A PIONEER PAPER MIRRORS T H E BREAKUP OF ISOLATION I N T H E GREAT BASIN B Y A. R. MORTENSEN
J / OR SEVERAL YEARS following the initial settlement in 1847, Mormon isolation in the Great Basin was complete. Although much has been said and written that the Saints wanted it that way, all evidence and much common sense points to a different conclusion. With the railroad in the more settled East an old story and the telegraph rapidly becoming so, neither Brigham Young nor his people were satisfied to be tied to the speed of the ox. Testimony in the form of all sorts of schemes looking toward breaking the shackles binding rapid communication and transportation bears witness to the fact that the Mormons were indisposed to view their isolation complacently. The Deseret News1 with all the motives of the rest of the community, plus publication problems of its own, likewise was interested in more rapid communication. In its pages were early reflected many schemes and proposals: Some carried out, some failing, and some only hoped for and not to be realized until the far distant future. Late in 1850, in referring to the recent settlement at Little Salt Lake (Iron County), Brigham Young spoke of the possibility of a railroad to that area and eventually to southern California. 2 For half a century or more such a hope was only a dream. From time to time, other possibilities were mentioned: A Nicaraguan route for swifter transportation to California; 8 steamer service up the Colorado River, from which a railroad would be built to Salt Lake City; 4 Federal legislation for a wagon road to southern California; 5 and, a memorial from the citizens of California requesting Congress to construct a similar road from Missouri *First and oldest continuously published paper in the Intermountain region, founded June 15, 1850. "Governor's message to the General Assembly of Deseret, December 2, 1850, Deseref News (Salt Lake City), January 11, 1851. 'Ibid., December 27, 1851. '•Ibid., March 19. 1853. 'Ibid,, December 14, 1854.
