IS 05
VISITORS VIEWS OF UTAH
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BOARD OF STATE HISTORY Division of Department of Development Services MILTON c. ABRAMS, Logan, 1973
Acting
President
CHARLES s. PETERSON, Salt Lake City Secretary
JACK GOODMAN, Salt Lake City, 1973 MRS. A. c. J E N S E N , Sandy, 1971 THERON L U K E , PrOVO, 1 9 7 1
CLYDE L. MILLER, Secretary of State
Ex officio DEAN R. BRIM HALL, Fruita, 1973 MRS. JUANITA BROOKS, St. George, 1973 DELLO G. DAYTON, O g d e n , 1 9 7 1
HOWARD c. PRICE, J R . , Price, 1971 MRS. ELIZABETH SKANCHY, Midvale, 1973
MRS. NAOMI WOOLLEY, Salt Lake City, 1971
ADVISORY BOARD O F EDITORS THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, PrOVO S. GEORGE E L L S W O R T H , L o g a n MRS. PEARL JACOBSON, Richfield
DAVID E. MILLER, Salt Lake City MRS. HELEN z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City LAMAR PETERSEN, Salt Lake City JEROME STOFFEL, L o g a n
ADMINISTRATION CHARLES s. PETERSON, Director J O H N JAMES, J R . , Librarian
The Utah State Historical Society is an organization devoted to the collection, preservation, and publication of Utah and related history. It was organized by publicspirited Utahns in 1897 for this purpose. In fulfillment of its objectives, the Society publishes the Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $5.00 annual membership fee. The Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts. Many of these items have come to the library as gifts. Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the Utah State Historical Society live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.
MARGERY w. WARD, Associate Editor IRIS SCOTT, Business Manager
The primary purpose of the Quarterly is the publication of manuscripts, photographs, and documents which relate or give a new interpretation to Utah's unique story. Contributions of writers are solicited for the consideration of the editor. However, the editor assumes no responsibility for the return of manscripts unaccompanied by return postage. Manuscripts and material for publications should be sent to the editor. The Utah State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors. The Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, paid at Salt Lake City, Utah. Copyright 1969, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84102.
HISTORICAL Q.TXA.RTERLY
SUMMER 1969/VOLUME 3 7 / N U M B E R 3
Contents I N M E M O R I A M : J. G R A N T
IVERSON
BY EVERETT L. COOLEY
.
287
T H R O U G H UTAH AND T H E WESTERN PARKS: THOMAS WOLFE'S FAREWELL T O AMERICA BY RICHARD H . CRACROFT
290
FREDERICK JACKSON T U R N E R AND LOGAN'S " N A T I O N A L S U M M E R S C H O O L , " 1924 BY RAY A. BILLINGTON
307
E M P E R O R D O M PEDRO'S V I S I T T O SALT LAKE CITY
BY DAVID L. W O O D
337
REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS
EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR
353
C H A R L E S S. P E T E R S O N Margery W. W a r d
I M E C O V E R Main Street in Salt Lake City in the 1870's. the street looking south toward the corner of First South Street. Historical Society.
This view is from the west side of Photograph gift of the Minnesota
F L E T C H E R , C O L I N , The Man Who Walked Through Time, With Photographs Taken En Route by the Author, BY EDWARD ABBEY
Books Reviewed
353
M A N N I N G , T H O M A S G., Government Science: The U.S. Geological Survey, 1867-1894,
in
BY WILLIAM S. GREEVER
354
W H E A T , M A R G A R E T M., Survival Arts of the Primitive Paiutes, BY CHARLES E. DIBBLE
355
L I N D E R M A N , F R A N K B., Montana Adventure: The Recollections of Frank B. Linderman, ed., H. G. Merriam, BY STANLEY R. DAVISON
355
C H E N E Y , T H O M A S E., ed., Mormon Songs from the Rocky Mountains: A Compilation of Mormon Folksong, BY OLIVE BURT
._
W O O D A R D , B R U C E A., Diamonds
356
in the Salt,
BY LOWELL S. H I L P E R T
357
An Essay Towards an Indian Bibliography. Being a Catalogue of Books, Relating to the History, Antiquities, Languages, Customs, Religion, Wars, Literature and Origin of the American Indians, in the Library of Thomas W. Field. . . . BY S. LYMAN TYLER
358
SAVAGE, H A R R Y K., The Rock That BY ARTHUR L. CRAWFORD
___
Burns, __
359
SPRAGUE, MARSHALL, OSCAR HANDLIN, and R A Y A L L E N B I L L I N G T O N , eds., The Mountain States-Time Life Library of America, BY PEARL JACOBSON
360
F O R B E S , J A C K D., ed., Nevada Indians
Speak,
BY FLOYD A. o ' N E I L
361
M I T C H E L L , O L I V E K I M B A L L B., Life is a Fulfilling . . . The story of a Mormon pioneer woman — Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis . . . . BY H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS ._
361
H Y D E , G E O R G E E., Life of George Written From His Letters, ed., Savoie Lottinville,
Bent,
BY ROBERT M. UTLEY
362
BAILEY, P A U L , The Armies of God, BY HAROLD SCHINDLER
G O U L D , L E W I S L., Wyoming, History, 1868-1896,
363
A Political
BY GEORGE W . ROLLINS
365
F I S H E R , V A R D I S , and O P A L L A U R E L H O L M E S , Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West, BY K. ROSS TOOLE
366
JENSEN, OLIVER, JOAN PATERSON K E R R , and M U R R A Y BELSKY, American Album, BY EVERETT L. COOLEY
367
o
N FRIDAY, J U L Y 11, 1969, J. G R A N T I V E R S O N , president of the Board of Trustees of the U t a h State Historical Society, died at his home following illness and an operation. T r u e to his devotion to duty and his dedication to public service, he remained active in the affairs of state history until almost his last breath. Although not strong physically during the last months of his life, President Iverson, nevertheless, worked h a r d for the advancement of the Historical Society and U t a h heritage until he was finally hospitalized. Even then, he continued to show concern for the historical organizations with which he was identified. Grant Iverson's loss to state government and to the Society was recognized by a declaration of Governor Calvin L. R a m p t o n , who noted Mr. Iverson's many contributions to his church, his university, his legal profession, and state government. T h e Board of the Society in a resolution noted their loss at his passing, as did the Board of the U t a h Heritage Foundation, of which Mr. Iverson was a founding member. It was noted in all resolutions that Grant Iverson h a d devoted his life to the service of others. J. Grant Iverson was born in Salt Lake City on M a y 19, 1902. H e attended Salt Lake City schools a n d was graduated with an LL.B. from the University of U t a h in 1927, where he served as student body president; later (1947-50) he taught law classes at his Alma Mater. H e was also elected to the Board of Control of the University of U t a h Alumni Association and became president of that organization in 1956. This position entitled h i m to membership on the University of U t a h Board of Regents, a position he held with distinction from 1956 to 1958. His University activity reflected his abiding interest in young people. This is further attested to by his twenty-five years as alumnus councilor to his social fraternity (Pi K a p p a Alpha) where he influenced the lives of many young college men in U t a h and M o n t a n a . At the same time, he was active in his church, serving as bishop of his w a r d for three and one-half years (1939^42), and later became an advisor and counselor of the young people of his ward. T h e youth of his neighborhood honored, respected, and loved this m a n of such gentle and exemplary ways. J. G r a n t Iverson brought these same gentle manners but firm convictions to the position of m e m b e r of the Board of Trustees of the U t a h State Historical Society in April 1959. Although a student of history, being a great admirer of Carl Sandburg and his subject A b r a h a m Lincoln, Mr. Iverson h a d not been active in the affairs of the State Historical Society. However, he soon demonstrated his leadership ability and was
]. Grant Iverson
289
named to the Archives Committee of the Society. With his lawyer's background, he soon became convinced of the need for a suitable building for the preservation of Utah's permanent state records. His great desire was to see an Archives building erected which would be an object of pride and a symbol of achievement for the citizens of Utah. An authorization by the legislature in 1963 to plan a building of limited space and facilities was rejected by the Board of the Society at Mr. Iverson's recommendation. It simply did not meet the needs of the Archives nor would the proposed building serve as a symbol befitting the people of Utah. In 1961 Mr. Iverson was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Society, and was reelected to that position in 1963, 1965, and 1967. He served in all more than eight years as president of the Society. During his term three new local chapters were added and the membership doubled until it reached more than 2,000 members. T h e wise counsel, the devoted service, the willingness and readiness to respond to every request of the director and staff, made Grant Iverson an excellent president and made the Society into a vigorous, thriving organization. But because of fiscal and political considerations, the Society was not equal to all the challenges it encountered. And so in 1966 the U t a h Heritage Foundation was organized with J. Grant Iverson as one of the Board of Directors. All of the legal work in connection with the organizing of the Foundation was performed and donated by Mr. Iverson. I n this selfless action he was doing what he had done on numerous other occasions — giving freely of his time and professional services for a cause he believed in. H e died still giving those services to the Historical Society, to the U t a h Heritage Foundation, to his church, his political party, and his fellowmen. J. Grant Iverson was a humble man, but a man of deep convictions. He did not seek office, but he accepted responsibility when placed upon him. His leadership, his loyal and hard work in the cause of preserving Utah's history will enshrine him always in the hearts of those who cherish the history of Utah. Everett L. Cooley Curator Western Americana University of Utah Library
Grand Canyon National Park covers 1,100 square miles and has an altitude from 2,000 to 9,000 feet. The two centers of tourist interest, the North Rim and the South Rim, are a mere 10 airline miles apart, but 215 road miles distant from each other. This view is from Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the canyon. Photograph gift of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Through Utah and the Western Parks: Thomas Wolfe's Farewell to America BY RICHARD H . CRACROFT
1938 B his sweeping autobiographical
renown for novels about Eugene Gant [Look Homeward, Angel, 1929, and Of Time and the River, 1934), was rapidly approaching a state of total exhaustion through his feverish attempt to complete what promised to be his greatest novel yet — a massive, more objective work dealing with the apprenticeship of a new hero, George Webber. In addition to this creative strain of churning out the more than five-foot stack of typewritten manuscript, Thomas Wolfe Wolfe remained distraught from his recent (1900-1938) Photograph gift of break with Charles Scribner's Sons and with Charles Scribner's Sons. his long-time friend and Scribner editor, Maxwell Perkins. Toward the middle of May, however, Wolfe h a d finally begun to feel that his gigantic novel (which editors later conjectured might well have gone into as many as five or six volumes) was approaching some kind of final form, and (to use one of Wolfe's images) light had begun to appear at the tunnel's end. Thus, when given the opportunity >Y MAY
THOMAS WOLFE,
Dr. Cracroft recently resumed his position as assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University after a leave of absence taken to complete his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin.
292
Utah Historical
Quarterly
to lecture at Purdue University, Wolfe accepted eagerly, and he told friends of his intention to follow the Purdue address with a train trip across the United States and a much-needed vacation in the Pacific Northwest. During the week before his departure, Wolfe worked day and night overseeing the typing and assembling of his manuscript. After binding it in a tentative sequence, he packed and delivered it into the safekeeping of his new editor, Edward C. Aswell, of Harper's, who was eager to read the manuscript for which he had advanced — without a prior reading — $10,000 against future royalties. Wolfe finally gave permission to Aswell, assuring him that it was far from finished. He wrote Miss Elizabeth Nowell, his agent, of his action adding that "It would be a crime if I were interrupted or discouraged now!" 1 As he headed for a warm welcome at Purdue, and as he turned west for Denver on the Burlington "Zephyr," Wolfe little realized that thirty-eight years were all that fate had allotted him, and that he would never again work on the book which had cost him so much life. After another warm reception by Denver friends (Wolfe had been there in 1935), the author received an impressive taste of "big sky" landscape on the train trip from Denver to Boise, via Wyoming. 2 He described Boise to Miss Nowell as being "set in a cup of utterly naked hills," in "an enormous desert bounded by infinitely-far-away mountains that you never get to." Though his home was in the mountain country of Asheville, North Carolina, Wolfe was awed by the vast dimensions, by "the tremendousness and terror and majesty" of the West. In the same letter he mentions an unsuccessful attempt to locate novelist Vardis Fisher, a former colleague in the English Department at New York University, and then a resident of Boise. But he notes that "what I've seen to-day explains a lot about [Fisher]." 3 Arriving in Portland on June 7, Wolfe soon renewed his friendship with fellow-writer Stewart Holbrook, who arranged that Wolfe be invited to several parties given by the local literati. At one of these parties Wolfe met Edward M . Miller, Sunday editor of the Portland Oregonian, and learned that Miller and Ray Conway, manager of the Oregon State 1
Elizabeth Nowell, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe (New York, 1956), 766. After a lecture delivered before a writers' conference in Denver in 1935, Wolfe took an automobile tour from Denver to Santa Fe. From New Mexico he traveled to California and by train across Nevada, through Salt Lake City and St. Louis to New York. See Desmond Powell, "Of Thomas Wolfe," Arizona Quarterly, I (Spring, 1945), 28-36, for an account of Wolfe's trip from Denver to Santa Fe. s Nowell, Letters. 768. 2
Thomas
Wolfe
293
Motor Association, were planning a whirlwind automobile tour through all of the national parks of the Far West, their purpose being to demonstrate for thrift-conscious motorists that the trip was possible in a limited time and on a limited budget. Miller asked Wolfe to come along. For Wolfe, who could not drive an automobile himself, this seemed, as he wrote Miss Nowell, "the chance of a lifetime and . . . I'd be foolish not to take it." 4 Before the start of the trip, however, Conway, having been warned by friends of Wolfe's legendary appetite for food and liquor, and of his irregular sleeping habits, insisted that Wolfe promise to forego heavy drinking, get up promptly in the morning, and limit his food and lodging expenses to a reasonable amount, inasmuch as the Motor Association was underwriting the expenses of the trip. Wolfe agreed. 5 Fortunately, Wolfe determined to keep a running account of the trip. H e purchased a three-hundred-page record book (five and one-half inches by eight and five-eighths inches) such as he had often used to write much of his earlier work. Inside he wrote "A Western Journal by Thomas Wolfe," and headed the first page of the jottings with, "A Daily Log of the Great Parks T r i p . " Wolfe recorded copiously, but not as much as he thought. Though he later wrote Miss Nowell that "I've filled a big fat notebook with thirty thousand words," 6 and to Aswell that "I have already made fifty thousand words of notes on this journey," 7 Wolfe was typically hyperbolic, for the journal contains about 11,400 words8 — still a respectable amount of words for a two-week automobile tour! Almost never written in complete sentences, but rather in a series of phrases separated by dashes, the log presents, in numerous lyrical passages, how, from June 20 to July 2, 1938, Wolfe, Miller, and Conway, in a white Ford, visited all of the major parks of the West: Crater Lake, Yosemite, General Grant, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion's Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, aAd Mount Rainier. It is a fascinating log of a trip which thousands of Americans have since made in an equally brief period of time. But Wolfe's reaction to the trip is not typical, and the log, containing few of the typical tourist jottings as to miles, expenses, highway numbers, and gas stops, is a moving 4
Ibid., 769. V. L. O. Chittick, "Thomas Wolfe's Farthest West," Southwest Review, X L V I I I (Spring, 1963), 96. 6 Nowell, Letters, 774. The italics are the author's. 7 Edward C. Aswell, "Note on 'A Western Journey,' " in Wolfe, A Western Journal, A Daily Log of the Great Parks Trip, June 20-July 2, 1938 (Pittsburgh, 1951), v. 8 Nowell, Letters, 774 fn.2. Aswell says in "Note on 'A Western Journey,' " that "When he said, 'I have written fifty thousand words,' he meant: 'I have written only a little; in fact, I have just started.' " 5
Utah Historical
294
Quarterly
and colorful geographical and human document. Although it is easy to place the scenery and to follow the exact routes taken by the party throughout the trip, that which clearly emerges is Wolfe's enthusiasm and affection for his land and his people; for his aim was to get the feel of the country, to experience America, to proceed with his grandiose plan of experiencing and recording, in his future works, the whole "hemisphere of life and of America." 9 His Whitmanesque vision makes his travel account a worthwhile impressionistic record of a sensitive and expansive artist who loved, above all things, America and the American Dream. A closer look at the trip, with emphasis on the account of two fascinating days spent in Mormon country, will give better insight into the author's love affair with America, and will present further evidence that Thomas Wolfe, only three months before his untimely death (if death 9
Aswell, "Note on 'A Western Journey,' " in Wolfe, A Western Journal, v.
Grand Canyon, a colossal chasm 280 miles in length, a mile deep, and 12 miles wide, was discovered in 1540 by thirteen men of Coronado's Spanish expeditions. The canyon became a national monument in 1908 and a national park February 26,1919. This scene is from the North Rim of the canyon. Photograph gift of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Thomas
Wolfe
295
is ever timely), was still very much — some critics to the contrary — an author who had many books to write. T h e trip was a rapidly spinning kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and impressions. Thus, the first day the three visited Mount Hood, the Cascade Range, and Klamath Lake, where they lodged that night. By 6 A.M. they were off again, a record for the chronic late-riser Wolfe, and drove from Klamath to Mount Shasta, and from there to Redding, Sacramento, and the San Joaquin Valley, and to their lodgings that night in Yosemite, where they settled, lyrically, amidst, . . . a smell of smokes a n d of gigantic tentings and enormous trees and gigantic cliff walls night black all around and above the sky-bowl of starred night — and Currys Lodge and smoky gaiety and wonder — hundreds of young faces and voices — the offices, buildings [,] stores, the dance floor crowded with its weary hundreds and the hundreds of tents and cabins and the absurdity of the life and the immensity of all — and 1200 little shop girls and stenogs and new-weds and schoolteachers and boys—all, God bless their little lives, necking, dancing, kissing, feeling, and embracing in the great darkness of the giant redwood trees — all laughing and getting loved tonight -—• and the sound of the dark gigantic fall of water. 10
After a quick tour of the park the next morning, the trio drove out the South Wawona gate for Bakersfield and on to Mohave, where they stayed that night before attempting the desert the following morning. After a hot day of travel on June 23, the men arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, called "Big Gorgooby" by Wolfe, and the Bright Angel Lodge. But while he was impressed with the canyon in the late twilight ("a fathomless darkness peered at from the very edge of hell with abysmal starlight — almost unseen — just fathomlessly there") he is more concerned with descriptions of the self-conscious ranger, with a young geologist, and with an "Eastern cowboy with Fred Harvey [a canyon merchant] hat and shirt and cowgirl with broad hat, and wet red mouth, blonde locks and riding breeches filled with buttock." 1 1 From the South R i m of "Big Gorgooby" the three drove through the Painted Desert, the Vermilion Cliffs, across Navajo Bridge, to the beauties of the North Rim, where they were entertained while dining by the "inevitable theatrical performance" of the young park employees. The Mowing morning (June 25) Wolfe, Miller, and Conway enjoyed the North Rim until 11 A.M., when they climbed into the white 10 Wolfe, Western Journal, 9-10. The page references in the footnote^ to the Journal axe to the Pittsburgh edition, not to the pages of the original, which are also provided in this edition. The writer has faithfully followed the edition in reproducing Wolfe's punctuation (or lack of it—-especially in the omission of commas and apostrophes), and spelling; only where it seemed necessary for clarity has the writer inserted punctuation in brackets. 11 Wolfe, Western Journal, 17—18.
296
Utah Historical
Quarterly
Mukuntuweek Canyon became a national monument in 1909. In 1919 the monument was changed in name to Zion and enlarged. The following year the monument attained the status of a national park by act of Congress. This photograph is of the Great White Throne, which rises 2,400 feet above the canyon floor. Photograph gift of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Ford and headed into Utah, and Kanab, '"the Mormon town," and "Perry's [Parry's] Lodge — a white house, pleasant and almost New England, and the fiery bright heat, the little town, and greenness here, and trees and grass, and a gigantic lovely cool-bright poplar at the corner." 12 From Kanab the party drove to Zion's Canyon, and Wolfe piles word on word to formulate a picture of its colorful hues, . . . no longer fierce red and vermillion now, but sandy, whitest limestone, striped with strange stripes of salmon pink — scrub dotted, paler — Now in the canyon road and climbing, and now pink rock again, strange shapes and searings in the rock, and even vertices upon huge swathes of stone, and . . . through a tunnel, out and down and down, and through the great one spaced with even windows in the rock that give on magic casements opening on sheer blocks of soapstone red, and out again in the fierce light and down round dizzy windings of the road into the canyons depth. 13 12 Ibid., 22. "Ibid., 22-23.
Thomas
Wolfe
297
Zion National Park, 230 square miles in size, was discovered in 1776 by Fathers Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Atanasio Dominguez. Altitude of the canyon rises from 3,940 to 8,740 feet. This photograph is of the Temple of Sinawava. Photograph from the Utah Writers Project, Utah State Historical Society.
At the bottom of the canyon, Wolfe is greatly impressed by the swimming pool, which he describes with almost mystical vision: " O miracle! . . . O pool in cottonwoods surrounded by fierce blocks of red and temples and kings thrones and the sheer smoothness of the bloody vertices of soapstone red — did never pool look cooler, nor water wetter, wetter more inviting." 14 Leaving Zion's, the party drove toward Bryce Canyon and through, . . . farms and green incredible of fields and hay and mowing and things growing and green trees and Canaan pleasantness and a river flowing (the Sevier) and (by desert comparison) a fruitful valley — and occasional little towns — small Mormon towns — sometimes with little house[s] of old brick — but mostly little houses of frame, and for the most part mean and plain and stunted looking. 15 "Ibid., 24. '"Ibid., 25-26.
298
Utah Historical
Quarterly
"Mean and plain and stunted" are words which reveal Wolfe's attitude toward anything Mormon, for Wolfe arrived in Utah with a vigorous dislike for the Mormons and their faith, a prejudice not earlier apparent in his letters or works. Still, the feelings which the author had for Utah scenery were deep, and his journal descriptions of Utah and her people are among the best recorded on the trip — far better, for example, than his treatment of Yellowstone, Glacier, and most of the other parks and states visited. His antagonism against things Mormon seemed to clash with his admiration for the accomplishments of the Saints and the lovely fruitfulness of their mountain valleys which stirred a creative tension in his soul. Turning off the main road for Bryce Canyon, the party talked briefly with a road repair flag man, who remarked patriotically that "we have no deserts here in Utah." Wolfe sneers to his log: "Is Zion then a flowering prairie, and are Salt Lake and the Bonneville Flats the grassy precincts of the King's Paradise [?]" 1 6 The travelers arrived in Bryce at 7 P.M. and headed immediately for the canyon rim and a first impressive view of Bryce: . . . the least overwhelming, dizzy, and least massive of the lot — but perhaps the most astounding — a million wind-blown pinnacles of salmon pink and fiery white all fused together like stick candy — all suggestive of a childs fantasy of heaven and beyond the open semi-green and semi-desert plain — and lime-white and scrub dotted mountains. 17
Following dinner and the usual postcards, the three went to the curio shop where, "with some difficulty," they bought beer in cans; Wolfe drank two, "feeling more and more desolate in this most unreal state of Utah." 18 Typically, Wolfe struck up a conversation with a "quaint old blondined wag named Florence who imitates bird calls and [with a] dark rather attractive woman . . . who sold curios and who had life in h e r — a n d was obviously willing to share it." 19 Before retiring, Wolfe observes the young people around the lodge, "looking rather lost and vaguely eager [a condition Wolfe was ever fond of describing] . . . , as if they wanted something that wasn't there and didn't know how to find it." 20 This thought touched off "some depressing reflections on Americans in search of gaiety, and National Park Lodges, and Utah and frustration," after which he retired for the night. 16
Wolfe, Western Journal, 26. Ibid., 27. 18 Ibid., 28. "Ibid. 20 Ibid., 28-29. 17
Thomas
Wolfe
299
Sunday morning, June 26, Miller and Wolfe strolled to the rim of Bryce Canyon, which looked, writes Wolfe, . . . fragile compared to other great canyons[,] "like filigree work", of fantastic loveliness. Great shouldering bulwarks of eroded sand going down to it — made it look very brittle and soft . . . — something like the effect of sugar candy at a carnival — powdery — whitey—melting away. 21
Again, however, he is even more interested in an old man, his wife, and daughter, a girl who was knowledgeable on geology. After breakfast, Wolfe focused on the young waitresses, maids, and bellhops of the hotel as they gathered before the lodge to sing "Till we meet again" to departing guests, with, . . . one of the dour looking school teachers dabbing furtively at [her] eyes, and the bus departing, and emotional farewells, and the young folks 21
Ibid., 29.
Bryce Canyon was discovered by fur trappers in the 1800's, became a national monument in 1923, and was made a national park (Utah National Park), June 7,1924. In 1928 the canyon was renamed Bryce Canyon National Park after Ebenezer Bryce, the first permanent settler on the Paunsauguant Plateau in 1875. The park covers56 square miles and has an altitude of 6,600 to 9,105 feet. Hal Rumel photograph.
300
Utah Historical
Quarterly
departing back to their work, and bragging exultantly "We got tears out of four of 'em this morning. Oh, I love to see 'em cry; it means business." -2
"And," writes the sensitive Wolfe, "for me the memory of the dour faced teacher dabbing at her eyes and stabbing pity in the heart and something that can not be said." 23 From Bryce Canyon the party turned north for Salt Lake City, through the ever-richer, ever-greener valleys made fruitful by the labors of Mormon irrigation methods, which fascinated Wolfe. He writes of "the miraculousness of water in the west, the muddy viscousness of irrigation ditches filled with water so incredibly wet — the miracle of water always in the west." ~4 He comments on the "touch of strangeness" in the Mormon architecture and conjectures that the odd "turn of the shop gables" is "temple-wise perhaps," and writes of the Mormon towns as reflecting his own bias, as being architecturally "graceless, all denuded, with the curious sterility and coldness and frustration the religion has." 2 5 Always interested in American place names, Wolfe increasingly writes of the land as the land of Canaan and the Promised Land, and of Richfield ("so named because of the fat district") as a "blessed land of Canaan irriguous — by L.D.S. made fertile, promised, and 'This is the place' - - Jacob, Levan, Nephi, Goshen — the names Biblical in Canaan — or Spanish Fork and American Fork — names like the pioneers." 2(i He praises Utah Lake, the rich land, the cherry orchards, the mountains, the "thriving look" of Provo with its smelter plants and poplars and cottonwoods and roses and, again, notes the "graceless lack of architectural taste." 27 As he anticipates his visit to Salt Lake City, a sense of urgency sweeps into Wolfe's log-book. Everything seems to be pointing north to Zion — the mountains, the increasing richness of the land, even the traffic; everything is "marching, marching Northward between hackled peaks, is sweeping, sweeping Northward through the backbone of the Promised Land, is sweeping onward, onward toward the Temple and the Lake." 28 Rounding the point of the mountain between Utah and Salt Lake valleys, Wolfe describes Salt Lake Valley as half-desert, 22
Wolfe, Western Journal, 30-31. Ibid., 31. 21 Ibid., 32. 25 Ibid., 33. 26 Ibid., 34. "Ibid., 35. 28 Ibid., 36. 23
Thomas Wolfe
301
. . . half burgeoning to riches and the irriguous ripe of the sudden green, and walled immensely on three sides by the hackled grandeur of the massive hills — but to the West, the massive peaks also but desert openness and the saline flatness, the thin mist lemon of the Great Salt Lake. 29
As the party enters Salt Lake City, Wolfe writes of, . . . the Capitol — with its dome — looking like a capital and dome always do — So into Salt Lake — sky-scrapers, hotels, office buildings, an appearance of a city greater than its growth and in 4 directions the broad streets sweeping out and ending cleanly under massed dense green at the rises of the barren magic hills — so into^ town, past a fantastic dance hall [Coconut Grove] "the worlds biggest" — stores, streets, blocks 600 feet in length, and Sunday hotness, brightness, emptiness. 30
Then, again, Wolfe conveys his impression of Mormonism as he describes the city exuding "the old feeling of Mormon coldness, desolation — the cruel, the fanatic, and the warped and dead." This feeling is heightened in Wolfe, when, after eating at the Rotisserie restaurant, the three visit the Hotel Utah, then cross to Temple Square. Wolfe's judgment of the ubiquitously admired temple is startling, for he speaks of it as "the harsh ugly temple, the temple sacrosanct, by us unvisited, unvisitable, so ugly, grim, grotesque, and blah — so curiously warped, grotesque, somehow so cruelly formidable — then the great domed roof of the Tabernacle like a political convention hall." 31 Touring the temple grounds, Wolfe speaks harshly of the "statues of the twin saints Brothers Smith, with pious recordings of their fanaticisms," and of the museum, the first cabin, and "the pomposities of bronze rhetoric — the solemn avowals of 'the finding of the plates' for the Book of Mormon." 32 But the impressive showplaces of Mormonism are not for Wolfe, and after visiting the Lion House, the Beehive House, and other sites sacred to Latter-day Saint history, Wolfe, totally unresponsive to the richness of the historicity of his surroundings, cries to his journal, "enough, enough, of all this folly, this cruelty and this superstition," and the three leave the City of the Saints behind. Even driving amidst the beauties of Bountiful, Wolfe cannot cast off his antagonism for Mormondom, and in describing the rich, fertile orchards against their lovely background of "hackled peaks," he again reveals his tension in writing of the "cruelty of Mormon in it, but with a quality its own that grips and holds you now." 33 20
ibid. Ibid., 37. 31 Ibid., 38. 32 Ibid. "Ibid., 39. 30
Utah Historical
302
Quarterly
Wolfe is highly impressed by the orchards, "the like of which was never seen before," and with the "air of prosperousness" of Ogden and the "ever greater orchards, groaning with their fruit," and Brigham, "another thriving and exciting lively town" with its "strange tabernacled form of the Mormon temple with its 8 gables on each side." 34 But it was Logan and its environs which provided the "greatest beauty of the day," and Wolfe rejoices in coming "suddenly," upon a "magic valley plain, flat as a floor and green as heaven and more fertile and more ripe than the Promised land." Cache Valley was for him, . . . the most lovely and enchanted valley of them all — . . . a valley that makes all that has gone before fade to nothing — the very core and fruit of Canaan — a vast sweet plain of unimaginable riches — loaded with fruit, lusty with cherry orchards, green with its thick and lush fertility and dotted everywhere with the beauty of incredible trees . . . — a land of peace and promise of plenty. 35
At Logan he experiences a "curious tightening of the throat" as he recalls a friend "who has lived here, loved it and its canyon, and went out like a million other kids like her, from all this Canaan loveliness to her future, fame and glory in the city," 36 an exodus which Wolfe himself had once undertaken. Leaving Utah, the three drove through Preston to Pocatello and the Bannock Hotel, where they slept that evening, "fatigued by the crowded beauty, splendor and magnificence of this day." 37 So ended Wolfe's visit to Utah — a visit curiously mixed with an awe for the state's rugged lands and greenness wrenched by toil from the desert and a revulsion for what he saw as the sterile fanaticisms of Mormonism. The following morning (June 27) the three drove across the Teton passes to Jackson and the Grand Tetons —• about which splendor Wolfe says little — to Yellowstone, where they ended the day with a drink in the bar of the Great Inn, where merry people were singing "We 34
Wolfe, Western Journal, 39. Ibid., 40. 30 Ibid., 41. "Ibid., 42. 35
Temple Square as it appeared in the 1930's when Thomas Wolfe visited Salt Lake City. There has been a great deal of construction on this block since that time. Utah State Historical Society photograph.
Thomas
Wolfe
303
don't give a damn for the w h o l e s t a t e of U t a h . " 3 8 T h r o u g h o u t the Yellowstone circuit Wolfe constantly compares the landscape and foliage with that of "Mormon land"; he sees the area around Mammoth Hot Springs, for example, as being "not so green as Mormon land," and the trees at another spot as "like those before in Mormon land but by some miracle transformed into this Itselfness." 39 That evening they ended their rapid tour of Yellowstone Park at Bozeman, Montana. O n June 29 the party traveled to Glacier National Park and lodged at McDonald Lake Hotel. The following day they drove through the lake region of Flathead Lake, Pend Oreille Lake, and the Columbia River, staying t h a t night at Spokane, where Wolfe, who insisted on paying for his own food, settled his account with Conway — the whole trip costing him less than $50.00. 38 From Old Faithful the usually verbose Wolfe sent a postcard of the Old Faithful Geyser to his friend, novelist Hamilton Basso, on which he wrote, "Portrait of the author at the two million word point." (Nowell, Letters, 773.) 39 Wolfe, Western Journal, 51.
Salt Lake City Main Street looking north in the 1930's. The Rotisserie, where Thomas Wolfe dined, is on the east side of the street. A horseshoe-shaped sign shows where the resaurant is located. Hal Rumel photograph.
304
Utah Historical
Quarterly
On Friday, July 1, the party drove through Grand Coulee, along the Columbia to Yakima and on to their last night's lodgings at Mount Rainier. Here, Wolfe, who had grown increasingly fond of Miller and Conway, was thrilled to discover that Conway had scaled Mount Hood 225 times and Mount Rainier 40 times. He thrilled to Conway's tales of accidents, rescues, tragedies, and near-tragedies in braving the peaks. Wolfe was moved to expressions of deep affection for his companions, and the next morning wrote that when he greeted Conway they shook hands with "quiet greetings, a feeling that our trip was almost done, and in me a sense of the tremendous kindness and decency and humanity of the man." 40 From Mount Rainier the party drove through Tacoma to Olympia, where, reluctant to take leave of each other, they visited the old State Capitol. Here Conway and Miller gave Wolfe the map and the Tour Book, in which they wrote their names. "And at last," writes Wolfe nostalgically, "farewell — and they are gone, and a curiously hollow feeling in me as I stand there in the streets of Olympia and watch the white Ford flash away." 41 It was July 2, 1938. The trip was over. Conway and Miller returned to Portland, where Miller would write two articles on the trip, "Gulping the Great West," for the July 31 and August 7, 1938, issues of The Oregonian Magazine. Wolfe traveled by bus to Seattle, where he found, among other letters, a heartening telegram from Aswell, reading: Dear T o m : Your new book is magnificent in scope and design, with some of the best writing you have ever done. I am still absorbing it, confident that when you finish you will have written your greatest novel so far. Hope you come back full of health and new visions. 42
The visions never deserted Thomas Wolfe, but his health did — and soon. On July 5 he sailed on the Princess Kathleen for Vancouver, British Columbia. While en route he apparently contracted pneumonia (friends claim he picked up the fatal germ from a sick drunk who shared a pint of whiskey with Wolfe on the boat). Very ill, Wolfe returned by train to Seattle, where he attempted for five days to nurse himself in his hotel room. Friends finally discovered how ill Wolfe really was and removed him to a private hospital. His puzzling condition steadily worsened. Finally, accompanied by his sister, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, he was 4
" Ibid., 63. Ibid., 67. 42 Nowell, Letters, 774 fn.l. The wire was dated July 1, 1938.
41
Thomas Wolfe
305
carried across the country to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he underwent surgery on September 12. Wolfe's brain was found to contain a solid mass of tubercular cells, apparently released into his blood stream by an old lesion on his right lung which had been infected during his pneumonia. He died on September 15, 1938, of cerebral infection, without ever fully regaining consciousness.43 From the mass of manuscript left in his keeping, it fell to Edward C. Aswell to edit The Web and the Rock (1939), You Can't Go Home Again (1940), and The Hills Beyond (1941), three impressive works which would help in establishing Wolfe as an important, though controversial, American author. Not until 1951, however, were some of Wolfe's notes on A Western Journal published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. It is another of literature's frequent tragedies that Wolfe was unable to live to weave his western adventures into his fictional sweep of America. He had written to Miss Nowell during the trip, "I'm getting a swell story out of this," 44 and following the tour he wrote her enthusiastically: T h e trip was wonderful and terrific. . . . T h e national parks, of course, are stupendous, but what was to me far more valuable were the towns, the things, the people I saw -— the whole West and all its history unrolling at kaleidoscopic speed. I have written it all down in just this way — with great speed —-. . . and looking some of it over, it occurs to me that in this way I may have got the whole thing — the whole impression — its speed, variety, etc. — pretty well. . . . Perhaps it's not ready to use yet or won't be for a year or two, but I'll have it down . . . . I thought I'd call it "A Western Journal." 45
His tour of the West had invigorated him, had rejuvenated his faith in his expansive American Dream, and on July 4, he wrote to Aswell that "My fingers are itching to write again." 40 But he would never write again, and his Western Journal, and particularly the sections on Utah, remain the final variation on his favorite theme — that a tension exists between the loveliness of the American landscape and the tragic stumblings and fumblings of her unworthy possessors. Thomas Wolfe's awe before the sublimity of Utah's canyons and deserts, peaks and valleys, and his wonder at the desert land bursting to life under the hoes of her Mormon settlers repeat his sweeping fascination with American landscape and its powerful burgeoning from beneath 43 For full accounts of Wolfe's last days in the Northwest and at Johns Hopkins see Chittick, "Thomas Wolfe's Farthest West," Southwest Review, X L V I I I ; Nowell, Letters; and Elizabeth Nowell, Thomas Wolfe: A Biography (Garden City, New York, 1960). 44 Nowell, Letters, 772. 45 Ibid., 774-75. 40 Aswell, "Note on a 'Western Journey,' " in Wolfe, Western Journal, v.
306
Utah Historical
Quarterly
the tools and rough boots of the unenlightened pilgrim and pioneer. And his repugnance for the Mormon culture and people, "sterile," "fanatical," "strange," "graceless," and "cruel," as he saw them, repeat Wolfe's long-standing distaste for American cultural sterility and wrongheadedness amidst the rich beauties of the land. With him such tensions were fruitful, and readers and scholars may well conjecture as to how Wolfe's unusual impressions (facts were not always important to him) of Utah and the Mormons would have emerged in his intensely autobiographical novels. That he would have used his Utah impressions seems certain, not only because of his consistent and near-encyclopedic use of his own experiences, but because in Utah as in North Carolina, Massachusetts, and New York, Wolfe marveled at the parodox of fecundity amidst sterility, and he was awed by Utah, as he had been by life, by "the pity, terror, strangeness, and magnificence of it all." 47 47
Wolfe, Western Journal, 70.
Next day we strolled about everywhere through the broad, straight, level streets [of Salt Lake City], and enjoyed the pleasant strangeness of a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants with no loafers perceptible in it; and no visible drunkards or noisy people; a limpid stream rippling and dancing through every street in place of a filthy gutter; block after block of trim dwellings, built of "frame" and sunburned brick -— a great thriving orchard and garden behind every one of them, apparently — branches from the street stream winding and sparkling among the garden beds and fruit trees — and a grand general air of neatness, repair, thrift and comfort, around and about and over the whole. (Mark Twain, Roughing It [Hartford, Connecticut, 1872], 109.)
Frederick Jackson Turner and Logan's "National Summer School," 1924 BY RAY A. BILLINGTON
The photograph of Frederick Jackson Turner is courtesy of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The photograph of Utah State University is from the Widtsoe Collection, Utah State Historical Society.
Dr. Billington, after teaching at Clark University, Smith College, and Northwestern University, in 1963 became senior research associate in western history at the Henry E. Huntington Library. He is currently preparing a biography of Frederick Jackson Turner.
NcIOTHING
— or financially rewarding — than Utah Agricultural College's "National Summer School" could have lured Frederick Jackson Turner back into the classroom that summer of 1924. He had retired from his Harvard University professorship that June, two years before the required age of sixty-five, for only one purpose: to finish the book on sectionalism over which he had labored for nearly a quartercentury. For a perfectionist this was a difficult task, for he must appraise the role of sections in the political, economic, and cultural life of the United States between 1830 and 1850, and this involved massive amounts of reading in every conceivable source. Time for this could not be found so long as he was burdened with classes, graduate students, department meetings, and the countless time-wasting duties peripheral to teaching. But once he was free of these obligations, T H E B O O K (as Turner's friends were calling it) would be completed in no time and others would follow, including the textbooks that he desperately wanted to write to cushion his old age with adequate income. 2 Nothing must interfere. But the National Summer School was compellingly alluring. This was the brainchild of Utah Agricultural College's dynamic young president, Dr. Elmer George Peterson. His school, the school from which he had graduated in 1904 and where he had spent his entire teaching and administrative career, was performing adequately as a "people's college," dispensing practical information to local students on farming, home economics, manual arts, and after 1921 teacher training. 3 But Utah — and the West — deserved something more; something that would attract the nation's attention to the beauty of its countryside and the virtues of its people; something that would bring its Mormon population more closely in touch with a world of culture that still looked faintly askance at members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How could this be accomplished? LESS GRANDIOSE 1
1 Established in 1890, the Agricultural College of Utah was renamed Utah State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in 1957. Carlton F. Culmsee, "Democracy Enrolls in College." Utah Historical Quarterly, XXX (Summer, 1962), 209. 2 T H E BOOK was, of course, the volume eventually published as The United States, 1830-1850: The Nation and Its Sections (New York, 1935). Despite Turner's hopes, the manuscript was incomplete at the time of his death in 1932, and, according to one of his best friends, would never have been completed if he had lived forever. For Turner's problems in writing see Ray A. Billington, "Why Some Historians Rarely Write History: A Case Study of Frederick Jackson Turner," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, L (June, 1963), 3—27. 3 An excellent brief history of Utah State Agricultural College is Joel E. Ricks, "Fifty Years of Utah State Agricultural College, 1888-1938," in Joel E. Ricks and Everett L. Cooley, eds., The History of a Valley: Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho (Logan, Utah, 1956), 370—89. This is a condensation of the same author's Utah State Agricultural College: A History of Fifty Years (Salt Lake City, 1938). See also Culmsee. "Democracy Enrolls in College," U.H.Q.. XXX, 198-213.
Frederick Jackson Turner
309
The answer probably came to President Peterson one fine summer morning as he walked about his attractive campus on "The Hill" high above Logan. Spread before him was the lush Cache Valley, a mosaic of rich farms fringed by the snow-tipped peaks of the Wasatch Mountains. The air was cool and fresh at that elevation of 4,500 feet; the nearby mountains offered an ideal vacationland with canyons to explore, lakes to visit, and trout streams to lure the angler. Great Salt Lake was less than an hour's drive away, and only forty miles to the east was Bear Lake which had been aptly called the Lake Geneva of the Rockies. A mile below him President Peterson could see the orderly city of Logan, known for its ten thousand "thrifty and progressive" citizens who were eager to support any cultural enterprise. 4 Here, in other words, was an ideal setting for a summer school. Why not attract a dozen eminent teachers from throughout the nation by promises of an ideal climate and unusually generous salaries? Their presence, and the attractions of Cache Valley, would lure students from all over the United States. Utah Agricultural College would become nationally known; returning students would spread word of Utah's loveliness everywhere; and Utah's cultural progress would be accelerated by contact with both students and faculty attracted there. The whole West would benefit. This was President Peterson's vision, and he possessed the energy to translate it into reality. Recruiting an eminent faculty came first, for they would attract the students. High on the list of those he wanted was Professor Turner, nationally famed as the propounder of the frontier thesis then so in vogue, former president of the American Historical Association, leading interpreter of the American past. The head of the college's History Department, Professor Joel E. Ricks, who had earned his Master of Arts degree at the University of Chicago where he came in contact with many of Turner's friends, undoubtedly supported this choice with enthusiasm, for he was a devoted admirer of Turner's work and later became a staunch friend. 5 Together, President Peterson and Professor Ricks plotted how to land this man above all other historians. The skill that President Peterson revealed explains his ability to gather the outstanding faculty that staffed the first National Summer School. 4 Agricultural College of Utah, Bulletin, General Catalogue, 1923-1924 (Logan, 1923), 35; Agricultural College of Utah, Bulletin. Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924 (Logan, 1924), 7. I am deeply indebted to Mr. A. J. Simmonds, Special Collections librarian, Utah State University, for making it possible for me to borrow through inter-library loan these catalogues and other local materials that he administers. 5 Professor Ricks assumed charge of all arrangements concerning Turner's teaching: the scheduling of classes, securing library books for reserve, ordering maps, and the like. Joel E. Ricks to Turner, January 20, 1924. Frederick Jackson Turner Papers, The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, T U Box 33. Hereafter referred to as Turner Papers, H E H , T U .
310
Utah Historical
Quarterly
He cast his net when in late 1922 he formally invited Turner to serve as a visiting professor, and indicated that he was willing to adjust the salary and teaching load in any reasonable manner to make them attractive. 6 Turner's conscience bothered him when he expressed interest, but he was susceptible at that moment to any mention of a generous sum. With retirement his salary of $9,000 at Harvard and Radcliffe colleges would shrink to the $3,000 annuity paid former professors; to this he could only add $170.00 a year from interest on Liberty Bonds purchased during World War I, $200.00 rental from stores in Madison, Wisconsin, inherited by his wife, and about $100.00 from royalties on his two books Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 and the Guide to the Study and Reading of American History prepared with Edward Channing and Albert Bushnell Hart. He could also rent his summer home, The Moorings, at Hancock Point, Maine, for about $300.00 a season when it was not occupied by the family.7 This small income meant drastic belt-tightening for the Turners, and the prospect of a sizeable summer-school salary was alluring. But should he sacrifice precious weeks that should go into work on T H E BOOK? His reply to President Peterson revealed his doubts, but also suggested that if the inducements were strong enough the scales would tip in Utah's favor. Could he teach for a shorter period than the six weeks suggested? And how substantial was the salary? President Peterson rose to this bait with alacrity. If Turner wanted to reach Logan a week or even two weeks after the beginning of the term there would be no objections; his classes would begin when he reached there. As for salary, the college would pay expenses of $250.00 or $300.00, plus one-sixth of Turner's Harvard salary, which was assumed to be $6,000 or $7,000. If this were unsatisfactory, other adjustments could be made. "I am," added President Peterson persuasively, "extremely reluctant to consider our plans finally without having you included in the faculty. If the summer school assumes only western significance, and I hope it will appeal throughout the nation, it urgently needs your assistance." 8 Turner was strongly tempted; he filled the back of President Peterson's letter with penciled cipherings in which he calculated the dollar value of one-sixth of his Harvard salary alone, one-sixth of his 6 Vera Carlson, clerk, President's Office, Utah Agricultural College to Turner, January 5, 1923. Ibid., T U Box 32. This letter enclosed information requested by Turner. President Peterson's initial correspondence has not been preserved in the Turner Papers. 7 Turner to Dorothy Main, January 26, 1923. Ibid., T U Box J. In this frank letter to his daughter, Turner discussed plans for his retirement and told of his financial situation. 8 President Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, October 8, 1923. Ibid., T U Box 32.
Frederick Jackson Turner
311
combined Harvard-Radcliffe salary of $9,000, and the satisfactory sums that emerged when these were added to expense budgets of $250.00 and $300.00. But in the end conscience prevailed, and off went a telegram: "Regret cannot accept although terms most liberal." 9 President Peterson was not willing to surrender. A telegram flashed back from Logan at once: "Very reluctant to organize work without you." Would Turner consider coming for only three weeks, nominating another competent person in western history to complete his course? Once more Turner's pencil was brought into play. One-sixth of $8,000 would be $1,333; one-half of this $666.00. Add the $300.00 expense allowance and the total reached $966.00 — or $1,000 in round figures.10 This was too profitable to resist. The telegram that he sent was to the point: he would come for three weeks for $1,000 and offer two courses, one on "Aspects of the Westward Movement," the other on "The United States, 18301850, a Study of Sections." 1X The letter that inevitably follows all telegrams confirmed this decision 12 and suggested that his successor for the second three weeks of the session be Professor Frederick Merk, who was taking his place on the Harvard faculty. Professor Merk, he assured the president, was a good lecturer and a pleasant companion, already skilled in the classroom where he regularly presented half of the introductory course in American history, a course on the institutional and constitutional history of the United States, and the second half of Turner's own course on the history of the West. He was also engaged in important research on the history of Oregon. Turner had spoken to Professor Merk, who seemed favorably inclined to accept an offer.13 The fish was in the landing net now, and only final arrangements were necessary.14 Professor Joel Ricks volunteered to take care of ordering the library books that would doubtless be required. 15 Housing was 9 Ibid. Turner made notes for this telegram, in pencil, on the back of the same letter on which he figured the financial benefits offered by President Peterson. 10 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, November 2, 1923. Telegram. Ibid., T U Box 32. Turner's calculations are on the back of this telegram. 11 Turner's notes on the back of this telegram included the message: "Yes Nov. 6 1000 (incl trans) Aspects of the Westward Movement. US 1830-50 A Study of Sections." " T u r n e r to Elmer G. Peterson, November 6, 1923. Ibid., T U Box 32. In this letter Turner evolved a better formula to justify his $1,000 salary. One-sixth of his combined HarvardRadcliffe salary of $9,000 amounted to $1,500. One-half of this for the three-week period would be $750.00. Add $250.00 expenses and the $1,000 figure would be reached. 13 Turner's penciled notes on the back of this letter show that he considered recommending for the appointment Professor Frederic L. Paxson of the University of Wisconsin, Professor E. E. Robinson of Stanford University, and Professor Merk. 14 President Peterson made a final effort to persuade Turner to remain for the six-week session, listing the eminent faculty he had assembled as an inducement. Turner refused to rise to this lure. Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, December 20, 1923. Turner Papers, H E H T U Box 32. 15 Joel E. Ricks to Turner, January 20, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33.
312
Utah Historical
Quarterly
quickly arranged, for Mrs. Turner would have to stay in Cambridge to supervise closing their house there and dividing their belongings between their Maine summer home and storage. Turner was assigned a bachelor apartment in a recently renovated dormitory at $35.00 a month, and could obtain fine meals cooked by the Home Economics Department for only $14.00 a week at a nearby college dining hall. 10 He was doubtless cheered by these low prices, as he was by news from a travel agent that the summer-rate round-trip fare from Boston to Salt Lake City and return was only $118.16. 17 His expense funds would cover his living nicely. Nor was he discouraged when President Peterson discovered his passion for trout fishing and warned him that "Good roads and automobiles have carried fishermen to most of our previously sequestered streams and thus accent the necessity of the finer points of the art." 18 To a skilled angler this was only a challenge, and Turner spent moments that spring dreaming of his battles with the finned five-pounders in the Logan River. The adroit techniques used by President Peterson to persuade Turner to join his faculty were used again and again, until he had assembled a notable group of teachers. The list printed in the summer school catalogue read like a Who's Who of the academic world: Professor Eliot Blackwelder of Stanford University in geology, Professor Henry C. Cowles of the University of Chicago in ecology, Professor E. C. Branson of the University of North Carolina in rural economics, Professor E. V. McCollum of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in biochemistry, E. L. Thorndike of Columbia University's Teachers' College in educational psychology, and a half-dozen more. 19 In addition another brilliant galaxy of lecturers was recruited to present a special series twice daily, including such well-known figures as President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University, Professor John Adams of London, Professor Shaler Matthews of the University of Chicago, and Dr. A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education.20 Perhaps this was not quite "the most eminent faculty ever assembled in the West or indeed, in the nation," as the college catalogue proclaimed it to be, 21 but the 10
R. E. Bernston to Turner, May 7, 19, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. W. A. Barrows, general passenger agent, Boston and Albany Railroad, to Turner, May 9, 1924. Ibid., T U B o x 3 3 . 18 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, January 3, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. 19 The college catalogue provided full-length sketches of each visiting dignitary, together with a picture. A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 16-24. 2,1 Ibid., 26-27. 21 Ibid., 7. 11
Frederick Jackson Turner
313
president of the Board of Trustees had some justification when he contended that "the national summer school to be held at the college during the coming summer is the greatest educational event of its kind ever held in America." 22 As Turner dreamed of Utah's trout streams, gave his final lectures, and endured the round of laudatory exercises inevitable upon retirement, Logan busily prepared to receive him and his distinguished colleagues. Housing was a major concern, for no town of ten thousand could absorb a thousand visitors without some readjustment. The college assumed part of the burden, setting aside a portion of the campus where students who wished to pitch tents could be supplied with water and electricity. Logan followed suit by designating one of its park five miles from the campus as a camping ground where the rugged could enjoy a real vacation. 23 For those who demanded less primitive quarters, the Chamber of Commerce created a Special Housing Committee to canvass the city for rooms and to operate a central rooming bureau in offices donated by the Cache Valley Electric Company. The townspeople responded so wholeheartedly that even the best homes offered to take in students, to the surprised delight of the college authorities. 24 This was not enough, for no one could predict the number of students who would be attracted from throughout the nation, and the local citizenry must enroll for courses to assure financial success for the National Summer School.25 This was the message trumpeted regularly by the press. Housewives were assured that the special lecture series provided an unparalleled opportunity to hear "the most illustrious offerings of its kind ever attempted in the west," 20 and that the modest price of $12.50 for a series ticket meant that they could hear "some of the greatest platform lecturers the entire country offers for less that 25 cents a lecture." 27 Teachers were warned that such opportunities for selfimprovement came rarely, and told that they must enroll to a man. These veiled hints were given weight by those who signed the appeals; they included the presidents of the Logan and Cache Valley stakes, the heads of the state and local farm bureaus, the leaders of the Rotary and Kiwanis "Journal (Logan, U t a h ) , March 22, 1924. For the use of microfilm copies of this newspaper I am indebted to Mr. A. J. Simmonds. 23 A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 7. "-'Journal, May 22, 1924. 25 Ibid., March 29, 1924. "-" Ibid., May 29, 1924. ""Ibid., June 9, 1924. The registration fee for the entire quarter of regular course work was only $25.00, with an additional fee of fifty cents a credit hour for laboratory courses. A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 8—9.
314
Utah Historical
Quarterly
clubs, the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Education, and the principals and superintendents of schools.28 Joining the National Summer School was clearly not only a cultural necessity but a duty to city, state, and church. In this pre-session publicity, Turner received his fair share of accolades. To the editor of the newspaper he was "the great historian of Harvard," who had "no peer in the field of history as related to western America. His book on 'The Rise of the New West' is a profound contribution to American thought." 29 Reporters inevitably transformed him into the "head of the history department at Harvard," a post that he never held and studiously avoided. Others sought to inject glamour into his offerings, pointing out that no more fitting course than that on the history of the West could be given "during the centenary year of the discovery of the Great Salt Lake by [Jim] Bridger." Such a course, readers of the local newspaper were told, "will make us prouder than ever of our western country and give us a better understanding of the forces that have produced it." 30 Those who succumbed to such propaganda under the illusion that they would hear of glamorous cowboys and Indians were doomed to disappointment. Turner's History 151 A, "Aspects of the Westward Movement in American History," was directed toward a serious study of frontiers and sections, as the description in the catalogue indicated: 3 1 A study of selected topics in the history of the West considered as a process rather than an area. T h e movement of the people from the Atlantic coast; the advance of the frontier into the free lands of the wilderness; the influence of regional geography; the formation of new sections; the effect upon the eastern states economically, politically and socially, and their relation to the diplomatic history will be discussed. T h e work of the class will consist of readings outlined in Turner and Merk, List of Readings in the History of the West (1923), and F. J. Turner, Frontier in American History. Loheck's Physiographic Diagram of the United States and small outline maps will also be used.
The second course promised even weightier fare: 3 2 History 161 A. T h e United States, 1830-1850. A study of the various regions and sections during this period as a basis for an examination of their economic and political interaction in shaping the nation's history in 28
Journal, May 29, June 7, 1924. Ibid., March 29, 1924. 30 Ibid., May 7, 1924. This was one of a series published by the Journal describing and picturing the visiting faculty members. 31 A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 23. 52 Ibid., 23. 29
Frederick Jackson Turner
315
the era of Jacksonian Democracy. T h e work of the class will consist of collateral reading in the sources, and in biographies and histories of the period. William E. Dodd's Expansion and Conflict, in the Riverside History of the United States, or the first half of Woodrow Wilson's Division and Reunion in the Epochs of American History, should be critically studied by students who take the course for credit. T h e course will meet daily at eight, for three weeks only, and will carry one and one-fourth credits.
The intellectual exercises promised by these catalogue announcements contrasted strangely with the practical subjects that inevitably bulked large in the offerings of a "people's college." Students could also enroll in courses on Irrigation and Drainage Practice, Housebuilding and Cabinet Making, A Mother Course in Play, Elementary Folk Dancing, and Cheddar Cheese Making. Despite the well-stocked cafeteria of learning promised in these announcements, administrators waited with fingers-crossed apprehension for the students to arrive, for no one knew whether a few hundred or more than a thousand would appear. Registration started slowly on June 6, but was gaining momentum by Monday, June 9, when classes were scheduled to begin. President Peterson felt justified in issuing an optimistic statement that night, with figures approaching 900. 33 "We expect," he said, "that our estimates in attendance will be fully realized. From 700 to 800 students will make a success of the school this year. It seems that such a number will be on hand. Limited numbers, fully up to our expectations, have already arrived from various parts of the country." 3 4 The next few days fully justified President Peterson's sanguine views; by the end of the first week of classes total enrollment reached 1,240, of whom 1,120 were full-time credit students. 35 All Logan turned out to welcome the newcomers. Townspeople roamed the streets in their cars looking for students who could be driven to the campus. 36 Others formed committees to greet the arrivals, direct them to the housing center, and arrange transportation to their new quarters. T h e editor of the student newspaper promised all outsiders a 33 Nearly eight hundred students had registered by nightfall on June 9, and optimists were predicting that nine hundred and perhaps even a thousand would appear. Journal, June 10, 1924. 34 Student Life (Logan, U t a h ) , June 9, 1924. For copies of items in this undergraduate newspaper relative to Turner, I am indebted to Professor Leonard J. Arrington of Utah State University, and to his student, Mr. Donald Reading. 33 Journal, June 13, 1924. By this time students had registered from all over the United States, but with a heavy concentration from adjacent areas. Utah provided the largest number, followed by Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada. California and Ohio came next, with seven students from each. 36 One student reported that he stopped to ask directions to the campus and was told: "Jump into my car and I'll drive you right up." Student Life, June 23, 1924.
Utah Historical
316
Quarterly
Utah's Land-Grant College, charged with teaching courses for the benefit of persons in agriculture and the mechanic arts, was established by Congress March 8,1888. The institution, known first as the Agricultural College of Utah, was dedicated September 4, 1890. These photographs of the college arc from the Widtsoe Collection, Utah State Historical Society.
special brand of hospitality that they could never experience in the East. Their hosts, said he, had been reared in a West "that is not fully tamed, not yet antiquated with traditions," that had instilled in them "a spirit of brotherhood and friendship." In this spirit all new Aggies were welcomed to the campus by all old Aggies.37 One who warmed to this spirit at once was Professor Turner. He began his trip west on July 1, when he boarded the Boston and Albany Railroad's crack train, "The Wolverine," at 2:30 in the afternoon, and settled into the relative comfort of a lower berth. Less than three hours later he was writing the first of a series of almost-daily letters to his adored ''Ibid., June 9, 1924.
Frederick Jackson Turner
317
wife, Caroline Mae Sherwood Turner, or "Darling Little M a e " as he often addressed her. 38 Berkshires — J u n e 1 '24 I am a to-be-pitied person! 1. had to leave my wife behind 2. she gave me a key and told me to lock my grip 3. I did — and the key won't unlock it! 4. I shall have to greet Breese and Dorothy with a flowing white beard! 39 I have gone through the porter's keys. I have tried to break the lock It is in vain Also I shan't be able to comb my hair or read anything. But the sunset over the Berkshires is lovely & the apple blossoms are still in evidence and perhaps I can buy a safety razor at Albany in the 10 minutes stop. Country very green and fresh. Rather warmish car. Storm windows on. I hated to leave you to the movers. Don't overdo. And cheer me u p with little letters when you aren't rushed. I had maccaroni and ginger ale for supper — also a half cantaloupe which wasn't bad. Perhaps I can get a key and shave in Chicago, or cut a slit in the bag, or use my pen knife. But I want my wife along to soothe my feelings. Love & Kisses Fred New York Central Lines En Route 9 A.M. June 2 '24 Dearest wife, I did it! I pried the blamed bag open enough, by bending the frame to pilfer it of my razor, tooth brush &c, out of dressing case (which was strapped and buckled!) and now I am washed and shaven and toothed, and I feel like an A 1 burglar, and don't care whether I have keys or not! So my efficient wife is forgiven. Slept well, had the usual breakfast, and am just leaving Detroit on time. I shall mail at Chicago. . . . It is overcast outside with showers predicted, but comfortable. I am already lonesome; but am rested. Please don't overdo. Love Fred 38 The letters from Frederick Jackson Turner that are reproduced on the following pages were written to his wife and have been preserved in the Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box J. 39 "Breese" was Mrs. Ellen Breese Turner DeMoe, his sister, who lived with her husband in Evanston, Illinois. "Dorothy" was Dorothy Turner Main, his daughter, whom he planned to visit in Madison.
318
Utah Historical
Quarterly
T,
he train reached Chicago at 3:00 that afternoon, and Turner hurried away for two important calls. One was to visit his sister, Ellen Breese Turner DeMoe who lived with her husband in suburban Evanston. The other required a brief train journey northward to Madison, Wisconsin, where he planned two whirlwind days of business and pleasure. The pleasure he found in the company of his daughter, Dorothy Turner Main, her husband John Main who was a local real-estate broker, and his three grandchildren. The business was almost as exciting. The Turners were moving to Madison that winter, and a house must be built to receive them. So hours were spent with a contractor, more hours with his son-in-law discussing finances, more hours pouring over plans. Before Turner left Madison a contract had been signed for a small bungalow, to be built next to the home that his daughter and her husband were to build. The cost was heavier than anticipated — $7,000 — but by adroit management of household expenses, the sale of a few securities, and borrowing against insurance policies they could manage. 40 Business concluded, the last good-byes said, Turner returned to Chicago to resume his journey westward. He reached Logan on Sunday, June 8, and settled into a life that proved to be unbelievably pleasant. His letters to his wife mirror the delights that he experienced amidst the Mormon people whom he had always respected but never known: 4 1 Utah Agricultural College Plant Industry Building — 3d floor Logan, Utah Sunday, June 8, 1924 Darling: Here I am in an apartaient of two bedrooms, bath room, and living room, windows to north, with a view of snow topped mountains on every side, 4 or 5000 feet elevation — which I only feel slightly. I slept well, though tired, after the journey. It has been cold and showerey all the way from Chicago. I was met with automobile and motored in from Ogden, about a two hour ride past the Salt Lake, over concrete roads that put Mass. state roads to s h a m e ; 4 2 past little Mormon villages, like New England towns, with tabernacles in the center of the towns, into valleys flanked by smiling green fields, running into browns and greys and blues, and silvery snow filled 40
Turner to Caroline Mae Turner, June 4, 1924. Turner Papers. H E H T U Box J. The following letters are published in full, save for a few discussions of business matters having to do with planning and building the new house in Madison. They are exactly reproduced, including misspellings. 42 Special arrangements were made to meet all visiting faculty members at Ogden and drive them to Logan over the Wellsville Canyon route, thus offering them a combination of western hospitality and mountain views of Cache Valley that would assure favorable first impressions. The weather failed to cooperate, however, for Saturday and Sunday were cold and rainy, with snow falling so thickly at higher elevations that drivers were forced to clean their windshields. Journal, June 6, 7, 1924. 41
Frederick Jackson Turner
319
gulches, golden rocks, and misty curtains of haze which m a d e it all dream-like and exquisite. It is more beautiful than Mrs. Rosenberry said it was. 43 We had a snow flurry and I rejoiced in my overcoat. We feasted on fresh picked cherries bought from Mormon children at the road side, and I was introduced to the real fisherman, an interesting Swiss named Hurti, 4 4 who tells me that right in Logan he can p u t me in touch with trout that average from l/2 to a pound and run as high as 4 to 6 pounds in a neighboring canyon. Season opens next Sunday. We shall see! But I wish Gray could be with me to show them how to cast a fly in these heavenly surroundings. 4 5 H o w I wish I had made you come with me! I am "very well received" — was taken at once to the President's office where I was ushered in to the assembled faculty and introduced. T h e Professor of History, Joel Ricks, is a Chicago graduate — a Mormon — I suppose and he is more than helpful and cordial — a big fine looking young fellow. 40 President Peterson takes me with him this afternoon to the Mormon "quarterly meeting", so I shall have a chance to become a real follower of B[righam] Y[oung]. T h e H o m e Economics Building furnishes meals — and perfect ones. I have just breakfasted. W e have the cream, not to speak of the butter, of the college dairy, waited on by senior girls, and presided over by Dr. Dozzier, a California woman who is Dean of the department. 4 7 So far the table consists of Professor & Mrs. Reed (farm machinery) and a little girl of Betsey's age, but rather quieter table m a n n e r s ; 4 8 Professor Shearer, a girl from California, once a student of mine in Wisconsin (though I didn't recall her!) , 49 She is [a] kindergartner expert—-I had denounced the kindergarten before I realized that! but she took it meekly and cheerfully, and I said I was open to conversion and she said she had her own doubts about kindergartens herself! 43 Lois C K. M. Rosenberry, author of an important book on The Expansion of New England (Boston, 1909), had been a friend of Turner's ever since earning her doctorate at Radcliffe College in 1906. Between 1911 and 1918 she served as dean of women and associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, and at this time was living with her husband in Madison. 44 "Hurti" was in all probability Albert Hugi, an employee of the Utah Agricultural College shops from about 1907 to his death in 1939. He migrated to the United States with his Swiss parents when he was six, and became a superior and frequent fisherman who often took prominent persons trout fishing. His widow remembers that he probably took Turner on several of his expeditions into the Logan River country. For this, and other local information, I am deeply indebted to Professor Leonard J. Arrington and Mr. Donald Reading. 45 "Gray" was Edward Gray Parrot, a Boston financier who owned a summer house near Turner's at Hancock Point, Maine, and who shared Turner's enthusiasm for trout fishing. They not only fished many local streams together, but journeyed into Nova Scotia to try their skill in strange waters. 40 Professor Joel E. Ricks was born in Idaho in 1889, earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Utah in 1912, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1920, and was to secure his doctorate from that institution in 1930. After a brief period as teacher of history and president of Weber Normal College, Professor Ricks joined the Utah Agricultural College faculty in 1922 as professor of history and chairman of the department. He had been helpful to Turner in arranging for his coming, and they were to become good friends. A brief sketch of his career is in A . C , General Catalogue, 1923-1924, 13. 47 Dr. Carrie Castle Dozier was dean of the School of Home Economics and professor of food and dietetics at Utah Agricultural College. This and other information on faculty members met by Turner is from A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 20-21. 48 Professor C O Reed of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Ohio State University, was one of the visiting summer faculty members. He was offering a course on Farm and Auto Mechanics and one on Special Farm Machinery designed to give high school teachers the content and method of teaching about farm machinery. "Betsey" was the Turners' granddaughter. 49 Professor Elga M. Shearer was supervisor of the Primary Department of the city schools system of Long Beach, California. She offered courses in Principles of Method and The Education of Young Children.
320
Utah Historical
Quarterly
Professor Wood & his wife from Columbia went to the hotel. 50 Both are ardent fly fishermen. She is very frail looking, and he looks husky but is tubercular and has to go to the Colorado or U t a h region every year. These are the only visitors I have met — except Professor of Bio-Chemistry, from Johns Hopkins, McCollom, whom I merely met. 51 H e looks rather serious. My 3 express pieces with lecture notes & slides are in my rooms. My trunk is to be delivered tomorrow, and tomorrow I start in to lecture. They are expecting more of me than I can deliver! I wrote you about the bungalow. I forgot to ask Conway whether it would cost too much to have the rafters show in living & dining room, with lath & plaster between — say half way up. I suspect such construction would be costly and doubtfully secure. But I asked Dorothy to enquire of Conway. . . .52 How odd it is to be building a house in Madison when you are in Maine and I in U t a h ! T h e bungalows seem to be the prevailing style in many of the pretty suburbs I saw in going out of Chicago, and in Ogden. I saw none so "cunning" as the Fisherman's cottage. . . , 53 I have drawn a check for $20.00 to John for cash at Madison, 54 and I arrive here with about $60 in pocket. Apartment is $35.00 a month. I don't know yet what meals will cost, but I suppose not over $21 a week — say 65 for the stay, so I shall probably check for 100 to 150 more — outside of about $50 for sleeper & side trip to Madison to see how the family and the bungalow have gotten on. . . . Tell the Allinson's that Athens of the violet crown and purest atmosphere has nothing on Logan, Utah. 5 5 Give Gertrude my greetings and tell her how brave she is.50 Tell Harry that his ossified fish would look like a minnie by the side of those I shall be casting for next week, and tell Jordan to take good care of the best little woman in Hancock Point. 57 Give my best to Charles & Clare, but don't auto with Clare until I come back and give her a license. 58 r,n Professor Thomas D. Wood taught regularly in the Department of Physical Education at Columbia University, and offered work at Utah Agricultural College summer school in this subject. He was chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Problems in America of the National Educational Association. 51 Professor E. V. McCollum was professor of biochemistry in the School of Hygiene of the Johns Hopkins University. In 1921 he won the Howard N. Potts gold medal for distinguished scientific work. He offered two courses in the Home Economics Department on nutrition. 52 Conway was the contractor entrusted with building the bungalow in Madison where the Turners planned to live after a summer in Hancock Point, Maine. Dorothy was, of course, Turner's daughter. 53 At this time Turner was experimenting with names to be applied to their new bungalow. Eventually "Fisherman's Cottage" was discarded in favor of "The Chimney Corner." 54 John Main, Turner's son-in-law in Madison, was a prominent real-estate broker, and was supervising the building of the Turner house there. "" Francis G. Allinson, professor of Greek literature and history, Brown University, spent the summer at Hancock Point, Maine, where the Turners owned a small house. His wife, Annie Crosby Emery Allinson, was also a classical scholar. 50 Gertrude Elizabeth Slaughter and her husband. Moses Stephens Slaughter, professor of Latin at the University of Wisconsin, were two of the Turners' closest friends. Their two daughters had died not long before of a mysterious ailment. The Slaughters regularly spent their summers at Hancock Point at a home near the Turners. "' Harry and Jordan were residents of Hancock Point and performed all manner of tasks for the summer visitors. 1,8 Charles Homer Haskins and Clare, his wife, were among the Turners' most intimate friends. Haskins and Turner were graduate students together at Johns Hopkins, then colleagues at the University of Wisconsin until 1902 when Haskins accepted a post at Harvard. In 1910 he played a leading role in influencing Turner to join the Harvard faculty. At this time he was dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Gurney professor of history and political science. Like the others mentioned in this paragraph, the Haskins spent their summers at Hancock Point.
Frederick Jackson Turner
321
I must unpack my notes! Love & kisses Fred Agricultural College of U t a h Logan, U t a h J u n e 9, 1924 Dearest: I have just finished my first two lectures — large classes — big room filled but I think it will fall off after today. I wasn't at my best — getting adjusted to the change I suppose. Yesterday afternoon I went with President Peterson to the Mormon tabernacle, "quarterly meeting" of the Cache Valley people. I was put on the Platform under the huge, good organ, with one of the 12 apostles at my side, and all sorts of bishops and elders. Services very interesting until I was invited to speak to the assembly! I crawled out of it, by admitting fatigue after a long journey, but they say that [they] will call again! 59 The singing and organ beat anything I ever heard from a church in the East. T h e faces were really fine old spiritual faces in most of the congregation. T h e speaking was characteristic combination of practical advice and spiritual exhortation, filled with common sense, but fundamental to the last degree. T h e apostle (Mr. Richards) rehearsed the essentials of the faith, and the revelations of Joseph Smith, and the immediate coming of Christ. 60 T h e congregation by vote of hands cast their vote for the nominees of the church for the various offices — no one dissenting. I walked in the moonlight in this wonderful mountain walled valley last night and marvelled. The song of running irrigation rivulets, the smell of the lush green meadows, the miles of concrete walks, bridges acquaducts, everything trim and garnished. It was a contrast to Cambridge & to Madison. But there were little bungalows, with low ceilings that looked very attractive and, though about our dimension, they did not seem too small. Do tell me that you didn't get too tired in Cambridge -—• but tell the truth, if you did. Care for your dear self. Lovingly Fred U t a h Agric. College Logan, U t a h June 10, 1924 My Dearest: Another lecture day over. I am getting adjusted and doing better work! Do hope you didn't get too tired. I regret leaving the house before it was finished. Rest 59 The Sunday afternoon session of the Cache Stake Quarterly Conference began with the choir and congregation singing "America." The meeting was addressed by President W. W. Henderson of Brigham Young College who spoke against materialism in education, and President O. H. Hudge of the Logan Stake who discussed improvements in education in Cache Valley since the early days. During the morning session, which Turner did not attend, President Peterson of Utah Agricultural College thanked the stake members for their help in making the National Summer School a success. His guest on that occasion, E. C. Branson, Kenan professor of rural economics and sociology at the University of North Carolina and a visting professor at the summer school, proved less reluctant than Turner and spoke briefly. Journal, June 9, 1924. m Elder George F. Richards, of Salt Lake City, addressed the stake meeting in praise of education, going back to Biblical times for his examples. Another speaker during the afternoon session was Stake President Joseph E. Cardon. Ibid., June 9, 1924.
322
Utah Historical
Quarterly
now absolutely, and let the Hancock unpacking go till I come. . . .C1 There are 6 or 800 students now here, and registration may run to 1000, which is what they hoped for first year. 62 My West class is overflowing a large room. T h e other about half that. Perhaps 300 in all — maybe more. Still beautiful, but a trifle warmer. Overcoat every night! Am lunching now with the President. 63 Love Fred Thursday, June 12, 1924 Dearest Yesterday we motored some 13 miles up Logan canyon down which the Logan river runs. It is a good state road reaching 40 miles to Bear Lake between lofty hills & mountains. T h e river is a perfect trout stream with pools and riffles and just right for wading. Of course it must be fished pretty hard, but they tell me that on the fifteenth I will probably be able to find a trout or two — the open[ing] day of the season. Hooray! Then at the end of the ride we climbed nearly 2000 feet of sagebrush mountainside and soft rocks to' see a Juniper which is perhaps 5000 years old and not less than 3800. This the Chicago University botanist (Cowles) as well as the local college botanist (Hill) say is the minimum. 6 4 I was with the botanical party. We left the college at 2 P. and the climb itself was done leisurely, botanizing on the way, and accompanied by the head forest ranger of the Cache National Forest, the Sheriff, a photographer, and some 20 students. T h e Tree fills you with awe. I t isn't tall. of course you remember Junipers of the Sierras but it grows from a kind of towering base of lime stone rock, seem[ing]ly solid rock — and is of huge trunk, with limbs that writhe and wrinkle and twist and with their grey and browm colors make you think of the eldest man in the wrorld. Really awe inspiring. It wras discovered this spring. They made Professor Cowles & me have our photograph taken from the lower limbs, and are to send you one at Hancock. 65 I feel quite young after the 01 Mrs. Turner was left behind to supervise the breaking up of the house in Cambridge they had occupied for some years. Many of their belongings were being sent to their summer home at Hancock Point where they planned to spend summers and autumns; the remainder were destined for storage until the completion of their new home in Madison. 62 The local paper reported that day that registration had reached almost 800 and would certainly pass 900 and perhaps approach 1.000. Actually 1,240 eventually enrolled. Journal. June 10, 13, 1924. C3 President and Mrs. Peterson entertained at luncheon on June 10 for a number of visiting faculty members, including Turner, Professor E. V. McCollum of Johns Hopkins University. Professor and Mrs. Warder C. Allee of the University of Chicago, Dean George R. Hill of the School of Agriculture of Utah Agricultural College, and Professor James H. Linford, also of Utah Agricultural College and director of the National Summer School. Ibid., June 14, 1924. 64 This expedition, as Turner noted, was led by Professor Henry C. Cowles, professor of plant ecology at the University of Chicago, and Professor George R. Hill, professor of botany and dean of the School of Agriculture at Utah Agricultural College. Members of Professor Hill's botanv class formed the bulk of the party, but about one hundred went along, including Turner and Professor Warder C. Allee of the Department of Zoology, University of Chicago. Frequent stops were made along the way while Professor Cowles lectured on botanical specimens. Ibid., June 12, 1924. The tree itself was a natural marvel, nine feet in diameter and standing nearly forty feet high. It had been discovered only a year before by Maurice B. Linford, a former student and instructor in botany at the college, who was attracted by its great size. Student Life, July 7, 1924. Professor Cowles lectured about the tree to the assembled group, telling them that it was between 3,500 and 4,000 years old, not the 5,000 asserted by Turner. Journal, June 12, 1924. In a later interview Professor Cowles revised his estimates to 2,700 years old. Ibid., July 7, 1924. 65 This photograph was published in the Journal, July 7, 1924, and in Student Life. July 7, 1924. The juniper is still one of Utah's scientific and scenic attractions. It is reached by a steep
Frederick Jackson Turner
323
experience with a real old one. Stood the climb well and received praise from the mountain men. Returning we visited two side canyons where the boy scouts and girl scouts respectively have their camps -—• huge log houses with stone chimneys, and well appointed inside. It was amazing to see the money and care they spend in bringing up their boys and girls in the midst of the wild — deer, bear, elk &c are often seen from these camps, and there is an annual day when fathers and sons meet there and the boys hear "dad" tell stories of his early adventure and get acquainted. . . . Breakfast time! We have excellent meals. Lovingly Fred Utah Agricultural College Logan, Utah June 13, 1924 Dearest M a e : One week of lecturing is over today. Last night I went to a reception and dance — buxom girls and sturdy boys — almost all Mormons. 6 6 This noon I lunched as the guest of the Kiwanis Club and talked for twenty minutes—they pulled through ! 07 Tomorrow I rise at 6:30 and go to Salt Lake on an excursion to the breeding grounds of the wild fowl on Bear River bay of that lake — a famous place. Sunday I go fishing in the Logan river. My Swiss guide (Mormon) " H u r t i " is to start at 3:30 A.M. with worms, to be sure to have a "joint catch" for us. But I shall not go until 10 when the flies are on the water. I saw several trout rising when we took our motor trip up Logan Canyon the other day, of which I wrote you. I don't know which made the deepest impression on me — the old Juniper; the beauty of it all; the ability to climb at this altitude; or the shouts of " O h Boy!" with which the fourteen year old lad who was with us greeted the sight of the rising trout. T h e season opens Sunday, and I think I shall be on the stream every afternoon from present indications and invitations. I am feeling very fit— I wish I could give you some of it! Poor little wife to get so tired! T h e boy is a nephew of Professor Joel Ricks, who is in charge of the History Department. 6 8 I think I won the boy's friendship by my stories of the bears I have trail ascending a mile from the bottom of Logan Canyon. Federal Writers' Project, Utah. A Guide to the State (New York, 1941), 332. 06 The reception and dance was an informal "Get Acquainted" party held in the Smart Gymnasium for the summer school students, following a public lecture by Visiting Professor Edward L. Thorndike of Columbia University. About eight hundred attended. Journal, June 14, 1924. C7 Turner spoke to the Kiwanis Club luncheon at the Eccles Hotel on "Men with Gifted Feet," giving what was described as a "deeply interesting address." He spoke of the trappers and adventurers who opened the far western frontiers. "The pioneers and early adventurers," he told his audience, "were hikers. They valued discovery and adventure. . . . The men with gifted feet were idealists as well as builders." Student Life, June 16, 1924. "The motive of these men," he went on, "was not primarily selfish. Even the gold seekers were more eager to find than to get. The men with gifted feet were the discoverers. They combined the community action of builders with the originality of idealists, and so out of the great migrations to Oregon, California and Utah came the blend that we call the west." Journal, June 14, 1924. This, at least, was Turner according to the local reporters. cs The "boy" was Roland Morrell, son of Dr. Joseph R. Morrell of Ogden, whose wife, Jeannette McKay Morrell, was Mrs. Joel E. Rick's sister. Dr. Morrell was a general practitioner
324
Utah Historical
Quarterly
met! Anyway he is devoted; and has just bashfully but confidingly proposed a fishing trip together, which I promptly accepted. Of course I shall lose my heroic size when he sees me fail to catch the trout; but I am devoted to him. . . . I like these Mormon people; and the meals at the Domestic Economy building are good — the people pleasant — all professors & their families. The table is in charge of a California girl Mrs. Dossier, who is efficient and intelligent & inventive of new dishes. Professor Cowles (Chicago U. botanist) is usually my neighbor. Miss Shearer, a precise Wisconsin graduate (kindergarten Professor from California, Long Beach) on the other hand. Professor Reed (Farm engineering) and his wife and winsome little daughter of 4 or 5 years across. 69 Columbia & Chicago professors at other tables. T h e children have joyful times together. I am completely adjusted to altitude I think, and find it conducive to clearheadedness and liveliness of spirit, if it weren't from wanting you here. This extra unused bedroom, meant, I suppose for you, weighs on my spirit. I wish you could see these mountains drenched in m o o n l i g h t — n o clouds — or glowing at sunset -— the irrigation streams, the rich green of the valley below us, with Lombardy poplars and maples which give a Corot look to the landscape; and the two steeples of the grey stone Mormon tabernacle which rise from an eminence in the Valley, with the gold and green mountain sides as a background. It's the most beautiful campus I ever saw. T h e lawns, the miles of concrete walks, the perfect neatness everywhere make me ready to join the Mormon c h u r c h — i t has abandoned polygamy now! I enclose one of the songs we sang at the luncheon today — tune " O h Susanna". 70 I warbled with the best of them! We really ought to build a third bungalow here! I am sure Gray & Mary Parrot would prefer it to Northern Africa; but I shall wait until I test the fishing before I finally advise him to move. 71 News of Hell & Maria Dawes as Coolidges running mate just received—too much banker in the ticket I suspect for the West. I do not learn yet what La Follette will do; but I can guess. 72 Bless your heart, little wife. Fred U t a h Agric. College Logan, U t a h Sunday, June 15, 1924 DearestSaturday we breakfasted at 6:30 and went by electric trolley to Brigham City — & thence by auto to the Bear River bay wiiere it enters Salt Lake. It wras an interesting trip into the irrigated peach-raising country about Brigham, but most of in Ogden, and an enthusiastic fisherman. For this information I am indebted to Professor Leonard J. Arrington and Donald Reading. 09 These individuals have all been identified previously in footnotes 47, 48, 49, and 64. 70 The song, "No Place Like Dear Old Cache T o Me," was written by A. M. Durham. Its chorus, repeated after each of many verses, proclaimed: Oh, Cache Valley, the place I love to be, There is no spot in all the world like dear old Cache to me. The copy mentioned by Turner is still preserved with this letter to his wife in Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box J. 71 For identification of Edward Gray Parrot see footnote 45. 72 The Logan newspaper reported the nomination of Charles G. Dawes, popularly known as "Hell and Maria," as President Calvin Coolidge's running mate on the Republican ticket in the election of 1924. Turner had been a staunch supporter of Robert M. LaFollette, Progressive Wisconsin senator, during the Progressive era, but lost his enthusiasm when LaFollette embraced what seemed a pro-German stand in the years before American entry into World War I.
Frederick Jackson Turner
Fishing in Logan Canyon, such as Frederick Jackson Turner enjoyed white he stayed in Utah. Photograph gift of the U.S. Forest Service.
325
326
Utah Historical
Quarterly
the way I was learning about Mormonism from the wife of Professor Ricks. 73 She is daughter of a Patriarch, sister of an Apostle and a vivacious Scotch girl. I learned a lot but too long to detail by letter. The wild fowl of the Bay would have delighted you — but the mosquitoes wouldn't! However their bite proved not to raise a swelling or scratching so I paid tribute to them in the talk I was unexpectedly called upon to give at the "strawberry & cream" s u p p e r — ( w h i c h turned out to be a buffet dinner) as "good mosquitoes". I t was "well received." 74 We saw millions of pelicans and gulls & nesting ducks. But the most impressive were the beautifully marked wading birds who danced for us — stilts and yellow legs & pipers and so on indefinitely. There were lovely meadow larks, and cranes & bitterns & shags & so on. We had a good lunch at a duck club and were taken on the river in long narrow ducks boats driven by electric motors, seating 6 or 8 people. 75 Everything was well managed by the Brigham people, and as there were some 2 or 300 guests we were very much impressed. After supper Mrs. Peterson, the President's wife motored Professor & Mrs. Wood of Columbia, Professor Branscom, of North Carolina & me back by moonlight to Logan. 76 I had them as my guests to cold drinks at the charming Blue Bird's Nest — an ice cream cafe. This morning I have been out on Logan river — opening of the season. As I expected there was an angler every few rods and automobiles parked like in a city street. 77 T h e Swiss took me out at ten and we got back by two. H e had gone out at 3 A.M. and caught 2 three pound native trout and a half pounder by bait. The stream was lovely and I enjoyed the wading. Hugi, using the huge May flies which were very abundant, caught a half pound black spotted native; and three little ones: but, you would have had to beg a trout from some other fisherman than your husband. I tried the May flies and lots of other flies but I couldn't get a rise. The water had been whipped to death; but I haven't learned the river tricks yet. I shall try it again when the local artists have had their day! We dine at five — no luncheon -— so I am 73 Kathryn McKay Ricks is the daughter of David McKay, longtime bishop of Huntsville Ward (east of Ogden) and a farmer-stockman who had migrated from Scotland. Her brother, David O. McKay, was an apostle of the Mormon church from 1906 to 1951 when he was made president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mrs. Ricks, a tall, stately, dignified lady, still lives with her husband in Logan. For this information I am indebted to Professor Leonard J. Arrington. 74 The region visited by Turner was later, in 1928, created the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge by act of Congress. The area, comprising 64,200 acres, is fifteen miles from Brigham City, and lies at the mouth of the Bear River where the swamps and water provide an ideal resting place for the two major waterfowl flyways that cross at that point. Federal Writers' Project. Utah. A Guide to the State, 277-78. The group with which Turner visited the refuge comprised 150 summer-school faculty and students, who left Logan at 7:30 in the morning for Brigham City. Journal, June 14, 1924. At Brigham City they were met by local residents who provided cars for the fifteen-mile journey to the bay. After luncheon all were taken on boat trips among the birds, then in the early afternoon returned to Brigham City where they were served the strawberries and cream for which that city was famous. This was followed by an assembly in the tabernacle where members of the visiting faculty were called on to speak. This was the occasion on which Turner made his remarks that were "well received." Ibid., June 3, 1924, contained an article which recited plans for the day in detail. 75 Luncheon was served at the Bear River Gun Club, an exclusive organization of wealthy sportsmen who owned a fenced 18,000-acre tract and an elegant club house. 715 Processor Thomas D. Wood was identified in footnote 50 and Professor E. C Branson in footnote 59. 77 The Logan newspaper reported that everyone in the city professing any degree of piscatorial skill was on the Logan River that day. Hundreds left the night before to spend the night near the river at a spot they had selected; many of these on awakening found four other fishermen on each side of them. One area near the state hatchery was so crowded that each man waited in line for his turn to make one cast. A few were said to have caught their limit, but most were disappointed. Journal, June 16, 1924.
Frederick Jackson Turner
327
h u n g r y — a n d I haven't had a chance at the postoffice since Friday. I hope to find some letters. But you must not tire yourself writing. I shall presume you are getting rested if I don't hear every day; but of course I love your letters and am anxious lest you have overdone. Tomorrow at eleven I talk at the public lecture h o u r : Clark stuff repeated. 7 8 I acquired a lovely sunburn Saturday, so you will take me for a M o r m o n when I return. Deepest love Fred U t a h Agricultural College Logan, J u n e 17, 1924 Tuesday Darling. . . . I am having a struggle with the trout. They are too much for me in the swift, rushing river. I lose 'em. Went out yesterday with a brother-in-law of Professor Ricks — D r Morrell, of Ogden, who is an excellent fly angler. 79 H e caught 5 — largest y2 pounds. I lost two — one a large fish. T h e " J u n e bugs" — a big red bodied insect, as big as the biggest grasshopper you ever saw, fall from the leaves on to the river and are such large juicy mouthfuls that the trout have a b u n d a n t food, and don't care much for a fly. I will not bait with them, neither did the Doctor. H e sent them over to our table this morning. I explained who caught them and am thought too veracious a fisherman to be believed! This evening I go into Logan with Ricks to a club dinner. 80 O n e of my 1919 Harvard students, now head of the Springfield [sic] schools came up to hear me lecture, today and I may go to see him some week end. Springville is the home of Dalin the sculptor, & is said to be a New England (Mormon) village. 81 I t is famous for its love of art, and draws from all over the U.S. for its annual art exhibition — raising in the little town something like $2000 to have these exhibitions. 82 I t was quite touching to 78 Turner's one public lecture in the National Summer School series was scheduled for II o'clock in the morning of June 16. He chose as his subject, " T h e Shrinking Planet," a subject that borrowed heavily from an address, "Since the Foundation," that he had delivered at Clark University on February 4, 1924. This was printed in the Clark University Library, Publications, VII (February, 1924), and in the Historical Outlook, X V (November, 1924). In both his "Clark stuff" and the address on " T h e Shrinking Planet" Turner explored the changes that had remade the United States since 1889, tracing the technological developments, and warning that pioneer ideals must keep pace with the changing scene. His lecture was summarized in the Journal, June 18, 1924, and Student Life, June 18, 1924. 79 As stated before Dr. Joseph R. Morrell shared Turner's enthusiasm for trout fishing (footnote 6 8 ) . Dr. Morrell and Turner became such good friends that they continued to correspond for several years, usually in typically fisherman fashion. Thus in the summer of 1927 Turner was informed that Dr. Morrell had discovered a new trout stream near Bryce Canyon where he landed eighteen fish in one day, averaging a little less than four pounds. Dr. Joseph R. Morrell to Turner, August 2, 1927. Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box 37. """Professor Ricks took Turner to the Logan Men's Club on the evening on June 17. Fifty people attended, listening to a talk by Professor E. C Branson of the University of North Carolina, a visiting member of the summer faculty. Journal, June 21, 1924. 81 Springville. located south of Provo on Utah Lake, was famous for its "Pioneer Mother Monument" and the "Memorial Fountain" in City Park, both the work of a local sculptor. Cyrus E. Dallin. Dallin's Indian statues made him nationally known, particularly his " T h e Appeal to the Great Spirit," "The Medicine M a n , " and " T h e Signal of Peace." Most of Dallin's work was done at Springville before 1882, when he was commissioned by Massachusetts to execute a figure of Paul Revere and settled permanently in that state. Federal Writers' Project, Utah. A Guide to the State, 167. 82 Tn 1906 Springville's citizens launched a movement to make art appreciation a major part of the education of its young people. Over the next eighteen years, townspeople raised money
328
Utah Historical Quarterly
have him come u p from 50 miles South of Salt Lake City to see me, wasn't it. It seems I was sympathetic when his wife was ill in Cambridge. I had forgotten all about it. O n e of my Harvard grad students, White, showed up today. 83 This is the most joyous gathering I was ever in. Everybody happy and friendly and eager. All over the large grassy lawns of the campus there are sprinklers going continually often showering the concrete walks. I never go around but take my sprinkling. It evaporates almost at once. I know just how the robins feel when they run under the garden hose sprinkler. I t is now quite warm in the sun; but dry and stimulating and I feel very fit. At night I sleep under one or two blankets. The wind blows in a cold stream from the canyon into my room all night. T h e moon is so radiant as it rises full over the mountains that you can hardly look long at it without being dazzled, and the sunsets over the mountain rim are gorgeous. The meadow larks sing beautifully. In short it's all quite a perfect Paradise, lacking my particular Eve. I am glad you are ready for fun, — you have worked hard enough to deserve it, and if I can help furnish it you shall have it! I am not working too hard, and if the low level heat at Madison and Cambridge don't upset the apple cart I shall have gotten into condition for a fight or a frolic as well as a book when I get to Hancock. I shall need $35 for rooms 42 " board ( a t $ 1 4 a w k ) about 75 " sleeper, travel &c 152 say — for a margin of safety $200 by end of June. If I went to Bryce Canyon, or Yellowstone, or an extended fishing trip it would cost perhaps $100 more, & I guess I'll save that for the Fisherman's Luck. . . ,84 And consider yourself hugged and kissed and generally ill treated by your only husband Fred U t a h Agr College — Box 36 (use both) Logan June 20 '24 Dearest Another week (2/3) o v e r — so far as lectures go. I am holding out well. Since I wrote, we have had rain in the valley — green and rich far below us — & snow on to purchase fifty-two paintings and works of sculpture, done by both local and outside artists. These were on permanent display at the high school. In addition the city was at this time holding its Third Annual Exhibition, which opened in April and remained through the summer. A prize of $500.00 raised by the high school students attracted canvases from the entire United States, allowing the students to study the best in contemporary painting during the months the display was continued. Paintings by W. S. Reindel of New York, Hansen Duvall Puthuff of Los Angeles, Mattes Sandona of San Francisco, and other well-known contemporary artists were shown. Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 1924; Deseret News (Salt Lake City), April 4, 1924. I am grateful to Mr. Donald Reading for supplying me with copies of these items. 83 V. E. White, head of the Department of History and Political Science at Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, had studied with Turner at Harvard during the 1923-24 academic year, beginning work on a Harvard doctorate. He was so struck with Turner's teaching, he told the local press, that he had come to the National Summer School to hear his lectures. Student Life, June 23, 1924. 84 "Fisherman's Luck" was another name being considered by the Turners for their bungalow they were building in Madison. See also footnote 53.
Frederick Jackson
329
Turner
the mountain tops — a glorious contrast. T h e sunsets have been indescribably fine. Today radiant unclouded blue sky & wonderful coloring •— a little warmer. I have been on a trip to the "Girls C a m p " u p a lovely neighboring canyon — where we had supper. 85 Saturday I go to Salt Lake & Springville south of it, spending Sunday. These people have taken me into their friendship and I shall feel like "one of the family" hereafter. They are unceasing in helpful hospitality & appreciation. Pres. Peterson wants me to return for next summer, but I postponed answer, telling him if haste was needed to go ahead elsewhere. 86 I want to talk it over with you & Harvard — to learn rules of retirement on the point. I'm happy over your report of returning spirits and rest. May not write until Monday. Shall probably start for Madison two or three days after close of next week. Class hour — Love Fred 85 The "Girls C a m p " was located on a beautiful branch of the Logan River called Spring Hollow, some six and one-half miles from the city. It was built in 1922 as a community project of the Logan and Cache Valley stakes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at a cost of nearly $10,000. At this time it was administered by the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association of Logan, which supervised groups of girls from the city who came to spend from three to six days of camping and mountain climbing. Student Life, June 20, 1924. Turner was included in a party of forty-eight entertained there by Dr. and Mrs. George R. Hill, dean of the School of Agriculture at Utah Agricultural College. Journal, June 21, 1924. 88 President Peterson wrote to Turner at this time, formally inviting him to return for the 1925 session of the National Summer School. Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, June 20, 1924. Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box 33. For further developments on this subject see pages 334—35 of this article.
L.D.S. church girls camp in Logan Canyon where Frederick Jackson was entertained. Photograph from the Utah Writers' Project, Utah State Historical Society.
Turner
330
Utah Historical Quarterly Wednesday Logan, Utah June 25th, 1924
Dearest, This climate certainly is fitted to my physical make u p — I never felt better and wrere it not for the desire to get back to you, I should be tempted to take to the mountains and forget history and educashone for the rest of my life! But you are a greater attraction than the mountains and the climate. " T h e nicest things come done up in the smallest packages!" Since I wrote, I have been to Springville with Professor & Mrs. Ricks & Dr. & Mrs. Morrell & Roland their son. It was an interesting visit — too long to be detailed by letter. I sent you some post cards of Ogden Canyon & the road we travelled. Springville is an art center — a mere hamlet — occupied by New Eng[land] folk of Mormon faith mostly. Dallin's old home & that of Hafen the painter of charming mountain scenery. 87 At Salt Lake the lack of an inside pocket was taken advantage of by a pickpocket — or I dropped my pocket book out with the loss of my return ticket and ten dollars. So the trip cost me about $120, in view of the high cost of the one way return ticket. I am ashamed, of course, of my tenderfeet and the loss of money as well as of selfrespect; but it's a lesson, and I shall cut out the Idaho trip & Bryce canyon, and so perhaps, on your way of reckoning I may save a lot of money! Last night I went to strawberries & ice cream at one of the Dean's — Talked all evening with Professor McLain — health supervisor at Detroit. . . . 88 This afternoon I have a final fling at the Logan Canyon trout. Whether I can master the mystery of howr to handle them when the wrater is going by like Maughn's airplane, 89 I don't know; but I shall be with Dr. Parkinson — a local fisherman & see how he does it, any way. 90 W a r m dry days & cool nights now. I shall miss the nights. I leave (unless unforeseen obstacles appear) Tuesday 1:45 P. — or thereabout, and spend the 4th in Madison, perhaps reaching Cambridge 7:25 P.M. Monday July 7 & going to H[ancock] P[oint] as soon as I can pack & finance affairs. Perhaps arrive Friday the 11th — A.M. Horray! Luncheon time — Kisses & hugs & Love Fred 87 John Hafen (1856-1910), regarded by many as Utah's finest landscapist, came to the territory in 1860. In 1890, after exhibiting remarkable skills as an artist, he was sent by the Mormon church to France for further study, with the understanding that he undertake commissions in Mormon temples. There he fell under the influence of Corot. developing the sensitive approach to nature that characterized his work. The Springville high school students owned several of his paintings, including "The Quaking Aspens" which he considered his best work. Federal Writers' Project, Utah. A Guide to the State, 165. 88 Turner, together with others of the summer school faculty, was entertained at the home of Dr. James H. Linford. director of the National Summer School. President and Mrs. Edgar G. Peterson and Dr. and Mrs. George R. Hill were included. Journal, June 28, 1924. Professor R. C. McLain, a visiting faculty member, was supervisor of health education at Detroit. 89 Newspapers at this time were filled with the exploits of Lieutenant Russell L. Maughan, who left New York on the morning of June 23 in an attempt to fly from the Atlantic to the Pacific in a single day. He arrived at San Francisco at 9:46 that night, and thanks to a late sunset was judged to have completed his journey within the sunrise-to-sunset time allowed. All the nation was excited at his feat of having breakfast at one edge of the continent and dinner at the other. Logan was particularly concerned, as Lieutenant Maughan came from that city and had attended Utah Agricultural College. Ibid., June 23, 24, 1924. 90 Dr. Fred B. Parkinson was an optometrist in Logan and a frequent fisherman. He later moved to Cedar City, Utah. For this information I am indebted to Mr. Donald Reading.
Frederick Jackson Turner
331
Thursday [June 26, 1924] Dearest Letter from Chief of Police, Salt Lake City tells m e my pocket book was found — the ticket included but money ($10.00) gone. It had been thrown into an old lot near the Saltair Park where it was stolen. Great luck — at least $100 saved. I leave Tuesday. Fished yesterday afternoon on the beautiful Logan river, 25 miles u p with a crack fly fisherman. I got as many as he did (thanks to his instructions) but none large — 3 each; but I learned some things about the river fishing. I t was a lovely outing. Love Fred Friday [June 27, 1924] Last lecture given Check for salary in my money belt Leave here Tuesday Enclosed are Kodaks by Professor Ricks which he sends to you with his compliments. I talk 10 minutes tonight at the ampitheater dedication. 9 1 Everybody is too kindly appreciative of my course. 92 I am utterly spoiled. But me and the climate are so congenial that I may recover. And I am Your loving Husband
U t a h Agr. Coll. Sunday J u n e 29 1924 Darling: Yesterday Professor & Mrs. Ricks, her sister Mrs. Morrell & her little daughter, and Mrs. Hill, another sister, & her small daughter, took me to Bear Lake & return. 9 3 I t is a canyon and mountain pass ride of 40 or 50 miles each way, passing the length of Logan Canyon out of Cache Valley, northward, narrowing and writhing as it 91 Utah Agricultural College celebrated "Cache Valley Day" on June 27 by dedicating a giant new outdoor amphitheater. The ceremonies, held at seven that night, were marked by an address given by Dr. John Adams of London, the reading of a paper written for the occasion by former President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University, and a shorter talk by Professor Turner. Music was provided by the National Summer School Chorus. Journal, June 27, 28, 1924. 92 Turner was appreciated by his students. The undergraduate newspaper that day reported his departure with regret. Student Life, June 27, 1924. On the last day of his classes his students interrupted the lectures long enough for a committee to read a brief tribute. "As an expression of the respect and high esteem of your classes at the National Summer School of the Utah Agricultural College, we have seen fit to present to you a Navajo Blanket, woven by the Indians of this State, as a token of that respect. With best wishes for your future happiness and for your continuation as benefactor of mankind we remain respectfully, Your History Classes, National Summer School." Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box 33. Professor Evan Murray, retired head of the Economics Department at Utah State University, who lives in Logan today, was a member of Turner's class that summer, and still remembers the emotionalism of the occasion when the blanket was presented. This information has been sent to me by Professor Leonard J. Arrington. 93 Mrs. George R. Hill, wife of the dean of the School of Agriculture at Utah Agricultural College, was the sister of Mrs. Kathryn McKay Ricks and David O. McKay, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her daughter, Elizabeth, is now married and lives in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Hill had served briefly in 1909—10 as assistant in domestic science and women's advisor at the college. In 1925 she moved with her husband to Salt Lake City where he became director of research for the American Smelting and Refining Company. For this information I am grateful to Professor Leonard J. Arrington.
332
Utah Historical
Quarterly
follows the rejoicing little Logan river, singing through the pines, and the quaking aspin [sic] till it is a brook at the divide. 94 T h e n grassy slopes, with dug-in zigzags, the valley dropping hundreds of feet below the notched road in the mountain side, rising to about 8000 feet. O n the way we passed the lovely Ricks spring bubbling up from the rock, overhung by a rocky roof — a room about 30 feet in diameter & ten feet high, floored by the deep pool of cold crystal water — a real spring! 9 5 Cattle grazed by the water holes after we left the stream, and at last on a sharp hairpin curve, we could see the bluest gem of a lake, set among the distant mountains and bordered by rich green meadows, a thousand feet or so below us. Bear Lake is about 10 miles wide and about 20 long. 96 Coming home we had several narrow escapes from reckless autoists rushing around the hairpin curves & corners; but we m a d e it all right.97 I found Merk here on arrival. 98 H e likes it as well as I do. I have m a d e more of an impression than my lectures deserved and everybody is very kind. I am a Mormon in everything but revelation: Polygamy is over — so don't be alarmed. But honestly, it is a most loveable, sincere, sound, clean population and I love them. . . . Love -— as warm as the sun! Fred Los Angeles Limited Chicago & North Western Ry. Union Pacific System 8:30 P.M. July 2 Dearest Going through Iowa. I t is cool and comfortable now and the day hasn't been very hot, but rather dusty. T h e "out" about Logan is getting out of it! I don't 94 Logan Canyon is one of Utah's many scenic attractions. Extending twelve miles through the Wasatch Mountains, its nearly perpendicular walls are in places almost a mile high. At its bottom races the Logan River where Turner had such unsatisfactory encounters with the trout. How he must have felt when he read that shortly after he left a fisherman named W. W. Smart of Logan pulled from the river the largest German brown trout ever landed, weighing twenty-five pounds, five and one-quarter ounces. Federal Writers' Project, Utah. A Guide to the State, 331-32. 95 Ricks Spring was discovered in 1865 by Colonel Thomas E. Ricks, an ancestor of Professor Joel E. Ricks, while he was searching for a route from Cache Valley to Bear Lake Valley. The source of the water is melting snow from the high mountain watersheds surrounding the area. The water flows underground along the ordovician strata of rock, then bubbles forth at the rate of 32,000 gallons a minute. During the winter, with no snows to feed it, the spring is completely dry. 96 Bear Lake, called the Lake Geneva of the Rockies, is thirty miles long and seven wide, lying half in Utah and half in Idaho. With white sand beaches and great depth, it is famed for its deep marine colors no less than for the beauty of its mountain setting. The hairpin turn where Turner stopped to view the lake is still a favorite stopping place known as View Point. Federal Writers' Project, Utah. A Guide to the State, 333. 97 Turner was not the only one who complained of dangerous driving on the Logan Canyon road, which was so narrow in spots that two cars could not pass. Reported the local paper three days later: " I t has been very definitely determined that so far as possible the very dangerous practice of the speed limit in Logan canyon shall be stopped; for which reason a vigilant speed cop has been employed who will surely bring offenders into court, where they will just as certainly get what is coming to them." Journal, July 1, 1924. 98 Professor Frederick Merk, Turner's successor at Harvard University, had been engaged to teach the remaining three weeks of the six-week session. He continued Professor Turner's course on the West and added a three-week course of his own on "Aspects of American Constitutional Development since 1787." A . C , Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1924, 21. The student newspaper heralded his coming with extravagent prose: "He is reported as having an immensely pleasing and accommodating personality. He is enthusiastically interested in the history and problems of the U.S. and particularly the western part. He is undoubtedly one of the outstanding men in this field and dealing as he will with this very region of the U.S. his courses will be a real treat to those who have the good fortune to be in his classes for the last three weeks of the first term." Student Life, June 23, 1924.
Frederick Jackson Turner
333
know whether a northern return route would be cooler, but anyway it has been worth the price. T h e train is crowded, chiefly from Los Angeles & Salt Lake City. T h e meals good, the roadbed perfect & we are on time. I have written you that I shall spend only the 4th in Madison unless unforeseen conditions require a longer stop. At Cambridge I don't know what I shall find. I suppose your letters to> me at "7 Phillips PI" will be forwarded to me at H[ancock] P[oint] before I get them. 99 Telegraph any important information for me. I shall pack as rapidly as I can during Sunday & Monday & take night train on Monday for H . P. O n Tuesday, a week from leaving Logan, I should be with you on the ocean shore. It sounds good. I may not write again until I reach Madison (via DeKalb) if we are on time there. Heart full of love Fred
T,
hus ended Frederick Jackson Turner's joyful three weeks in Utah, and thus ended his letters to his Darling Mae — save for one written from Madison on July 4 reporting that the new cottage was "nearly roofed and all shingled and quite cunning," and that he had managed to scrape together the $2,000 needed for the first payment. 100 Turner left Logan with honest regret, despite his eagerness to join his wife, for he had fallen in love with the land and its people. "My best wish for all America," he once told President Peterson, "is that the country were peopled throughout by such citizens as these." 101 The formal statement that he issued as he prepared to depart echoed these sentiments: 102 I have never seen before so congenial and so happy an academic gathering in such a beautiful location — stimulative and healthful and altogether fit. Certainly the idea of a national summer school in the west is feasible. It should be continued, and should grow by attendance from all eastern states as well as from the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states. T o the eastern student a summer session here will be a liberal education in itself — a revelation of what the word America means. U t a h Agricultural College is to be thanked and congratulated on having established this school. I know of no better situation on which such an institution can be built up.
Nor were these words mere singing-for-supper insincerities; "Utah," he wrote a friend a few weeks later, "was a most enjoyable experience. I found a delightful society, a delectable scene, and hungry students." 103 99 Turner's address in Cambridge had been "7 Phillips Place." Mrs. Turner had supervised the moving of their belongings to storage or their summer home in Maine while Turner was in Utah. 100 Turner to Caroline Mae Turner, July 4, 1924. Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box J. 101 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, August 28, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. Turner made this remark to President Peterson during a conversation at Brigham City, and this letter requested permission to use it publicly. 102 Student Life, July 9, 1924. 103 Turner to Reginald F. Arragon, July 31, 1924. Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box 33.
334
Utah Historical
Quarterly
These feelings were reciprocated. Professor Merk, who assumed his place on the faculty, found that any conversation with students or townspeople opened with a tribute to the visiting professors and particularly to the inspiration and charm of Professor Turner. One man told Merk that when Turner departed after only three weeks he felt as though he were saying farewell to a life-long friend. And as to what the ladies said, added Professor Merk slyly, I dare not repeat lest the letter fall into the hands of Mrs. Turner. 104 Such a mutual love affair should not be allowed to die. So reasoned President Peterson as he laid plans for his 1925 National Summer School. Negotiations with Professor Turner began while he was still in Logan, 105 but could not progress until he had consulted his wife and inquired of Harvard University whether the terms of his retirement allowance permitted teaching. 100 Once those obstacles were cleared the two men settled to another bargaining session. President Peterson's first proposal was that Turner and Merk should return for three-week sessions under the same financial arrangements, but this hit a snag. Merk felt that he must devote his time to research rather than teaching, 107 and neither of the alternates whom Turner suggested — Frederic L. Paxson of the University of Wisconsin and E. E. Robinson of Stanford University—was able to accept. 108 This was the president's opportunity to press for what he really w r anted: Turner for the entire six-week session, with a salary of one-sixth his final Harvard income. 109 The sum involved was too tempting to be ignored — progress on T H E B O O K or no progress on T H E B O O K — and Turner capitulated, but only after he had specified that he be paid on the basis of his joint Harvard-Radcliffe salary of $9,000 plus expenses, and that he give only one course. 110 He had driven a hard bargain: one six-week course for $1,500 plus expenses in one of the 104 Frederick Merk to Turner, July 18, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. Professor Merk enjoyed his three weeks at Logan as much as did Turner. "You see," he wrote at the end of his stay, "I am leading a gay life. I am living more here in three weeks than in three years at home. Logan hospitality most certainly is, as you wrote me, inexhaustible." 105 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, June 20, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. 108 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to Turner, July 6. 1924: F. W. Hunnewell, secretary of Harvard University, to Turner, July 21, 1924. Ibid., T U Vol. XIX. These letters indicated that when Turner came under the Carnegie Foundation plan at the age of sixty-five he would be barred from summer teaching but could do so until then. 107 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, August 2, 1924: Frederick Merk to Turner. August 19, 1924. Ibid., T U Box 33. 108 Elmer G. Peterson to Turner. September 20, 1924. Telegram. Ibid., T U Box 33. 109 Turner to Elmer G. Peterson, October 2, 1925. Telegram. Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, October 3, 1924. Telegram. Ibid., T U Box 33. 110 Turner to Elmer G. Peterson, October 6, 1924. Telegram. Ibid., T U Box 33. Not only did Turner negotiate very favorable terms for himself, but he refused to give one or more lectures in the public series that President Peterson was planning. Elmer G. Peterson to Turner, May 11, 28, 1925. Ibid., T U Box 34.
Frederick Jackson Turner
335
nation's most attractive settings. And this at a time when $500.00 and no expenses was considered a suitable summer-school salary. When Turner returned to Logan in 1925 he brought his wife with him, thus denying posterity the daily reports of his social pleasures and piscatorial disappointments. Yet every indication suggests that that summer duplicated the delights of 1924. There was constant entertainment, a trip to southern Utah for visits to the Grand Canyon and Bryce and Zion national parks, repeated battles against the trout in Logan River with only slightly more success than he had enjoyed before. 111 He was, he grumbled at one point, about to take up "golf and orthinology" in place of fishing.112 He also found time to teach his one course on "the sectional phenomena from the colonial era to the present." 113 That was Turner's last summer in Utah. The National Summer School was again acclaimed a success, but something of the spark was dying. Most who attended summer schools, whether at Utah Agricultural College or any other educational institution, were teachers or others in need of practical help in their profession, not intellectually stimulating excursions into historical theory. So the trend was toward the appointment of teachers in education and agriculture, and the recruitment of fewer nationally known scholars. Turner produced another eminent historian for the 1926 session, Professor A. C. McLaughlin of the University of Chicago, 114 and the faculty included such stellar lights as Professor E. A. Ross of the University of Wisconsin and Professor James G. Needham of Cornell University. 115 Most, however, were run-of-the-mine educationalists and agriculturalists drawn from nearby colleges. By 1927 the catalogue no longer boasted of "the most eminent faculty ever assembled in the West or indeed, in the nation," but more modestly promised instruction by "a faculty of unusual merit." One of the most prominent attractions that year was Knute Rockne, director of physical education and athletics at Notre Dame University. 116 When President Peterson laid the plans that brought Professor Turner to Utah he dreamed of a constantly growing number of students 111
Turner to Dorothy Turner Main, June 27, 1925. Ibid., T U Box J. Ibid., T U Box J. 1,3 A . C , Bulletin. Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1925 (Logan, 1925), 42. 114 Turner to A. C McLaughlin, August 15, 1925. Turner Papers, H E H , T U Box 34A. Turner, in urging McLaughlin to accept, wrote: "I have been there now two summers in succession, one engagement of three weeks and the other of six, and I have become in everything, except revelation and polygamy, a devout Mormon and a booster for Cache Valley, upon which Logan looks." 115 A . C , Bulletin. Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1926 (Logan, 1926), 12-17. 11,1 A . C , Bulletin. Summer Quarter Catalogue, 1927 (Logan, 1927), 13-21. 112
336
Utah Historical
Quarterly
taught by a steadily increasing number of the nation's leading scholars. All would return to their homes preaching the beauties of Cache Valley and the virtues of Mormonism. "Our citizenship, long so misunderstood," he wrote at that time, "will be truly interpreted to the country. To live in Utah is to love Utah and her people." 117 His vision never materialized. But in Frederick Jackson Turner he found one man who reacted as he hoped all would react, and whose affection for the land and its people never diminished during the remaining years of his life. 117
Student Life, June 9, 1924.
From that eyrie, 8000 feet above sea level, the weary pilgrim first sights his shrine, the object of his long wanderings, hardships, and perils, the Happy Valley of the Great Salt Lake. T h e western horizon, when visible, is bounded by a broken wall of light blue mountain, the Oquirrh, whose northernmost bluff buttresses the southern end of the lake, and whose eastern flank sinks in steps and terraces into a river basin, yellow with the sunlit golden corn, and somewhat pink with its carpeting of heath-like moss. I n the foreground a semicircular sweep of hill top, and an inverted arch of rocky wall, shuts out all but a few spans of the Valley. These heights are rough with a shaggy forest, in some places black-green, in others of brownish-red, in others of the lightest ash colour, based upon a ruddy soil; wilst a few silvery veins of snow still streak the bare grey rocky flanks of the loftiest peak. (Richard F. Burton, The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California, ed., Fawn M. Brodie [New York, 1963], 210-11.)
Emperor Dom Pedro's Visit to Salt Lake City BY DAVID L. WOOD
Permission to reproduce this photograph granted by Minis Terio da Educacao e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro, GB.
T
H E REGULAR EVENING train from Ogden was met at the Utah Central depot in Salt Lake City by an unusually large crowd on Saturday, Mr. Wood is a graduate student at the University of Utah. He is presently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, completing the requirements for his Ph.D. in the field of Latin American history.
338
Utah Historical
Quarterly
April 22, 1876. The train arrived, according to observers, precisely at the scheduled hour (8:20 P . M . ) . This punctuality was not without warrant, for on this evening the normal compliment of cars had been augmented by the addition of a pullman palace car — the "Metropolitan." 1 The "eager expectants" caught only a fleeting glimpse of their distinguished visitor, who leaning on the arm of his chamberlain, descended to the platform, walked through the gathering, and entered a waiting carriage. He was "a tall, fine looking man, with grey hair and a beard, worn quite long, and he was dressed in a dark suit, and black cravat which completely hid his shirt. From under his coat a short gold watch chain was visible." He was "about fifty-one years of age [and] portly." He wore "a slouch hat, and [had] the appearance of a well-to-do granger." 2 Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, "the first live Emperor who ever visited this country," had arrived in the United States just one week earlier (April 15) aboard the British liner Hevelius. His American visit had been prompted by Brazil's participation in the impending Philadelphia Exhibition. The United States was celebrating her centennial year and the Emperor wished to make this country the first stop on an extended two-year world tour, during which he intended, as he explained, to "see the chief centers of industry to learn something that may be of use to my country when I return." 3 In order that he might be free to travel when and where he pleased, His Majesty had informed the American foreign minister at Rio de Janeiro that he wished no official reception by our government; he desired to travel as a private citizen, to be free from all "pomp and ceremony." During his tour he hoped to see the "people in their everyday costume, to mix with them in their ordinary avocations," and to "observe their diverse customs and manners." 4 In spite of this request, a delegation headed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish had met the imperial entourage in New York harbor amid resounding salutes from the shore batteries and the strains of the Brazilian national hymn, played by the Marine Band. 1 The crowd is variously described as being "immense," a "multitude," and "large." Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 23, 1876; Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), April 24, 1876. 2 Salt Lake Tribune, April 23, 1876; Deseret Evening News, April 24, 1876; Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 23, 1876. 3 Salt Lake Tribune, April 22, 26, 1876. 4 Ibid., April 26, 1876.
Dom Pedro II
339
The imperial party on their western trip. The Emperor Dom Pedro II is seated at the far right, and next to him is the Empress.
After spending two event-filled days seeing the sights of New York City, Dom Pedro began his projected tour of the West. Since he wished to avoid the heat of the summer months, he did not delay his departure. He boarded the "Metropolitan" on the evening of Monday, April 17, and set out for San Francisco. Dom Pedro was accompanied, on his westward journey, by L. P. de Conto Ferras; Visconde de Bom Retiro; Dr. Karl Henning; Dr. Arturo Teixeira de Macedo; Sr. Rafael Paiva; James J. O'Kelly; and two servants. Bom Retiro, one of the foremost Brazilian councilors of state, senator from Rio de Janeiro, former secretary of the interior, vice-president of the Brazilian National Exhibition at Philadelphia, and president of the Imperial Institute of Agriculture at Rio de Janeiro, served, on this occasion, as the Emperor's chamberlain. Dr. Henning acted as the Emperor's private secretary while continuing in his normal office as his instructor in Sanskrit. Dr. Macedo was assistant treasurer of the imperial household; Sr. Paiva was the Emperor's valet; James J. O'Kelly, a reporter for the New York Herald, had traveled with the imperial party since its departure from the Brazilian capital, upon special invitation from Dom Pedro; and two unnamed servants made up the
340
Utah Historical
Quarterly
remainder of the Emperor's traveling party. The Empress and the rest of the royal party remained in New York. The route west lay through Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Fort Laramie, and Ogden, Utah. The rails of the transcontinental railroad, completed less than ten years before, were thus utilized. As Dom Pedro made his way toward the Pacific, word of his journey preceded him by several days. In the capital of the territory of Utah, the Wednesday meeting of the Salt Lake City Council had just concluded its regular session, and the councilmen were retiring from the chambers when they received word that Mayor Feramorz Little had requested they remain for a brief "special meeting." When the council once again convened, the Mayor informed those present that he had just received word of the westward journey of the Brazilian monarch. According to the best information available, the Emperor's train would pass through Ogden either Saturday or Sunday, April 22 or 23. Having disclosed this information, the Mayor called for opinions concerning any action the council felt would be appropriate for such an event. A motion was made by Councilor Brigham Young, president of the Mormon church, to the effect that the Mayor be authorized by the council "to ascertain if it was the intention of Dom Pedro to visit this city on his way west and if so, he, the Mayor was authorized to tender him the freedom and hospitality of the city." 5 This being agreed to, Alderman James Sharp made the motion that a committee of five be "appointed to act in conjunction with the Mayor in making arrangements for the reception and entertainment of the Emperor during his stay, in the event that he accepted the courtesy of the city." 6 The council unanimously accepted this suggestion and the Mayor selected his committee. Alderman James Sharp and Henry Dinwoody, Councilors David O. Calder and John R. Winder, and Recorder John T. Caine were accordingly named for this assignment. Following this action the meeting adjourned. T h a t same evening the following telegram was sent in an attempt to intercept the Emperor's party at Omaha. Salt Lake City, Utah April 19th, 1876 T o the private Secretary of the Emperor of Brazil, care of the Agent of the Chicago and Northwest Railroad, Omaha. '"Records of Salt Lake City Council, June 3, 1873 to December 26, 1876" (Recorder's Office, Salt Lake City), p. 30. 6 Ibid.
Dom Pedro II
341
Will the Emperor visit Salt Lake City on his wray west? T h e municipal authoritories respectfully tender him and his suite the freedom and hospitality of the city. Please answrer. Feramorz Little Mayor 7
Word quickly spread that the Brazilian monarch might visit Salt Lake City, and that same evening W. T. Harris, manager of the Salt Lake Theatre, also wired the Emperor at Omaha requesting the name of his private secretary so that arrangements could be made for placing a "theatrical box" at His Majesty's disposal. The following day, June 20, Manager Harris received this reply. Omaha, 20 Doin Pedro leaves here for the west at ten o'clock this morning. He travels in a special car attached to the regular train. He does his own talking and carries his own valise. 8
Such a response was at best frustrating to those civic leaders who were concerned with making preparations for receiving the royal visitor, if indeed he did decide to visit their city. Further, as this notice was published in the Deseret Evening News, the citizenry of Salt Lake and the surrounding area received an early warning of the type of visit that would shortly follow. Dom Pedro would not behave in the manner expected from an imperial head of state. Uncertain, various segments of the community made halting preparations, while others, less directly involved, speculated as to the nature of this traveling monarch. From some undisclosed source the theatre produced Brazilian flags to festoon the box the Emperor would hopefully occupy. The city's "theatrical orchestra" located the music to the Brazilian national hymn which they rehearsed, hoping thus to bid the Emperor welcome. The services of one of T. F. Malloy's finest teams, a "span of greys," attached to an "elegant barouche," 9 were secured as transportation for His Excellency. At Camp Douglas General John E. Smith, who suspected the Emperor might visit his post, made necessary preparations for a proper reception there. Speculating about the imperial visit, the Deseret Evening News commented: From eastern newspaper remarks concerning His Excellency it would appear that he is not over fond of public demonstrations being 7
Ibid. Deseret Evening News, April 21, 1876. 9 Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876; Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 23, 1876. 8
Utah Historical
342
Quarterly
An unknown artist's conception of Dom Pedro's trip to the West. These sketches (top and bottom) appeared in Lucius Beebe, Mr. Pullman's Elegant Palace Car (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961). directed toward himself. A monarch that "does his own talking and carries his own valise" must be possessed of considerable good sense. High dignataries generally act as if they were scarcely aware that they were human like their fellow creatures. 10
The question as to whether or not Dom Pedro would visit Salt Lake City remained unanswered until Friday, April 21. On that day, in rapid succession, telegraphic notices were received from Laramie, Wyoming, by several different agencies. These completely erased the uncertainty that had existed. Yes! The Emperor would visit the City of the Saints! Mayor Little received a formal reply to his invitation of the previous Wednesday, which read 10
Deseret Evening News, April 21, 1876.
Dom Pedro II
343 Laramie, Wyoming April 21
T o the Mayor, Salt Lake: Dom Pedro will go to Salt Lake before going to San Francisco. H e thanks the municipal authorities for their kind invitation, but he wishes to maintain the private character in which he travels. Arthur Macedo 1 1
Thus the character of Utah's first visit from royalty began to take form. The Emperor would come, but there would be no formal receptions, no speeches, no "pomp and ceremony," no "fuss or feathers." The Emperor would adhere strictly to his stated desire that he be completely relieved of "the idle parade of state receptions and civic addresses, banquets, balls and the whole fatiguing round of fashionably folly." 12 With the elimination of formalities, the Mayor and his committee found themselves with little to do in their official capacity. They are not even noted as being among the crowd that met the Emperor at the depot upon his arrival in the city. Manager Harris at the theatre also received a notice requesting two boxes for the Emperor and his company for the Saturday evening performance. 13 Mr. John Sharp, superintendent of the Utah Central Railroad was notified that "Dom Pedro will pass over your road on Saturday afternoon, and remain till the Sunday afternoon train, when he will proceed to San Francisco." 14 In addition to these notices of confirmation, the Walker House received a telegram requesting a suite of "six rooms and accommodations for two servants" for Saturday night. 15 The unpretentious nature the visit from this imperial personality was assuming caused uneasiness among some members of the community, for a rumor soon began to circulate that a secret meeting would take place between Dom Pedro and President Brigham Young. Rumors that Brigham Young and the Mormons were conspiring to gain control of the governmental development for the projected state of New Mexico and were planning to migrate thence were already rampant. The unorthodox nature in which Dom Pedro planned to visit the Mormon capital was thus linked with "some mysterious design of 11
Ibid., April 23, 1876. Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876. 33 Deseret Evening News, April 22, 1876; Salt Lake Tribune, April 22, 1876. 14 Deseret Evening News, April 23, 1876. 15 Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 22, 1876; Deseret Evening News, April 23, 1876. 12
344
Utah Historical
Quarterly
Brigham Young and the 'Mormons' in respect to some portion of the Brazilian empire, [which] is a large country and very thinly populated. It has room for an enterprising, industrious and moral people like the 'Mormons.' " 1G These rumors, as it proved, were entirely unfounded. In truth President Young and the Emperor did not even meet. 17 As his train descended the canyons toward the city of Ogden, Utah, Dom Pedro stood on the rear platform of the "Metropolitan." He was "greatly struck by the help given by nature to the construction of the overland route." Passing through Devil's Gate in Weber Canyon, the Emperor suddenly turned to J. J. O'Kelly who stood beside him and said, "This country seems to have been made purposely by God for Railways. Who [else] could have cut out those canyons?" 18 Not long after this, the party arrived at the Ogden depot. The editor of the Salt Lake Daily Herald, E. L. Sloan, commented that the people of the Junction City "were not over-enthusiastic" over the Emperor's arrival. "The majority of those waiting about the depot were runners for the Salt Lake and Ogden Hotels, and they were less loud in their importunities than usual, all seeming to understand that Pedro wasn't fish for their nets." One of the factors that had kept the crowds away, Mr. Sloan speculated, was that the weather was "deuced cold." 19 Dom Pedro did not leave the train while in Ogden, but "sat at the window where he could be stared at by the boys and runners." Soon after the Emperor's arrival in Ogden, officials of the Utah Central Railroad were received by His Majesty aboard his palace car. These representatives offered to employ a special engine to pull the "Metropolitan" and its royal tenant to Salt Lake so that there would be less of a delay between schedules. Dom Pedro, however, "declined the proffer, and his car was attached to the regular evening train." 20 At 6:20 P.M. the start was made for Salt Lake. During the two-hour ride from Ogden to the capital, those who had been invited to ride with the Emperor in his private car reported that, T h e Emperor greatly enjoyed the ride from Ogden to this city. He looked with pleasure at the lake, the grain fields, and lofty mountains along the road, and made numerous inquiries as to the territory and its people. H e is an intelligent gentleman, social to a high degree, and converses freely on ordinary everyday topics, "especially those having bearing on the coun16
Deseret Evening News, April 26, 1876. Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876. 1S Deseret Evening News, May 29, 1876. 19 Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 23, 1876. 20 Ibid. 17
Dom Pedro II
345
Interior view of the Salt Lake Theatre. The theatre stood on the northwest corner of State and First South streets from the time of its construction in 1861-62 until it was demolished in 1928. Utah State Historical Society photograph. try through which he is now traveling and in conversation manifests a sharp, intelligent and inquiring mind." 21
Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, the Emperor was driven directly to the theatre. Manager Harris had delayed the program, refusing to let it begin until the Emperor had arrived and been properly received. Wishing to give the proper reception to such a distinguished visitor, Harris "stationed a subordinate at the theatre door to give him warning when the Emperor arrived." As Dom Pedro entered Mr. Harris removed his hat and bowed deeply. To this display of welcome the Emperor is reported to have responded, "in a very good natured, pleasant manner," by saying, "That will do, young man, that will do; put your hat on now and show me to my box." 22 This the manager did posthaste while attempting to hide his confusion at the Emperor's greeting. 21 22
Ibid., April 23, 1876; Deseret Evening News, April 24, 1876. Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876.
346
Utah Historical
Quarterly
A proscenium box "on the west side of the theater" had been "gaily decorated and embellished for the occasion." The box was decorated by the Brazilian and American flags, caught up with a wreath of flowers. T w o vases of flowers were on the tables before him [Dom Pedro], and the base of the box was decorated with red, white and blue strips, tastefully combined. There appeared in the box with the Emperor, Doctors Henning and Macedo, one of these gentlemen sitting upon the Emperor's left . . . and the other just behind him. 23
The box opposite that of the Emperor "was occupied by some half dozen, blooming daughters of the prophet — fair haired, rosy cheeked girls." 24 This group, especially a young man about twenty years of age who shared the girls' box and looked a great deal like the portraits of President Young that Dom Pedro had seen in Rio de Janeiro, attracted a great deal of the Emperor's attention. Although "the house was not well filled," a fact that quite surprised O'Kelly, the newspaper reporter, the Emperor was "well received" 25 by the audience upon his entry. Even after the orchestra had played the Brazilian national hymn, and the actors had begun their performance, "All eyes were on him more than upon the performers." 26 There is a hint that some of the audience spent the evening gazing at the wrong man or at least wondering which of the three in the imperial box was indeed the "real live" emperor they had heard about. One observer stated that the Emperor's dress was so common that "no one would recognize him as an Emperor" and that "At the theatre . . . the audience selected the wrong man as Dom Pedro, and satisfied their curiosity by gazing at a gentleman of his suite on whom they fastened the imperial greatness — with their eyes and imaginations." 27 This visual scrutiny was by no means a one-sided affair, for "Occasionally he [Dom Pedro] leveled his ivory-mounted opera glasses to different parts of the house." 28 The actors were not entirely neglected, however, for "His Majesty watched the performance pretty attentively, and frequently laughed at the comicalities of Burnett and conversed some with the gentlemen sitting with him." 29 23
Ibid., April 23, 1876. Deseret Evening News, April 29, 1876. 25 Ibid. 20 Salt Lake Tribune, April 23, 1876. 27 Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 23, 1876. "sSalt Lake Tribune, April 23, 1876. 29 Ibid. 24
Dom Pedro II
347
The entertainment for the evening was provided by the humorist, Alfred Burnett, assisted by Miss Helen Nash and Mr. L. P. Williams. Burnett was described in a contemporary advertisement as being "America's greatest humorist." 30 The New York Herald said of Burnett: "For thirty years [he] has been the best laughed at man in America. His delineations of character are wonderful." His "rapid transformation of face and figure are unequaled by any other living actor." 31 Miss Nash was described as a "versatile and poetic reader," while Williams was rated as a "master of the guitar and harmonicon." 32 Although the Deseret Evening News lamented that "entertainment of a higher degree of merit" was not available so that the Emperor "could have seen how the theatre looks when well filled,"33 Dom Pedro stayed through the entire performance, after which he was driven directly to the Walker House where he spent the first night away from his train since leaving New York. The Walker House, constructed between Second and Third South on the west side of Main Street, was described in a newspaper advertisement of that period as being "The leading hotel of Utah." Centrally located, it afforded "the finest views of the surrounding mountain scenery and Great Salt Lake" and was "within a few minutes walk of the Tabernacle, museum, theatre, etc." Its "tables" were reputed to "equal those of San Francisco Houses!" 34 His Majesty set 7:30 A.M. as the time for breakfast. After arising at an early hour he quickly "made his toilet" and presented himself in the dining room of the hotel. However, there was a slight delay in serving the meal when the waiters discovered their guest did not care for fish. Dom Pedro was in good spirits, however, and did not seem to mind the delay. About eight o'clock the Emperor, Bom Retiro, and O'Kelly left the hotel in Malloy's barouche. Their first stop was at the Warm Springs resort just north of the city where the trio "alighted and made an inspection of the hot and sulphurous water." Dom Pedro regarded this natural phenomena "as very wonderful," but found the water too hot to hold his hand in for long. "A cup was procured and the party all took a drink, but none of them regarded the beverage as delightful or even 311
Deseret Evening News, April 19, 1876. As reported in the Deseret Evening News, April 19, 1876. 32 Ibid. •''Ibid., April 23, 1876. 34 Salt Lake Tribune, April 20, 1876. 31
348
The Walker House, where Dom Pedro and his party stayed during their visit to Salt Lake, was located on the west side of Main Street between Second South and Third South streets. Utah State Historical Society photograph.
Utah Historical
Quarterly
Warm Springs Bath House on the northwestern outskirts of Salt Lake City was completed November 27, 1850. In addition to being a bath house this was the first public place in Salt Lake where entertainments and dances were held. Photograph gift of Louise Putcamp.
palatable." When the cup, which had been borrowed from "old Mrs. Jones" who lived nearby, was returned, she found "a gold dollar in it; which the Emperor had placed there to remunerate the old lady for the use of her dish." 35 The Temple Block was the party's next stop. The Emperor was guided through this historic square by its custodian, a "Brother" Thomas. His Majesty marveled at the "new7 Tabernacle" and "seemed to be much pleased" with its great organ. He inquired if there would be any religious services held there during the day and was given a negative reply. One of the reasons for not holding services was the fact there was no way to heat the huge building. Dom Pedro was next shown the foundation of the temple that was under construction. This "was viewed with much interest." During the course of his tour and at the gate as he was leaving, the Emperor asked numerous questions "relative to the religious faith and practice of the Latter-day Saints, and from the nature of his interrogations and observations he seemed to have given the history of 35 Ibid., April 25, 1876; Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 25, 1876; Deseret Evening April 26 and May 29, 1876.
News,
Dom Pedro II
The Charles R. Savage studio, is in the far left of this photograph. hi the right of the picture can be seen the tabernacle and a portion of the temple under construction. This photograph was taken in the 1880's. Utah State Historical Society photograph.
349
St. Mary Magdalene, first Catholic church in Utah, was erected in 1871. It was located on the west side of Second East between South Temple and First South streets, approximately where Social Hall Avenue terminates. Photograph gift of Francis J. Weber.
the church some attention." Before leaving the square, His Majesty "purchased a number of Church publications." 3e At Savage's Art Gallery, his next stop, the Emperor bought "a large quantity . . . of photographic views of Utah scenery," 37 before moving on to St. Mary Magdalene Church. At St. Mary's "A gentleman of the congregation proffered the royal party his private pew which was upholstered, but the Emperor, thanking him declined and remained seated on one of the ordinary seats near the altar." :?s Father Lawrence Scanlan officiated at the services that followed and was reported to have "preached a controversial sermon, which was in fact a reply to Apostle [Orson] Pratt's discourse in the Tabernacle at conference, on the 'Restoration of the Gospel of Christ.' ' It was noted that the Emperor "listened with a great deal of attention to the services" and that "when the contribution box was passed around," '"'Deseret Evening News, April 24 and May 29, 1876; Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876; "Journal History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historians Library, Salt Lake City), April 24, 1876. 37 Salt Lake Daily Herald, April 25, 1876: Deseret Evening News, April 24, 1876. :;s Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876.
350
Utah Historical
Quarterly
he and Bom Retiro both "dropped several gold coins into it." Near the close of the sermon, Father Scanlan took the opportunity to welcome the Emperor and his companions and "prayed to God to bless His Majesty with health and long life and the people of Brazil with continued peace and prosperity." 30 The services lasted one and one-half hours. When the services were over, Dom Pedro left quickly, moving so rapidly that he reached the door of the church before the people were aware of it. As he passed along the aisle, he bowed graciously to all who first showed him that courtesy. 40 From St. Mary's the carriage headed up Brigham Street 41 toward Camp Douglas on the bench east of the city. Contrary to the expectations of that post's officers, His Excellency did not stop to be greeted or entertained by them, but instead drove "straightly through" saluting those officers who thus greeted him. 42 As the little party doubled back toward the city, they were confronted with the broad spectrum of the valley below. The fields and hills were brilliant with the verdure of spring. The Emperor seemed to be much pleased by the view. 43 The tour of Camp Douglas had been extremely brief because of Dom Pedro's desire to visit a Mormon religious service. He was driven directly to the meeting house of the Salt Lake Fourteenth Ward in time to attend the two o'clock meeting. As His Majesty entered the chapel, he was offered a seat on the stand among the ward officials, but declined the invitation, being "contented to sit among the people." 44 The meeting consisted of "Hymn 53," which was sung by a young people's choir, accompanied by a "Harmonium." This was followed by a prayer by Bishop Thomas Taylor. The Sacrament Service was followed by Apostle John Taylor, a member of the ward, who presented "an instructive discourse" on the "First Principles of the Gospel" to which the Emperor "listened with marked attention." 45 Dom Pedro remained at the meeting for about an hour but, "was obliged to leave" before Elder Taylor had concluded his discourse in order to be in time for the afternoon train which was scheduled to leave ::
'-' ibid. ibid. 11 South Temple Street in present-day Salt Lake City. 42 Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876. 13 Deseret Evening News, May 29, 1876. " Ibid. 13 Ibid., April 24 and May 29, 1876.
40
Dom Pedro II
351
for San Francisco at 3:40 P.M. From the church the imperial visitor went "straightway to his car at the depot." 46 While waiting for his train's departure, Dom Pedro partook of light refreshment and visited briefly with several of the Catholic Sisters of Charity. This conversation consisted mainly of a discussion about the church in Brazil and the mission in Utah. At the conclusion of this visit, His Majesty is said to have bidden farewell to these Sisters with a donation of $1,000 for use by the Catholic Mission in Utah. 4 7 To the very last the people of Utah respected the Emperor's wish that he be allowed to circulate unhampered and virtually unfeted, for when his train finally left the depot there were only a "few people" 4 8 present to wish him well on his continued westward journey. One more spectacle that greatly interested Dom Pedro was the Great Salt Lake. At his request the train paused briefly during the return journey to Ogden. At the point where the rails passed nearest this American "Dead Sea," the Emperor was able to "experiment the density of the water" 4 9 and thus satisfy his curiosity about another of Utah's wonders. What now of the impressions caused by this "first" in Utah's history? Emperor Dom Pedro carried with him a lasting impression of the Mormons and their capital. He marveled at the "great work" that had been done by the Mormons in bringing the land under cultivation. Mormon teachings, on the other hand, did not impress him. Indeed the doctrines of the church seemed so unconvincing that he was unable to "believe that the people give credence to the revelations of Joe Smith and Brigham Young." He therefore concluded "I think it will not last." 50 The impressions left among the citizens of Utah were varied. At least one observer felt that the nature of the Emperor's visit had been an afront to the people. This opinion was expressed in the Ogden Junction in the following manner. Had that gentleman really desired to< travel over the continent in a quiet way, . . . it occurs to us that he could have done so more effectually by traveling incognito. A private gentleman who does not wish to attract attention need not be accompanied by a retinue of retainers, servants and "'Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1876. Ibid. IS Ibid. 4i> New York Herald, April 24, 1876; Mary Wilhelmine Williams, Dom Pedro the Magnanimous (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1937), 192. 50 Deseret Evening News, May 29, 1876. 47
352
Utah Historical
Quarterly
reporters, in a special palace car, telegraphing ahead at what time he will arrive and what theater he will attend and when. Dom Pedro instead of wishing to avoid notice courts it . . . in order to bring himself more prominently and in more favorable light before the people . . . or to express contempt for us and our institutions. [We should be] . . . indignent that this man should come among us and openly insult the government and the persons of its officers.51
Others, however, who more likely represented the opinion of the majority, thought the Emperor "left a favorable impression upon the minds of all with whom he came in contact." His manner and the nature of his visit were greatly admired and applauded. "Our own public men could learn well from Dom Pedro's example." 52 Thus the Emperor of Brazil came and went, and life in the Salt Lake Valley continued as it had before. There is one last mention of Dom Pedro in Utah. On his return journey east across Utah Territory, a newspaper reported that T h e Emperor, Dom Pedro, is detained here by a singular accident. A freight train is off the track half a mile west of Blue Creek. A bull, standing on the railroad overturned the engine and eleven cars, which are completely wrecked. T w o tramps, who were riding free, were immediately killed and the fireman and brakeman were severely injured. The imperial party endure the delay with philosophical equanimity and are making the best of what accommodations this wayside station affords. All are well. 53 51
Ogden Junction, April 24, 1876. Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 1876. 53 New York Herald, May 2, 1876. 1,2
REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS The Man Who Walked Through Time, With Photographs Taken En Route by the Author.
By C O L I N F L E T C H E R .
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. 239 pp. $5.95) T h e title perhaps is a bit too melodramatic, suggesting a Wellsian scientific romance; the long and knotty passages in which M r . Fletcher attempts to express the inexpressible have a tendency to become dull, repetitious, tendentious; and the prose for most of the course is heavy and tough as an old hiking boot. But despite these obvious flaws this book remains an always interesting, sometimes fascinating report on an enviable adventure: a hike through Grand Canyon. Many people now have run the length of the Grand Canyon by river, crossed it from rim to rim, and explored various corners of it; but Colin Fletcher is the first man to traverse the canyon from one end to the other in a single continuous hike. As he explains in his book, this statement requires qualification: first, he walked the length of Grand C a n y o n National Park — i.e., from Supai to Point Imperial — not the entire canyon from Grand Wash Cliffs to Lee's Ferry. (Even so, the distance walked comes close to four-hundred foot miles.) Second, almost the entire route had been covered in a series of many short hikes during a period of many years by Dr. Harvey Butchart of Flagstaff. Neverless, Fletcher's walk through the canyon stands as a unique, wholly admirable achievement a n d his account of it in this book will arouse both envy and
respect in all of us who love Grand Canyon and if we had the courage and the will, would also like to attempt what Fletcher has successfully completed. Should Fletcher's walk be considered an " a d v e n t u r e ? " A c c o r d i n g to t h e explorer Stefansson adventures happen to those who are ill-prepared. If we restrict ourselves to this definition then this book does not describe an adventure, for Fletcher, a real pro, took every precaution to make certain he would come through alive; he cached food and water ahead of time at various points along his route, he arranged for airdrops at other points, and he consulted everyone •—• primarily Dr. Butchart — who might presumably be able to offer him information about the hazards and necessities of his plan. Furthermore, Colin Fletcher is a thoroughly seasoned backpacker and hiker; his traverse through the depths of the Grand Canyon was preceded by a thousand-mile walk through California, all the way from the Mexican border to Oregon. Except for the trifles, nothing went wrong with Fletcher's plans or preparations; he marched through the canyon without mishap. The fact that he carried off his enterprise without tragedy or major accident does not make Fletcher's book any less of interest; the best parts of the book are precisely those in which the author explains, in full a n d satisfying detail, exactly how he proceeded, how he planned a n d replanned, how he operated. T h e technical skills here revealed are especially impressive to those who
354
Utah Historical
have done just enough wilderness backp a c k i n g to a p p r e c i a t e the boldness and beauty of Colin Fletcher's central scheme. If Fletcher's hike was not an adventure in the strict Stefanssonian sense, it was certainly an adventure for the author in any more extended meaning of the word. For Fletcher his walk was a spiritual and aesthetic adventure, as all who have had a taste of the silence, solitude, and mystery of Grand Canyon will readily understand. Without any fake science or vaporous philosophizing, he makes a doggedly honest effort to convey to the reader what a man of sympathetic and knowiedgeable outlook can come to feel and understand in the experience of wilderness; in particular, moved by the significance of the canyon as a geological phenomenon, Fletcher attempts to unify and illuminate for us his various notions of time. (Thus the title.) In this it seems to me he only partially succeeds, but his failure is an honorable one: there is something down there, in that canyon, in that strange place, which many have felt but none â&#x20AC;&#x201D; so far â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have been able to tell about. EDWARD ABBEY
Professor of English Western Carolina University
Government in Science: The U.S. Geological Survey, 1867-1894. By T H O M AS G. MANNING. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967. xiv 4257 pp. $7.00) Three separate geological surveys of different federal establishments covered portions of the West not long after the Civil War. Rivalry for funds and unhealthy competition for prestige led Congress, after considerable political maneuvering by scientists, to create in 1879 the United States Geological Survey. Clarence King triumphed over F. V. Hayden in the struggle for the directorship and placed great emphasis during
Quarterly
his administration on investigating the mineral resources of the Far West. He resigned in 1881, after making sure his successor would be John Wesley Powell. T h e new director stressed research in vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology. He made considerable strides toward completion of a national topographic map, a task on which the Survey is still working. He continued the study of mineral resources, especially around Leadville and Lake Superior. His operations grew so rapidly that Congress, interested that his service had a scientific staff of two hundred and annual expenditures of $500,000, conducted a thorough investigation and in 1886 concluded that the Survey should be a permanent institution. Powell's group helped save Yellowstone Park from invasion by a railroad and secure a federal forest reserve adjacent to the park. He tried to combine science and social reform in 1888 by launching a program to discover areas capable of irrigation ; to suggest reservoir sites; and to help ordinary people form communities which would own and control arid land suitable for irrigated farming. This aroused such opposition that Powell was swept out of office. In this chronological narrative Dr. Manning has written, there are three important, reoccurring themes about government science generally: whether civilians or the military should control it; whether by excluding the theoretical to emphasize only the practical; and whether to accept low quality work or to pay well but only for excellence. Dr. Manning's thorough research is based mostly upon original sources in the National Archives. His scholarly monograph is judicious, well proportioned, and written in clear but condensed style. It will be welcomed by specialists. WILLIAM S. GREEVER
Professor of History University of Idaho
Reviews and Survival
Arts of the Primitive
By
M.
MARGARET
355
Publications WHEAT.
Paiutes. (Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 1967. xiii + 117 pp. $10.00) T h e aboriginal inhabitants of the Utah-Nevada area occupied a territory unfavorable for bounteous living. The people lived at a bare subsistence level, and most of their daily rounds wrere directed toward gaining a livelihood in this limited environment — starvation wras a seasonal occurrence. Mrs. Margaret M. Wheat in her presentation has highlighted the importance of the vital man-environment relationship with a happy choice of title — Survival Arts of the Primitive Paiutes. Dealing primarily with the Northern Paiutespeaking Indians of northwestern Nevada, she considers their technological skills which are in effect survival techniques. During more than two decades, Mrs. Wheat established and maintained a friendly working relationship with a number of elderly native informants. Chief among these were Wuzzie and Jimmy George. Thanks to the technological skill and cooperation of this couple, the author was able to describe and photographically document the old crafts which provided food, clothing, and shelter. Two qualities or characteristics of the book are noticeable and pleasing: one is Wuzzie whose personality permeates the study — her skill, her personality, her graoiousness enliven the book and provide a mellow charm. A second characteristic is an abundance of excellent photographs which serve to visualize the step-by-step process of preparation or manufacture. Brilliantly presented are the harvesting and preparation of the pinenuts. Critical comments are of a minor nature. In the fore part of the study it is not always clear when the author is referring to the Great Basin as a whole and when only to the Northern Paiute.
The scientific names of the flora and fauna wrould have been a welcome addition to the footnotes. An index would have enhanced the book. T h e text of the book is pleasing in style. This charming study will find ready use in the grade schools and high schools. College classes in primitive technology should require the book. C H A R L E S E. DIBBLE
Professor of Anthropology University of Utah
Montana Adventure: The Recollections of Frank B. Linderman. By FRANK B. LINDERMAN.
Edited by H. G. M E R -
RIAM. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. vii 4-224 pp. $5.95) After the frontier vanished late in the last century, a few pockets of wilderness remained. One was in northwestern Montana, around and beyond Flathead Lake. Into this primitive land there came in 1885 a sixteen-year-old lad, who spent the next fewr years in reliving the time of the old trappers and mountain men. No one, including himself, could have suspected then that Frank Linderm a n would become a distinguished a u t h o r , a successful b u s i n e s s m a n , a prominent public official, and an authority on Indians and their problems. It seemed unlikely that this youth, with no obvious special talents, would extricate himself from this bleak life. Even after reading this autobiographical sketch, one is not entirely sure how it all came about. Time was to reveal that he had intelligence and creative ability, but some degree of luck was involved in his rescue from several unpromising jobs and in his first political success, election to the state legislature. He does not explain these and other crucial events. It appears that Linderman began writing his recollections only after much urging by his publishers, who wanted a sort of combined autobiog-
356
Utah Historical
raphy and historical sketch of Montana. When he died in 1938 he had brought the story up to 1930 and did not have a finished manuscript. The episodes which seem to call for more to be said, and some instances of awkward construction, indicate that this was still a working draft when he last set it aside. Editor Merriam cautions that a biography of Linderman is still needed, and Linderman himself acknowledges that he was not writing a history of the state: "Montana is a vast country. No man could see all that happened here, even in his own time." Part of the difficulty arises from his never having kept diaries or notes, which may account for some omissions and discrepancies in dates. Also, modesty perhaps led him to skip through some episodes where his part has been significant. Dr. Merriam must have been tempted to do some extensive editing, but preferred to leave this as Frank Linderman's own story. Merriam does contribute occasional brief but helpful notes, as well as an Appendix summarizing the man's accomplishments and writings. STANLEY R. DAVISON
Professor of Social Science Western Montana College Mormon Songs from the Rocky Mountains: A Compilation of Mormon Folksong. E d i t e d by T H O M A S E. C H E N E Y . ( A u s t i n : U n i v e r s i t y of Texas Press, 1968. xix + 221 pp. $7.00) In Mormon Songs from the Rocky Mountains, Dr. Cheney has done a job that has long been needed. He has collected into one volume a hundred songs that are truly " M o r m o n " - â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they not only were sung by and about the Mormons, but in some special way every song has pertinent identification with these people. Other collections have included many songs sung by the Saints â&#x20AC;&#x201D; songs brought from Europe or from eastern settlements. With admirable restraint Dr. Cheney has kept such extraneous
Quarterly
material to a minimum, and has used it only when it has a direct bearing upon, or some real relation to, Mormon life. These songs have been a r r a n g e d under four headings that deal with Mormon history, the locale, customs and teaching, and satire and sin. T o make the references and idiom understandable to readers unacquainted with this aspect of American life, a brief Introduction sketches the history and the theology of the sect. Also, all through the book, there are comments, explanations, and background material. Dr. Cheney has gathered his material from many sources. He has taped many of the contributions as sung by regional folk singers and most of these, naturally, have been Mormon singers. Perhaps that should read "all of these," for since they are old-timers of Utah, Idaho, and Arizona, and since there is some uniformity in the nature of their songs, it seems most likely that they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. A number of the songs are familiar to anyone who has had an interest in the songs of the region. Such interest has been steadily growing since the centennial in 1947 gave it birth. And much of this growth has been due to the efforts of Dr. Cheney, himself, as well as such collectors as Austin and Alta Fife and modern folk singers such as Rosalie Sorrels and others. Often the text of such familiar songs is readily available, but here the music is also given, so that they can be utilized successfully. But there are others that have not been widely published, or published at all, save, perhaps, in some small town newspaper, or for a local group. The ballads about certain weddings in southern Utah tell a good deal about the customs in these small towns, and thus are truly of value to the student of regional practices. Altogether, the collection is an extremely entertaining volume â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a sort of spot light focused upon a passing, or already past, segment of our society. If
Reviews and
Publications
there is a criticism of the work, and one hesitates to carp when such a good job has been done, it would be that the whole tone is a bit too bland. T o be sure there are anti-Mormon songs, but they are all in a rather gentle, albeit satirical, tone. There is hardly a suggestion of the bitterness and the anger that was created by the promulgation of the new theology, both within and without the sect. And yet there are songs that express these feelings â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not softly, not gently, but with tremendous vigor. Someday, someone will make a collection that recreates for today's comfortable folk the madness that once prevailed. O r is there enough madness in current songs of protest? Perhaps earlier angers should be forgiven and forgotten. Meanwhile, enjoy Dr. Cheney's book, so expressive of the editor's own wry tolerance and gentle humor. O L I V E W. BURT
Author Salt Lake City
Diamonds in the Salt. By BRUCE A. WOODARD. (Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Press, 1967. xi + 200 pp. $5.00) This book tells the story of a notorious mining swindle that has been told many times since its exposure in 1872. It has generally been referred to as the "Great Diamond Hoax," from Harpending's account, published in 1913. Previous versions were brief or incomplete and many were distorted or inaccurate. Most recent accounts have been drawn largely from Harpending's version and thus have repeated the errors and distortions that are inherent in it. Woodard's book is the first serious attempt to give a detailed as well as faithful account of the incident, the events leading u p to it, and the aftermath. It is entertaining and informative and, for the first time, reveals much detail concerning the activities of the swindlers. A more thorough analysis
357 and treatment could have been given to some technical details concerning the salting, however, and the criticism of Tiffany's appraisal and of t h e failure of Tiffany and others to question the occurrence of diamonds with rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc., is rather presumptuous. Most of the red stones used by Arnold and Slack were garnets and most of the green ones probably wrere olivines. Few "salted" rubies were found and it is likely that even fewer sapphires and emeralds were planted or found. T h e account of Tiffany's appraisal is based mostly, or entirely, on Harpending's account, which probably was exaggerated, and Janin's field examination was so prefunctory that he might not even have been aware of the presence of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Even so, the mineralogic associations of diamonds were poorly understood in 1872. It was not until 1870-71 that diamonds were found in place in the African fields and it was not until later that their mineralogy was studied and better understood. Although Woodard's treatment is generally sound and well documented, it is marred by several ludicrous statements and contains several oversights and errors. O n the dust cover is the statement " H e [Woodard] has pinpointed the site of the diamond hoax, never before disclosed, in the northwest corner of Colorado," and under "Acknowledgments" he refers to his two trips to the site as "expeditions." T h e site, only five miles west of the Rock Springs, Wyoming-Maybell, Colorado, highway, is well known to residents in the area, and it can be driven to easily by vehicle. Also, on the dust cover is the statement that the fraud involved the only known use of diamonds in salting a field. They were used in the African "Roodedam Fizzle" and the reviewer also knows of a Brazilian case. A useful Index and an exceptionally complete list of references are included
358
Utah Historical Quarterly
for the reader's convenience, but the illustrations would have been more interesting and useful if they had been tied to the text, and had been numbered, listed, and paginated. Their usefulness, also, is impaired by errors in the captions. T h e photo of Gardner, Cotter, Brewer, and King (facing p. 149) was taken in 1864 when the four were members of Whitney's Geological Survey of California. Cotter and Brewer never were members of the Fortieth Parallel Survey. T h e captions of the pictures facing page 165 are reversed and in the preceding picture, Canyon Creek is mistakenly labeled Vermillion Creek. In the illustration, "South Boundary of Wyoming," Woodard has mistaken Richards' reference to so-called Ruby Gulch with Vermillion Creek. T h e prominent eastwest drainage feature in this illustration is Canyon Creek. So-called Ruby Gulch is now referred to as Johnson Draw. L O W E L L S. H I L P E R T
Geologist in Charge U.S. Geological Survey Salt Lake City, Utah
An
Essay Towards an Indian Bibliography. Being a Catalogue of Books, Relating to the History, Antiquities, Languages, Customs, Religion, Wars, Literature and Origin of the American Indians, in the Library of Thomas W. Field. With Bibliographical and Historical Notes, and Synopses of the Contents of Some of the Works Least Known. (New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Company, 1873. Detroit: Gale Research Company, Book Tower, 1967. iv + 4 3 0 p p . N.P.)
T h e interest of Mr. Field in antiquities is made evident by an earlier work, Historic and Antiquarian Scenes in Brooklyn and its Vicinity, with Illustrations of some of its Antiquities, published in Brooklyn in 1868. T h e edition was limited to 110 copies, with 96 pages, and additional materials included.
T h e value of the Indian Bibliography and the interest that has been shown in it, are demonstrated by the continuing requirement that copies be made available. In 1875 an auction catalog of Thomas W. Field's library with viii 4376 pages, and a supplement of 59 pages was prepared in connection with the sale of the collection by Bangs, Merwin and Company. Another auction catalog was prepared in 1882, to list for sale the remainder of his Indian collection, plus a section on biography. George A. Leavitt and Company, auctioneers, handled the sale. In 1951 a photographic reproduction of the 1873 edition was prepared for sale by Long's College Book Company, Columbus, Ohio. As stated in the Preface to the 1873 edition, the bibliography contains the following classes of materials in the author's possession that relate to the "American Aborigines": "All works which purported in their titles to contain historic, narrative, or literary materials, relating to the American Indians. "Books in which any distinct portion, chapter, or appendix claimed by its heading, or table of contents to be devoted to that subject. "Works containing engravings, illustrative of the manners and peculiarities of the aborigines, when derived from actual observation. "All treaties, or essays, upon their origin, or the pre-Columbian discovery of America, as affecting the source of its population. "Those wrorks of fiction or poetry founded on Indian life, to which were appended historical notes, incidents of personal experience, or traditions and legends, of the Indians. "All works containing grammatical analyses, or vocabularies of their language, as well as translations, into or from them, would of course form a part of the collection." It is explained that in a few cases "books not actually in the author's col-
Reviews and
Publications
lection have been admitted to the catalogue." These entries are marked with an asterisk to identify them. Rather copious and very useful notes add appreciably to the value of the work. T h e compiler was particularly liberal with his annotations for the uncommon items included in the bibliography. Mr. Field was born in 1820 and died in 1881. His Indian Bibliography is useful for materials that relate to the American Indian published prior to 1870. S. L Y M A N T Y L E R
Professor of History University of Utah The Rock That Burns. By HARRY K. SAVAGE. (Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Press, 1967. x v i + 1 1 1 pp. $6.50) I t now seems probable that Utah's greatest natural resource is not the iron for Geneva Steel, not the copper from the world's greatest open pit, not Utah's uranium, nor even Utah's agriculture, but the kerogen in her bituminous marlstones, more commonly known as oil shales. With Colorado and Wyoming, Utah shares the world's greatest known reserves for fuel and petrochemicals. Vast coal deposits and considerable oil in these states are part of these reserves, but the greatest ultimate potential is the kerogen in the mountains of marlstones in this tri-state area. As Keith Monroe, in his well-w r ritten Introduction to The Rock That Burns points out: " I n 1958 the U.S. Geological Survey upped its estimate of the shale [oil] content [in this area] to the titantic total of 1.4 trillion barrels. This was almost fifty times the nation's proven crude oil resources, and at least six times the world's known reserves. It represented enough petroleum to meet all currently-foreseen needs of the United States for almost three centuries to come." Harry K. Savage, the author and a native of Colorado, envisioned the growth
359 of an oil shale industry and went to Stanford, took an engineer's degree in 1907, and returned to Colorado, where he played midwife at the birth of an industry which he may never live to see out of its swaddling clothes. The Rock That Burns is replete with the record of the frustrations of such a task. H a d not the rich gushers of California, east Texas, and the Near East, each in their turn, flooded the petroleum markets of the world just when oil from shale seemed imperative, all might have been different â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the timing of oil shale exploitation and in the career of Mr. Savage. Monroe's account of Mike Callahan's house-warming cabin-fire discovery of shale oil in 1882 ignores the wellsupported circumstantial evidence of the mysterious discovery by the unnamed Utah pioneer who built and operated an oil shale retort near Levan, presumably before Colonel Drake's first oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859. (See Oil Shale on Chris's Creek, Juab County, Utah: The Mystery of the Legendary First Retort, by Arthur L. Crawford. Circular No. 41 of the U t a h Geological and Mineralogical Survey [Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1961].) But The Rock That Burns is not primarily an historical sketch, nor is it an organized blueprint of proposals. H a d Mr. Savage spent more time sifting and organizing his material, he might have written two books on these respective subjects, either of which would have been far more readable and helpful. His twelve chapters have no headings. T h e material in them is repetitive, concerning the author's achievements, frustrations, and disappointments. One can sympathize with the author's dedication to the philosophy of individual enterprise, but since the oil shale prospector hardly needs an incentive for "discovery" and would be unable to develop his claims without enormous capital, he would in most cases simply act as an agent in creating a monopoly.
Utah Historical
360 Many feel glad that ninety per cent of our oil shales still belongs to the public whose interests should be conserved in perpetuity, under an enlightened regulated development that will give "the greatest benefit to the largest number over the longest time." Scarcely touched by Mr. Savage is the enormity of disposing of the waste from the retorts he envisions. Furthermore, much of the oil shale is buried under strata a t unminable depths. Schemes that would bypass these problems are now under consideration by government and private interests, i.e. (1) "Operation Plowshare" and "Project Bronco" sponsored by the A E C and the U.S. Bureau of Mines, in which atomic blasts 2,500 feet below the surface would "retort" the oil shale under effective cover and fracture the country rock so that the oil and gases could be recovered by conventional means, and (2) fire-flushing through scientifically arranged drill holes to distill off the oil in situ to save mining mountainous quantities at depth. T h e first of these M r . Savage dismisses as "wasteful," and the second he does not even touch. T o their sponsors these schemes have promise of being less wasteful than any considered in previous proposals. A R T H U R L. CRAWFORD
Retired Director Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey
The Mountain of America.
States-Time
Life
Library
By M A R S H A L L SPRAGUE
and the Editors of Time-Life Books. OSCAR HANDLIN, Consulting Editor, and R A Y A L L E N BILLINGTON, M o u n -
tain States Consultant. (New York: Time-Life Books, 1967. 192 pp. $5.00) The Mountain States, one of a set of books about the states of the United States being published by Time-Life Books, is a brief chronicle of the history and geography of this specific region.
Quarterly
Accompanying each chapter is an unusual feature called "picture essay" containing choice color plates and photographs. Besides a very useful Index, there is an Appendix with suggested tours, a list of museums and galleries, and information about local festivals. In his Introduction to The Mountain States, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., says this about the author: " I n his short but inclusive and excellent book on t h e Mountain West, Marshall Sprague has caught the spirit I have at best touched on." T h e author captures the reader's attention with these chapter titles: "A Country for Singing," " T h e Scramble for Settlement," "Water: More Precious than Gold," "New Horizons for the Navajo," "Pleasures and Pains of Ranching," "Elusive Treasures Underground," " T h e Children of Joseph Smith," and "Everybody's Wilderness." Mr. Sprague treats his material topically. Some of it will be familiar because he has gleaned from a variety of known source materials. Perhaps he could have elicited valuable material from the Utah State Historical Society and similar institutions, as well as the one to which he gives credits and acknowledgments. However, he does provide an "in-depth" picture of the Mountain States, and does it very well, in spite of the limited space available to him which precluded extensive descriptions of scenic areas, and allowed only a few glimpses of history in each chapter. In his excellent chapter, "Water: More Precious than Gold," Sprague rates Major John Wesley Powrell as "the greatest of the explorers of the Mountain West," and tells of him recording this prophetic statement: "All the great values of this territory have ultimately to be measured in acre feet." Another chapter that will have popular appeal is "Elusive Treasures Underground," with the accompanying "picture essay" featuring "nostalgic ghosts of a roaring era."
Reviews and Publications
361
Because it is a controversial subject, " T h e Children of Joseph Smith" will have a certain appeal. Mr. Sprague credits the Mormons with outstanding accomplishments, but also points out criticisms that are being made of them. In general, this chapter presents a satisfactory picture, from any viewpoint, of the Mormons. The Mountain States is a beautiful book, handsomely put together, and is a pleasure to read. Undoubtedly, this series of books belongs in public and school libraries, and would also be an asset to any home library. PEARL JACOBSON
Richfield Junior High
Teacher School
Nevada Indians Speak. Selected and edited with introduction and commentary by JACK D. FORBES.
(Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 1967. xii + 293 pp. $5.75) In attempting to show the history of the Indians of Nevada from their own point of view, Dr. Forbes has performed his task well. H e has demonstrated that sources can be gathered to illustrate the transformation of the Indians from their native condition to their present state. T h e book uses the historian's traditional approach — it relies on the documentary sources. T h e author has chosen his sources very well. His reliance upon the testimony of Sarah Winnemucca may be a bit overdone, although her story is of signal importance in Nevada history. T h e organization of the book is good. T h e five parts represent the phases of the history quite naturally. T h e selections do what the author intends in portraying the major themes he has chosen. These phases are " T h e White M a n Arrives," "Warfare and Conquest," "Rebellions, Reservations and Broken Promises," " T h e Long Struggle," and " T h e Present and the Future."
I n the first phase the reaction of the Indians to the coming of the white m a n is relatively short — so is the information on the subject. T h e point is made that the original agressions were from the whites. T h e second phase is far easier to demonstrate. Warfare and conquest are productive of many documents. T h e attention of writers of journals and books makes this phase one of intense excitement. T h e third phase represents a pervasive melancholy of the reaction against the manipulation of these people by the U.S. government and their white neighbors. T h e "Long Struggle" is a section which shows the Indians attempting to accommodate to the rapid change in which they found themselves involved. Here too, the evidence portrays a time of very great difficulty for the Indian people. T h e final section illustrates the present condition of the Nevada Indians. Mr. Forbes should be congratulated for his work, the choice of material, the presentation of it, as well as his editing, commentary, and his very well-written Introduction. T o the student of western history, or the history of the Indians, this book is well worth reading. FLOYD A. O ' N E I L
Assistant Director Western History Center University of Utah Life is a Fulfilling . . . The story of a Mormon pioneer woman — Sarah Diantha Gardner Curtis and her part in the colonization of the San Pedro Valley in Southern Arizona the homeland of the powerful, antagonistic Apache
. . .
By O L I V E KIMBALL
B.
M I T C H E L L . (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1967. 267 pp. $4.95) T h e lives of two remarkable people, Joseph N a t h u m Curtis and his first wife Sarah Diantha Gardner, are recounted here by their granddaughter. As young parents in the spring of 1881, Dode and Sade Curtis answered Brigham Young's
362 call to colonize in southern Arizona. They left a farm in Salem, Utah, that had just started to thrive and began an heroic work to subdue mesquite, chaparral, and catclaw. T h e author has generously illustrated the biography. T h e most successful sketches are those that symbolize the desert's immense loneliness: arid arroyas, m o n o l i t h i c b u t t e s , g e n t l e a n d predatory birds and animals, a barbed wire fence stretching into the distance. Mrs. Mitchell is best at describing the labors of Sade and her family. Looked back on now, they are legendary labors. Besides clearing and ploughing land, farming, irrigating, pasturing and milking cows, beekeeping, cheesemaking, marketing their produce, and Sade's n u r s i n g a n d folk-medicine c u r i n g throughout the country, there was the enormous work of feeding the family. Vegetables and fruits were bottled, dried, stored in the root cellar; sauerkraut and jerky m a d e ; meats cured. All this continued while Indians fought the settlers not far away and often appeared when Dode was absent. Intruding on the chronicle of the family is a disproportionate amount of the familiar folklore of the area: Tombstone, the O. K. Corral, the Earps, Bat Masterson, Curly Bill, and many others. I t would have been preferable to be told more about the emotional life of the family. Children were born and died; Marilla, sister of Sade and plural wife of Dode, died leaving more children for Sade to raise; illness and accidents flourished. Yet Sade, sewing burial clothing, taking in needy boys, was still "courteous to the children at all times." She pondered over polygamy, but, "We must get along with those we live with." When Marilla chafed feeling she was given less honor as the second wife, Sade brewed her a cup of conutillo tea and quoted platitudes and Scriptures. Twenty years after the family had settled on the land, a Mexican water company laid claim to it. For twenty-five
Utah Historical
Quarterly
years Dode fought the company through the courts. T h e orchard died through lack of water. Gunmen stampeded the cattle over the fields. T h e property line was moved to the edge of the cellar. Sade spoke more platitudes. T h e Curtis ranch, emblem of the greatness a n d i n d u s t r y of M o r m o n p i o n e e r life, r e t u r n e d to m e s q u i t e , chaparral, and catclaw. How fulfilling was this to the remarkable Sade Curtis? One wishes to see some bitterness to show her humanity. As a reminiscence of early pioneer life, the book has value. Hopefully the day will come when Mormon writers will treat their pioneers with justice as Mari Sandoz did her pioneer Nebraska father in Old Jules and as Frank Robertson his family in the fine book A Ram in the Thicket. H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS
Salt Lake City, Utah Life of George Bent, Written From His Letters. by
By GEORGE E. H Y D E . Edited
SAVOIE LOTTINVILLE.
(Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. x x v + 389 pp. $5.95) George Bent was uniquely equipped to make major contributions to knowledge of the Great Plains frontier during the last half of the nineteenth century. His father was William Bent, proprietor of Bent's Fort, on the upper Arkansas River; his mother wras Owl Woman, daughter of White Thunder, -who as Keeper of the Medicine Arrows stood high in the leadership hierarchy of the Southern Cheyennes. Thus from birth George Bent had one foot in the white wrorld, and the other in the Indian world. H e kept them there for a lifetime. Spending several of his adult years among the Cheyennes, as a Cheyenne, he witnessed or participated in many of the principal episodes of wrar and peace between his tribe and the Americans. Educated in St. Louis, living on occasion
Reviews and
363
Publications
with his father, operating as a trader in his own right, he passed enough time in the white world to be part of it and to be able to describe and explain Indian history in language understandable to literate white men. Bent not only had this capacity but proved a willing correspondent when encouraged by George Hyde early in the twentieth century. His lengthy letters to Hyde provided crucial source material for the series of books that elevated Hyde to top rank among historians of the Plains Indians. Made available in the Coe Collection at Yale University, the letters have also been widely consulted by other chroniclers of the Plains Indians. They form the basis for this volume. Hyde wrote this book as one of his earliest historical endeavors. Completing it in 1930, he could not find a publisher and sold the manuscript to the Denver Public Library. More than three decades later Savoie Lottinville retrieved it and now, with permission of the aging Hyde, publishes it with both his and Hyde's annotations. Those who have read Hyde's works will find a great deal of familiar material in this one. But they will also find new insights and fresh details on many of the episodes treated in earlier volumes, together with new material, principally relating to southern Plains history, on topics that Hyde previously touched lightly or not at all. T h e strongest and most i m p o r t a n t c h a p t e r s deal with events of 1864-65 in which Bent participated as a full-fledged Cheyenne w r arrior â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Sand Creek, the great Platte raids, and the Powder River War, including the Battle of Platte Bridge. Also useful, although he watched from the sidelines, are his recollections of the Hancock Expedition of 1867, the Medicine Lodge treaty council, and the Washita Campaign of 1868. Historians will find the book limited in its usefulness as first-hand source material. Although written in first person and based mainly on Bent's letters.
most of the text is still Hyde's. Hyde states that he has added or corrected dates and geographical and other nomenclature. Those who know his style will surmise that he has also inserted lengthy connecting passages designed to provide continuity. This makes for a more accurate, better organized, and more complete and readable book; but also, since no way of separating Hyde from Bent is apparent, it means that as a first-hand source the book must be used with caution and preferably the letters themselves consulted. Despite this shortcoming, the Life of George Bent is an important contribution to Plains history and fully deserves addition to the distinguished series of Hyde publications. Savoie Lottinville is to be thanked for rescuing the manuscript from obscurity, providing helpful annotations, and seeing it through the press that he directed so memorably for three decades. ROBERT M.
UTLEY
Chief Historian National Park Service The
Armies
of
God.
By PAUL BAILEY.
(Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Incorporated, 1968. ix + 3 0 0 pp. $5.95) Its dust jacket explains the book is a study of the Mormon decision "to retaliate against their enemies by force of arms," and the cover promises: " T h e little-known story of the Mormon Militia on the America Frontier"; but in the absence of a preface, the reader is left to determine for himself the intended direction and purpose of The Armies of God. Author Paul Bailey offers a presentable and readable review of Mormon military adventures from those electric early days of Jackson County, Missouri, to the final thrashing gasp of the Nauvoo Legion in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1870. Yet in the lieht of what The
364 Armies of God might have been, it is lamentable Mr. Bailey failed to carry its potential to fruition. Zion's Camp, the Sons of Dan, the Missouri War, the birth of the Nauvoo Legion, the Mormon Battalion, the U t a h W a r •—- all are set down in order from accepted sources —• and, in the main, all very proper and correct. Unfortunately, the reader searches in vain for the fresh new material which signals the pick-and-shovel labor of primary research. And it is in the research, not the writing, that The Armies of God is flawed. I n the chapter on Zion's Camp, for instance, the revelation to gather Saints in Missouri came in J u n e 1831, not September 1832 (p. 3 ) . Mr. Bailey also says that within a space of months the Jackson County Mormons possessed a "voting majority" over the Missouri settlers (p. 4 ) . Yet no Mormon took public office in Jackson County and there is nothing in the records wiiich would indicate that such a majority was a matter of difficulty between the two factions. Again, the author cites the Western Monitor as a source for statements attributed to the old settlers of Jackson County, without explaining that no copies are extant of the particular issue of the Western Monitor in question (August 2, 1833). I n this situation the newspaper should have been cited as quoted in History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Period I. History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself, introduction and notes by B. H. Roberts (Salt Lake City, 19021912), Vol. I, or Church Encyclopaedia, Book I, edited by Andrew Jenson (Salt Lake City, 1889). I n discussing Joseph Smith's struggles with the Chandler papyri (later published as T h e Pearl of Great Price), Mr. Bailey says: "After hopelessly attempting to decipher the papyri with his home-made Egyptian alphabet, Joseph
Utah Historical
Quarterly
Smith returned to the system he previously had used in bringing to fruition the Book of Mormon — by spiritual divination, and vocal dictation to a scribe" (p. 3 5 ) . Actually, Joseph translated initial segments of the Egyptian writings, decided they comprised T h e Book of Abraham, and then began his Egyptian alphabet. Other concerns arise as The Armies of God unfolds the Nauvoo period. For a work whose primary focus should be on the military, Mr. Bailey devotes far too many words to the Bennett scandal and Bennett's squabbles with Joseph Smith over the doctrine of celestial marriage, when the same space could have been more appropriately applied to a detailed look at the Nauvoo Legion. A description of its drills certainly would have been of interest in view of the references in Mormon diaries (Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876 [San Marino, California, 1955] and Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861 [Salt Lake City, 1964]) to "danite evolutions of horsemanship" (whatever they were). Some comparisons between the makeup of the Legion and other state militia units would also have been in order. Mr. Bailey apparently opted in favor of published materials in his researches, and here again the remarkably large number of available journals and diaries of volunteers who formed the Mormon Battalion could have humanized this incredible story of hardship and courage. As it is, the Battalion is given little credit outside an area of limited historical interest for having brought off the greatest infantry march in military annals. Even so, those who choose to write of the Battalion persist in following the wellworn literary tracks created by Sergeant Daniel Tyler in 1881. A definitive account of the march and its men remains to be chronicled and must illuminate the animosities directed against
Reviews and
Publications
the "Battalion Boys" by their own families for having "deserted" them at a time of crisis; animosities which lingered for a decade and were resolved only through t h e d i r e c t i n t e r v e n t i o n of B r i g h a m Young. Portions of The Armies of God dealing with the Utah War and the reactivation of the Nauvoo Legion (a circumstance occurring in May 1857, not 1852 as the author suggests [p. 189]), are woven from standard works and contain nothing new. Here it would have been fitting and proper through diaries, journals, and the returns and records of the Legion to have reflected upon a typical company, the men who formed its ranks, and their leaders. How much Mr. Bailey's work would have benefitted from a study of the militia muster rolls (available in the U t a h State Archives) is a question unanswered. Any number of diaries in the Utah State Historical Society and the Brigham Young University Library would have helped flesh out the otherwise lean and impersonal treatment handed the Legion. T h e author does Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston an injustice when he alleges Thomas L. Kane was "rebuffed, snubbed, and humiliated in his efforts to negotiate with Johnston" (p. 232). I t was, after all, Johnston who was treated shabbily by K a n e when that emissary all but rode his horse into the commander's tent at Camp Scott and informed Johnston rather snappishly, " I ask your permission to see Governor Cumming first, I'll see you afterwards." Hardly a measure of respect due the commanding officer of an army of the United States. All this perhaps is harsh criticism of Mr. Bailey's work, which in the scope of general reading by the public is a smoothly written, easily understood capsule history of Mormons and armies. Nevertheless, considering that publication of The Armies of God may now indefinitely deter other authors and publishers from definitive study of any or all phases of the Mormon military encom-
365 passed in Mr. Bailey's volume tends to dampen the enthusiasm for this book. HAROLD SCHINDLER
Television Editor Salt Lake Tribune
Wyoming, 1896.
By
A Political
History,
1868-
LEWIS
GOULD.
(New
L.
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968. xiii+ 298 pp. $10.00) I n seeking to discover the major influences upon Wyoming political development to 1896 Lewis L. Gould chose to focus on the career of one of its outstanding political leaders Francis E. Warren. T h a t this decision was wise is verified a m p l y by G o u l d ' s wellconstructed and carefully documented study. By using the letter books and other writings of Senator Warren, augmented by the writings of others, newspapers, records of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, and reputable secondary works such as those of T. A. Larson, Gould serves to dispel many commonly accepted ideas about Wyoming politics. While most students of Wyoming history would acknowledge the importance of the Union Pacific Railroad and the livestock interests upon Wyoming's development, Gould's great contribution is to place them in their proper perspective. T o accomplish this the author notes the significance of national politics, economic interests, and personal qualities of leading political figures. I n the o p i n i o n of this reviewer, Gould's treatment is a blend of scholarly investigation and clear and interesting exposition. His accounts of the fights in Congress over territorial organization and statehood place local and national matters in proper relationship. Personal letters, newspaper accounts, and official records are all cited to point out his thesis that Francis E. Warren was both an ambitious and an accomplished political practitioner.
366 Warren's true significance as a political leader is best demonstrated by Gould in his accounts of Warren's activities during a n d after t h e J o h n s o n C o u n t y invasion of 1892. While it is true that Republican fortunes suffered because of this event, the subsequent elections of 1894 and 1896 saw a resurgence of Republican power due largely to the skill and tireless energy of Warren. T h e infighting of leaders of both parties, related meticulously but interestingly by Gould, illustrates well his emphasis on the importance of personality factors in political affairs. Thus, while Wyoming went for Bryan in 1896, Republicans, due to a better organization and leadership, were able to dominate the state and local tickets. This local strength Warren was able to parlay into a solid Republican position in the elections of 1898 and 1900. Another significant contribution made by Gould's book is its able demonstration of the role of national expenditures in Wyoming. According to Gould, Warren was able to garner for Wyoming a greater share of army personnel, public buildings, and reclamation projects than her population wrould appear to warrant. These national outlays, according to Gould, were necessary for the economic well being of a state whose economic resources were limited. Finally, Gould appends an excellent bibliographical essay. Undoubtedly he has included therein the major sources of Wyoming history. This essay will be of inestimable value to future researchers. O n e significant newspaper collection not mentioned by Gould is the valuable file of E v a n s t o n , W y o m i n g , p a p e r s owned by the Uinta County Herald, which eventually absorbed all of the other publications in Uinta County. Professor Gould has given us much new and valuable information. Well may all of his readers subscribe to his hope that his narrative "will bring some order and coherence to Wyoming political history and offer other scholars a
Utah Historical
Quarterly
firm basis from which to generalize about Wyoming and the West in the latter part of the nineteenth century." GEORGE W.
ROLLINS
Chairman Division of Social Sciences Eastern Montana College Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West. By VARDIS F I S H E R and
O P A L LAUREL H O L M E S .
(Caldwell, I d a h o : The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1968. xiii+ 466 pp. $15.00) This big, handsome book, with nearly 300 photographs and 250,000 words, is fun from beginning to end. A note to the reader explains that the book was not written for the "scholar and professional historian but for the general reader with an interest in the American West" (p. ix). With that out of the way, the Fishers (Opal Laurel Holmes is Mrs. Fisher) have a fine time with stories both factual and apocryphal. In Chapter I the authors dwell at some length on the plethora of myth and legend in western history and the frustration involved in separating fact from fiction. " I n an effort to dodge the errors we have based a great deal of this book on primary rather than on secondary sources" (p. 2 ) . Well, maybe. But the selected bibliography is less than three pages in length, and once into their subject they rollick through without much critical appraisal of source material at all. Indeed, if anything, the west of the gold rushes and mining camps emerges as more colorful than in most of the colorful accounts heretofore published. Having stated on page 1 that H. H. Bancroft "often spun legends instead of writing history," the Fishers proceed to cite Bancroft at will and without qualification. Many episodes are introduced with such phrases as, "It is said that" or "At least one engineer has conjectured," or "Says Taylor" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the reader having no idea who Taylor is, etc.
Reviews and Publications
367
But the fact is, it does not really matter. T h e book covers the social life in the camps. I t roars through Vigilantes; Girls of the Line; Lawyers, Juries, and Jails; Badmen, Duels, Feuds, and Hoaxes; a n d even Tall Tales and Lost Treasures — as well as all matters in between. Mr. Fisher, a distinguished novelist, brings his skills to bear effectively. T h e style is breezy, the pace is fast, the structure is loose. O n e gets the impression that the author had a ball -— which is not to denigrate the research involved. I t is substantial. T h e photographs, many of which have not appeared before, are excellent and Caxton has done a fine job on a big, plush book. This book belongs on the shelf of every buff. T h e scholar and professional historian of the West will find that when a fine novelist turns his hand to popular history the result is worth reading. K. R o s s T O O L E
Hammond
American
Professor of Western History University of Montana
Album.
By OLIVER J E N S E N ,
JOAN PATERSON K E R R , and
MURRAY
BELSKY. ([New York City]: American Heritage Publishing Company, 1968. 352 pp. $17.50) Large in size and large in value, American Album is a book designed to appeal to a wide audience who cares to reach back into history through photographs. T h e authors state, " T h e purpose of this book is to revisit an utterly vanished earlier America by means of old photographs.as fresh and revealing as we could find. In terms of time they run from 1839 when the first daguerrotypes were taken, until the eve of the First World War, which marks the end of an era, or what we may regard as the beginning of our own time" (p. 14). T h e authors have achieved their purpose well, for they have not selected
either famous photographs or those of famous people. Instead, they have assembled photographs, some of which were taken by famous photographers, of ordinary people and scenes. T h e pictures are then arranged under topical headings, such as "Opening the West," "Rural America," " T h e Big City," " T h e Pursuit of Happiness," etc. Old daguerrotypes and prints have been reproduced with all their imperfections and charm. T h e authors show persons and scenes as they appear without the assistance of touch-up artists who try to "improve upon" the work of the photographer. And so Lewis Cass appears with his warts (p. 29) and the nation's capitol (pp. 48-49) with all the blemishes of the old print. After reading the book one comes away with a feeling that he is seeing persons and places as they were rather than as they hoped to appear. A brief history of photography is given — starting with the daguerrotype in 1839. Wet plates came into use in 1851 — permitting the making of several prints from one plate-negative. T h e flexible film developed in 1888 by George Eastman permitted "instantaneous exposure," thereby eliminating the many blurred images which show u p on the old wet plate prints. T h e contributions of Mathew Brady and some of his contemporaries are evaluated. T h e horrors of the Civil W a r were recorded by this group of photographs — nowhere better shown than on pages 54-55. I n contrast to this scene is the happy scene of a "barn raisin' " on pages 166-67. O n e of the loveliest scenes captured is possibly a self-portrait of Charles R. Savage taken as he gazes out a window, while in the foreground is a festive table of the Christmas season. A few errors in the text m a r this otherwise excellent book. T h e authors have the Western Pacific Railroad racing "to a meeting of rails" with the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869 (p. 5 9 ) . T h e Central Pacific is, of course,
Utah Historical
368 intended, rather than the Western Pacific. O n the same page the authors have William Henry Jackson at "Promontory Point to cover the last-spike ceremony." If Jackson was there, it was not noted by Savage in his diary nor has his presence been noted by Other authors. Jackson himself states he was not present at Promontory Summit (not Point) on May 10, 1869, because it was his wedding day (William Henry Jackson, Time Exposure: The Autobiography of William Henry Jackson [New York, 1940], 175). American Album is indeed a book worth having. T h e 326 photographs covering seventy-five years of history are a fine reflection of things great and small in American history. EVERETT L. COOLEY
Curator Western Americana University of Utah Library
America's Great Frontiers and Sections: Frederick Jackson Turner's Unpublished Essays. Edited by WILBUR R. JACOBS. Reprint. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969) Goes West.
By NANNIE T .
ALDERSON a n d H E L E N A H U N T I N G T O N
SMITH. Reprint. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969) From Wilderness to Enabling Act: The Evolution of a State of Washington. By PAUL L. BECKETT.
(Pullman: Wash-
ington State University Press, 1968) History of Utah, 1896-1929. By W A Y N E D. STOUT. Volume I I . (Salt Lake City: Author, 1968) The Israel Barlow Story and Mores.
Mormon
By ISRAEL BARLOW FAMILY.
(Salt Lake City: 1968)
O r a H . Barlow,
Last of the Great Western Train bers.
By BROWN
WALLER.
Brunswick and New York: Barnes and Company, 1968)
A. S.
Law West of Fort Smith: A History of Frontier Justice in the Indian Territory, 1834-1896.
By G L E N N SHIRLEY.
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968) Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr., 1856-1923, Pioneer Leader, Builder. By AMASA JAY REDD. (Salt Lake City: Author, 1967) A Melodrame Stratagems,
Entitled and Spoils."
"Treasons, By W I L -
LIAM L. ADAMS. Edited by GEORGE N .
BELKNAP. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Library, 1968) Men Met Along the Trail, in Archaeology.
Adventures
By N E I L M . JUDD.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968) Mountain
Men of the Early West. By
OLIVE W. BURT. Illustrated by J U L E S
GOTLIEB. (New York City: thorn Books, Inc., 1967)
NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS
A Bride
Quarterly
Rob(South
Haw-
The National Road: How America's Vision of a Transcontinental Highway Grew Through Three Centuries to Become a Reality. By OLIVE W. BURT. Illustrated with photographs and maps by E L L E N VIERECK.
(New
York: T h e John Day Company, 1968) The Old Oregon Country: A History of Frontier Trade, Transportation, and Travel. By OSCAR O S B U R N W I N T H E R .
Reprint. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969) Parkman: The Oregon Trail. Edited by E. N. FELTSKOG. Reprint. (Madison: T h e University of Wisconsin Press, 1969) Personal Recollections and Observations of General Nelson A. Miles. New introduction by ROBERT M.
UTLEY.
Republication. (New York: DaCapo Press, 1969) The Records of a Nation: Their Management, Preservation, and Use. By
369
Reviews and Publications H. G. J O N E S , with an introduction by WAYNE
C.
GROVER.
(New
York:
Atheneum, 1969) The Sons of Brigham. By T. EARL PARDOE. (Provo: Brigham Young University Alumni Association, 1969) The South Pass Story. By ROBERT W E S T HOWARD. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968) This Was Wheat Farming: A Pictorial History of the Farms and Farmers of the Northwest who grow the Nation's Bread.
By KIRBY BRUMFIELD.
(Seat-
tle: Superior Publishing Company, 1968) Vast Domain of Blood: The Story of the Camp Grant Massacre. By D O N SCHELLIE. (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1968) Via Western Express & Stagecoach. By OSCAR O S B U R N W I N T H E R .
(Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1968) Wells, Fargo Detective:
The Biography
'The Oregon T r a i l — T h e n and Now," by J O H N CLARK H U N T , 24ff.
The American West-—-V, July 1968: "Travelers by 'Overland,' Stagecoaching on the Central Route, 1859-1865," by GEORGE R. STEWART,
4ff.;
"No
T r a d e for Heroes: Andrew Alexander Forbes and the Life of the Working Cowboy," by O W E N
ULPH,
13-22;
" T w o T h o u s a n d Miles from t h e Counting House: Wilson Price H u n t and the Founding of Astoria," by WILLIAM BRANDON, 24ff. — Septem-
ber 1968: "Joseph Smith & the Political Kingdom of God," by K L A U S J. H A N S E N , 20ff. — N o v e m b e r 1 9 6 8 : "Off to the Plains! [Arthur Boyd Houghton, artist, with scene of the Mormons]," by PAUL H O G A R T H , 4 - 1 7 ;
"Poverty, Affluence, and Culture [Shoshone Indians]," by PETER FARB, 18ff.; "Country-Western: T h e Music of America," by J O H N G R E E N W A Y , 3 3 -
4 1 ; "Eastward H o ! Ezra Meeker Memorializes the Oregon Trail, 1905-
By RICHARD D I L -
1910," by GLADYS SHAFER, 42-48 —
LON. (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1969)
VI, M a y 1969: " T h e Transcontinental Railroad, Pacific Railroad Centennial Issue," 4 - 5 ; "From 54 K Street to Capitol Hill, For Sale: An Empire $1,500 Down [Central Pacific]," by
of James B. Hume.
ARTICLES O F INTEREST
DAVID LAVENDER, 6ff.; " T h e Muscle,
American Heritage, The Magazine of History—XX, April 1969: " T h e Iron Spine: T h e Union Pacific m e t the Central Pacific at Promontory — and the nation h a d truly been railroaded," by H E N R Y STURGIS, 46ff.
American History Illustrated—III, June 1968: "Narcissa Whitman, the first white woman to cross the continent, she and her missionary husband became important factors in the settlement of Oregon," by FRANCES SHIVE-
LY, 28-34; " ' A n d Shed American Blood Upon American Soil,' A Look at how the Mexican W a r came about," by ALBERT CASTEL, 36-43 —-
July 1968: "Jim Bridger," by D. ALEXANDER B R O W N , 4ff. — August 1968:
T h e Gold, and T h e Iron, Documenting the Construction of the Central Pacific, T h e Stereographs of Alfred A. Hart," 13-19; "Collector's Choice, T h e Photographs of A. J. Russell," by WILLIAM D . PATTISON, 20-23
Annals of Wyoming — 40, April 1968: "Across the Plains in 1864 with George F orman (a traveler's account)," edited by T . A. LARSON,
5-21—October
1968: "Across the Plains in 1864," edited by T . A. LARSON, 267-81 Arizona and the West-—10, Autumn 1968: " T h e Origins of Harvard's Mormon Collection," by R A Y ALLEN BILLINGTON, 2 1 1 - 2 4 — 1 1 , Spring 1969: "Mormons in Texas: T h e 111Fated Lyman Wight Colony, 1844-
370
Utah Historical
1858," by DAVIS BITTON, 5 - 2 6 ; " T h e
Speculator Disaster in 1919: Labor Resurgence at Butte, Montana [ I W W in M o n t a n a ] , " by A R N O N
GUTFELD,
27-38
April 1969: "Park City — ' O n l y 40 Rods from hell,' " 5-8 The Colorado Magazine — X L V I , Winter 1969: " T h e Legend of Charlie Glass," by W A L K E R D . W Y M A N
Arizona Highways — X L I V , A u g u s t 1968: [entire issue devoted to the Navajo]; " T h e Peace Treaty with the Navajos,"
Quarterly
by C H A R L E S
FRANKLIN
PARKER, 2 - 7 ; " T h e Indestructibles:
Saga of the Navajos from the early times through the bitter horrors of the Long Walk — and then Peace," by DAMA LANGLEY, 8ff.; "Delano, Beauty
in Navajoland [Gerard Curtis Delano, artist]," 14-27; "Mother Earth [story of Hosteen Sagnetyazza]," by GLAD-
and
J O H N D. H A R T , 40-54
The Denver Westerners Monthly Roundup—XXV, February 1969: "Camels, Their Use in the Southwest and Final Disposition," by NOLIE M U M E Y ,
3-18 Desert: Western Travel/Adventure/'Living—-31, August 1968: "When Dinosaurs Trod Utah's Vermilion Cliffs," by EARL
SPENDLOVE,
23-25;
"Ari-
zona's Little Known Pipe Spring Na-
WELL RICHARDSON, 36-39 — Septem-
tional AJonument," by JOYCE L I T Z ,
ber 1968: "Mormon Settlements in Graham County [Arizona]," 38-39 — X L V , March 1869: "1869 — J o h n Wesley Powell — 1969: Unsung Hero of the West [entire issue]"; "John Wes-
32-33 — September 1968: "Sentinel of Utah's Black Rock Desert," by
ley Powell," by JERROLD G. WIDDISON,
4 - 7 ; " T h e Powell Exploration of the Glen and Colorado River," by DAVID T O L L , 8ff.; "A tribute to the National Park Service: 1919 — Grand Canyon National P a r k — 1969," by EDWARD H . PEPLOW, J R . , 44-47
Brigham Young University Studies, A Voice for the Community of LDS Scholars—VIII, Spring 1968: "Dickens and the Mormons," by RICHARD J.
D U N N , 325-34; "Mormon Biblioggraphy: 1966-1967," by CHAD J. FLAKE, 335-41 — Summer 1968: "Fort Douglas and the Soldiers of the Wasatch: A Final Salute,' by L Y MAN C PEDERSEN, J R . , 449-62
The Bulletin — X X I V , July 1968: "Outfitting for the West, 1849," by JANE HAMILL SOMMER, 340-47; "Biograph-
ical Notice of Genl. William H . Ashley," unsigned article of April 14, 1838, from The Missouri Saturday News, 348-54 Circuit — 31, March 1969: "Park City Strikes a Second Bonanza," 3-6 —
GEORGE A. T H O M P S O N ,
19;
"Green
River's White Water, Fast Water," by PETER J. B U R N S , 20-21
Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought - I I I , Autumn 1968: "Joseph Smith's Presidential Platform," by RICHARD D. POLL, 17-21; " T h e Political Legacy of Joseph Smith," by MARTIN B. HICKMAN, 22-27: "General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the G o v e r n m e n t of t h e U n i t e d States [photocopy]," 28-36 — W i n t e r 1968: "B. H. Roberts as Historian," by DAVIS BITTON, 25-44 — I V , Spring 1969: "A Heritage of Excellence: T h e St. George T a b e r n a c l e [ p h o t o g r a p h i c s t u d y of t h e t a b e r n a c l e ] , " 3 8 - 4 0 ; "Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature, edited by R A L P H W. H A N S E N , 114-18
The Far-Westerner: The Quarterly Bulletin of the Stockton Corral of Westerners—9, July 1968: " W h y William B. I d e Came to California," by A L L E N FIFIELD, 2-9
Idaho Yesterdays: The Quarterly Journal of the Idaho Historical Society-—• 11, Spring 1967: " T h e Salmon River Mission of 1855," by J O H N D. N A S H ,
371
Reviews and Publications 22-31 — 12, Summer 1968: "Fort Hall, 1834-1856," 28-31—Fall 1968: "Vardis Fisher, March 31, 1895-July 9, 1968," by RONALD W. TABER, 2 - 8 ;
"Benoni Morgan Hudspeth," by M R S . PAUL CAMPBELL, 9 - 1 3 ; " T h e L a n d e r Trail," by PETER T . HARSTAD, 14-28
The Journal of American History formerly The Mississippi Valley Historical Review — LV, June 1968: "Beyond the Great Divide: Immigration and the Last Frontier," by M O S E S R I S C H I N , 42-53
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society — L X I , Summer 1968: " T h e American F u r Company and the Chicago of 1812-1835," by J O H N D . HAEGER, 117-39
Journal of the West — V I I , April 1968: "Crime a n d Punishment in the United States Army: A Phase of Fort Laramie History," by J O H N D I S H O N M C -
DERMOTT, 246-55 — J u l y 1968: "Geog r a p h i c a l Aspects of C o n s t r u c t i o n Planning: Hoover D a m Revisited," by IMRE SUTTON, 301-44; "Friedrich
Gerstaecker: World Traveller and Author, 1816-1872," by E R W I N G. GUDDE, 345-50 — October 1968: " T h e West T h a t Was," by BARRY M . GOLDWATER, 445-55
Michigan History — L I I , Fall 1968: " J . C. Burrows a n d t h e Fight Against M o r m o n i s m : 1903-1907 [Reed Smoot],"
by
M.
PAUL
HOLSINGER,
181-95
ROBERT G. A T H E A R N ,
2-23 — X I X ,
Spring 1969: " T h e Steptoe Affair [Bvt. Lt.-Col. E. J. Steptoe]," by H E L E N ADDISON HOWARD, 28-36
National Geographic — 135, May 1969: "Retracing J o h n Wesley Powell's Historic Voyage Down the Grand Canyon," by J O S E P H JUDGE, 668-713
National 1968:
Parks Magazine — 42, July "Capitol Reef, A Geological
M o n u m e n t , " by ELEANOR E. GAMER,
4-9 — 43, April 1 9 6 9 : " S o m e Thoughts on a Hike Through Canyonlands Park," by P H I L L I P L. N E L SON,
28-31
Nebraska History — 50, Spring 1969: " T h e Union Pacific Railroad and the Early Settlement of Nebraska, 18681880," by BARRY B. C O M B S ,
1-26;
" T h e Great Union Pacific Excursion, 1866," by SILAS SEYMOUR, 27-53
New Mexico Historical Review—XLIII, July 1968: "Navajo Campaigns and the Occupation of New Mexico, 18471848," by FRANK M C N I T T , 173-94
Ohio History— 76, Summer 1967: "An Ohioan's Letter from t h e California Gold Fields in 1850," edited by R O B ERT R A L P H DAVIS, J R . , 159-63
The Pacific Historian: A Quarterly from the University of the Pacific—12, Summer 1968: " W h o Named T h e Grand Canyon?" by O . D O C K M A R S -
TON, 4 - 8 ; " T h e Back East Background of Jedediah Strong Smith," by ROBERT W E S T HOWARD, 9-21
Montana, The Magazine of Western History — X V I I I , July 1968: " O n Reading Lewis & Clark," by DONALD JACKSON, 2 - 7 ; "Clark on the YellowStone, 1806," by E R N E S T S. OSGOOD,
8-29; "Lewis on the Marias, 1806," by PAUL R U S S E L L C U T R I G H T , 3 0 - 4 3 ;
"Carrie and the Grand Tetons," by FRANCES
JUDGE,
44-57;
"Stephen
Long's Great American Desert," by RICHARD
H.
DILLON,
58-74 -— Au-
tumn 1968: "Railroad to a F a r Off Country, T h e U t a h & Northern," by
Pacific Historical Review — X X X V I I , February 1968: " T h e Controversial Hastings Overland Guide: A Reassessment,"
by
THOMAS
F.
ANDREWS.
21-34 Pacific Northwest Quarterly—59, January 1968: " T h e Mormons Come to Canada, 1887-1902," by LAWRENCE B. L E E , 11-22 — A p r i l 1968: "Vardis Fisher and the 'Idaho Guide,' Preserving Culture for the New Deal," by RONALD W. TABER, 68-76
372
Utah Historical
Reclamation Era, A Water Review Quarterly -— 54, August 1968: "Daring Scientist, J. Wesley Powell, Spurs Water Saga," by WILLIAM C U L P DAR-
RAH, 61-65 — 55, February 1969: "Centennial Issue: 1869-1969, Colorado River Explorer Powell [entire issue]"; "Centennial to Honor J. W.
DONALD
J.
BERGSMA,
Quarterly 21-23 — 48,
Summer 1968: " U t a h Documents Its Heritage," by J O H N L. G I U S T I , 13-17
Utah Farmer — 89, Number 6: "Utah's Water Plan: Although not fully formulated it will, when complete, project water needs to the year 2020," by K I P P PARKER, 6ff.
Powell," by GORDON J. F O R S Y T H , 1-5;
"Famous Trip Boosts Powell's Career," by M A R Y C. RABBITT, 6 - 1 0 ; "Powell's
H a r d Look at Water Facts," by W. L. ( B U D ) R U S H O , 11-17; "Powell's Dream Come True, Many Uses of 'Old Red's' water at this time," by LOUISE
LOVE,
18-23 — M a y
1969:
"Fun Along the Colorado, Today's water tricks would amaze Explorer John Powell," 6-9 The Smoke Signal— 17, Spring 1968: " T h e Pony Express and the Overland M a i l , . . . W h a t C o n n e c t i o n ? " by WADDELL
F. SMITH,
147-59;
"The
Pony Express, W h a t it Was and What it Did," by J A M E S E. SERVEN, 160-67
Utah Libraries— 12, Spring 1969: "Now There Are Five [histories of library construction at Utah's five state colleges]," 7-17; "Dixie College Library," by ROBERT O. D A L TON, 7 - 9 ; "Weber
State College Library," by JAMES R. TOLMAN, 10-11; "Snow College Library," by R U T H C. O L S E N ,
12-13;
"College of Eastern U t a h Library," by BRENT W E S T , 14-15; "College of
Southern U t a h Library," by INEZ S. COOPER, 16-17
Vermont History, The Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society — X X X V I , Spring 1968: "George Edmunds of Vermont: Republican HalfBreed," by RICHARD E. W E L C H , J R . ,
Southern Pacific Bulletin — 53, April 1969: "Golden Spike Album," 6; "With t h e Help of our Sacramento Shop Forces: T h e 'Genoa' Becomes the 'Jupiter,' " 7
64-73 Western Gateways: Magazine of the Golden Circle — 9, January 1969: "Powell's Route Through the Grand
Southwestern Historical Quarterly— L X X I I , January 1969: "Herbert Eugene Bolton as a Writer of Local His-
20ff.; "Pipe Springs National Monu-
tory," by M A R T H A V O G H T , 313-23
Thiokol-Wasatch Impulse—12, Number 2 : "Building the Pacific Railroad," 3 - 1 0 ; "Life in a Railroad Town," 11-12; [Brief facts concerning the construction of the railroad a n d photographs], 13-14 plus insert; "Burg on the Bear [Corinne]," 15-18; "Railroad Construction Life," 19-24; "Thiokol Hears History's Echo," 25-26 Utah Archaeology, A Newsletter—15, March 1969: "A New Museum for U t a h [Museum of Natural History]," by D O N V . H A G U E , 11-19
Utah Architect—-47, Winter-Spring 1968: "Utah's Early Settlers," by
Canyon,"
by G A Y L O R D
STAVELEY,
ment," by SCOTT CAMERON, 26ff. —
March 1969: "Great Canyonlands Country Issue — T h e Powell Centennial [entire issue]"; "Running the M a jor's River," by GAYLORD STAVELEY,
6ff.; "Utah's Gemini Twins," by FRAN BARNES, 18ff.; "Panguitch Big Fish," by M A U R I N E W H I P P L E , 24ff.; " T h e 3
R's of the San J u a n , " by GAYLORD
STAVELEY, 2 8 - 3 1 ; "Escalante's Magnificient Twelve," 34ff.; "Canyonland Safari," by FRANK COX, 38ff.; "Bryce Canyon Trail," by JACK R O O F , 4 2 - 4 4 ; "Lake Powell Idyl," by A. GOLAY, 48ff.; " T h e Goblins '11 Getcha in Goblin Gully," by BLAIR
CHAMBERLAIN,
65ff.; "Conversation with: Shoemaker [explorer, river
etc.]," 73ff.
Eugene runner,
U T A H STATE H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E T Y Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions who are interested in Utah history. We invite everyone to join this one official agency of state government charged by law with the collection, preservation, and publication of materials on Utah and related history. Through the pages of the Utah Historical Quarterly, the Society is able to fulfill part of its legal responsibility. Your membership dues provide the means for publication of the Quarterly. So, we earnestly encourage present members to interest their friends in joining them in furthering the cause of Utah history. Membership brings with it the Utah Historical Quarterly, the bimonthly Newsletter, and special prices on publications of the Society. The different classes of membership are: Student Annual Life
$ 3.00 $ 5.00 $100.00
For those individuals and business firms who wish to support special projects of the Society, they may do so through making tax-exempt donations on the following membership basis: Sustaining Patron Benefactor
$ 250.00 $ 500.00 $1,000.00
Your interest and support are most welcome.