Recent Publications from Heritage Associates

Grass Creek Canyon Coal

"Many old settlements have vanished as if by the wave of a magician's wand, leaving only memories to prove they once existed."

The pride and history of Summit County is alive and well. This book was written to preserve its rich and diverse history.

Tales of Luke's Hot Pots
&
The Mountain Spaa Resort

The history of Luke's dates all the way back to days when an Indian called "Red Cap" used the hot springs to cook his meat and sooth his muscles in the 1850's . . .

"Legend has it that a gang of outlaws stopped to take a swim in the old hot pot. They were interrupted by a band of hostile Indians. The outlaws quickly put their gold in an old, iron kettle and buried it. The gold remains hidden to this day."

A Legend in Mink
Mink Ranching in Summit County, Utah

"Utah is one of the largest fur producing states in the nation, second only to Wisconsin, the reason being the cold Utah winters, which are ideal for mink to grow their coveted winter fur. Most of the fur farms in Summit County are family businesses, often operated by two or three generations of the same family. This is the account of an old-fashioned, American success story."

Bonner's Corners

After 130 years, three houses stand as some of the most striking ever built in Utah. Generations of the Bonner family, as well as thousands of visitors to Midway, Utah have enjoyed the story and sheer beauty of these examples of Gothic Revival style.

"After John Watkins built his own picturesque, red-brick home, with white gingerbread trim in 1869, the Bonner brothers asked him to build a similar home for their parents in 1876. Knowing that they would soon be married themselves, they contracted with Watkins to build them two smaller versions of the house directly across Main Street on two facing corner lots. They were completed and furnished just in time for the Bonner brother's double wedding in 1878."

Heritage Associates will help you
discover, preserve and utilize your heritage.

Midway

Provo Canyon

In April 1859, John Wesley Witt traveled with his wife, Lavina, and their five children, up the new Provo Canyon Road to settle what became the Heber Valley. While traveling along the steep road in a driving snowstorm, the Witt’s wagon with all its contents suddenly tipped over into the swirling waters of the Provo River below.

Working quickly, Uncle Dan and others helped lift the heavy wagon box off the family and miraculously snatched up the 13-day-old baby daughter, Nancy, as she began floating down stream. They salvaged what they could: the bake oven, one sack of flour and one chest of clothes. But most of their belongings were lost.

The Witt family arrived in the new settlement on April 29, 1859. The weather was cold, snowy and the conditions were miserable as they made their first home out of the wagon box placed in a rude dugout.

John and the other men soon put in a crop of wheat and barley grain with the hope that it would be ready for harvesting before winter. The Witt and nineteen other families celebrated a meager, but happy first Christmas of 1859 in the Heber Valley.

Dee Halverson has finished the text for his second book on Midway, entitled My Love Affair With Midway. This will be out sometime next spring, filled with unpublished photographs, maps, and untold stories that will make anyone familiar with Midway, UT fall in love with her all over again.

Contact Dee Halverson: wdh@heritageassociates.com for information.

History in Summit County, Utah

Cemetery near Wanship, Utah

Lawsuits are often decided based on history. Heritage Associates was commissioned to find evidence of a long-lost road in Summit County, Utah when a land owner discovered her vast and valuable land inheritance was landlocked. Her neighbors said the old trail was not a public thoroughfare, but part of their land. For her to develop or sell her property, she needed access; otherwise it was worthless.

Dee Halverson spent a year looking for evidence that it was a common use road from the days when Indians, trappers, explorers, miners, and farmers hauled supplies over the mountain to Park City.

Using old geological maps that listed areas by property owners, he tracked down some of their descendants for memories. An 80-year-old grandson remembered ice skating to school and recalled a girl who worked at a bar on the old road in her teens. She was alive in a nursing home in Seattle, with a keen memory of those by-gone days. One story led to another, and soon Dee had directions for short cuts through the canyons, used for over two hundred years.

Because the giant acreage was inaccessible to cars, Dee explored it on a mountain bike to see if the trails hooked up at the top of the canyons. With a little digging, he found evidence of a community.A white column marker was surrounded by several family graves and a little fence. There were some children ages 2, 4, and 6 who had died within days of each other, the father dead within a few weeks. The mom held things together for several years, but still died at age 45. What stories lie within that little cemetery!

Old foundations nearby indicated houses and barns, disintegrating steps led to what looked like a small school. The places matched up with stories from those still living, and a few memories recorded by those already gone. Dee proved the existence of a common use road, and the client got official permission to access her land.

Heritage Associates is a public history company with experience in litigation research. Contact us for access to historic evidence that will prove your case.

Heritage Associates: Who Are Our Experts?

Skilled in settings from archives to courthouses, our talented team of professionals offer your organization a turnkey solution for using your unique heritage.

W. Dee Halverson earned degrees in history at Brigham Young University and York University in England. Since founding Heritage Associates, he has provided professional research and published works for nearly 200 clients worldwide. He is also a specialist in oral interviews, historical site evaluation, archive development and organization, litigation research, and genealogy. Trained in photography, and geography, his skills are well-used for research on location. Dee is fluent in German, a reading knowledge of French, is proficient in translating Old English and German scripts, and deciphering old handwritten texts. He is adept at handling the oldest papers, and using the newest technology.

Marty Halverson attended BYU and studied in Salzburg, Austria and York, England. She is the co-founder of Heritage Associates and has collaborated with her husband Dee on several projects as a research historian, editor and writer. Marty has written thirteen children's history books, two family histories and has recently published her first novel, a book of historical fiction entitled Son of a Gun. Her on site photography is used in Heritage Associates publications, and she is the author of the company's blog .

James E. Robinson, CPA, has been a successful executive of a network of home health care businesses throughout the Intermountain West. He specializes in corporate marketing and development for Heritage Associates.

A. Peter Halverson has applied the latest in website architecture, searchable databases and digital printing techniques to our history-based projects. He supervises quality control and insures that your product is of the highest standard.

Marta Dansie has developed state-of-the art graphics and text layout techniques in book design and publication, as well as digital scanning and restoration of images for historic use. She is a talented photographer, designer and graphic artist.

Heidi Ballou provides digital transcription service for the firm’s heavy volume of oral- and video-history interviews.

Amy Robinson specializes in book design, layout, image research and art history, and has expertise in graphic arts. Her access to the best photographic equipment, and knowledge of digital imagery has been featured in numerous Heritage Associates books.

Heritage Associates has expertise in:
Museum and exhibit research and text.
Seminars and lectures.
Corporate events to celebrate anniversaries and other milestones.
Archival development.
International research.
Historical evaluation.
Interpretation of artifacts.
Evaluation of historical collections.

Heritage Associates: Historian on Location

Dee in Lancaster, MA town Library

Heritage Associates specializes in research on location. (Click here for listing.) Primary sources found in local libraries and archives give valuable information not found anywhere else. Collections carefully preserved, now relegated to dusty basements, hold vast and sometimes unread details relevant to families, businesses and other organizations.

Marty in Trezesniow, Poland Library

Links to posts detailing some of the places where Heritage Associates has gathered history follow:

Newfoundland:Searching for Ghosts
Polish Roots
Trezesniow, Poland
Krakow, Poland and Beyond
Czech Republic: Check it Out
Austria: Family Ties
British Isles: Attics and Basements
Brandywine, Pennsylvania
Ogden, Utah: Miles Goodyear Cabin
Summit County, Utah: A Life Forgotten

Midway, Utah

The House that Jack Built

Sometimes referred to as the Mushroom House, this picturesque home in Midway, Utah has a story worthy of another name: The House that Jack Built. Dee Halverson recounts the history behind it's unique curved shingles, hidden turret and carriage house, and why a United States president was a frequent guest, in a new book to be released in January, 2012.

Midway: Portrait of a People is a sequel to Midway: Portrait of a Town, and includes stories and photographs of each of the canyons surrounding the beautiful valley made famous by the 2002 Winter Olympics. Find out how a natural hot pot, owned by Swiss immigrants, became part of the world-class Zermatt Resort and Spa. Unique photographs show views of the valley seen only by horseback and described by local old-timers who know the trails and tales by heart. A must-read for hikers, bikers, photographers and history buffs who love the Wasatch mountains.

For more details on Midway: Portrait of a People, contact:

wdh@heritageassociates.com

Dee and Marty Halverson

Marty and Dee Halverson

W. Dee Halverson earned degrees in history at Brigham Young University and York University in England. Since founding Heritage Associates, he has provided professional research and published works for nearly 200 clients worldwide. He is also a specialist in oral interviews, historical site evaluation, archive development and organization, litigation research, and genealogy. Dee is fluent in German and has a reading knowledge of French. Proficient in translating Old English and German scripts, and deciphering old handwritten texts, he is adept at handling the oldest papers, and using the newest technology.

Dee was born in Provo, Utah. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany from 1965-1968. In 1969 he met Marty Bagley while on a BYU semester abroad in Salzburg, Austria, and they were married later that year. They have seven children and twenty grandchildren, and currently live in South Jordan, Utah.

Marty Ann Halverson is freelance editor and writer. Her passion for history, writing and family has resulted in thirteen children's books and two privately published family histories. She has co-authored four biographies with Dee and is his research assistant. Marty recently published her first historical novel, entitled Son of a Gun.

Heritage Associates: Ghosthunters

Some of Dee Halverson's best friends are ghosts.
Heritage Associates specializes in bringing them back to life.

One particular ghost died in 1780, and Dee was hired to tell his story, to flesh him out, so to speak. He started with the name of a cemetery in Newfoundland. Driving with his wife Marty along the rocky coast north of St. John's bordering the Atlantic Ocean, they passed tiny fishing villages: Old Pelican, Cupid's Bay, and Come by Chance. Heart's Content was minuscule, but they finally saw the church spires and knew a cemetery would be close by.

Slippery rocks covered ground that was wet and spongy underfoot, with thistles and wild flowers everywhere. The tiny grave yard was perched on a steep slope plunging into the bay and there didn't seem to be an entrance.

Marty Halverson, Heart's Content, Newfoundland,

Since the guardrail was too high to climb over, they went under! Dee hiked around until he found the surname he was looking for, and on the headstone was all the information he needed: name, birth date, birthplace, parents, marriage date, wife and children.

Ghostbusting with Dee Halverson

At the small local library Dee requested histories written by local historians. The librarian went down to a dusty vault and brought up an applicable volume, handwritten in old-fashioned script.

News surrounding a ghost's life, pieced together with general history of the larger community, brought the ghost to life. The name of the ghost's shop, the location of his farm—he almost stepped through the wall and shook Dee's hand!

Dee Halverson gathering history.

People can be so insensitive to ghosts—it's spooky. If you know of any that need to be found, contact Heritage Associates. Dee is haunted by the ones that are lost!

Heritage Associates Open House

Heritage Associates is located in Salt Lake City

W. Dee Halverson of Heritage Associates recommends that his clients use their history. Taking his own advice, Dee celebrated the 25th anniversary of his public history company with an open house.

Dee and Marty, ready to party.

It was an event for the history books! Displays of his work were arranged on tables and bookshelves. The associates themselves were amazed at the variety of stories they've told!

Second floor of the historic Judge Building

Historic photos of places—Las Vegas, Nevada to Bzianka, Poland—companies, such as Bonneville Corporation, Yesco, and Ireland Bank, and other clients (Stephen Bechtel, Fraser Bullock, Lou Callister and Rod Brady to name a few) decorated the walls. Original architectural plans for the LDS Conference Center, Trolley Square and the Armstrong Mansion were also on display.

(Help yourself to refreshments!)

Dee's inspiration board

Because Dee does on-site work (archive management, organization and oral interviews) or original research, many of his long-time clients have never seen his office. It was fun to guide them through his collection of artifacts and point out pieces on his bulletin boards.

Old friends

In twenty-five years, Heritage Associates has produced over fifty major books and twenty booklets, plus museum displays, plaques and other historical accounts. The open house was a giant show and tell.

British LDS Historical Sites, Preston England

The real fun, however, was celebrating with friends who knew Dee back in the day.

Before he was an historical artifact himself!

Want to celebrate your life's history?

Contact W. Dee Halverson

wdh@heritageassociates.com

Open house photos by Marta

Dee's photo by Christie

Celebrating 25 Years!

Booklet designed by Amy Robinson

Heritage Associates is in the memory business, and this year we're celebrating our own! With roots in York, England, our company opened its doors in Utah in 1986.

Heritage Associates Office

Located in Salt Lake City just three blocks from the world famous LDS Family History Library, Heritage Associates also affiliates with Ancestry.com for genealogy expertise. Clients range from individuals to international corporations, with a unique final product to meet specific requirements.

Collectibles

W. Dee Halverson has twenty five years experience in writing corporate and public histories. Research on location for family history is a specialty, as is legal research for imperative historic details.

Dee and his associates

History books sometimes seem too dull to grab regular people by the lapel. What differentiates Halverson is his conviction that history is personal. Dates and places in history books are important only when personalities jump out of the pages and make themselves memorable.

Books by W. Dee Halverson

For twenty five years, Dee has been telling good stories!
Celebrate with us.
Tell your story!