In This Issue

Travel is a fundamental constant in the human experience. Whether it be the result of circumstances beyond our control such as war and plague, or an inner push for more favorable social conditions, greater economic opportunities, the search for adventure or to enjoy meaningful recreation opportunities, as individuals and society we recall those trips and journeys that have taken us from the familiar to the unknown. Often they test our inner strength, commitment, endurance, and courage.

Here in Utah and the American West, what would our history be without such milestones as the Dominguez Escalante journey in 1776, the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-1806, the California-bound immigrants of 1846, and the Mormon pioneer trek of 1847? A list of subsequent journeys might include the Parley P. Pratt expedition in 1849, the John Wesley Powell trip down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869, the Hole-in-the-Rock journey in 1880, and many others. But, as the first article in this issue contends, the Jacob Hamblin expedition of 1858 from the southern Utah settlement of Santa Clara, across unmapped mountains and deserts, through the nearly impassable canyons of the Colorado River, and on to the ancient Hopi Villages of Arizona deserves recognition as one of the West’s important epic journeys. The mettle of the fourteen members of the group that set out in late October 1858, with the last returning to Santa Clara on December 26,1858, proved to be substantial.

Visitors to Zion National Park enjoy the magnificent scenery including the Great White Throne (bottom right).

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

If Jacob Hamblin and his companions were thankful to have a blanket to wrap themselves in and a rock outcropping to protect themselves from the icy blasts of a December storm, later automobile travelers found roads and accommodations in Utah’s Dixie to be luxurious by comparison. Our next two articles, “Early Roadside Motels and Motor Courts of St. George,” and a photo essay “St. George: Early Years of Tourism,” illustrate the area’s transformation from a pioneer agricultural economy to one grounded in travel and tourism.

Keeping within the broad boundaries of our travel theme, our fourth article addresses the legal status of those African Americans who were brought to Utah as slaves prior to the Civil War. No longer slaves, they were still not free as the Utah Territorial Legislature sought to structure an unsteady bridge in protecting property rights and avoiding animosity by either the North or the South over the nation’s peculiar institution.

The gyrations and schemes to prevent war were, in the end, unsuccessful as the nation was swept into four long years of civil war. While Utah was spared the fighting and destruction that devastated much of the South and disrupted the social and economic life of both sections of the country, the territory still felt the impact of war as carried in Northern and Southern newspapers. These newspapers, which occupied different worlds in their treatment of the war, its causes, and consequences, found common ground, as our final article for this issue recounts, in addressing the subjects of Mormonism, polygamy, Brigham Young, and Utah statehood.

COVER: The Great White Throne, Zion National Park, Lynne Clark Photography. IN THIS ISSUE (ABOVE): Tourist buses in front of Zion National Park Lodge in the 1930s. UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.