Utah television entered a new age 43 years ago when mountain-top TV broadcasting became a reality and made it possible to reach most of Utah and even portions of four surrounding states. KSL's TV transmitter/outpost on Farnsworth Peak (formerly "Coon Peak") started operating in 1952 and was able to reach 80 percent of the homes in Utah from the 9,054-foot summit in the Oquirrh Mountains. At the time, it was the nation's highest TV transmitter.
Today Ch. 5 (and 15 other companies, including 11 FM radio stations) rely on the facility that has become invaluable - even in the age of satellite TV.The modern tale of Farnsworth Peak was told in the Deseret News last year (Weekend Section, Oct. 7, 1994), but its construction and early operations weren't included.
The beginnings of the Farns-worth transmitter were in 1946 when a KSL crew began scouring the western side of the Salt Lake Valley - from the Bingham Mine area to the peaks - conducting surveys and using temporary transmitters to test coverage potential.
Vincent E. Clayton, KSL's chief engineer at the time and later a Bonneville International vice president in charge of engineering, said the station knew - in theory - that a high mountaintop on the west side of the valley would be the optimal place to be.
He said Coon Peak was chosen because it had the best chance for access by a potential roadway, even though it was only the second-highest peak in the Oquirrhs, behind Mount Nelson (which Ch. 4 later developed on).
"Where we are is about as good as you can get," Clayton said.
He also said KSL couldn't invite the other stations to share the mountaintop because of labor problems - not all the stations had unions at the time.
Cut Miller, a surveyor who was later killed in a plane crash, found the site on Coon Peak. Samuel Leslie "Les" Price, KSL field engineer and later chief engineer who died in 1994, also assisted with site selection and construction.
Clayton said the first step was to make a road to the peak. This was done with very limited funding, so little in fact, that Clayton and his engineers doubled as road builders starting about 1949.
"I had never worked with dynamite before, but I soon learned," said Clayton, who retired from KSL in 1980.
The KSL crew used rented and bought equipment to construct a road with a 25 percent to 30 percent grade that led to the peak from the west side but came in from the north end (compared to today's southern access). The early road was so steep that only the best of four-wheel drive vehicles could climb to the top.
Alternate forms of transportation were soon explored. After a mine shaft was ruled out, a tramway was considered.
In 1952, KSL purchased an abandoned tramway from a mining company in Ketchum, Idaho, for $50,000 and decided to install it on the west slope - to come up from the Tooele side. Another $300,000 and four years of work and it was ready to use. Paulsen Construction of Salt Lake City built the tramway by utilizing seven towers to climb to the peak.
KSL also bought some old U.S. Army trucks to transport construction materials to the peak. Clayton said some trucks rolled off the road and there were some frightening times on the steep road. He said one time a jeep parked at the top didn't have its parking brake engaged and went over the cliff. Only small pieces of the jeep were left after the crash.
Sand and gravel for the concrete work cost $40 a load to haul up to the peak vs. $8 for valley locations. Concrete had to be mixed on the top of the peak.
"It was a big job to get all the materials up there," Clayton said.
L.J. and E. Contractors of Salt Lake City did the concrete and carpentry work on the peak. Armco Drainage and Metal Products of Salt Lake City constructed the special insulated steel building to house the workers and equipment. Some of the peak's steelriggers included: Tom Nichols, Earl Goaslind, Al Whitehead, Frank Muller, Bill Bumpus and John Hayes.
It took one full summer construction season in 1952 to get the building and transmitter up. The steel for the project had to be specially made in Seattle and shipped in because it had to withstand temperatures to 40 degrees below zero without becoming brittle.
The transmitter site on Coon Peak was complete by the winter of 1952-53, though the tram was not. Access to the peak was a four-mile hike at best - depending on how far a vehicle could be driven up in the winter.
Cloyd Anderton, Elliot Anderson, Noel Clark, Earl Richardson and Maurice D. Jones were some other early KSL employees who worked on the peak.
Price was the engineer on duty at the time of the sign-on - Nov. 15, 1952. Not three weeks later, disaster struck the facility, however. Although the 370-foot TV tower was designed to withstand strong winds, gusts estimated at 100 miles per hour or more toppled the transmitter the afternoon of Dec. 5, 1952. Valley winds were blowing at 60 mph that day and they were believed to be much greater on mountaintops.
Damage was estimated at $50,000 and the tower had fallen
just 20 feet away from the broadcasting building where Price and Frank Ellsworth were working.
KSL had to switch back to its Union Pacific Building transmitter in downtown Salt Lake City, and this greatly limited its TV broadcasting range.
The crash of the tower made national headlines. It was later determined that defective steel broke the tower 200 feet above the ground.
Clayton said KSL then made plans for a new, four-legged tower to replace the fallen one. Mild weather helped the salvage and by next year, KSL was back on the air from the peak.
Living on the peak was like being at a remote outpost, and Price was the one who pioneered the facility's water system by putting heater cables around a 50-gallon drum and melting snow. Wild animals were frequently heard during the night around the transmitter building.
The six-mile-long tram was completed in 1957. It traversed some deep canyons, including a 5,000-foot-long unsupported length over Big Canyon. However, Clayton said the ride was not as exciting, or dangerous, as reports claimed it was. He said only one man was ever hurt on the tram and he was repairing it at the time.
Clayton said that when a federal inspection crew took a ride on the tram, they were hit by a wind gust on a long suspended segment and with such a bouncy ride, they exaggerated to the media about the dangers of the tram.
Federal regulations governing tramways got more and more stringent and KSL soon no longer found it profitable to operate the tram.
Clayton said the tram stopped carrying passengers about 1975 and was used to haul freight to the peak for a few more years. By 1983, the tram was abandoned. Today, most of it has been removed from the mountainside.
Today's multiple TV/radio transmitter on Farnsworth was designed by Clayton in the mid-1970s. It was an unusual design, patterned after a similar facility on top of the Empire State Building. Clayton said it was a complicated "plumbing process" and was complete by 1976. The facility on Farnsworth has always been growing, expanding and is much larger today than before the late 1970s.
Clayton said some people have joked the Farnsworth facility is his "half-a-million-dollar headstone."