Listen up, all you commuters. When you find yourself sitting in the four-lane I-15 parking lot just north of the Point of the Mountain, do you wish your BMW had come equipped with snooze control? Are hand signals becoming your sole mode of communication on your long drive to work in the morning and home at night? Do you long for a future in which light rail spans the distance from Payson to Salt Lake City?

You were born too late. That system, the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad, existed from 1916 to 1946. And it was built only after many years of tenacious perseverance by a handful of visionaries.

In 1895, some electrifying news pulsed through Utah Valley. L.L. Nunn of the Teluride Power Company announced that the corporation intended to build a small hydroelectric power plant on the Provo River in Provo Canyon.

Local promoters worked overtime looking for ways to use that electricity to help develop Utah Valley. Provo's Daily Enquirer called for an electric railway line running to the lake. Such a line would help develop Utah Lake into a tourist Mecca, and the whole community would reap tremendous benefits, it said.

Potential investors acted warily: only a decade earlier, a small steam rail line to Utah Lake had failed. It wasn't until 1902 that a group of moneyed men -- Reed Smoot, Jesse Knight, C.E. Loose, George Havencamp and Samuel Thurman -- stepped forward and petitioned the Utah County Commission for a 75-year franchise to lay rails and run telephone wires along county roads from Lehi to Payson.

Electricity would power the railroad. Company officials planned for the first lines to be built from Provo to Utah Lake and from Provo to Pleasant Grove via two routes. One line would go through Lake View and Vineyard; another would cut across what was called in those days the Provo Bench (now Orem).

After minor changes in the proposal, including a reduction to 25 years, the county commission granted the franchise.

The capitalists then applied to the Provo City Council for a similar franchise to build a street rail system. The council granted the franchise, but Mayor Thomas N. Taylor vetoed it, saying that such a franchise was worth a lot of money -- $30,000, he said -- and shouldn't be given away. He recommended that a tax be placed on the franchise to collect this sum over a number of years.

The City Council passed the franchise over the mayor's veto by a vote of 9 to 1. Reed Smoot et. al. accepted the franchise and began successfully petitioning other cities in the county for similar franchises. All of this made little difference, because the men granted the franchises could not raise enough capital to build their railroads.

In an effort to find money enough to push forward, Smoot sold its franchise to Barney Mahler for $1. Mahler, of Cleveland, Ohio, served as president of the Lake Shore Electric Railway, a successful Ohio company, and hoped to expand his interests to Utah. But Mahler's plan fizzled, too, and the time limit set for the beginning of construction on the franchise lapsed.

Local governments issued no further electric railroad franchises until 1910. Three were issued that year; two of them proved unsatisfactory to investors. Finally, in October 1910, Abel John Evans, S.L. Chipman, W.L. Hayes and Joseph B. Keeler et. al. received what was deemed to be a suitable franchise.

These men also found that they lacked the necessary experience and money, so in 1912, they transferred their interests to Walter C. Orem, for whom the city is named. Orem provided both the capital and the experience.

Under the leadership of Orem, the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad -- more commonly called the Orem Electric or the Orem Inter-Urban --- finally began construction in October 1912. The company bought its own rights-of-way except through cities.

Mass transit takes a different turn

Earlier steam railroads avoided the smaller Utah County communities. This time, in an effort to make the line convenient to as many riders as possible, company officials routed their tracks through almost every Utah County town from American Fork to Payson. The new electric railroad also promised fast freight service to every town in the valley.

Orem's company began construction of a street railway system through Provo in 1912. The first tracks ran from 500 South to Lower Campus (location of today's Academy Square and Provo library). The company hoped eventually to complete 35 blocks of street railway through the city.

In an effort to be ready when track layers arrived, some contracts were let for bridge and trestle work in Utah County in 1912. Laborers began construction of a cement bridge over the Provo River early in 1913. The company established electric substations in Granger, the Jordan Narrows, Lindon and Springville. Track laying resumed that year as soon as the frost left the ground, and workmen completed the railroad as far as American Fork.

Early in July 1914, construction crews approached Provo. To prepare for future customers, the Orem Inter-Urban set up a temporary ticket office on north Academy (University) Avenue in the Lamar Hotel building.

Later that month, the company bought a 110-foot-wide, one-block-long strip of land along the west end of the tabernacle block on 100 West (where the Nu Skin building and parking garage now stand). This is where they built their permanent depot and associated buildings.

Very few substantial business buildings stood on the south side of Provo's Center Street in 1914. Businessmen predicted that as soon as the electric railway began running on Center Street, buildings would spring up on the south side of the street, and Provo would no longer be a one-sided city.

Scheduled trains between Provo and Salt Lake City began running on July 24, 1914. It is said that one of the Inter-Urban cars participated in Provo's Pioneer Day Parade that day.

Between 6:45 in the morning and 11:45 at night, seven regular trains departed from Provo bound for Salt Lake City. Later that fall, an average of 800 passengers a day traveled on the Inter-Urban.

Local merchants worried that large numbers of Provo residents would travel on these trains to shop in Salt Lake City, and local merchants would lose sales. Provo businessmen hoped that an editorial appearing in the Provo Herald would combat this problem.

The editorial pointed out that Salt Lake City merchants paid more for rent, advertising and employees than Provo businessmen did. The Herald also said, "Provo merchants are selling on as close a margin as any one in the state and we might say in the West."

The newspaper editorial ended with a plea for townspeople to patronize local merchants, and issued an appeal to local businessmen to advertise in the Herald so that the residents of Provo would know how low their prices were.

Provo City's Commercial Club (Chamber of Commerce) and the city commission hosted a celebration in honor of the completion of the Inter-Urban railroad to Provo. Representatives from every city from Salt Lake City to Nephi attended.

Many important Utah people, including Gov. William Spry, Salt Lake Mayor Samuel C. Park, Sen. Simon Bamberger, and Walter C. Orem, attended the celebration. Each of these men spoke to the crowd, and every time Orem's name was mentioned, the throng responded with a cheer.

Gov. Spry appealed to the people of Utah Valley to support the new line. Then he made a remark that must have rankled Utah County's businessmen. In fact, it must have been difficult for them to refrain from whiffing out a Bronx cheer when Spry announced: "This road has been completed so people of this valley can come to Salt Lake and spend their money." It is interesting to note that the governor did not patronize the Inter-Urban when he came to Provo that day.

When Walter Orem addressed the crowd, he said he was pleased with how fast the construction had gone and promised the line would be extended to Payson the next year. Orem added that he would be willing to take the line as far south as Nephi if the extension were consistent with good business policy.

An elaborate banquet in the Hotel Roberts dining room entertained guests that evening. After the dinner, most of the visitors from Salt Lake City, who had arrived in Provo on a special Inter-Urban train at 4 that afternoon, boarded a 10:30 special for the ride home. They arrived in the capital city near midnight, the trip taking about an hour and a half.

Payson's pride

The Inter-Urban reached Springville in 1915, but the rail didn't arrive in Payson until May 1916. The fact that the electric railroad did not reach its southern terminus as early as Mr. Orem expected didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the people of Payson. They were elated about its arrival and planned a May celebration that easily overshadowed the festivities held in Provo in 1914. In fact, even the famous Golden Spike celebration staged at Promontory Summit in May 1869 paled by comparison.

Payson hosted its celebration on May 26, 1916. The festivities served as a double celebration commemorating not only the completion of the Orem Inter-Urban, but also the opening of the Strawberry irrigation project.

Visitors from throughout Utah began to arrive before sunrise on the day of the party. Concerning these guests, the Salt Lake Herald-Republican wrote:

"They came from points near and far in automobiles, carriages, Inter-Urban trolley cars, on horseback and afoot."

The Inter-Urban special that left Salt Lake City at 7:15 that morning rolled into the Payson terminal at 9:30. Among the special guests were Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Orem and a number of mayors from northern Utah County. Gov. Spry also attended the ceremony that took place on and around a platform that Paysonites had erected near the place where the last spikes were to be driven.

At about 10 a.m., Mrs. George Done, the Payson Carnival Queen, and Gladys Orem, Walter Orem's 17-year-old daughter, drove the last two spikes to ceremonially complete the railroad line. After the two women had performed their duties, an orgy of oratory provided the finale.

Immediately following the program honoring the completion of the Orem Inter-Urban, as many visitors as possible squeezed into 200 automobiles for an inspection tour of the newly completed Strawberry Canal. The bumpy jaunt led through Salem and Santaquin and back to Payson where a noontime banquet awaited the honorary guests. All others were on their own for lunch.

Officials went to the old Payson High School gymnasium where they gorged themselves on turkey, homemade bread and butter, and other delicious edibles that commonly found their way to the table during local banquets. It is possible that some form of green Jell-O jiggled its way to the table.

During the afternoon, throngs witnessed bucking bronco contests, foot races, a baseball game between Payson and Spanish Fork and a sensational airplane flight by Lt. T.T. Maroney, who had buzzed to Utah from California.

In the evening, visitors amused themselves by watching boxing and wrestling matches until it was time for the street parade, carnival, band concerts and street dancing.

More than 9,000 townspeople and visitors paraded and danced through the streets of Payson to music provided by five brass bands.

It is surprising the people could hear the band music above the merry-go-round calliope, tooting tin horns, screaming motor sirens and the raucous calls of the carnival barkers. Partygoers showered each other with confetti and shouted friendly greetings.

The Salt Lake Herald-Republican summarized the celebration this way:

"The street carnival last night was the climax to a day of celebration the like of which the staid residents of the little community [of Payson] had never before witnessed."

The festivities celebrating the completion of the Orem Inter-Urban from Salt Lake City to Payson had a fitting conclusion. After this elaborate party hosted by Payson, many Utah Valley residents must have wondered, "Now, what was it that happened at Promontory?"