My great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr. (1846-1918)
While doing a Public Land Survey of the area east of Mount Timpanogos for the US General Land Office in 1899, Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr. and two of his sons, Scott Pease Stewart and John Riggs Stewart, came upon an area with a beautiful view of the mountain in the North Fork of Provo Canyon. [1]
Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr., with his sons Scott Pease Stewart and John Riggs Stewart, who together formed the "Stewart and Sons" Civil and Mining Engineering Firm
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah [2]
After completing the surveys, they returned to the area and homesteaded it. Under the Homestead Act, they could each acquire 160 acres of property after occupying the property for 5 years. [3]
The next year, they got all their relatives involved and collectively homesteaded approximately 2,200 acres. This area formed a triangle, with the Hoover Ranch being at the northeast point, thence west to Aspen Grove, thence south to Upper Falls Resort, thence northeast following the Provo River and highway back to Hoover’s Ranch, with small parcels of private property along the highway jutting into the Stewart property. [4]Altogether, their property included much of the North Fork of Provo Canyon – including what is now Sundance and Aspen Grove.
“Stewart and Sons” Field Book containing water measurements in the North Fork of Provo Canyon in Fall 1903
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah [5]
The family, consisting of Andrew Jackson Stewart Jr, his first wife Dorothy Melissa Riggs Stewart and their 5 surviving children, and his second wife, Mary Eliza Smith Stewart and their 7 surviving children, began spending their summers at the place. Family members built cabins throughout the area on their respective properties.
One of Andrew's grandsons, Justin Stewart (1912-1992), explained:
The area now known as “Sundance” was, in the early days, known as “Stewart Flats,” so named, no doubt, because a member of the Stewart family has maintained a tent or cabin there almost constantly since 1899...
Anyone wishing to reach Stewart Flat in the early days after homesteading had no problem getting to Wildwood in the main stem of Provo Canyon. The challenge was that two and a half miles of North Fork between Wildwood and Stewart Flat. The roads were difficult to travel, and because of them, those few homesteaders in North Fork had dirt roofs on their cabins. The roofs were warm, waterproof, and heavy enough to last ten years before they began “returning” to the ground. Roofing lumber readily available in Provo would have been less work and more durable than the dirt roofs, but a regular farm wagon loaded with lumber simply could not make it up North Fork...…
In the early days we left Provo for the canyon the day after school was dismissed and stayed up the canyon for the entire summer.” [6]Stewart Olsen, a great-grandson of Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr., explained:
In the summer, the Stewart women and children would load their buckboards with provisions and hitch up two teams of horses to get to the homesteads. The trip from Provo, 16 plus miles, took all day. Some of the passengers had to trail the wagons, placing rocks behind the wheels on sharp inclines when the horses needed to rest.Another grandson, Ray Stewart (1910-1995) recounted their summer days up the canyon:
The early houses were single-room log cabins with sod roofs, straw tick mattresses and a wood stove. Wooden and screen coolers were stashed creekside, and outhouses were utilized for many years. A milk cow and a pig were often brought along for the summer. The children and their cousins climbed trees, fished and hiked all summer; Stewart Falls and Timp Cirque were the favored routes. [7]
During the summers, Dad (Scott Pease Stewart) did a lot of government surveys. While he was out surveying, my mother and the children went up to Stewart’s Flat (which was what the family called the area where the Sundance buildings are located). We put pots, pans, dishes, canyon quilts and supplies on the grass at our Provo home and loaded it on a wagon. We put the pig in a crate, and tied our cow to the back of the wagon. We would start out early in the morning from Provo, because it would take us all day. When we got to Wildwood, the road (it was more like a trail) up North Fork went along the creek. We (the children) were delegated to walk behind the wagon and put rocks under the wheels when the horses had to rest, so the wagon wouldn’t slide back. It was a real hassle to go up the canyon, sometimes we would laugh and sometimes cry. We would arrive at Stewart’s Flat in the evening. We pitched camp, set up a tent on a wooden platform and slept on pine boughs. We had a wash basin set on three pegs and got our water from the creek, which was about twenty-five yards away. The family would stay up there for weeks during the summer. Eventually, a cabin was built. [8]
Andrew Jackson Stewart Jr (lower left) surveying party with sons Scott Pease Stewart and John Riggs Stewart
My grandfather, Robert Wilson Stewart (1904-1996), a son of Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr. and Mary Eliza Smith Stewart, spent the first 14 summers of his life at Stewart Flats and later recalled:
My earliest memories are of the old Hamberg Castle and North Fork of the Provo Canyon where the folks spent their summers. [9]Regarding the years before the Stewarts homesteaded the area, Justin Stewart noted:
The Provo Canyon road itself, since time immemorial, has been a major route through the Wasatch Mountains. Native Utes who had major villages in Heber Valley and the Uintah Basin used Provo Canyon for regular passage from the Basin to Utah Lake, a principal source of food. These Natives where known at times as the “fish Utes” because of their reliance on fish for their diet. The lower reaches of the Provo River leading to the lake, as well as the lake itself, were laden with fish, readily caught.
Despite the known extensive travel of [Natives] through Provo Canyon, no member of the Stewart family has ever found any substantial evidence of a permanent settlement or camp of Indians anywhere in North Fork. I have hiked and ridden horseback through all parts of North Fork many times and have never seen any evidence of [Native] settlement, either in the main stem of North Fork or in Scott Hollow, which would have lent itself well to agriculture had any tribe been interested.
My cousin, Paul Stewart, whom I consider the family member most familiar with North Fork, told me he agrees no evidence has been discovered that would suggest [Native] settlement in North Fork, either prehistoric or modern. [10]In the fall of 1918, Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr. passed away unexpectedly after a medical procedure. Shortly thereafter, his second wife, Mary Eliza Smith Stewart, moved with her children to Salt Lake City.
Andrew's two surviving sons from his first wife, Scott Pease Stewart and John Riggs Stewart, formed the North Fork Investment Company by December of 1919 “to share income and expenses,” and they leased some of the land for livestock grazing. [11] Scott and John acquired the property belonging to the second wife's family and purchased properties from other landowners in the area. [12]
In August 1921, the North Fork Investment Company donated 20 acres of land at Aspen Grove for a BYU “Alpine Summer School” (renamed Aspen Grove Family Camp in 1963) during the administration of their cousin, President Franklin Stewart Harris. Another 10 acres were granted as a Boy Scout camp, and another 10 acres were given to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an MIA Girls Canyon Home (now BYU’s Timpanogos Lodge). [13]
The Aspen Lodge at BYU's Aspen Grove [14]
Used with permission.
A Ski Lift at Sundance Resort [15]
BYU's Timpanogos Lodge, formerly the MIA Girl’s Canyon Home
Courtesy, Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. [16]
Andrew Jackson Stewart Jr.'s grandson Ray Stewart, a son of Scott Pease Stewart, opened the Timp Haven Ski Resort in 1944 and started the first rope tow ski lift there. In 1968, he sold 2,300 acres to Robert Redford, who established the Sundance Ski Resort on the site of what was once known as "Stewart Flats." A new ski lift installed at the site in 1994 was named "Ray's Lift" in honor of Ray Stewart's contributions to developing a ski resort there. [17] In 2020, Robert Redford sold Sundance, and in 2021, "Ray's Lift" was replaced and renamed "Outlaw Express."
Stewart Cascades Trail Sign
A short distance further up the North Fork is the trail to the Stewart Cascades, popularly known as "Stewart Falls," that has become a heavily frequented hike in Utah Valley. The falls have been described as "one of the most scenic and photogenic waterfalls in northern Utah." [18]
“Stewart Cascades”, named after the family of Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr. who homesteaded the area
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah [19]
One article describes the area:
The Uintah Forest map calls it Stewart Cascades but it’s also known as Stewart Falls.
By whatever name, the crystal stream that spills from steep ledges — roughly within a two-mile perimeter westerly above Sundance and southwest of Aspen Grove — provides a beautiful and refreshing sight to Provo Canyon's North Fork.
The Cascades are one of several scenic landmarks along the “back" or easterly safe of Timpanogos — vistas unknown to people who have viewed Timp only from the Utah Valley side.
With its rugged peaks, snow-packed cirques and forested hills, It’s no wonder the area is sometimes called "the Alps of Utah”!
The Stewart imprint is especially visible today in the names given the Cascades and the Stewart Cirque just above the falls. [20]
"Stewart Cirque"
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah [21]
And as a fun fact, the waterfall scenes from the Robert Redford movie "Jeremiah Johnson" were filmed at the Stewart Cascades. [22]
[1] Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart.
[2] Barbara Stewart Anderson Papers, 1901-2001. P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, No. 016.
[3] Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart
[4] Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart.
[5] Barbara Stewart Anderson Papers, 1901-2001. P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, No. 002.
[6] Anecdotal History of Sundance by Justin Call Stewart (1912-1992), University of Utah Special Collections.
[8] “Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart (1910-1995).” Anderson, Barbara Stewart. Before Sundance: Ray Stewart and Timp Haven. Salt Lake City, 2001.
[9] Robert Wilson Stewart Life Sketch.
[10] Anecdotal History of Sundance by Justin Stewart, University of Utah Special Collections.
[10] Anecdotal History of Sundance by Justin Stewart, University of Utah Special Collections.
[11] “Sundance—in the Beginning it was the Stewart Homestead” by Cindy Wilmhurst. The Sundancer, Winter 90-91.
[12] Anecdotal History of Sundance by Justin Stewart, University of Utah Special Collections.
[13] “Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart (1910-1995).” Anderson, Barbara Stewart. Before Sundance: Ray Stewart and Timp Haven. Salt Lake City, 2001.
[15] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Slopes_(12097505736).jpg
[16] https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/BYUPhotos/id/713/
[16] https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/BYUPhotos/id/713/
[17] “Sundance Resort.” Wikipedia.
[19] Barbara Stewart Anderson Papers, 1901-2001. P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, Slide 011.
[20] “The Alps of Utah.” The Herald Magazine December 26, 1984. By N. La Vehl Christensen, Editor Emeritus.
[21] Barbara Stewart Anderson Papers, 1901-2001. P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, Slide 012.
[22] “The Alps of Utah.” The Herald Magazine December 26, 1984. By N. La Vehl Christensen, Editor Emeritus.
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