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Editor's note:This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah history for KSL.com's Historic section.SALT LAKE CITY — You may recall a driving down a highway in urban or rural Utah and coming across an eccentric sign pointing you toward a dinky motel along the way.
Lisa Michele Church, a Salt Lake City attorney and historian, often finds herself drawn to these signs. Whether they’re crudely put together or artfully crafted, she admires their beauty and history.
Church and her colleague, Susan Sessions Rugh, a professor at BYU who specializes in rural, travel and tourism history, sifted through Utah’s motel history for a book they plan to publish on it, which is expected to be released sometime in 2019. Their catalog and maps of historic motels will also be released online after the book release.
The two will also present their research at a state history conference later this year.
However, through their research, Church argues these motel signs are almost symbolic of Utah's economic growth after World War II when the state truly shaped into a tourist destination that has become an $8 billion industry in the state.
Tourism within the U.S. began earlier in the 20th Century. Kristen Jones, manager of exhibits and curatorial at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Wisconsin, told NBC's The Today Show in 2014 that much of this began in the 1930s.
However, the 1950s and 1960s became the "Golden Era" of the road trips. Many of the motels Church and Rugh documented opened during this time.
Some cities, like St. George, benefitted more than others because of its location on the American highways.
“Everyone was back on the road after the deprivations of the war and St. George was on the way to everywhere,” Church said. “It was on the way to California and it was on the way to Chicago if you were going (east) and air travel was not affordable."
Leo and Jack Holt, Church pointed out, became "titans of their era" in the state with at least 28 motels to their name, including the Sands Motel. The was also the El Pace'o Lodge, owned by a man named Andy Pace.
Southern Utah cities like Beaver, Panguitch and Kanab also benefitted due to their proximity to national parks and monuments in the area. Then there's the Apache Motel in Moab, which became a National Historic Property and is famous for being a place legendary actor John Wayne once stayed at.
“The post-World War II growth that came from tourism saved the towns in southern Utah. It was really that profound because they were just on the peak of really losing their viability,” Church said. “(There was) not enough water, not enough land — it was federally-owned — so they really had to find a new way to attract people.”
Of course, southern Utah wasn't the only Utah region to benefit from the highway travel Many motels aligned the highways in the state. Some of the signs still exist to this day.
The Alta Lodge, Temple City Motel, and Spiking Tourist Lodge were all planted along State Street (U.S. 89) in Salt Lake City. Other motels began in northern Utah, Utah County and central Utah.
Church and Rugh have found somewhere between 250 to 270 motels existed in the state during the state's motel golden age. The motels, especially in higher-populated areas, began dying off in the 1970s when chain hotels began taking over.
There's now about 100 left in business. About 30 still maintain vintage signs and most of the remaining motels exist in southern Utah, Church said. Though the businesses are gone, many of the motel building still exist, repurposed for apartments, low-income housing or even office space.
While many of these unique motels have vanished over the decades, Church said she takes solace in a new age for motels near Utah's national parks. The internet has allowed tourists to book motels months in advance.
These motels now draw people in with flashy online ratings rather than hoping their large neon signs can draw them in.
"The cool thing for me is these motels aren't going away anytime soon," she said. "Maybe my favorite ones have gone away, but some of the ones that are still there aren't leaving."
