Discovering Magna

Tucked against the northernmost foothills of the Oquirrh mountain range (pronounced “O-Ker”) along the west side of Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, you’ll find Magna—a small, unassuming town with a name implying greatness. If you happen upon Magna’s Main Street on a lazy Sunday, you’d experience the strange sensation of being in a modern-day ghost town. Along Main Street, interspersed among a few operating businesses, you’ll find dilapidated buildings like “The Gem” or “Dyches Pharmacy” standing as reminders of Magna’s heyday in the 1940s during the copper industry boom. There’s the distinct lack of vehicle or pedestrian traffic, save for the occasional resident slowly driving through on motorcycle or by pickup, eyeing the suspicious woman taking pictures of their modest town, or the locals standing in front of the Empress Theater engaged in light conversation. Magna appears much like a town lying dormant waiting to be rediscovered.

But it seems any positive mention of Magna to Utahns outside the town raises eyebrows. Magna has a less than great reputation as being a town dragged down by Meth users and depressed neighborhoods. That Sunday as I arrived, I did see a cop car down one of the streets, lights flashing, crime scene underway. But is that all there is to Magna? A ten-year resident of Magna in his late forties walking a friendly pit-bull named “Dazzle” struck up a conversation with me while I took my photos. He pointed out the plot of land across the street where the new library would soon be built, and the tiny building on wheels in that same field which was the town’s very first prison. He also told me about the northern corner of Main Street where construction for a retirement community was being planned (supposedly on haunted land, something about a fatal school fire). Regarding the Meth problems, he assured me they’ve cleaned up things quite a bit (as evidenced by the bust up the street?).

It’s the absolute mystery surrounding Magna which captivates me, the unearthed swell of potential waiting to shake the community into something new and exciting while still being rooted in history as one of the first settlements of the Mormon pioneers in 1851. It makes me consider opening a business on Main Street so as to be a part of the emergence, to affirm the spirit of Magna's newly installed lamp posts, to join in the struggle of this honest town’s efforts to preserve its identity in the face of urban sprawl.

Read about Magna’s history and its efforts to restore prior glory. Check out my photos of Main Street from that Sunday afternoon.