The JunctionA newsletter of the Union Station Foundation

SPRING 2016

Letter from the Director...............pg. 2

Heritage Festival, May 14th........pg. 3

Coming Soon...............................pg. 5

From the Archives: Gus Becker Scrapbooks..................................pg. 7

Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Sherwood....................................pg. 9

Asian American HeritageDay, May 7th.............................pg. 10

Union Station Foundation Staff

Elizabeth A. Sutton, Ph.D., Executive DirectorTracy Ehrig, Business ManagerAmanda Felix-Woolley, Museum ManagerBecky Cardwell, Volunteer CoordinatorTina Frena, Visitor Services CoordinatorChris Ware, Events and Rentals ManagerEmber Hollinger, Events AssistantDanial Larsen, Events and Gallery AssistantAme Marona, Building ManagerDennis Guy, Maintenance TechnicianJarred Whitaker, Maintenance Technician

Board of Directors

Leon Jones, PresidentJulie Lewis, Vice PresidentCharles Trentelman, SecretaryGregg BuxtonNathan FelixBrad FolsomAlan HallAmelia JonesSteve JonesDerrick KlarrMike Murphy

Inside this Issue:01

The Union Station Foundation2501 Wall Ave. Ogden, UT 84401

www.theunionstation.org801-393-9890

Letter from the Director

02

Dear Members, Thank you for your continued support and membership over the past year! 2015 was an exciting year for us with record-breaking attendance, the celebration of our first ever Heritage Festival, and the amazing American Adventure traveling exhibit.

We hope to see you at the 2nd annual Heritage Festival on Saturday, May 14th and at our other upcoming events, including the grand opening of a new exhibit on passenger train travel in July, our annual ghost tours in October, and our Secret Art Show in November.

Thank you again for being part of the Union Station Family, and we look forward to seeing you during your next visit.

Sincerely,Elizabeth Sutton, Ph.D., Executive Director

The winner of the 2015 Heritage Festival Pinewood Derby won a ride around town in our 1931 Lincoln!

03

The Second Annual Heritage Festival will be held at the Union Station on Saturday, May 14th from 10am to 5pm. Thanks to our sponsors, including Weber County RAMP, the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, and the Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation, admission is free for all! The Heritage Festival is held in conjunction with National Train Day and Utah Archaeology and Preservation Month. The goal of Heritage Festival is to celebrate and share the diverse cultural heritage of our community. This years theme is Celebrating the Past, Inventing the Future and speaks to our desire to both honor our traditions and work towards creating an even brighter future. Join us for live music and performances, hands- on science and art activities, model trains, and a variety of cultural food options. Please check our website, http://www.theunionstation.org, for the most up-to-date schedule of events and performances.

04

Heritage Festival LineupART COMPETITION: Open to Weber County students in 7th 12th grades, this is an all media competition with prizes. See our website for details.

ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:Train Ride by the South Weber Model Train Club and Model Railroad Exhibits by the Northern Utah Division of the NMRA andHostlers.

PERFORMANCES:11AM | Ogden Buddhist Taiko Drummers11:30AM | WSU Ballet Folklrico12PM | Reflections Academy Belly Dancers1PM | Ili O Polynesia Dance2PM | WSU Native American Pow Wow Exhibition3PM | Ballet Folklrico Newara4PM | Ogden High School Ballet Folklrico

.HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES:Nurture the Creative Mind Learn how to make a mono-printOgden High School Latinos in Action Face painting or making maracas.Ogden High School Honors Students Wood car build and race Hill AFB Cultural Resources Archaeology related activitiesUnion Station We Dig History! archaeology program UT Education Network STEM InventionsMad Science Learning about circuits

05

Riding in Style: This exhibit on passenger train travel opens in July. Come learn about the evolution and lavishness of passenger train travel in the American West, while also getting to know what it was like to be a worker on these trains.

Coming Soon:

We Dig History! Program: Coming this Fall is a new hands-on history

program for school groups. Students will excavate artifacts and research them to

determine the time period and cultural group that the artifacts relate to.

06

Smithsonian Exhibit! The Union Station is honored to host the Smithsonian traveling exhibit, The Way We Worked from January 28th to March 19th, 2017. The Way We Worked, adapted from the original exhibition developed by the National Archives, explores how work became a central element in American culture by tracing the many changes that affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years.

The Union Station will also be creating a companion exhibit that tells the story of how labor has been transformed over time in Weber County.

The Way We Worked has been made possible in Ogden, UT by Utah Humanities. The Way We Worked is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

07

Gus Beckers Scrapbooks Contributed by Charles Trentelman

On Oct. 31, 1936, Ogdens Union Station hosted a big party for retiring Fred C. Smith, superinten-dent of the Ogden Union & Railway Depot Company, which ran Union Station.

We know all the fun details of this party: How they sang Ive been working on the railroad. How Freds grandson, Charles, played a piano solo. Who gave the speeches and what at least one of those speeches was.

We know all this because Gus Becker, the owner of Beckers Brewery in Ogden until his death in 1947, never threw anything away.

Never.

Becker, born in 1868, kept huge ledger books into which he pasted everything that came his way: Speeches, letters of thanks, pictures, news clippings, newsletters in which he was quoted, whatever. One of those scraps is the full sched-ule of the Oct. 31 event mentioned above, com-plete with notes for the speech Becker gave.

From the Archives:

These are massive scrapbooks, 5-to-8-inches thick and bulging. Union Station has two of them. Utah State University has another 12 taking up 9 feet of shelf space.

The scrapbooks give an intimate view into the life of the man who kept a thriving business representing hundreds of local jobs alive even when the US Constitution was amended in 1919 to make it illegal.

Becker, who also served as president of the US Brewers Association, had little use for Prohibition. He kept Beckers Brewery alive through it by producing non alcoholic beer, candy, ice and even soft drinks, some of which he contin-ued to sell long after Prohibition was ended in 1933.

One of Gus Beckers scrapbooks in the archives at Ogdens Union Station.

08

President Grant wrote a nice thank-you letter back, sin-cerely thanking Becker not only for the book but for Beck-ers continuing supply of Grants favorite ginger-ale.

Becker was a champion trap shooter and the books are clogged with clips of him winning shooting competitions all over the nation. It was convenient, then that one of Beckers best and closest friends was John M. Browning, inventor of the Model 1911 automatic pistol and scores of other weapons.

Becker used Browning guns, even shooting clay pigeons from a float during the first Pioneer Days Parade in 1934. He published pamphlets on gun safety and sportsmanship.

Nothing was too small to be saved. The last entry before his obituaries is a letter, dated Jan. 11, 1947, to Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago. He is asking the store if it can supply him with linen mesh underwear that he had purchased some time before at the store.

My size is 46, and I would like 2 pair of that size with short sleeves if you can obtain them, he wrote. Please let me know at your convenience.

Whether it was convenient, or whether that letter was even mailed, is unknown.

Jan. 11 was a Saturday. On Sunday, Jan. 12, Becker died at his home in Ogden of a heart attack.

This also shows how savvy a businessman Becker was. He was making beer in Utah, which was, as now, heavily influenced by the LDS Church.

One set of letters Becker saved shows how Becker kept his relationships with local folks warm and friendly. On July 4,1938, he gave a patriotic speech in Mountain View, Wyoming. He thought the speech was so good he printed it up in a booklet and sent copies to everyone he knew, including LDS President Heber J. Grant and future LDS President David O. McKay.

A photo from the scrapbook.

Steve Sherwood Steve has been volunteering in the Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum since 2005 and has given over 3800 volunteer hours to the Union Station. He is also an inte-gral part of the Car Museums restoration team.

Why did you begin volunteering at the Station? I began volunteering at the Station in the early 2000s because a good friend of mine was the museum manager at the time. I visited the car museum here and the manag-er asked if I would like to drive the Packard in a parade. I said yes, and started volunteering not long after.

What do you do as a Volunteer in the Car Museum? I conduct tours in the museum and answer any questions visitors might have about the cars. I also work on the cars and keep them in repair. That includes changing the oil yearly, doing repairs and keep-ing the cars in running condition.

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT:09

We LOVE our volunteers at the Union Station! Every year, people just like you donate over 13,000 hours of their time to welcome museum visitors and help make everyones visit to the Union Station enjoyable. If you would like to know more about our vol-unteer opportunities, please see our website or give us a call at 801-393-1481.

Do you remember your first visit to the Station? I remember having a tour of the Station back in the 1990s, when I was still working. However, I know I visited once or twice before that time, but I cant quite remember when.

What is one of your favorite volunteer memories? I really enjoyed taking some of the cars in the museum to the Concours dElegance car show up at Thanksgiving Point. I also always enjoy driving the cars in the parades, like at the Peach Days up in Brigham City.

What do you like best about volunteering at the Station? I would say the public service. I enjoy giving tours to visitors and teaching visitors about the cars. I also really like the cars themselves. My wife says volunteering in the museum keeps me from buying one myself.

10

Asian American Heritage Day Saturday, May 7, 2016 at NoonIn honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Union Station will be hosting an Asian American Heritage Day. Please join us this Saturday at noon to learn more about the history of Asian Americans in both Utah and the United States.

The traveling exhibit, Remembering 1882, on loan from the Chinese Historical Society of American, will be on display in the Grand Lobby. This exhibit explores the historical debate around the Exclusion Act from its origins through its full repeal in 1968, the civil rights struggle of Chinese Americans and allies, and the historic importance of habeas corpus in the Chinese American community.

Leland Wong, dumpling celebrity chef from San Francisco will give a talk and food demonstration on the food that Chinese laborers made and consumed while constructing the transcontinental railroad. Mr. Wong is also a descendant of a Chinese laborer who helped build the railroad.

Additionally, retired Utah Japanese American judge, Ray Uno will speak briefly about his Japanese ancestors who also contributed to the construction of the railroad after Chinese laborers were barred entry. After that point, Japanese laborers were hired to lay the tracks elsewhere in the US, Canada and Alaska. Unfortunately, they too were excluded in 1924 by an act of Congress.

Special thanks to artist, Corky Lee, for organizing this event.

Asian American Heritage Day

Celebrate with us! Have your next special occasion at the Union Station

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