From ‘Easy Street’ to Hill Field Road

HILL Field Road is one of the main arteries through Layton City today. Traveling from the South Gate of Hill Air Force Base, the road travels through the heart of the City’s business district and also offers access to the west side.

However, this highway wasn’t always called by that name. “Layton street gets new name” was an Oct. 30, 1942 headline in the Davis County Clipper newspaper.

‘”Easy Street,’ running eastward from the Main Street intersection at U.S. Highway No. 91 at Layton, has been changed to the name of ‘Hill Field Road,’ according to Vird Cook, Town Clerk.

“Located on this street is the 400 units of the demountable homes, now being erected by the government and the Skyline subdivision,” the story stated.

Hill Field Road was also proposed to be renamed Freedom Boulevard in 1991. UDOT even created new signs and installed a few prematurely in the summer, before the Layton City Council ended up voting 4-1 not to rename the busy highway after all.

Gordon Avenue used to be a single road and used to connect on the east side where I-15 now separates it and splits it into two sections. Here the western section dead ends on the west side of the Freeway.

-Why was road called "Easy Street" at first? The story goes that a noisy steam engine used to operate at the Layton Mill, which would have been closer to Layton's downtown area. Thus, "Easy Street" was coined, since heading to the northeast along this road, it became so much more quiet, serene and "easy going," without the loud sound of the mill. (-According to the Davis News Journal of July 14, 1977.)

Brigham Young's ambitious but failed Layton water project of 1857

                           Weber Basin Water District's facility in northeast Layton.

TODAY'S Weber Basin Water Conservancy District supplies drinking and irrigation water to a large portion of Utah north of Salt Lake City.

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District covers over 2,500 square miles within five counties: Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit and a part of Box Elder.

Weber Basin’s primary facilities were constructed from 1952 to 1969 by the Bureau of Reclamation. However, there was an earlier, failed attempt to bring extra water from Weber Canyon to the benches of Davis County.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune of May 28, 1916, Brigham Young came up with an idea in 1857 to tunnel through the ridge on the Mountain Road northeast of Layton and carry Weber River water to the benches of what is now Layton City, Kaysville and Fruit Heights.

Considerable work was done on this project by Davis County residents. Lumber was hauled from Salt Lake by oxen to line the tunnel. However, a large amount of quicksand was encountered. It could not be controlled and undermined the tunnel project.

Ditches were then envisioned to carry water from Kays and Holmes Creek instead, but the “Utah War” of 1857-1858 started and most residents moved southward to avoid Johnston’s Army and that alternate project was not done. AND, it would pretty much be another century before Brigham’s water vision would be fulfilled.

Today, Weber Basin delivers about 220,000 acre-feet of water annually: 60,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial uses and another 160,000 acre-feet for irrigation – including some secondary pressure irrigation systems.

Weber Basin also operates seven large storage reservoirs -- Causey, East Canyon, Lost Creek, Pineview, Smith & Morehouse, Wanship and Willard Bay. All total, these can store approximately 400,000 acre-feet of water.

Weber Basin also operates and maintains over 79 miles of canals, a trans-mountain tunnel, two multi-county aqueducts, hundreds of miles of raw water and culinary pipelines, and nine major pumping stations.

OTHER SOURCE: Weber Basin Water Conservancy District history.

The Layton-Kaysville separation began at the LDS Church level first

IT is no secret that Layton community residents de-annexed from Kaysville City, from 1902-1907, to become their own, separate unincorporated area.
(Layton finally incorporated as a town in 1920.)
However, the move for Layton to become its own community had actually started a decade earlier in 1892.
According to the Davis County Clipper newspaper of May 6, 1892, members of the Kaysville Second Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually resided in what most recognized as Layton territory and not Kaysville. Hence, some Church members circulated a petition in 1892, asking Church leaders to rename the ward to what it really is -- the Layton Ward.
"We do not live in Kaysville City, nor Kaysville precinct, and why it is called the 2nd Ward of Kaysville we cannot understand," the newspaper report stated.
Just less than 4 months later, the Ward name change did take place.
“The members of second ward of Kaysville last Sunday decided to change the name to Layton Ward to so as to conform with the precinct and post office And hereafter it will be known by that name.” (-Davis County Clipper, Aug. 31, 1892.)

Kaysville used to be the No. 1 place for Layton resident burials, until Layton received a private cemetery option and after Kaysville City significantly raised non-resident burial fees.

History of the Davis County Mosquito Abatement District

LAYTON area residents used to suffer each warm season time of the year from mosquitoes. However, the Davis County Mosquito Abatement District was formed in 1953.

The Davis County Clipper of June 5, 1953 carried a story headlined, “Petition for creation of a mosquito abatement district.”

All 17 communities in the county (including the short-lived East Layton and Laytona areas) were all on board to support the proposal.

This wasn’t actually when Davis County began controlling the pesky insects though. Davis County had begun spraying for mosquitos in 1951 with two government employees. The 1953 proposal created a special service district for abatement and allowed for expansion of the program.

Today the Abatement District is headquartered in West Kaysville.

Most people see mosquito control as the "fogging truck" that drives through their neighborhood early in the morning or late evening spraying for adult mosquitoes. This highly visible part of the Abatement District’s operation is actually only about 25 to 30 percent of its control efforts. The majority of its work takes place out on the wetlands spraying for mosquito larvae in the water. The larvae are treated by hand sprayers, ATVs, and by airplane.

-More information is available at: www.davismosquito.org

A brief history of the Layton Hills Mall -- Layton City's retail catalyst

LAYTON City has become a regional shopping and retail center and much of the credit for that success is the Layton Hills Mall.

The Mall officially opened on May 15, 1980 along Hill Field Road and ignited retail and restaurant growth around it. The Layton Hills Mall property was for many decades owned by the Marion Mark and Mary Ellen Bennett Whitesides family of Layton and their descendants.

The original Whitesides were a pioneer family who initially  took up residence in Kaysville in 1858. They eventually built a home on Fort Lane and moved to Layton and acquired farming land where today’s Mall is located.

During the early 1940s, some of the future Mall land was used for a government trailer park to house Hill Air Force Base workers. These small trailers were only 8 feet by 12 feet and their bathroom and laundry facilities were elsewhere on site and used by groups of trailer residents.

After the War, other housing became available and the trailers were removed. A 10-home housing development was then built where the trailers used to be and two short-lived Layton roads there, Idaho and Montana streets, were constructed to access the homes.

In 1966, developers purchased 15 acres nearby for a possible future “convenience center.” This was envisioned as a grocery store, home center and as many as a dozen small retail stores. That project never happened, but by 1977, construction on the Layton Hills Mall had begun.

Anchored originally by ZCMI and Aurbach’s, the 55-acre Mall cost $20 million and required 3 ½ years to build. Aurbach’s had opened almost a month earlier than the rest of the Mall, on April 23, 1980.

When the overall Mall opened on May 15 of that year, it featured 60 stores and some 350 employees. The Mall had also featured other non-existent stores today, like The Bon, Wolfe’s and Castleton’s.

A number of other stores opened along the “Ring Road” surrounding the Mall, like Ernst Home Center, Video Sorcerer and Safeway Grocery Store. Sizzler Restaurant was also along the outer road.

The Layton Hills Mall as a centerpiece also eventually led to Layton’s “Restaurant Row” to the north, as well theaters and other businesses in the area.

-EVER-CHANGING RETAIL SCENE: Of the 78 businesses listed in a Layton Hills Mall directory of 1984 (including businesses on the Ring Road around the Mall), only 14 of them, of 18 percent, remain there as of 2017, some 33 years later.

SOURCES: Utah Digital Newspapers, Davis County Clipper Archives and Deseret News Archives.