The year was 1900. Workers at the Portland Cement Works, located between 6th and 7th West on 800 South, toiled to provide the cement needs of the Salt Lake Valley. In November, a man named George Howe, an amiable fellow by all accounts, met a horrifying death at the hands of the factory’s coal crusher. According to the November 23, 1900 issue of the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, Howe had reached in to oil the gears of the machine and it tore his arm right from his body. He slumped down and died from shock.
In 1903, a man named “Fred” Holmberg--a structural iron worker--came in contact with a live wire and then fell 25-feet to his death.
Over the years, more workers at the industrial site met grim and gruesome fates. Some were death by suicides, some were death by train. Some were boiled alive, others dismembered.
Over the years, the site fell into disrepair. Businesses would lease the property, hoping to make a go of it, but they never lasted long. By the 2000s, the storied horror of the place made it perfect for wanderers and transients.
In 2010, the Fear Factory opened, taking the horror of the factory’s history and turning it into a world-class haunted house attraction.
