Utah's
Heritage.
By S. GEORGE
ELLSWORTH.
'Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith
Inc., 1972. 510 pp. $12.00.) O n e of the most welcome volumes to come off the press in 1972 is this long awaited book appropriately titled Utah's Heritage. T h e volume was designed a n d written primarily as a U t a h history textbook for junior high school use. I n addition, the general public will also find it a valuable source of reliable information. It is by far the best one-volume history of our state yet to appear. Material of the volume is quite logically presented in four major parts, each of which is divided into units (eight altogether) a n d again subdivided into twenty-six chapters. T h e coverage is extensive, beginning with the physical setting, followed by "Early M a n in the M o u n t a i n West" a n d present-day Indian tribes. I n logical, well-organized chapters the reader is then led through U t a h ' s history from the arrival of the first white m e n (the Dominguez-Velez de Escalante Expedition of 1776) to " U t a h in World W a r I I " a n d " U t a h ' s Heritage T o day." Coverage is social, cultural, a n d economic as well as political and religious. N o n - M o r m o n as well as Mormon contributions are given fair and adequate treatment. A major a n d outstanding feature of this book is the n u m b e r a n d quality of the photographs, paintings, maps, and other graphic materials found therein—there are over five h u n d r e d fifty of them. But, although these are very expertly reproduced, the reader will find it nearly impossible to identify
the photographer, artist, donor, or other source of the graphic materials. T h e individuals w h o m a d e the donations will be able to locate their names in a "Picture Credits" section at the end of the book—but the reader will not take the time necessary to search out such identification. This is a serious fault. T h e careful reader will find a few mistakes of names a n d events, two of which are here cited. O n e mistake which must have been either deliberate or carelessness in checking a source is found on page 100 where a quotation from Osborne Russell's journal describing an 1840 Christmas dinner is sandwiched between two paragraphs describing the gay times enjoyed by trappers at a rendezvous. Nothing could be farther from the t r u t h : Russell was merely visiting some friends. This quotation is cited from a secondary source —according to the "Citations" page, but should have been cited directly from Russell's Journal. T h e mistaken notion that the Peter Skene OgdenJohnson Gardner (not Gardner Johnson) clash of 1825 on Weber River occurred in Mexican territory is perpetuated in the volume. While it is true that the U.S., by the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, h a d set out the 42nd parallel as the southern boundary of American claims to the "Oregon Country," Great Britain was not a party to that treaty. T h e fracas occurred in territory positively included in the jointly occupied territory from the
