Explore Vineyard History
The Eras
From the ancient lake to the city on its shore, in eight chapters.
Stories
The people and turning points, told long.
Lore
Monsters, myths and tall tales of the lake.
Press Archive
What the papers said, from 1888 on.
Watch
The mill, the lake and the town on film.
The story in eight eras
The Ancient Lake
Before there was a Vineyard, there was the water.
The Friars and the Valley
The same summer America was born, two friars found the lake.
The Pioneers
Wagons, a fort, a flood, and a hard first winter.
Dairy Country
Thirty-two dairies, a dance floor on springs, and milk on the morning train.
Geneva Steel and the War
The world went to war, and America needed steel.
Steel Country
Four decades as the heartbeat of the valley.
A Town of 151
Dairy farmers decide to run their own town.
A City on the Lake
From grapevines to steel to a city on the lake.
November in Vineyard history
The June sucker, found only in Utah Lake, is moved from endangered to threatened.
Vineyard receives its first property tax check, about $129,000.
Captain John Dallin buys lakeshore land and opens the Geneva resort, named for his daughter.
Work begins on the Lake View sugar beet slicer, which pumps beet juice by pipeline to Lehi.
Eleven days after incorporation, the town gathers for a Vineyard Town Family Social.
The government sells the mill to U.S. Steel for $47.5 million.
The first Latter-day Saint wagon company reaches the Salt Lake Valley.
The Vineyard Town Youth Council is organized.
Geneva finishes its $70 million Q-BOP furnaces, cutting nitrogen oxide emissions by 95 percent.
A young Vineyard man starts work on Geneva's open hearth furnaces.
One month before Pearl Harbor, the government approves a steel mill on Vineyard farmland.
Construction of the mill is complete, three years after it began.
Also in November
At a council in Salt Lake City, Fort Utah's leader reports growing tension with the Utes.
Read the story ›Geneva Steel files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Read the story ›Geneva Steel makes its first steel.
Read the story ›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 ›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 ›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 ›The deadline for Vineyard families to clear their farms for the steel plant.
Read the story ›The Vineyard Ward holds a service honoring its members in uniform.
A BYU study shows children's hospital admissions for asthma and bronchitis roughly doubled when Geneva was running.
Read the story ›The Utah County Commission approves Vineyard's incorporation.
Read the story ›Vineyard becomes a town. Dairyman Rulon Gammon is its first mayor.
Read the story ›See every month in the calendar.
The largest documented algal bloom in Utah history closes Utah Lake.
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 ›Mayor Rulon Gammon announces the sale of his 94 acre dairy farm.
Read the story ›Vineyard dedicates its seven acre town park, paid for in cash.
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 friars come out of Spanish Fork Canyon and see Utah Lake, the home of the Timpanogos Utes.
Read the story ›Leaders celebrate the opening of the restored Provo River Delta.
Read the story ›Mapmaker Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco asks the King of Spain for a fort and a mission in Utah Valley. Neither is ever built.
Read the story ›A recruiter at the Provo employment office signs up farmers to work at the mill.
Read the story ›Deer Creek Dam is finished, steadying Vineyard's late summer water.
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 ›The Salt Lake Tribune calls Vineyard the best kept secret in Utah.
Read the story ›The Vineyard ward Sunday School sends books to its young men in the army and navy.
Read the story ›Geneva's coke plant is completed, two years to the day after Pearl Harbor.
Read the story ›The paper reports carols playing from the mill's Number 2 gate, enjoyed by Vineyard ward.
Read the story ›Watch
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.
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