Leo C. Thorne
1883-1969

He recorded the growing pains and coming out of Vernal

In the spring of 1886, little three-year-old Leo Thorne came to Ashley Valley (Vernal) by team and wagon with his parents, George and Louisa Thorne.

When Leo was seventeen, his horse stepped into a chuckhole and fell. The fall so injured his back that it was impossible for him to do any heavy work. His thoughts turned to his interest in photography. He ordered a small Brownie box camera from a mail order house and was soon focusing on everything around him. Before long, his interest in photography became both a vocation and an obsession. In 1907 he purchased a studio and a large portrait camera and began to earn his reputation as Vernal's premier photographer. Leo's small studio was located one door north of Dillman's Embalming (funeral home), later the Vernal Bakery. He called this site the Postcard Studio. He wasn't always in the studio, however. He was often pedaling off to take photos, with his camera and tripod strapped to the handlebars of his bicycle. A shot of this set-up is included in his collection.

The photography business was a serious investment venture for a nineteen-year-man. Leo was very inexperienced and lacked technical knowledge, so books became his primary source of information. He completed a correspondence course with the New York School of Photography and attended numerous conventions in Salt Lake City, Denver, and Chicago to make himself more proficient and to better serve the public in all fields of photography. He proved the old adage: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Eventually, Leo moved his business into an old hotel on South Vernal Avenue, renaming it Thorne's Studio. Later still, he moved to Main Street and hired Lawrence DeVed as his assistant. Lawrence became a great asset in the studio, and, after marrying Leo's daughter, Rhoda, a devoted son-in-law.

Leo died in 1969 at the age of eighty-six. He left a great heritage of photos, which have become famous. Lawrence and Rhoda continued operating Thorne's Studio until 1994. The following photographs have been placed in the Regional History Center with their help.

Photo scanning was done by Marriott Library Digital Technologies, University of Utah. The CONTENTdm database is likewise provided by the MLDT. More images will appear on our website as they are completed.