CHAPTER 4
THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF TOOELE COUNTY X he story of the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons or LDS) by church prophet and founder Joseph Smith, Jr., a n d the subsequent growth of the church and migration of the faithful from New York state to Ohio to Missouri and then to Illinois is well known and need not be reiterated here. Similarly, the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844 and the subsequent expulsion in 1846 of the M o r m o n s from their city of Nauvoo, Illinois, and their migration west to the Salt Lake Valley under the leadership of Brigham Young have been well treated elsewhere. The Mormon interaction with what soon was to become Tooele County began shortly after the arrival of the Latter-day Saints in luly 1847 in the Salt Lake Valley. O n 27 July 1847, three days after the main M o r m o n pioneer c o m p a n y entered the Salt Lake Valley, a group of church leaders including Brigham Young and Orson Pratt traveled with a few others to examine the Great Salt Lake. The men bathed in the lake and then at least some are reported to have continued west into what is now Tooele County. Although they returned that day to the encamp62
