Echo, Utah: Every Route West Came Through Here

Echo sits at the mouth of Echo Canyon, a major gateway through the Wasatch Mountains toward the Great Salt Lake Valley, and virtually every transportation era in American history used it. James Bromley ran a stage station here in eighteen fifty-four. The Pony Express thundered through.

The Overland Telegraph strung wire down the canyon walls. In eighteen fifty-seven, Mormon militia fortified the canyon with earthworks and stone walls to slow Johnston's Army, turning this narrow defile into a ready-made fortress. Then the transcontinental railroad arrived in eighteen sixty-eight and turned the settlement into a full railhead, complete with saloons and tent hotels.

The Lincoln Highway followed in the nineteen-teens. Every era left its mark. Today Echo is a quiet census-designated place in Summit County, Utah, but the canyon behind it carries the echo of a remarkable run of American history.