Utah's Harsh Lands, Hearth of Greatness

Utah's Harsh Lands, Hearth of Greatness

BY RICHARD H. JACKSON

IT MAY SEEM PRESUMPTUOUS TO ATTEMPT to divide Utah into harsh lands and fertile lands. It has long been part of the accepted Utah Mormon folklore that the entire state was a desert of the harshest nature when first settled by the Mormon pioneers. This view was succinctly stated by Brigham Young in 1857 when he offered thanks that the "Lord has brought us to these barren valleys, to these sterile mountains, to this desolate waste, where only the Saints could or would live, to a region that is not desired by another class of people on the earth.' n An even grimmer view of the state was given in 1865 by George A. Smith who stated that "we came to this land because it was so desert, desolate, and godforsaken that no mortal upon earth would covet it." In the view of Smith the Salt Lake Valley when the pioneers had entered it eighteen years earlier was "a howling desert... in the heart of the Great American Desert."

Such statements by church leaders are the basis for the official view of Utah as desert. They are in direct contrast to the original views by the same individuals and other settlers as they entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Wilford Woodruff's initial response to the Great Salt Lake Valley was recorded on July 24, 1847:

After traveling through the deep ravine valley ending with the canyon, we came in full view of the valley of the Great Salt Lake, or the Great Basin — the Land of Promise, held in reserve by the hand of God as a resting place for the Saints. We gazed with wonder and admiration on the most fertile valley. . . .

This overwhelmingly favorable view was mirrored by the other pioneer settlers. William Clayton, for example, noted that when he first looked down on the Salt Lake "a very exclusive valley burst forth upon our view, dotted three or four places with timber — I could not help shouting 'hurra, hurra, here's my home at last.' "

The favorable reaction of the Mormons to their first view of the Salt Lake Valley was apparently reinforced upon closer examination. Entering the valley they reported they found the soil to be of a "most excellent quality," with the flood plains of the streams and the valley floor covered with a great variety of green grass, which was "very luxuriant." Streams from the mountains entered about "every 1 or 2 miles," with "water excellent," and some streams "sufficiently large to carry mills and other machinery." A pioneer reported of their journey across the valley to where they camped that "the wheat grass grows 6 or 7 feet high, many different kinds of grasses appear, some being 10 or 12 feet high." The pioneers, "after wading thro' thick grass for some distance," found "a place bare enough for a camping ground, the grass being only knee deep but very thick." At the site of the pioneer camp they found the soil was "black," and looked "rich," and was "sandy enough to make it good to work."

Closer to the Great Salt Lake the land was reported to be less fertile and the soil began to "assume a more sterile appearance," apparently because "at some seasons of the year [it] overflowed with water." In the drier portions of the valley the vegetation was "swarming with very large crickets, about the size of a man's thumb," a phenomenon that subsequently came to dominate official Mormon accounts of the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Initial reaction to the climate indicated that these first pioneers had expected it to be completely arid. Commenting on an afternoon thunderstorm, one noted, "we felt thankful for this, as it was the general opinion that it never rained in the valley during the summer season." In general, however, they viewed the Salt Lake Valley as having an "excessive dry climate," but the dry climate made "the sky very clear and the air delightful." After a year in the valley a member of the pioneer company could write to his father that the climate of the Salt Lake Valley was "a beautiful dry and salubrious climate and exhilerating atmosphere" which was "the most favored spot for health on the globe," even "surpassing any place that can be found on the coast."

The general reaction of the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley, then, was favorable, and although it was more arid than lands they had left, the availability of streams made irrigation possible. Timber was limited in the valley, but one diarist noted, "we had not expected to find a timbered country," and after exploring the general area "the brethren reported plenty of timber in the mountains." 16 The Mormons had found a different environment but were "happily disappointed in the appearance of the valley of the Lake," for "if the land be as rich as it has the appearance of being, [we] have no fears but the Saints can live here and do well while we do right." Noticeably absent from diaries and official accounts are references to the Salt Lake Valley as a desert or general dissatisfaction with the area as a home.

The initial reaction of the Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley reflects geographic reality. The valleys of Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, Box Elder, and Cache counties receive sufficient precipitation to remove them from the category of desert (fig. 1). In the Wasatch and Uinta mountains even greater precipitation occurs, reaching fifty inches in places. This further benefits northern Utah in the form of abundant perennial streams. By comparison, Juab, Millard, Iron, Washington, Beaver, Tooele, and other central and southern Utah counties have less nondesert land (fig. 1). Their lack of precipitation is compounded by the absence of such reliable rivers as the Ogden, Provo, Spanish Fork, or Bear which drain large catchment basins.

Utah's harsh lands are south, west, and southeast of the Wasatch Front. The development of the idea that the Salt Lake Valley was a desert came as the leaders began serious efforts to encourage settlement of these harsh lands. The increasing aridity and harshness of the Salt Lake Valley in leaders' remarks in the period 1855-80 reflect their attempts to encourage settlers to go to places such as Parowan, Cedar City, St. George, or Blanding. These and other sites were viewed by settlers as having both a harsher geography and an isolation from the limited culture of the Great Basin founded in Salt Lake.

Church leaders' descriptions of the Salt Lake Valley increased its aridity and desolateness in direct correlation to the harshness of the area they were then encouraging settlers to occupy. Statements such as this from Wilford Woodruff in 1877 epitomize the transformation of Utah's fertile lands into an official desert: "But when we came to this country, what did we find here? A barren desert, as barren as the Desert of Sahara; and the only signs of life were a few black crickets, some cayote wolves, and a few poor wandering Indians."

The effect, if not the intent, of such statements was to encourage settlers to go to the harsher lands south of the Wasatch Front. Explicitly or implicitly all of the descriptions that transformed the fertile lands of the Wasatch Front into a desert stated that the desert had been made into its present garden state by the faith and work of the settlers, and that those called to settle Utah's harsh lands could accomplish the same transformation. In the words of Brigham Young,

. . . the climate of these valleys has been modified and mollified for their [the settlers] sakes. When we first came here, neither an apple nor an ear of wheat could have been raised in this valley [Cache]. But is there a finer place to live in on this continent? No. There is not.

With such encouragement thousands of settlers went forth to seek out those spots within the mountains and deserts of Utah's harsh lands where they could make a living. The words of George Q. Cannon as he attempted to get settlers to go to Arizona in the 1870s portray the attitude of the church leaders toward the harsh lands:

When we came here I thanked God for the isolation of these mountains; I thanked him for the grandeur of the hills and bulwarks which he had reared around us. I thanked him for the deserts and waste places of this land . . . and when we go hence to extend our borders we must not expect to find a land of orange or lemon groves, a land where walnut trees and hard timber abound. . . . But if we find a little oasis in the desert where a few cattle can settle, thank God for the oasis. . . .

This attitude was responsible for the multitude of communities established in marginal locations in Utah outside of the Wasatch Front. The litany of towns such as Monticello, Blanding, Bluff, Kanosh, Panguitch, Loa, Meadow, Kanab, or Harmony is a testimonial to the willingness of settlers to accept the leaders' admonitions to seek out the oases and the Lord would modify the climate.

It should be emphasized that the settlements occupied the best sites, but even then the resource base for the Mormon agrarian economy was more limited than in the well-watered north. Descriptions of the stream sites ultimately settled range from the enthusiasm of church leaders, charged with the responsibility of settlement, to negative appraisals by those who had left established homes in the Wasatch Front to settle in the south. Between these two extremes is found every shade of reaction, but in general the leaders tended toward optimism, the rank-and-file to pessimism.

The earliest views of Utah's harsh lands came from reports made to Brigham Young by Jim Bridger when the Saints met with him on June 27, 1847, during their journey west. According to the most complete account of that meeting, Bridger thought "the region around the Utah Lake is the best country in the vicinity of the Salt Lake, and the country is still better the farther south one goes until the desert is reached, which is upwards of two hundred miles south of Utah Lake. There is plenty of timber on all the streams and mountains and an abundance of fish in the streams." The old mountain man was probably trying to put as much distance as possible between the Mormon settlements and his own trapping activities with this comment. If he is to be believed, the best place in Utah for settlement was in the area from Beaver to Cedar City.

The significance of Bridger's comment is that it corresponded with information Brigham Young had previously obtained from reading Lansford Hastings's Emigrant Guidebook to Oregon and California and lengthy discussions with Hastings himself. Young seems to have accepted wholeheartedly Hastings's statement that areas north of the 42d parallel (present northern border of Utah) were too cold to grow common crops. Bridger's confirmation of this was a major factor in his determination to force Mormon settlement south into southern Utah, Nevada, and Arizona while largely ignoring Idaho and areas northward. It also played a role in the decision to locate the territorial capital in Fillmore in hopes of encouraging greater settlement there.

Brigham Young's interest in the south led to the southern exploring party in the winter of 1849-50 under the leadership of Parley P. Pratt. As might be expected, Pratt's views of the lands visited in the Sanpete and Sevier River area, in the Little Salt Lake Valley, Mountain Meadow, and Santa Clara regions were generally favorable. His report of the Cedar City and Parowan region of the Little Salt Lake Valley epitomizes these favorable reports:

On the southwestern borders of this valley are thousands of acres of Cedar constituting an almost inexhaustible supply of fuel, which makes excellent coal. In the center of these forests rises a hill of the richest iron ore. The water, soil, fuel, timber, and mineral wealth of this and little Salt Lake Valley, it was judged, were capable of sustaining and employing from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, all of which would have these resources more conveniently situated than any other settlements the company had seen west of the States.

All of the areas reported on by this exploring party were the focus of settlement efforts by the Mormons, beginning with the Iron Mission (which established Parowan) leaving Salt Lake in the fall of 1850. Reports of rank-and-file members of the southern Utah exploring company are less voluminous than those kept by the official clerk, but they still indicate an appreciation for the scenic beauty of the lands traversed.

Scenic beauty may attract migrants to Cedar or Parowan today, but it was of little concern to Brigham Young and other leaders of that time. But reports of abundant iron ore and cedar for charcoal sufficient to support 100,000 people (ten times the then population of the territory) was of immediate interest to Young, and by July 1850 the Deseret News had printed a call for settlers to the Iron Mission.

The Iron Mission represented the first attempt to impose anything other than an agricultural settlement on Utah's harsh lands. It is important to note that it came as a result of outside needs and pressures. Since the church and government in Utah Territory at this time were virtually synonymous, it represents the first example of government intervention in the development and use of the harsh lands. Of secondary importance was the request that individuals serve for one year. The acceptance of the idea that movement to Utah's marginal lands was a short-term mission after which the faithful could return to their homes in the Salt Lake Valley was one that constantly handicapped settlement efforts in the marginal regions.

Once the church leaders had determined that there was a resource that could be profitably exploited in the Little Salt Lake Valley, the settlement effort moved ahead. Apparently the newspaper solicitation did not inspire sufficient recruits, because in October and November of 1850 individuals were personally requested to participate. The response of John D. Lee is indicative of the enthusiasm that greeted requests to exchange homes in the Salt Lake Valley for the unsettled Little Salt Lake Valley.

J. D. Lee replied that he was willing to help build up Zion in any way that the Lord wished but to go to Little Salt Lake was revolting to his feelings and could he do as much by $2,000 of his possessions he would cheerfully do it sooner than to go this fall, President Young said to make a settlement at that point was one of the most important things now in contemplation.

But in spite of the reservations of those called to participate, a party of 119 men, 30 women, and 18 children left in late December for what is now Parowan. The presence of only "30 women over 14" suggests the temporary nature of the trip as perceived by a majority of the participants. Assuming that some of the younger "women" were dependents rather than wives, only about twenty families seem to have gone.

The participants in the first effort to produce greatness in Utah's harsh lands commented favorably on many sites they passed en route to Parowan, but they were less than ecstatic over the site of the community itself. At present Fillmore, Lee reported that Chalk Creek was "a bold running stream . . . , this stream is quite sufficient for Mill purposes and would Eregate some thousands of acres of land. . . ." At present Meadow, Utah, he stated that "the quality of the soil is of a rich Black Red and certainly will produce well and from the present knowledge of the situation of this Point the conclusion would be that a good heavy settlement can be made here." At Corn Creek (Kanosh) the settlers reported : "This is inevitably the best prospect for a large Settlement that we have discovered on the (trip) since leaving the Settlements." Diarists seemed able to recognize opportunities for settlements so long as they were not asked to establish them.

Arriving at their destination at Parowan on January 13, 1851, the settlers shuddered at the sight before them. George A. Smith, the leader, wrote of the moment:

Thermometer this evening at 32°. The whole of the camp moved on to Center Creek and camped at the mouth of the canyon. A very fine rapid stream, larger than that of North Cotton Wood [in Salt Lake Valley]. Red sandy soil covered with bunch grass, sage and rabbit brush and grease wood (I found a track of land which pleased me, but not so with a great majority of our farmers who make up rye faces and say they can see no facilities here)

John D. Lee noted that the area "seemed rather forbidding to a farmer especially. Scarce anything to be seen but sage and greasewood."

In spite of their apparent disappointment the settlers proceeded to establish their community. Land was selected for a fort, farms, and pasture, but then difficulties ensued. An indication of the problems facing the settlers of Utah's marginal lands is given by Smith two weeks after their arrival.

I called the camp together this morning and told them that there was no call for public work today and that every man was at liberty to do what he pleased upon which there was a regular stampede for the canyon, every man taking his ax and leaving his gun. There was not half a dozen men about the camp during the day. Every accessible tree that would make a house log within 4 miles stood a slim chance today.

Although somewhat facetious, Smith's report points up the unsuitability of the region for the agrarian economy of the time. Limited resources of timber, level land, and, even more important, water, effectively prevented the agricultural villages of the marginal lands from supporting more than a few thousand inhabitants. The potential of 100,000 could be reached only through creation of a manufacturing sector based on iron and steel. Establishment of Cedar City by converts from England's manufacturing centers in November 1851 culminated in a small quantity of smelted iron on September 29, 1852. Although iron was subsequently produced for some fifteen years, the great population and manufacturing center conceived by Brigham Young never emerged in his lifetime. The Mountain Meadow Massacre, the Utah War, and most important the advent of the transcontinental railroad doomed the enterprise. The Iron Manufacturing Company of Utah was organized under church direction in the 1880s and rails, cars, and other railroad equipment purchased to connect the iron furnaces with the present Union Pacific line (then Utah Southern) at Milford and renew and expand iron production. In spite of this, the iron resources were not tapped fully until the twentieth century, and the actual steel making became concentrated in the Wasatch Front. Thus, the first attempt at greatness in Utah's harsh lands failed. The dream of 100,000 people in Little Salt Lake Valley withered and died. It died as a result of both the handicaps presented by the geography of the Iron Mission and the emergence of more efficient industrial centers in the East.

Exploitation of resources fostered the move south to Parowan and Cedar City, but agricultural goals fostered other attempts at greatness. Brigham Young's report of the area from the Little Salt Lake Valley north to the Utah Valley envisioned agricultural settlements totaling millions of people. According to one diarist:

President Young gave a glowing description of the different vallies he had passed through also Iron Co. which abounds with extensive mines of Iron ore of the best quality. Good stone coal beds which appear extensive. . . . [The Pavant] valley 100 miles this side is a very large good place with extensive range plenty of farming land Father and Bishop Anson Call have been appointed to take a company there this fall He thinks this valley capable of supporting at least a million souls All the valleys this side are capable of cultivation with plenty water wood and grass He wants the people to settle these valleys as soon as possible and not keep hived up here in town.

It is unclear whether Young's view that the Pavant Valley would support one million represented his actual view or was just propaganda to encourage settlers to move southward. Certainly his view is supported by other leaders, including Parley P. Pratt, who described the Pavant Valley in glowing terms:

Here are resources for farming, stock raising, fuel, etc., in sight of our present encampment, probably more than sufficient to sustain the present population of Rhode Island; and yet, not a domestic animal, except those of the passing traveller, or a human being, save the occasional savage in his wanderings, occupies any portion of the wide domain.

Young's infatuation with the Pavant Valley peaked with the establishment of the territorial capital at Fillmore. Had his assessment of the area been accurate, such a location would have been a rational choice. However, since the region has inadequate water, it represented but one more attempt to impose greatness on the harsh lands through external manipulation. As with the Iron Mission and subsequent endeavors, the idea of Fillmore as the capital met failure. The few times the legislature convened there in the 1850s were sufficient to allow them to recognize the geographical realities of the region.

The agricultural empire visualized in the Pavant failed to meet Young's expectations, but the concept was expanded to the Dixie mission and attempts to produce cotton and wine. Parley P. Pratt, in his initial visit to the Santa Clara in 1849-50, reported on the warm climate but had only faint praise for the possibility of settlement of the area. Camped south of the black volcanic ridge near Pintura, he reported:

The country southward for 80 miles showing no signs of water or fertility;... a wide expanse of chaotic matter presented itself, huge hills, sandy deserts, cheerless, grassless plains, perpendicular rocks, loose barren clay, dissolving beds of sandstone . . . lying in unconceiveable confusion.

Pratt's report of the land along the Virgin and Santa Clara rivers was more favorable but is still somewhat subdued compared to his praise for areas north of the rim of the Basin.

Jacob Hamblin and other missionaries to the Indians also traveled to the Virgin River. Of the trip from Harmony, Hamblin reported that "we found rough Desert country, destitute of water and almost everything else. We traveled 3 days without finding water, only in hollow places of the rocks deposited by a heavy rain the second night after we started." Once arrived at the Santa Clara, Hamblin and company, assisted by local Indians, constructed a rock dam 80 feet long, 14 feet high, and 3 feet thick across the stream with the avowed purpose of aiding the Indians in producing their food. In 1855 a little cotton was grown by the Indian missionaries, prompting the next attempt to create greatness in the harsh lands.

The story of the beginning of the Cotton Mission has been previously told, but it is important to note that settlers of this area were moving into even harsher lands as measured by the critical resource, water.

Settlement of Dixie for purposes of producing cotton began with the first group of 160 persons arriving at present Washington on May 5, 1857. Their cotton crop was a failure, but the perception of this group, which included migrants from the southern states, fostered the idea that the area was "Utah's Dixie." This perception ultimately came to be a negative one rather than a positive one as some of these settlers returned home or wrote home at the end of the season with reports of the failure of the cotton, lack of water, and limited arable land.

Other locations were slightly more successful in growing cotton, however, and in 1858 more settlers were sent. Convinced of the need and profitability of the cotton endeavor, Brigham Young visited the settlement at Santa Clara in the summer of 1861, and at the general church conference in Salt Lake City that October 309 people were called to settle Dixie. The importance of the endeavor is indicated by the presence of three apostles, Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow, and George A. Smith, as leaders.

Smith had visited the Virgin River settlements in 1857, and his report at Salt Lake City in September of that year played a significant role in Young's decision to send more settlers to some of the harshest lands yet colonized by the Mormons. As an apostle and leader of the successful settlement at Parowan, Smith's judgment was unquestioned. In examining his assessment of Dixie, however, one is struck by the fact that in spite of efforts to report positively on the area, the harshness of the region could not be denied. In discussing the trip from the rim of the Great Basin to the Virgin River he stated:

It is rather rough [country]; but I could not but admire its extreme beauty; and I think, if the Lord had got up all the rough, rocky, and the broken fragments of the earth in one, he might have dropped it here.

When I reached the cotton country, I had previously learned that they were failing in their attempts to raise cotton, and that the waters of the Rio Virgin were poisoning the cotton. But I learned that the seed had not come up: but what had come up 5 perhaps one-third of was exceedingly fine. The difficulty was, that their cotton was planted very late, and the sun heated the sand, for the soil is nothing but the red sand of the Sahara. They planted it in the sand, as tiiere was nowhere else to plant it, and the sun was scorching it; but they found that all that was necessary was to keep the seed wet; and when they poured on the water, the cotton grew, and old cotton-growers tell me that they have never seen a better prospect for cotton, for the time it has been planted, in the world;. .. and the prospect is, that they will have pretty good cotton and about the third of a crop, and the next year they will be able to raise lots of cotton; for they will be there early enough, and have seed that can be depended upon.

It takes a true optimist to report that a crop of one-third germination, and that only partly grown, is a good crop, but his concluding comments about the cotton-growing efforts along the Virgin certainly were not designed to encourage a mass rush to the area:

If the sand was not wet, it would all blow away. The country seemed very hot to me; otherwise I enjoyed the visit very well. But the brethren insisted that it was a very cool spell while I was there.

I preached to them in Washington City, and I thank the Lord for the desert holes that we live in, and for all the land that can be watered, in all, amounting to but a few hundred acres. There are but a few rods wide that can be watered in a place. . . .

The elements in Smith's 1857 report, coupled with reports of those who returned from the abortive 1857 Cotton Mission, were quickly adopted as an apparently wide-based view of Dixie as the harshest area for settlement. Major elements of the popular view were the extreme heat, drought, lack of trees, and infertile and limited level land. In Dixie, Smith had found the Sahara Desert he later applied to the Salt Lake Valley. The reluctance of settlers to go to Dixie was even greater than that of those earlier called to Parowan, Cedar City, Fillmore, Nephi, Manti, or other areas, which were not so radically different from the central settlements in the Salt Lake Valley. In consequence the leaders devoted numerous sermons to encouraging settlers to move to the truly harsh lands of Dixie. Smith played a major role in these attempts, and his efforts to overcome his earlier rather negative reports of the area took interesting forms. In September 1861 at Logan he attempted to encourage potential settlers with nationalistic statements aimed at the need for self-sufficiency by the Saints:

We have got to provide for ourselves as a great family and as a nation. All enlightened nations have endeavored to get control of a northern and southern climate. The God of heaven, in his abundant mercy, has given us the control, in these elevated valleys of a northern and southern climate.

Having already gone on record that the southern climate suffered from excessive heat and sandy soil, Smith made no attempt to revise the popular image of Dixie as a desert; rather he transformed the Salt Lake Valley of 1847 into the same geographic condition and implied that through obedience those called to Dixie could transform it into the farms and gardens found in the Salt Lake, Cache, and Utah valleys by 1861. He was explicit on this point at church conference in October 1861: "When you first came here [Salt Lake Valley] you dropped down into a desert, went to work and made it blossom as the rose. Then, when you have done this, you have to go to other places and make them blossom also."

In spite of the leader's encouragement and repeated claims that with a little work they could change the geography of the harsh lands, most prospective settlers departed for Dixie reluctantly. An example of both a willing and an unwilling immigrant comes from Allen J. Stout's family in 1861. In writing of his call to go to the Cotton Mission he stated: "Now this was joyful to me for I was glad to leave that cold country [south of Pleasant Grove] and get where I could raise southern products; but my wife felt bad for she thought she could not live in a hot climate, for she was very fleshy—she weighed 250 pounds. . . .'" Actual involvement in the Cotton Mission endeavor seems to bear out the wife's view. Stout's comments after arrival in Dixie reflect only the difficulty of settlement. Typical is his entry for July 9, 1863. "The weather is very hot and our water is nearly gone, so that it is uncertain whether we can save our crops or not." 40

The expectations of those called to Dixie were fairly accurate insofar as the hardships associated with settlement were concerned. The recurrent efforts to construct dams on the Virgin, the loss of the limited agricultural land along the Santa Clara to floods, the emergence of alkali as a result of irrigation, and the lack of water in summer were perennial events. In 1859 James Bleak reported that: "Last year [1859] the Washington Dam in the Rio Virgen had been swept away twice . . . ditches partly swept away and where this was not the case, they were filled with mud and debris."

When floods or droughts failed to handicap them sufficiently, the settlers' own lack of expertise did. The difficulties presented by the harsh environment caused many to return to the north.

It should not be assumed that such problems were unique in Dixie. The trials of the settlers at Delta as they attempted to place a diversion dam in the Sevier, or those of settlers at Bluff on the San Juan, mirror them. The words of a visitor in 1868 succinctly state the nature of colonization in the harsh lands: "They have a hard time to get along in this Desert country."

The difficulties of settling the ever harsher lands south and east of the Wasatch Front discouraged many people, and the problem faced by the leaders in developing the region was summarized by Brigham Young in 1874 in noting that when he asked people to go to St. George they responded: "St. George! Are you going to send me to St. George? Why it is like sending me out of the world." The constant problem of getting people out of the Wasatch Front and into the harsh lands is summarized by the report of a Scandinavian who was returning to Ogden in 1873 after an abortive settlement attempt: ". . . in relation to what President Young sent by telegraph about the brethren remaining here till fall he said that they would not stay if he should come with Jesus Christ himself."

Like the Iron Mission, and the dream of a million settlers in the Fillmore region, Young's vision of a major cotton-producing region, with outlets to the West Coast via a river port on the Colorado, foundered on the geographic realities. Dixie is a marginal area for agriculture and could not compete with the South once the Civil War ended. In Dixie, as elsewhere in Utah's own harsh lands, demand by outside interests was the basis for occupancy, but the geography of the region, combined with changing events beyond its borders, assured its failure.

What then of the theme "Utah's Harsh Lands, Hearth of Greatness"? The large cities and dense population envisioned by Mormon church leaders have yet to be realized, but the greatness is there. The region is a hearth of greatness because in spite of the harsh nature of the geography of the area when compared to the Wasatch Front, and in spite of the apparent failure of the settlers in achieving the goal of Young, they were successful in establishing homes, farms, towns, and a way of life that is unique in the United States.

The settlements themselves were not necessarily great, as shown by descriptions of visitors. Even the Mormons found the settlements in the harsh lands unappealing. One noted that "Fillmore is the seat of Government and a fine state House is built of red sandstone The town looks the least like a civilized place of any I have seen being a few houses in fort form filled with cattle yards, [corrals], etc." Parowan was apparently somewhat more pleasing as the following description indicates: "This [Parowan] is a pretty valley and town. The town is neat and clean with a good mill and plenty of first rate good people." Cedar City was larger than Parowan, but apparently a less pleasant place. "[Cedar City] is a much larger place than Parowan Situated on Coal Creek and like all the towns built in fort form It is not as neat as Parowan being filled with cattle yards [corrals] etc a thing very essential but easily be put a little back instead of occupying the center of town." No visitors were overwhelmed by the towns themselves, but several remarked on the beauty of their location. A visitor to St. George in 1864 reported that

. . . this little town is situated on a beautiful incline baring to the south, the city stands at the foot of the mountains, on the north, there is a formation of a redish sand stone. Many of them rising hundreds of feet perpendicular which gave the country a very beautiful appearance, with the Vergen river lying some miles in the south, a way to the south, and east were to be seen many lofty, rugged, volcanic-looking mountains which gave to the country a very romantic appearance.

It was hard to find anything romantic in the typical farming village in the harsh lands. Streets were either dust or mud, depending on the season and the locale; and the noise and odor of pigs, sheep, cows, and horses composed a central part of the atmosphere of each. Such mundane aspects of life in a rural village are rarely mentioned by observers. Descriptions of the towns quoted above may be criticized as atypical since they represent views of towns usually less than a decade after establishment. The heritage of the pioneer period, however, is still found in the towns and villages of Utah's harsh lands, and even casual observers note them.

The persistence of such architectural and economic functions in the towns of Utah's marginal lands relate to the limited resource base upon which they rely. Enormous effort was required to successfully occupy such areas. Perseverence, industry, sacrifice, frugality, and brotherhood were essential ingredients; and from them came many remarkable achievements. Typical of these is the canal to bring water from the Virgin River to the Hurricane Bench south of Hurricane. First contemplated in the 1860s, the project was finally completed in 1903. It consisted of some five miles of canal along the cliffs on the south side of the river. The work was accomplished by farmers from the settlements along the Virgin, not for speculation but to provide additional farm lands so their children would be able to get land for a livelihood. Actual construction began in the winter of 1893-94, and work proceeded each winter and during slack times in the summer. Construction of the canal along the cliffside required use of nine short tunnels through precipitous rock outcroppings and flumes to carry the ditch over areas where the rock was unstable. The ditch was four feet deep with a bottom eight feet wide sloping to ten feet at the top. Total cost was estimated at $65,000, most of it in the form of labor. It was originally estimated that 2,000 acres could be irrigated, but only about 1,500 were able to be served. The significance of the project is that the settlers accomplished it on their own, except for $5,000 obtained from the Mormon church in 1902. Equally as important, the canal has remained in use to the present day. This story could be repeated throughout Utah's harsh lands, as today's residents continue to use the ditches, trees, roads, wells, and houses of those who came to the area in spite of its harshness and persisted in their efforts to occupy the land.

Not all of the attempts to occupy these marginal lands ended with even a modicum of success. Fully twenty-seven settlements established in Utah were ultimately abandoned, some lasting only a few months, others several years. Zion, Dalton, Tonaquint, Adventure, Duncan's Retreat, Shonesburg, Paria, Scutumpah, Bloomington, Georgetown — simply names today but each at one time consisted of individuals who left established settlements with hopes of creating a new oasis.

Measurement of the achievements of those who settled Utah's harsh lands is difficult. It is impossible to place a value on either the human sacrifice or the results of that sacrifice. An examination of the population of Utah reveals that residents of the non-Wasatch Front areas of Utah have become proportionally less important within the state in the last one hundred years (fig. 2). Growth in population, industry, and economic well-being has been concentrated along the Wasatch Front, but the figures alone are partially misleading. Many of those who participated in the growth and development of the Wasatch Front in the twentieth century, including governors, scientists, and university presidents, were reared in Utah's harsh lands. Their commitment to hard work and persistence was an obvious factor in their successful careers. Viewed in this light, the contributions of the residents of Utah's harsh lands have a significance beyond that suggested by their limited number.

What is obvious is that Utah's harsh lands are at the threshold of a period of growth in population and economic base. The non-Wasatch Front counties of Utah that have consistently lost population in the post- World War II decades are now beginning to grow. It is indeed ironic that the very harshness of the geography of these regions that made it impossible to support large numbers in an agrarian economy may be the basis for future growth. The rugged mountains that prohibited expansion of agriculture have become the home of national parks and other recreational opportunities attracting thousands of visitors each year. The same mountains hold vast reserves of coal, oil, natural gas, and oil shale at a time when energy demand is a critical issue. The existence of vast areas of open space with sparse populations will attract such disparate economic activities as power-generating plants, mineral extraction, and defense facilities. Utah's harsh lands may yet support the large population envisioned by Brigham Young, but whether this large population will reflect the same values and attributes of the original settlers remains to be seen.

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