Recently the RadioWest team traveled to St. George for a live show at the Electric Theater. We went to revisit the work of two of America’s most iconic photographers — Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams — and the time they spent documenting life in three Southern Utah towns: Gunlock, Toquerville, and St. George. Their photo essay, “Three Mormon Towns,” published in LIFE Magazine on September 6, 1954, offered the nation a rare glimpse into a remote corner of the American West.
Seventy years later, we returned to that same region — now one of the fastest-growing counties in the country — to see how it has changed and what remains of the place Lange and Adams captured. Our conversation explored the tension between growth and identity, the history that shaped St. George, and the challenges the community faces as it redefines itself in the twenty-first century.
If you weren’t able to join us — or if you’d like to revisit the discussion — you can listen to the full live event here.
GUESTS —
James Swensen |Professor of Art History and the history of photography at Brigham Young University
Loren Webb | Historian and journalist
David Condos | KUER’s Southern Utah reporter based in St. George