Derks Field was a minor league baseball

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, located in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It was the home field of the

Salt Lake Bees The Salt Lake Bees are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. They are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and play their home games at Smith's Ballpark. The ballpark op ...

, Angels, and

Gulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, Bees, Giants, and

Trappers Animal trapping, or simply trapping or gin, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, the fur trade, hunting, pest control, and wildlife management. History Neolithic ...

of the

Pioneer Baseball League The Pioneer League is an independent baseball league that operates in the Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Its teams are not directly affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB). It is designated as an MLB Partner Lea ...

, and the Salt Lake Sting of the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

. Opened in 1928 as Community Park, the ballpark's final

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

was 10,000. In 1940, it was named for ''

Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History A ...

'' sports editor John C. Derks (1873–1944). Derks Field had replaced the previous professional ballpark, Bonneville Park (originally called Majestic Park), which was south of 9th Street between State Street and Main Street, on the site of an amusement park called the

Salt Palace The Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, more commonly known as the Salt Palace, is a convention center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Named after Utah's 11th governor, Calvin L. Rampton, the name "Salt Palace" was previously used by two ...

, which had been destroyed by fire in 1910. It operated from 1915 through 1927. As part of the construction of the new Community Park, the Bonneville stands were taken down and reassembled at the new site. alt Lake ''Deseret News'', September 25, 1946, p.3 Destroyed by

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

on the night of September 24, 1946, it reopened in May 1947, and was expanded in 1958 with the return of the PCL.

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

teams occasionally played exhibition games at Derks Field, including the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates and the 1964 Milwaukee Braves.Salt Lake Tribune Negative Collection, Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, J. Willard Marriott Digital Library The field was aligned to the southeast, with a view of the

Wasatch Range The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the G ...

, and its

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

was above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Its successor,

Smith's Ballpark Smith's Ballpark (formerly known as Franklin Quest Field, later Franklin Covey Field, and more recently Spring Mobile Ballpark) is a minor league baseball park in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the home field of the Salt Lake Bees of the Pacific C ...

, opened on the same site in 1994.

References

External links

*
Salt Lake Tribune
' – Remembering Derks Field – Tom Wharton – July 5, 2012
KTVX (ABC affiliate)
– Wirth Watching: Salt Lake City's Baseball Palaces - Craig Wirth
Baseball Reference
– Salt Lake City minor league teams Defunct minor league baseball venues Defunct baseball venues in the United States Sports venues in Salt Lake City Defunct soccer venues in the United States Soccer venues in Utah Sports venues completed in 1947 Defunct sports venues in Utah 1947 establishments in Utah 1993 disestablishments in Utah Utah Utes baseball {{Utah-baseball-venue-stub