The band that grew up faster than the school
Saratoga Springs, Utah began as the hamlet of Clinton, platted in 1878, before refounding itself under a new name in 1884, borrowed from the New York resort town, betting on mineral springs to draw visitors. Nearby, Westlake High School, opened in 2009 on ground with no earlier building, built a marching band, the Marching Thunder, from nothing into a state and national contender.
A school opened on ground with no earlier building
Westlake High School (Utah) opened in 2009 with nothing behind it. There was no older building on the site, no earlier school it replaced. It sat in the Alpine School District, teaching grades nine through twelve until 2013, when ninth graders were sent to a middle school in nearby Eagle Mountain. For a while, that was the whole story: a new school on land that had none.
Then the band started winning.
A band with no tradition built one from scratch
In 2012, the Marching Thunder won the Utah 4A state championship with a show called "Making of a Masterpiece." The name fit. A band with no tradition to draw on had built one from scratch. That same year, they traveled to the Bands of America regional in St. George and finished 10th out of a large field, an ordinary result for a team just finding its feet.
They came back in 2013 and won state again, this time with a show titled "Our Town." At the St. George regional, they climbed to 4th place. The color guard did something rarer. In every single competition it entered that year, it won the caption award for best guard in the field.
By 2016, the band had grown enough to travel to the Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, the biggest stage in the sport. Competing against more than a hundred bands, they placed 55th. It was not a win. It was a foothold.
A marching band reached Pasadena and nearly reached nationals
In December 2018, the Marching Thunder was chosen to represent Utah in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, marching down Colorado Boulevard in front of a national television audience. It was the furthest the band had traveled and the largest crowd it had played for.
The growth kept going. By 2022, membership had passed 200 students, and the band placed 3rd at the St. George regional. In 2023, they climbed to 2nd, posting a school-record score of 88.250. In 2024, they placed 3rd again, then returned to the Grand Nationals in Indianapolis. Their score of 84.725 was nearly nine points higher than their 2016 trip. It left them 0.025 points, and one single place, short of qualifying for the semifinals.
Westlake's other claim to wider notice came from one name on a roster rather than a bandstand: Garett Bolles, a school alumnus who went on to play professional football. Everything else the school is known for, it built itself, one marching season at a time, on ground that had no story until it made one.
A hamlet renamed itself after a New York resort
Before Westlake High School existed, the ground near it did not have a fixed name either. A settlement by the lake was known first as Clinton, platted in 1878. Six years later, in 1884, it was refounded under a new name: Saratoga Springs, Utah, Utah, United States. The old name was dropped. A hamlet had a plain, borrowed name. The town renamed itself after a resort in New York. It bet on mineral springs to draw visitors the way the eastern Saratoga once had.
A brush fire on Lake Mountain forced an evacuation
On the north side of Lake Mountain, a brush fire broke out and grew to 175 acres. Crews ordered evacuations on Mahogany and Roman streets as the fire spread. Residents left their homes and waited. The fire was brought under control, and people were allowed back. The mountain above the valley still burns without warning, even with a town and a school built at its base.
A Lehi-born painter carried the region's name abroad
James Taylor Harwood was born in Lehi in 1860, a town with no art school and no gallery to its name. He left to study painting and etching, and became one of the first Utah-born artists trained in the craft. He carried the region's name into rooms it had never reached before, in Paris and in the art circles of the American West. He died in 1940, by then a founding figure of painting in Utah.
A distance runner returned to Lehi to die
Paul Cummings built his career on tracks far from Lehi. He ran distance events at a national level, competing for years on stages the town he came back to had never seen. He died in Lehi in 2001. The record of his running life sits far from the ground that ended it.
The band still practices on the same field where the school once had nothing to point to but open ground.
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and it will dig the ground you are standing on instead, wherever that is.