the site of one of the most popular entertainment and recreation areas in Utah, the Geneva Bathing Resort, attracting trainloads of visitors as far north as Ogden and as far south as Manti. The resort even had its own railroad spur. The railroads brought visitors to the resort, making regular stops near the shore of Utah Lake. At the height of its popularity, the ten-acre resort featured a hotel, a clearwater lake beach, two heated swimming pools, a pier and diving platform onto the lake, a dance pavilion, and even a zoo (Our Vineyard Heritage, pg.5, 204).
Geneva Steel, Ingot Pouring at the Foundry ca.1980
How ironic is it that a small farming community like Vineyard, whose soil was redeemed from the swamps and sagebrush, should become the site of one of the largest industrial complexes in the Intermountain West? In 1941, with another world war looming, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered Congress to authorize an increase in steel production. In November of that year, the federal government announced plans to build the plant in the carefully selected site of the community of Vineyard, Utah. The approximately fifteen-hundred acre (two and a third square mile) plant was named after the Geneva Bathing Resort on the northeastern shore of Utah Lake (Our Vineyard Heritage, pg. 188-189).