8 - Storm Mountain Picnic Area and Amphitheater
Location: 5685 East Big Cottonwood Canyon Road
Date: 1940 to present
Significance: In the depression years leading up to World War II, this was one of the projects completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) men who lived at Camp F-38 at the mouth of this canyon. Salt Lake City in the late-1930s saw public demand for summer meeting spots to accommodate large groups in the canyons away from city heat.
Photo Title: Woman cooking hotdogs over a fire at the Storm Mountain picnic area, Big Cottonwood Canyon.[1]
See Site 3- The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp F-38 for a summary of the CCC.
On May 19, 1940, The Salt Lake Tribune proclaimed, “Wasatch Beauty Spots Welcome Refugees From Valley’s Summer Heat” and “S.L. Canyons Get New Play Areas” as the Storm Mountain Picnic and Amphitheater Area opened. Constructed in the bottom of an old creek bed, the CCC men built a picnic and camping ground “less than 16 miles from the heart of downtown Salt Lake City.”[2] Visitors could enjoy camp tables and stoves, horseshoe courts, swings, teetertotters, latrines, water fountains, a softball diamond and automobile parking. Spectacular mountain views surrounded the new area, and the sound and cool air of the creek provided summer relief.
The years immediately following World War I saw an economic boom, creating a rise in automobile ownership which allowed people to access the outdoors with their newfound leisure time. The National Park Service was founded in 1916, and locally the Wasatch Mountain Club formed in 1920. In the Depression Era of the 1930s, the CCC worked with the Forest Service to vastly improve recreation trails, infrastructure and campgrounds in the national forests. It was in the era of the late 1930s during the Depression and leading up to WW II that the Storm Mountain area was developed.
A popular draw for religious, fraternal, work and patriotic organizations was the amphitheater built of native quartzite and split logs which could seat about 400 people. Newspapers from the 1950s describe the busy picnic season with the Salt Lake and Ogden barber shop singers at Storm Mountain on the same day at the Elks and Masons.[3] A Latter-Day-Saint employees picnic began with its 4th annual volleyball tournament and featured a presentation of Japanese dances in authentic costumes worn by members of the Japanese region.[4] The campground was close enough to the valley so that people could come for only a day, but it felt like an “outing” up in the canyon. Long-time Salt Lake residents may remember lights strung up in the trees for evening illumination and a piano kept in a box that was wheeled onto the amphitheater stage for musical programs.[5]
Photo Title: Wasatch National Forest Supervisor F.C. Koziol , 1958.[6]
Photo Title: The original comfort stations (restrooms) built by the CCC men near the picnic areas constructed of local quartzite stone. These are no longer in operation.[7]
Photo Title: View of Stom Mountain Amphitheater seating, set against the quartzite cliffs. A rock climber is perched at the top.[8]
[1] Woman cooking hotdogs over a fire at the Storm Mountain picnic area, Big Cottonwood Canyon. Circa 1940-1950s. J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Photo Number P0390n_1_05_01 . P0390 Non-Utah Skiing Photograph Collection. ark:/87278/s61z4pdn Accessed September 29, 2025.
[2] “S.L. Canyons Get New Play Areas,” The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), May 19, 1940, pg. 26.
[3] Valentine, Dan, “Nothing Serious,” The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), August 14, 1954, p. 13.
[4] “LDS Employes Picnic in Canyon,” The Deseret News (Salt Lake City), August 13, 1960, p.27.
[5] Steve Jorgensen, interview with Kim Johnson, September 26, 2025.
[6] Wasatch National Forest Supervisor F.C. Koziol, 1958. Photograph. Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service. March 24, 2025.
[7] Johnson, Max. Storm Mountain Comfort Station. May 7, 2025. Photograph. Big Cottonwood Canyon Historical Society, Brighton, UT. Accessed September 30, 2025.
[8] Johnson, Max. View of Storm Mountain Amphitheater Seating. May 7, 2025. Photograph. Big Cottonwood Canyon Historical Society, Brighton, UT. Accessed September 30, 2025.
Learn More:
Information on the New Deal: https://livingnewdeal.org
Felix Koziol: https://www.altahistory.org/felix-kozy-koziol
The American Home Front Before WW II: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wwi-depression-new-deal.htm
The Forest Service and The Civilian Conservation Corps: 1933-42: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/ccc/ccc/chap1.htm
The Forest Service in Utah: https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/f/FOREST_SERVICE.shtml