Longtime Logan residents reflect on city changes through the years
Reflecting on time can be a way to assess how much has changed. Over the past 60 years, Logan has seen much change, including a population jump from almost 17,000 in 1950 to around 50,000 now. With this growth has come changes to the scenery of the communities as well. Long-time Logan residents reflected both good and bad shifts they’ve seen in the past 60 years.
Real estate rising
In 1959, Jack Nixon, a prominent real estate developer, moved to Logan to raise a family and run the Zanavoo Lodge in Logan Canyon.
“When we bought Zanavoo in 1959, it was a two-lane road going to Bear Lake,” Nixon said. “It was actually very windy and curvey, and it take you probably a good solid hour to get you from Logan to Bear Lake. I sold them a piece of property to widen it clear back in 1961, so they started it way back then.”
Nixon said the project of widening the road would have cost about $2 million. The widening of the road in Logan Canyon, as well as the road through Sardine Canyon and the road coming south from Idaho all helped to stimulate traffic into Cache Valley and was the major catalyst for the growth in Logan and Cache Valley.
“They have certainly enhanced the traffic capabilities in and out of Cache Valley, which has certainly stimulated the commerce,” Nixon said.
Nixon said the population growth of Cache Valley after the road expansions has been far more than 200 percent.
“Everything has gone up primarily because of the desirability of the community,” Nixon said. “Along with that, the shopping has largely enhanced. We used to just have a grocery store across the street from (Fresh Market on 400 North) and there were just houses right across the street as recently as 1966, so 47 years ago – three great big nice homes. Then Smith Food King came in and bought those houses. Dee Smith, the originator of that company, bought the property for a service station on the corner and a grocery store.”
A similar situation happened along along Main Street, Nixon said.
“I remember 30 years ago when where Papa Kelsey’s is, that was a grain field, and a fellow by the name of Pete Peterson built a Spudnut Shop there,” he said. “He bought that property for $26,000, and today it worth many times that. The same thing where Smith’s Marketplace is on 700 North and Main, there was a 10-acre spot there. I remember when that was grain, and that sold for $75,000 because I was the agent that handled the sale. That piece of property now, if it didn’t have a building on it, that 10-acre piece probably would sell for $20 a square foot, so you’re looking at about $18 million.”
The growth of property value in Logan gives an idea of how much the demand for space both commercially and residentially has increased, Nixon said.
“The entrance to Logan 25 years ago was the bridge, right where the Riverwoods is now,” Nixon said. “Riverwoods was a sand and gravel for LaGrande Johnson headquarters. That’s where they had their shop. What it is today shows what happens when demand comes.”
The north end of Logan went as far as where Shaffer Bakery is located on 1000 North and Main Street but 25 years ago it was a nursery, according to Nixon. Just north of there in the same location of Sam’s Club and Shopko, there was a drive-in movie theater. There used to be farmland for cattle grazing where the North Logan Walmart currently stands.
A change of storefront
Shari Badger, owner and president of Lee’s Marketplace, is a Cache Valley native and with the exception of 10 years when she and her husband Lee lived in Reno, Nevada and Chico California, has lived in the valley for most of her life.
“The other day we found an old Logan High yearbook from 1958,” Badger said. “My father owned a service station when I was going up on the corner of 500 North and Main. There was an ad in there with the front of the gas station. Then we started looking at some of the ads and some of the things that were in: the Kater Shop, and Sweet Brier, things I used to remember on Main Street.”
She said Main Street has undergone a major transition in the past 50 years.
“I grew up here, so I remember going up Main Street and seeing all the stores,” she said. “I remember Low Cost because they had the toys and that was the place to go when you were growing up. There was Grand Central, and that is where Smith’s Marketplace is. When Lee and I came back in 1980, 1400 North, there was the mall there, and there was the hospital.”
During their time living in Nevada and California, Lee and Shari became accustomed to working in the retail and grocery business. When they came back to Cache Valley, they acquired a local grocery store in Smithfield called Jack and Bob’s. Badger said the store was about the size of their produce department now, but it had always been their dream to build a store in Logan.
“We had talked about building on 1400 North for a long time,” Badger said. “We wanted the corner where Lowe’s is, and it was tied up in a family trust. So the next option was to come up to 600 East We were kind of concerned about the location, so Lee and I sat, I can’t tell you how many different times, on the corner where that Mountain West Credit Union is, across from Lowe’s. We sat there on that corner and we counted how many cars were coming down 1400 North, you know, and when we got up to 200 to 300, we thought we were doing great. Now, how many cars stop at that light? Unreal, kind of, what happened after this store came. The whole of 1400 North is busier than 400 North.”
Reviving the arts
Michael Ballam, the managing director of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater Company, grew up in Cache Valley with fond memories of the Capitol Theater on the south end of Logan, today the Ellen Eccles Theater.
“My affair with the Capitol began when I performed on her stage at the age of five in 1956,” Ballam said. “These were her final days operating as Cache County’s premiere live/film theatre. It had been the home of the Pantages Vaudeville Circuit as well as UAC (now USU) Opera productions. In 1958 Patience Thatcher built a huge wall, acting as a fortress, sealing off the stage from the audience and mounting a permanent screen there. It had been on a fly batten (pulley system) in order that it could be lifted out of the way to enable the stage to be used. It would be 30 years before the stage would be used again.”
After a number of years, Ballam would come back again and restore the theater to what it is today.
A younger view
Logan has changed a lot from the not-so-distant past. Landon Kohler, a senior majoring in public relations, was born and raised in Logan.
“I grew up on Cliffside and went to Logan High School,” Kohler said. “There has been a lot of ne
w homes going up all over the place, and it seems like we are getting new restaurants and businesses every month. It’s certainly not the same little town.”
As a Cache Valley native, Kohler is not sure if the growth is all good due to places filled with childhood memories being destroyed.
“I think it offers people in Logan a lot more opportunity, but at the same time it’s sad to see all the places I use to adventure around at as a kid get demolished for new houses,” he said. “My backyard on Cliffside was a huge lot with hills and we’d ride for days, but then they put up a ton of houses.”
Outdoor activities have always been a big part of staying entertained while growing up in Logan.
“In high school we would drive out to Hyrum Dam and jump off big toe at midnight,” Kohler said. “Those are some of my favorite summer memories.”
Damian Peterson, a recent graduate in finance, has lived in Logan for the last 25 years. He has noticed growth in both population size and commercial growth.
“I grew up behind Shopko until I was about ten and then moved next to the fairgrounds,” Peterson said, “It’s definitely grown a lot in my lifetime. When I was younger, it was so much less populated and commercialized. As time has passed, lots of new housing developments have came in. There have been so many new stores and commercial developments as well. The growth has been unreal.”
He said he has enjoyed watching the town change and he sees the growth as positive.
“I haven’t really contributed to the change, mostly just watched it grow and flourish,” Peterson said. “I think it’s positive. Some would say it’s negative because they like the small town feel, because of the growth the economy here is better, and there are more job opportunities.”
Currently, Logan is a good size, Peterson said.
“I think Logan has the best of both worlds,” Peterson said. “It still has a small town feel with mountains and outdoors stuff close by, but it also is getting bigger and has more commercialized things like stores. In my eyes, it’s not too big and it’s not too small.”
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