In This Issue

Questions of who owns the land, how it is to be distributed, and how ownership can be maintained are issues that have marked Utah’s history, and, it can be argued, all history from the earliest days. In our Spring issue, land and geography serve as dominant themes.

When settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847, all the land south of the 42nd Parallel, today Utah’s northern border, was Mexican territory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, transferred Utah and the rest of the American Southwest to the United States. But Utah did not legally exist until the federal government created the Utah Territory in September 1850. Before private citizens could obtain legal title to the newly occupied land, a public land survey was required. For Utah, that survey began in July 1855. However, the individuals charged with conducting the survey soon became involved in political controversies that threatened their work, even their safety. The motives, competence, and loyalty of those early federal surveyors, administrators, and clerks were often challenged. Our first article for this issue describes the problems and disputes that marked the early land disposal system in Utah.

Our second article addresses another aspect of land ownership as it relates a fascinating tale of President James Buchanan’s designs to acquire Cuba. Even before the beginning of his term as United States President in 1856, Buchanan had expressed a desire to acquire Cuba from Spain. That sentiment was shared by many other American citizens who sought to acquire Cuba for the purpose of expanding American slavery and who believed it a part of the nation’s Manifest Destiny to acquire the land that divine providence had intended for the United States. However, the way to Cuba began in Utah then followed into Mexico but ended short of the intended goal.

Homecoming parade in Salt Lake City on August 19, 1899, for Spanish-American War veterans.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Buchanan’s desire for Cuba could have been fulfilled nearly a half century later as the United States entered the Spanish-American War in 1898 to expel Spain from Cuba. Although Cuba was no longer associated with the expansion of slavery, it had another value in what has been described as an era of Imperialism as more powerful nations sought to acquire territorial possessions for economic reasons. To illustrate America’s noble intent, Congress passed the Teller Amendment indicating that freeing Cubans from Spanish oppression was its sole goal and the United States would not take possession of the island. However, half a world away the Philippine Islands, which had been under Spanish rule since the sixteenth century and not mentioned in the Teller Amendment, became the scene of further military action. In the Philippines, United States soldiers, including volunteers from Utah, fought first against Spanish forces and then their own Filipino allies. Our third article describes the involvement of Utah soldiers in the conflict.

Our final article for this issue brings us back to Utah as politics, economics, religion, and education mixed together to give a most interesting account of the transfer of Dixie College, founded in 1911 by the LDS church as the St. George State Academy, to the State of Utah. While the epicenter of the conflict was in Utah’s Dixie, the shocks spread throughout the state to such diverse communities as Cedar City, Ephraim, Price, and Ogden. The integration of Dixie College into Utah’s higher education system has proven a wise decision made by political leaders during the Great Depression. Today, Dixie State College is a keystone in the economic growth and the enhanced cultural life of southern Utah.

COVER: An 1882 graduate of West Point, Major Richard W. Young was commander of the Utah Batteries in the Philippines. During World War I, Young was promoted to brigadier general. He died in Salt Lake City on December 27, 1919. UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. IN THIS ISSUE (ABOVE): Staff of the Salt Lake Tribune loaded in a stagecoach for a parade on May 15, 1898, to send off volunteers for the Spanish-American War. Among the volunteers were four members of the Tribune staff. UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.