"The Snow Lies Too Low on the Mountains Here for Utah"
BEARLAKEVALLEY O n l y six months after John C. Fremont witnessed the Bear Flag Revolt in California, another group of overlanders left western Illinois on a cross-country trek destined to have far-reaching effects on the Great Basin and future Rich County. Fremont's report would play a pivotal role in the Mormon decision to settle within the Great Basin. Some of the Mormons who fled Hancock County, Illinois, in search of sanctuary for their new religion would ultimately settle the area around Bear Lake: first, at the northern end, in what is now Idaho, and later at the southern end near Laketown in what is now Utah. The history of Mormon settlement in Rich County and Utah in general could be said to have begun in upstate New York in 1830 with the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Declaring himself the recipient of visitations, revelations, and visions, Joseph Smith, Jr., the church's founder, is believed by his followers to have translated from gold plates the Book of Mormon, a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. In addition to the Book of Mormon, Smith also later published his own revelations as the Book
