The idea for the project started with Community Alliance for Main Street Executive Director Rachel Kahler. She’s part of this year’s Heber Leadership Academy, which is working on a tour of the city’s historic landmarks that date back to 1857.
“We had this amazing Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum that is all pre-1900 and it rolls into 1910, 1915. But then I realized, for the last 100 years, Heber really hasn't documented its history,” Kahler said. “I think everyone thought somebody else was going to do the work.”
So Kahler turned to the library to look for a way to chronicle — and share – Heber community life from 1925 to 2025. The project’s findings will go on display in the library this summer.
Several library staff members and volunteers have been assigned a decade to study and some of what they’ve found is quite funny. For example, researchers covering 1975-1895 dug up the details of the “chicken prank.”
Wasatch County Associate Librarian Alice DeFriez said it started when girls and boys from the 1982 graduating class from Wasatch High School were at a party together. The boys snuck out and the next morning a 10-foot-tall chicken was on the high school’s roof.
“My brother was part of that graduating class, so as a little kid I got to hear about that, but they put the chicken on top of the high school as a prank, and they stole it from the local restaurant, Joanne's,” DeFriez said.
She didn’t name names, but DeFriez said the instigator of the event is now a prominent man in the community. As the prank was good-natured, there were no repercussions.
Among other historical Heber highlights, DeFriez said, is information about the city’s “old, old” hospital, which was originally owned by a local philanthropist.
“His name was Mark Jeffs and when he passed away in 1924 his house was donated to become the hospital,” she said. “Before that, the hospital was in either private homes or they were sent to Salt Lake.”
The research also uncovered an old placemat from the Stardust Restaurant, now Don Pedro’s at 1050 South Main, which served diners in the early 1970s. The placemat features hand-drawn depictions of Wasatch County landmarks and icons.
Kahler said her hope is the project does more than tell Heber’s story. She wants it to bring longtime residents and newcomers together.
“Heber has had a lot of growing pains over the last 20 years, which has made people feel uncomfortable with the changes that are happening, and this project was really meant to put our arms around the positive,” she said.
The 100 Years of Heber project will be on display at the library from mid-July to mid-September — just in time for Fair Days in August. The exhibit will also give locals the opportunity to tell and submit their own stories.
