CHAPTER 3
MORMONS, MOUNTAINEERS, AND UTAH'S FORGOTTEN COUNTY I visited immediately—this section of the country—found a company of Mormons under the charter Legislature of Utah, had assembled on Green River, and commenced construction of a bridge; finding much opposition on the part of the Indians, they determined to abandon for the present, and all returned to Salt Lake City—should the Mormons persist in determination, a war will be the consequence. —J.H. HOLEMAN
An 1831, four Indians from Oregon arrived in St. Louis. It is likely they were nothing more than curious tourists, but a Methodist journal reported that they had come seeking Christian salvation. Three years later, Reverend Jason Lee was on his way to the Oregon country to establish a mission in the Willamette Valley. Other missionaries, including Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, soon followed, and the glowing reports they sent back to the "States" did much to stimulate interest in the West. In the grips of an economic depression in the late 1830s, thou34
