Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, Number 2, 1992

Historic Resource Study: Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.

By STANLEY B KIMBALL (Denver: U.S Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991. iv + 226 pp. Paper, free distribution.)

This report, prepared by Stanley B. Kimball of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, is the beginning step in development of the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail by the National Park Service. Although the trail was listed ten years ago as part of the National Historic Trails System, little has been done until now to ready it for the 1997 sesquicentennial.

Kimball recommend s 67 sites along the trail between Nauvoo and Salt Lake City to be marked and interpreted Seven sites are in Utah: Cache Cave, Summit County (meets standards for the National Register); Pioneer Defense Fortifications in Echo Canyon, Summit County (listed in the National Register); Hogsback Summit, Summit County (Kimball rates the ruts here as too poor to nominate to the National Register); Mormon Flat, Summit County (listed in the National Register); Big Mountain, Summit County; Little Mountain, Salt Lake County; This Is the Place Monument, Salt Lake County (listed in the National Register).

The Pacific Slope: A History of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.

By EARL POMEROY (New York: Knopf, 1965; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1991. xxii + 431 pp. Paper, $15.95.)

Stressing the interaction of the old and the new, the importance of social, political, and economi c ties, the power of cities, the limits of growth in western culture, and environmental change, this classic is a masterwork of good reading, analysis, and synthesis. Rich with insight and invitation to further work, it may well continue to merit Yale westernist Howard Lamar's 1977 characterization as "easily the most complex and sophisticated history of the American West."

Utah readers will find lasting value in its insights into the importance of tourism, the particular overlap of urban and rural patterns, and its understanding of the regional influences tha t have worke d o n ou r state Pomeroy and Bison Books are to be commended for making this superb book widely available again.

Colorado's War on Militant Unionism: James H. Peabody and the Western Federation of Miners.

By GEORGE G. SUGGS, JR (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991 242 pp Paper, $14.95.)

In 1903 and 1904 civil war flared in the metal and coal mining camps of Colorado. Miners' strikes were met with harsh and violent opposition by mining companies working closely with the state's conservative governor, James H. Peabody.

Professor Suggs's study of the militant Western Federation of Miners Union and the even more militant response to that union by conservative political and business leaders documents a time when Colorado stood on the brink of class warfare With the original 1972 edition of this book long out of print, this paperback reprint makes available one of the most important books on western and American labor history.

The book has particular relevance to Utah. During the same time that Colorado miners were on strike, Utah coal miners undertook one of the largest strikes in the state to that time Much of the rhetoric and many of the same tactics that marked the Colorado strike were found here Utah politicians and businessmen followed the Colorado strike carefully and branded the Utah strike as a "sympathetic strike" caused by outside agitators from Colorado Labor organizers did enter Utah from Colorado and miners traveled between the two states. Although the Utah strike never became as brutal as in Colorado, violence did occur and the situation remained tense from October 1903 through the spring of 1904.

Readers will find Colorado's War on Militant Unionism a fascinating and sometimes disturbing portrait of men and women fighting for their dignity, basic constitutional rights, and a better way of life.

The Great Sioux War, 1876-77: The Best from Montana: The Magazine of Western History.

Edited by PAUL L. HEDREN (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 1991 xiv + 293 pp Cloth $27.50; paper $11.95.)

Montana: The Magazine of Western History originally published all fifteen articles in this collection between 1952 and 1988. The editor admits that the events around Little Big Horn have become a large part of the story of the Sioux Wars. That influence is discussed in the articles, but much more is provided in this collection The anthology is divided into Sioux War Prelude, Fighting the Sioux War, Sidelights of Sioux War, and Sioux War Aftermath.

Rober t Utley' s article , "War Houses in Sioux Country," details how important and how proud the military was of the Sioux Wars: "Sherman also took pride in the spread of settlement and the advance of railroads that such permanent military garrisons made possible. . . . Truly as Sherman prophesied in 1877, forts ensured that the Sioux would never regain the Yellowstone Basin." The Great Sioux War, 1876-77, offers a review beyond Custer.

History and Faith: Reflections of a Mormon Historian.

By RICHARD D. POLL (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989 x + 134 pp Paper, $9.95.)

Today's burgeoning interest in the "new Mormon history" has created a growing audience of people who want to read history that is accurate, balanced, and intellectually satisfying The writers and readers of this genre may struggle as preconceived or mythologized notions are tested, strained, and occasionally uprooted.

Poll's book is a compilation of essays, written over roughly a twentyyear period, in which he wrestles with some of these difficult topics. The reader shares with this "faithful historian" some tough questions that he and others have sparred with such as how the LDS church handles inquiry by its intellectuals, the role God plays in affecting history, how to confront some of the skeletons in the closet of "we-wish-it-never-happened" history, and the issue of infallible leadership.

The author's honest evaluation of sticky problems, his truthful questioning that is not always answered, and his ability to look at concerns without sinking into skepticism makes this a valuable work While there may not be any startling answers at its conclusion, the thoughts along the way are well worth consideration by a person of any religious persuasion Thus, this book is recommended for those interested in personal religious insight or a refreshing approach to the new Mormon history.

Delta Phi Kappa Fraternity: A History, 1869-1978.

By WILLIAM G LEY (Salt Lake City: Delta Phi Kappa Holding Corporation, 1990. xiv + 294 pp Paper.)

The Delta Phi Kappa Holding Corporation commissioned William G Hartley, research assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University's Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, to write a scholarly and usable history of Delta Phi Kappa, a male LDS church fraternity for returned missionaries Hartley began his task by researching the beginnings of Utah's first fraternity, Delta Phi, at the University of Deseret. Initially as a literary society and later in the 1890s as a debating society, Delta Phi blossomed for a time but withered during the first two decades of the twentieth century only to sprout again in the 1920s as the Friars Club, under the nurturing of church official and educator John A Widtsoe.

The Friars Club merged with the Delta Phi Society in 1931. During the next three decades Delta Phi met with great success, establishing chapters on other college and university campuses in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona, and providing social, cultural, religious, and fraternal association for returned LDS missionaries. According to Hartley, the fraternity sometimes went beyond the fraternal association by offering honest criticism and suggestions to church leaders about the missionary program Some of these suggestions were later implemented.

In 1961 Delta Phi changed its name to Delta Phi Kappa The history of Delta Phi Kappa reached its zenith with support and backing of the church in the 1960s. But as Hartley points out, the seeds for its demise were planted with increased enrollment of LDS students who were not returned missionaries In 1978 after much debate and discussion, Delta Phi Kappa was replaced by Sigma Gamma Chi. It, too, would be absorbed into yet a broader and more comprehensive organization on universities and college campuses, the Latter-day Saint Student Association.

Hartley and the publisher plow new ground, providing the reader for the first time an understanding of LDS student participation in the broader university life at various campuses in the West during much of the twentieth century.