In 1893 a project known as the Pioneer Power Dam constructed of heavy timber across Ogden Riven near the east entrance to Ogden Canyon, to impound water, a specified amount of which Slatenville claimed by virtue of prioity right and court decree, to be used principally to generate power and electricity to supply a future lighting system for Ogden and vicinity. The area covered to expand with the company's ability to increase the output of electricity. For several years preceding 1893, the uninterrupted flow of the river, much greater than its average annual flow for the past half century, was employed to operate turbines of the first power plant in this vicinity, established a short distance below the west entrance to the canyon in 1880. In connection with the dam a large wooden pipeline extending westward along the north side of the river to carry water from the dam to operate a new plant erected in the valley below, was installed along the north wall of the canyon with due regard to securing the necessary fall to pull water from the dam at all levels, reaching an elevation to near the mountains' crest before being connected to a runway leading to the plant, which should be a familiar landmark to all the older citizens of this locality. The plant, one of a system owned by the Utah Power and Light Company, enlarged and equipped with modern efficient machinery capable of generating electricity sufficient to supply needs of an anticipated future growth in population, is located on the site originally selected by company officials, about a mile east of Washington Avenue, above the corner where 12th Street turns and extends south a short distance before winding over a stretch about a mile long, leading southeast to the west entrance to Ogden Canyon. Services rendered by this plant since its establishment have not been confined to supplying electricity primarily for lighting streets, homes, and turning wheels of industry in cities, but as fast as electricity output increased, those services were extended to cover more territory until the way of living as rural communities have it in the mid-twentieth century, has been almost completely revolutionized. When we stop to consider benefits derived through the instrumentality of these utilities, it should be of interest to people living outside of cities to know that rural electrification became a reality years before it was conceived and made part of a socialistic program of our government, presumably to raise the standard of living of the rural population. When electricity was first extended to settlements of Weber County, activities of the power company weren't hampered by dictations, controls, and excessive taxation by Government that plague all business concerns today, but unmolested the company operating under an atmosphere of freedom and independence in the past, moved cautiously but effectively in extending its services to all areas of this intermountain region. According to the writer's recollection and that of others who were contacted among whom was Mrs. Hazel Cobabe, who gave convincing evidence to justify her claim, electricity was brought into Slaterville in 1915. This was veri-fied as the correct year by information acquired through contact with the light company. -128- During that year the main line, from which, of necessity many branches were later diverted to serve homes in various parts of the settlement, followed the road leading north from the west end of Marriott settlement to and down what is now known as Pioneer Road, to the lower part of Slaterville, which remains the same at this writing as it did forty-seven years ago. The diversified uses to which electricity was formerly and in recent years applied, should be a matter of common knowledge to home owners of this locality. Besides its use in a public way in lighting churches, schools, and halls of amusement in a neighborhood, the services it renders in lighting and more recently in heating, in operating electric cooking ranges, washing machines, refrigerators, deep freezers, television, etc. in the modern home, all must agree has elevated country living to a standard equal to that enjoyed in cities. From the foregoing we get a fair understanding of the part electricity has contributed to make the 20th century home a modern sanctuary free from toil and drudgery, such as plagued households of the past. However, this is only one of two utilities that have been outstanding in this respect. The other is the telephone. While the two seem to dovetail into each other, they, of course, it is well understood, are products of separate and distinct corporations, the Utah Power and Light and Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Companies, respectively. They do its evident, work together to a limited extent in use of facilities, such as transmission lines in extending their respective services into communities and homes. According to Mrs. Cobabe, the first telephones were brought into Slaterville in the year 1910, five years preceding the advent of electric lights. We are indebted much to this good woman for her contribution of enlightening information pertaining to this matter. Authenticity of her version of circumstances that led to installation of the first telephones in homes of our community is substantiated by the fact that her father, Alvin J. Hudman, with three neighbors, William Marriott, Lot Darney, and John R. Ekins, all of whom lived in close proximity to the end of a telephone line that extended from Ogden City to the lower part of Marriott settlement, were successful, after several contacts with the telephone company, in having telephones installed in their homes that year, 1910, at an excessive cost of which Mr. Hudman's share, being the fartherest away, was $820. In passing, a brief discription of the first telephone we have knowledge of may be of interest, especially to younger generations, who recognize it only as it appears in its most modern form. Simplicity, ease of handling, and operating contrasts the later improved telephone from the first large, heavy, bundlesome, metal box anchored securely on the wall, usually near a door leading to the outside, with a crank on one side, a hook on which the receiver hung on the other, and a large trumpet-shaped mouthpiece through which sound was conveyed to an inside transmitter, protruding from the front. Advancing time and changing conditions that came with it called for improvements in the telephone to keep abreast with changing aspects of a growing economy and meet demands of a modern conscious society. Improvements that were made over the first crude communication device, effected after a lapse of several years, turned out a product about a third its original size, more -129-