Cultural Celebration Center

I took a drive out to West Valley City to get some pictures of the new Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City. WVC is Utah's second largest city with a population of about 119,000. Salt Lake City has a population of about 182,000. If current demographic trends continue, both WVC and South Jordan will be larger than Salt Lake City in a decade or so. SLC is shrinking. It was about 220k when we moved here.

Now, I have to admit, I am a big city snob. My ideal world would see crowded urban centers that stop at the edge of a wilderness (with no suburban sprawl between). So, I am not all that happy with the current political situation where Salt Lake City languishes under the political ineptitude of Democratic leaders like Rocky Anderson and Dee Dee Corradini while the majority of growth happens in the vibrant suburbs.

For a while, Salt Lake City was able to pull the stunt where they used their historical political clout to divert tax revenues from the burbs back into the city. However, as should happen in a Democracy, the political clout is finally starting to follow the people, and the burbs are starting to get the cultural attractions.

Unfortunately, each time I drive out to WVC, South Jordan, Davis County or other business friendly suburbs, I am struck with the horrific reality that this is where the action is.

This new Cultural Celebration Center really stands out as a world class facility. At the heart of the facility is an Olmec Head that came from near WVC's sister city Veracruz, Mexico. This head was carved by the Olmec Civilization which is believed to be the ancestor of both the Aztec and Inca Civilizations. The Olmec Culture thrived from 1200 BCE to about 400 BCE. There is some speculation that the Olmecs were the first culture to invent the concept of zero. That could be what happened to them. They divided by zero then vanished.

HMMM, the Olmecs were one of those civilizations that lived in the BCs; so you would think that they knew their date system was counting toward something big!!!!!

The main attraction of the Utah Cultural Celebration Center is the World Stage Amphitheater. This state of the art amphitheatre hosts a variety music and cultural shows. The next item on their list is a production from Two Shields Productions, which does Native American Dancing and music. This event is on August 13, 2007 (more events).

The center is on a sixty acre park adjacent to the Jordan River.


After taking photos of the UCCC, I booked it on over and took some exterior shots of the E-Center and the new Hale Theatre.


The E Center was built in 1997 and was a venue for the 2002 Winter Games. From my understanding, the center was named for the important role that the natural logarithm plays in mathematics. Of course, a great deal of thing in my understand are the product of my imagination. Others say the E came from an ecommerce advertising campaign. I understand the Hale Center Theatre was built when the owners finally got tired of hearing complaints about their old theater.