Logan offers summertime activities, charm

And just outside is the spot where a man was lynched in 1873, only days after he killed the proprietor of a nearby shop on Valentine's Day, she says. A different courthouse was on this spot then.

"Startling as it may seem," adds the tour pamphlet written by Gary N. Anderson, "Logan was part of the Wild West where vigilantes, ruffians, cattle rustlers and stagecoach robbers were part of everyday life."

Other structures of note line Main and Center streets: the Cache Chamber of Commerce is in the old Federal Building, and there are banks and railroad offices and theaters more than a century old.

One of the most striking buildings on Main Street is the LDS Tabernacle, which is open for tours most days — and is sponsoring a series of noon concerts all summer, featuring everything from instrumental soloists and glee clubs to performers of the Utah Festival Opera Company (the latter on most Mondays).

Logan residents Don and Jean Sisson were working as volunteer guides on a recent day, and they added a personal touch when telling the tabernacle's story.

He, for instance is an LDS convert and was baptized in the tiled baptismal font on the tabernacle's lower level.

Sisson said completing the tabernacle proved to be quite a long-term task for the city's pioneering settlers. Construction began in 1864 — but wasn't completed until 1891.

"It took so long because of the railroad (the transcontinental railroad came through Utah in 1869, and the Utah Northern Railroad spur to Logan soon followed), the temple, Indian problems and several leaders were called on missions," he said.

The stately, castellated Logan LDS Temple, built of rough-hewn gray limestone quarried from the mountains nearby, presides over Logan from a terrace to the east, visible from the tabernacle grounds, Sisson pointed out.

"And I just learned that it was originally painted white," as its contemporary in St. George still is, Jean Sisson said.

Another option, for those interested in contemporary art, is also just up the hill. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art on the USU campus has a truly diverse collection, currently exploring "what each artist's idea of reality might be," as its guide says … Many will find reality can mean "surreality," for the swirling ceramics and abstract canvases are wonderfully colorful — and sometimes musical.

For instance, "Klompen," by the artist Trimpin, is a coin-fed "sound sculpture" consisting of 96 dangling Dutch wooden clog shoes that are computerized to produce a percussive melody.

You don't see — or hear — that every day.

Room to roam