Road Trip! Utah’s historic roadside motels

Enjoy this video presentation on the story of Utah’s roadside motels from the early 1900s until the mid-20th century. It was done as a Brown Bag for the Utah State History’s celebration of Preservation Month, May, 2018. We explore everything from tourist camps and cabins to modern reinvention of vintage motels as hip hideouts. Click here to view the slideshow.

Susan S. Rugh and Lisa-Michele Church. Presenters will present photographs and histories of the motels they are documenting throughout Utah, including vintage neon signs and quaint 1950s architecture. They are working on a upcoming book on the subject. Susan S.

Wonderful old sign in Moab, Utah, 2012; the motel is long-gone.

Click here to read through our presentation called “Motels Go To The Moon” for the Utah Preservation Conference in 2015. We explore the effect of the Space Age and Googie architecture on the roadside motels!

Read our article below in the Winter 2012 Utah Historical Quarterly on the Early Roadside Motels and Motor Courts of St. George, by Lisa Michele Church. The article starts on page 22. Don’t miss the cool photographic essay on page 44 featuring historic photographs from the Lynne Clark Collection about early tourism.