As
the Salt Lake Valley's settlements became productive, its destiny quickly aligned with its early identity as a crossroads. Periodically-perhaps since ancient times-an influx of people would energize its economy, society, and culture, bringing or even forcing change. By 1860 the valley had deliberately attracted an abundance of professional and skilled labor, which drew additional commerce; Salt Lake County also offered an ample array of raw materials and consumer goods. Then as news spread that the Paiutes' shining mountains gleamed with more than sunlight, newcomers multiplied in the valley, eager to mine the Oquirrh and the Wasatch ranges. Ironically, the goldseekers, the army, the Overland Trail and Overland Mail, and then the proliferating mines supported and repeatedly rescued the determined Mormon struggle for an autonomous Zion. Yet these forces simultaneously destroyed self-sufficiency as both means and end, figuratively dismantling the walls around the kingdom. As Brigham Young witnessed threats to Deseret, he wielded every financial, political, and religious weapon available to resist the world's
