October 2025 | Vol. 11 Iss. 10
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West Valley City
West Valley’s first McDonald’s celebrates its 50th anniversary By Tom Haraldsen | t.haraldsen@mycityjournals.com
The humble beginning of the first McDonald’s in West Valley City in 1975 was celebrated during an anniversary event on Sept. 8.
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From left, Chris Sparrer-Baer, Charles Sparrer, Jan Sparrer and Rob Sparrer behind the counter at the family’s first McDonald’s restaurant on 3500 South in West Valley. (Tom Haraldsen/City Journals)
hortly after Charles and Jan Sparrer moved to Utah from Southern California in 1975, they decided to open a McDonald’s restaurant on 3500 South in what was then called Granger (and now West Valley City). The road wasn’t heavily traveled and it didn’t have a stoplight at that point. This month, the Sparrers, along with their daughter and son, and other family members, celebrated the 50th anniversary of that store, and the start of their McDonald’s restaurant ownerships in Utah. “Our family moved here from Southern California, and it was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Charles said. “It was the most beautiful opportunity to live in such a beautiful community with
the landscape that we have, with the people that we work with, with the state of Utah. We just feel really blessed to be here and part of McDonald’s and part of the community.” The plan was to open this first store in March that year, Charles recalled during the anniversary celebration. “Unfortunately, as the construction crew dug down one floor for a basement, they hit the Granger plunge, as we called it.” It was the groundwater beneath the site, and Charles said there was open water several feet deep. The problem was solved and the water capped, but the opening was delayed until that August. That wasn’t the end of the “plunge” however. “The restaurant was rebuilt about 10 years ago on this site, and the basement is gone,” Chris Sparrer-Baer said, “but prior to rebuilding it, I was here and the electrician had to drill some grounding into the basement hole, and literally, we had to Continued page 13
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