Vineyard, Utah · On the shore of Utah Lake
Vineyard
Who we are. Where we come from.
From an ancient lake to a city on its shore. Two hundred and fifty years after two friars first saw the water, this is the whole story of Vineyard: the Timpanogos Utes, the pioneers, the grapevines, the dairies, Geneva Steel and the city rising today.
The story in eight eras
Eight thousand years of lake. Two hundred and fifty years of written history. One town on the shore.
Long reads
Stories
The people, places and turning points behind every era, told in full.
The friars at the lake
In 1776, two Spanish priests became the first Europeans known to see Utah Lake.
The miracle mill
How a few lawyers, a senator and a midnight shift saved the mill in 1987.
The Geneva resort
A dance floor on springs, a giant toboggan slide and special trains, on the shore beside Vineyard.
The winter of 1850
A killing on the Provo River, and the war that followed between settlers and the Timpanogos Utes.
A Vineyard farm kid, 1922
Milking before school, and milk that rode the train.
The fish of Utah Lake
Giant trout, the carp that replaced them, and the comeback of a fish found nowhere else on Earth.
Who built Geneva
Farm fields became a steel mill, and the people who built it, ran it and followed it into the valley.
The Vineyard History Calendar
This month in
Vineyard history
Every month of the year holds a piece of the story. Here is this one.
Open the calendarJanuary
The June sucker, found only in Utah Lake, is moved from endangered to threatened.
Read the story →At a council in Salt Lake City, Fort Utah's leader reports growing tension with the Utes.
Read the story →February
A judge approves the sale of the mill's core equipment to Qingdao Iron and Steel of China for $40 million.
Read the story →Militia surround Old Elk's camp on the Provo River. Dozens of Timpanogos Utes die in the fighting that follows.
Read the story →Ground is broken for Bella's Market in Utah City.
Read the story →Three American airmen held in a German prison camp write to Geneva asking for jobs.
Read the story →March
Captain John Dallin buys lakeshore land and opens the Geneva resort, named for his daughter.
Read the story →By March 1942 the government has bought the farms for the mill.
Read the story →Work begins on the Provo River Delta, a 260 acre restoration for the June sucker.
Read the story →Settlers sent by Brigham Young found Fort Utah on the Provo River.
Read the story →The Megaplex at Geneva opens on the old mill site with Utah County's first IMAX screen.
Read the story →April
The first order of steel plate, 600 tons, ships to California shipyards building Liberty ships.
Read the story →Construction begins on the Lake Side Power Plant, partly on the old mill site. It is finished in 2007.
Read the story →American Fork asks the county to widen the road north from Geneva for the mill's traffic.
Read the story →May
Vineyard becomes a town. Dairyman Rulon Gammon is its first mayor.
Read the story →June
The government sells the mill to U.S. Steel for $47.5 million.
Read the story →July
The first Latter-day Saint wagon company reaches the Salt Lake Valley.
Read the story →Lake View families start their own Sunday School with Peter Madsen in charge. It soon becomes a ward.
Read the story →Fathers Domínguez and Escalante and eight companions ride north out of Santa Fe.
Read the story →August
Mayor Rulon Gammon announces the sale of his 94 acre dairy farm.
Read the story →The Vineyard FrontRunner station opens at 130 E. Market Street.
Read the story →Utah County leaders meet to keep the mill from closing after the war.
Read the story →The developers of the old Geneva land name their 700 acre downtown Utah City.
Read the story →At midnight, the Cannons reopen the mill as Geneva Steel Company. About 1,100 jobs are saved.
Read the story →September
The friars come out of Spanish Fork Canyon and see Utah Lake, the home of the Timpanogos Utes.
Read the story →October
Leaders celebrate the opening of the restored Provo River Delta.
Read the story →A recruiter at the Provo employment office signs up farmers to work at the mill.
Read the story →November
One month before Pearl Harbor, the government approves a steel mill on Vineyard farmland.
Read the story →Most of Geneva's roughly 1,200 workers are laid off.
Read the story →Anderson Geneva buys 1,750 acres of the Geneva site for $46.8 million.
Read the story →Bella's Market, a local grocery, opens in Utah City.
Read the story →December
Construction of the mill is complete, three years after it began.
Read the story →The Vineyard ward Sunday School sends books to its young men in the army and navy.
Read the story →The paper reports carols playing from the mill's Number 2 gate, enjoyed by Vineyard ward.
Read the story →
Era V · 1941 to 1946
The farm fields became a steel mill.
One month before Pearl Harbor, the government chose Vineyard farmland for a steel mill. More than 10,000 workers built it. Its first steel went into the Liberty ships that won the war at sea.
Enter the eraOn film
Watch
The mill, the ruins and the city, from people who were there.
We Remember Geneva
The Daily Herald remembers the mill.
Daily HeraldRemembering Geneva Steel
Memories of the mill and the people who ran it.
ut broadcastersGeneva Steel Remembers Pearl Harbor, 1941 to 1991
Geneva workers remember the war, fifty years on.
rykeland
Play
Build Vineyard.
Start with farms by Utah Lake and Geneva Road. Unlock Geneva Steel. Grow a modern city. A free game for kids and grown ups.
Play Build VineyardFree for everyone
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