Pleasant Grove High School (Utah) - History

History

Pleasant Grove High School was established in 1912. It started in a small one-room building. Additional rooms were eventually added on due to the increasing number of students. The former location was PG's old recreational center. The school was eventually moved to another location half a mile away where a larger building was built in 1959. The new building was not quite large enough, so the 9th grade stayed with the junior high school.

In 1921, a group of seniors put a block letter G on an unnamed peak west of Mount Timpanogos. The first time the G was lit was in 1929. In 1984 the G was nearly taken down because of maintenance fees and rivalries. Before Pleasant Grove would play American Fork High School in football nearly every year, students from American Fork would come and try to paint the G red, which is their team color. The student body fought to keep the G standing and raised enough money to keep it from being taken down. From then on G Day was celebrated as a Pleasant Grove holiday. It was later removed from holiday status because the grass on the football field was being destroyed by the people celebrating. The G is lit every year for special occasions such as Homecoming and graduation. Recently the lighting equipment and generator broke down because of age and use. The 2010-11 PGHS student council decided that something needed to be done in order for the G to be lit again. They started the "Light the G" fundraiser/project, spearheaded by student council member Jeremy Jensen. With the help of the community and students, they were able to raise over $5,500 and buy two new 500-watt generators, over 1000 feet of new light cords and new fluorescent light bulbs. The G was lit again for the first time in about three years after the 2010 Homecoming game.

In the school’s early years, the mascot was known as the Pleasant Grove Grover. In 1959, when PG switched over schools, the mascot was changed to the Valkyrie. It was similar to the Grover, but the Valkyrie in Norse mythology is an angel of war who chooses which heroes will die in battle. It was later changed to the Viking, which is the current mascot.

In August 1972, a fire broke out in the new library. Riley Richards and Chris Varney, two janitors, were killed in the accident. While they were cleaning, volatile fumes filled the room they were in, and a tiny spark ignited the fumes, which caused an explosion, killing the two men and starting a raging fire in the library. It took the school approximately five years to fully rebuild the library. It was also moved to the lower story of the building and was modified to reduce the chances of such a disaster recurring.