Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, Number 1-4, 1959

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

A. R. Mortensen, Editor

UTAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

VOLUME

XXVII

SOCIETY

1959

Copyright 1959, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah Entered as second-class matter January 5,1953, at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of August 24,1912.

CONTENTS ARTICLES

In This Issue„,BY A . R. MORTENSEN Toward

an Understanding

History

of Irrigation

Reclamation,

of the West,

in Utah,

Its Influence

of the West, Reclamation

BY J O H N W . CATJGHEY

39^

BY PAUL J O N E S

in American

History,

51

BY W I L L I A M MULDER

their Heritage,

Pony Tragic

End,

Heroic

79

Dissertations outside the State

BY IDA-MARIE CLARK LOGAN

Express,

59

BY S. K. STEVENS

Selections from A Bibliography of Theses and Concerning Utah or the Mormons Written of Utah,

27^

History

BY MARSHALL N . DANA

The States Act to Conserve

The

7

BY GEORGE D. CLYDE

and Impact on the

and the Indian,

The Mormons

3

8 5 , 169

Effort —

BY RAYMOND W . SETTLE

Utah and the Coming

of the Denver

I Oo

and Rio Grande

Railroad,

BY ROBERT G. ATHEARN

I 29*

The Utah Idaho Central Railroad,

BY PHILIP E. SORENSEN

145'

The

Apostasy

BY EUGENE E. CAMPBELL

157-

This

is the Place, BY T . EDGAR LYON

of Samuel

Brannan,

203

The Changing Face of Salt Lake City, BY DALE L. MORGAN Temple Square: The Crossroads of the West,

209

BY THEODORE L. CANNON Utah's

Capitols,

BY EVERETT L. COOLEY

Main Street: Salt Lake The Shining The

The Oquirrh

275/

Range, BY JACK GOODMAN . . .

BY DAVID E. MILLER

in the Wasatch,

The Mormon

259

City, BY A. R. MORTENSEN

Mountains—

Great Salt Lake,

Wandering

247

Economy

BY J A C K GOODMAN

in Kirtland,

313

Ohio,

BY R. KENT FIELDING

Daniel S. Tuttle,

33I

Missionary

Bishop of Utah,

BY JAMES W. BELESS, J R The Robert The

S. Bliss Journal,

President's

Reviews Historical

Report,

•.

EDITED BY EVERETT L. COOLEY

BY LELAND H . CREER

and Recent Publications Notes

285 297

359" 381 407

(91,413 435

ILLUSTRATIONS The Crossing at Council Bluffs

*

John W. Caughey

«•

The American West

™

Zion Canyon area

'*

George D. Clyde

"

Ditches for fencing and watering; Logan-Hyde Park-Smithfield Canal

30

Virgin River

•'

Marshall N. Dana

38

Reclaimed farmlands; Recreational facilities

""

Grande Coulee Reservoir; The water supply fails

48

Paul Jones

50

Navajo Tribal Council

54

"The Water Hole," BY PAUL SALISBURY

56

William Mulder

58

Box Elder Tabernacle in Brigham City

68

Salt Lake City in the early 1860's

74

William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, William B. Waddell

102

Pony Express letters

106

Russell, Majors & Waddell Bible

115

Pony Express notice of rate reductions

117

Bill of the Kansas Valley Bank; Promissory note issued to W. B. Waddell

122

William Jackson Palmer

128

D & RG single track lines in Utah

132

D & RG depot in Salt Lake City; Train Crossing the Colorado River..

134

David Eccles, M. S. Browning

144

Collinston hill track; Freight train in Logan City

149

Birney model street car

153

Samuel Brannan

156

Yerba Buena, 1846-47; Old Custom House

161

Brannan's home in San Francisco

166

Brigham Young Monument "This is the Place" Monument

202 204, 206, 234

Great Salt Lake City '" 1&51 (Jones)

208

Plat Map of Great Salt Lake City

212

Great Salt Lake City in 1853 (Piercy)

220

The Lion and Beehive houses; Z.C.M.I. viewed from Temple Grounds

223

Temple Block; S^t Lake Theatre; Eagle Gate

225

Salt Lake City viewed from Capitol

228

Salt Lake City, expansion to the west

229

Eagle Gate and view north to the Capitol

230

Main Street, Salt Lake City

233

"Entering the Valley,'' BY J . T. HARWOOD

235

L.D.S. Tabernacle, Salt Lake City

236, 249

L.D.S. Temple, Salt Lake City

237, 249

Gold Room, State Capitol

238

State Capitol

239

Ski lift at Aha

240

Alpine autumn scene

241

Salt Harvest

242

Saltair

243

Bingham Copper Pit

244

Tabernacle Choir

245

Gates of Temple Square

246

Endowment

252

House; First Bureau of Information

Assembly Hall Rotunda, Utah State Capitol

256 258

Council House; Old County Courthouse; Old City Hall; City and County Building; Fillmore State House

261

Members of the Capitol Commission; R. K. A. Kletting, architect

268

Mormon Battalion Monument

270

Main Street, Salt Lake City, 1870

274

Second South and Main Street, turn of the century

277

Main Street, 1912

279

Tithing Office

280

Hotel Utah

281

Bishops' Storehouse

282

Bingham

284

Cannon shaft

286

Robert C. Gemmell; Daniel C. Jackling

289

Camp Floyd; Mercur parade

293

Great Salt Lake

296

Garfield Beach Resort; General Garfield at pier

305

Wenner home and cairn on Fremont Island

308

Wasatch Mountains

312

Alta, Utah, in 1873

318

Aha Main Street in 1873

320

Park dty miners' parade

321

Park City Saloon

323

Kirtland, Ohio, countryside

330

Newell K. Whitney; Original Whitney store

334

Map of upper central portion of Kirtland township

336

Map of Kirtland

337

Facsimiles of bills issued by Kirtland Safety Society Bank

349

Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle

358

Independence Hall and Groesbeck's store

369

St. Paul's Chapel

371

St. Mark's grammar school

372

Dr. fohn F. Hamilton and Mrs. Hamilton; St. Mark's Hospital

375

Bishops of the Province of the Pacific, 1917

377

Facsimile of pages from Bliss journal

380

Early sawmill operations, Salt Lake City

388

Independence Rock; Buffalo hunt

400

Board of Trustees, Utah State Historical Society

406

Levi Edgar Young, Governor George D. Clyde, Edward M. Mabey..

434

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

January, 1959

• IN THIS ISSUE

Toward an Understanding Jg of the West

- sp * - \ •-». .-.

ABOUT THE COVER Glen Canyon Dam as it will appear when finally completed.

"-V F , i ^T<

•m •fe PHOTO COURTESY UTAH WATER AND POWER BOARD

Industry uses water. The Geneva Steel plant in Utah County.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

CONTENTS In This Issue, BY A. R. MORTENSEN Toward

an Understanding

History

of Irrigation

Reclamation,

of the West,

in Utah,

Its Influence

of the West, Reclamation

BY J O H N W . CAUGHEY

BY GEORGE D. CLYDE

and Impact

in American

The States Act to Conserve

51

BY WILLIAM MULDER

their Heritage,

BY S. K. STEVENS

Selections from A Bibliography of Theses and Concerning Utah or the Mormons Written of Utah,

27

39

BY PAUL JONES History,

7

on the History

BY MARSHALL N . DANA

and the Indian,

The Mormons

3

59

79

Dissertations outside the State

BY IDA-MARIE CLARK LOGAN

85

ILLUSTRATIONS The Crossing at Council Bluffs

2

John W. Caughey

6

The American

8

Zion Canyon

West area

12

George D. Clyde Ditches for fencing

26 and watering;

Logan-Hyde

Park-Smithfield

canal. . . 30

Virgin River

31

Marshall N. Dana

38

Reclaimed Grand

farmlands;

Recreational

Coulee Reservoir;

facilities

The water supply

45 fails

48

Paul Jones

50

Navajo

54

"The

Tribal Council Water Hole,"

William

by Paul Salisbury

Mulder

Box Elder Tabernacle

56 58

in Brigham

Salt Lake City in the early 1860's

City

68 74

i^#ws^<s8£

•-. £ 7.

*.

-

.*-••*

^tt*ioc2?? \i-''

JP^l1,

•J*.S^-

The crossing at Council Bluffs on the overland trail to the Far West. Sketched

by Frederick Piercy and first printed in RoutejromLiverpool to Great Salt Lake }7alley, by Frederick Piercy, James LinfortJ^cj (TSvSrp

IN

THIS

ISSUE

By A. R. Mortensen, Editor

The many events of the joint convention of the American Association for State and Local History and the Society of American Archivists held in Salt Lake City this past August and cosponsored by the Utah State Historical Society have been reported on elsewhere. However, the high caliber of the official sessions and the reception given several of the papers and speeches warrant their preservation and circulation in a permanent printed form. It is for this reason that five of the papers given at the convention are printed in these pages; indeed, they constitute the bulk of die material in this issue of the Quarterly. It is expected that the major papers and speeches of special interest to the SAA will find publication in the organs of that society.

It was planned right from the outset that those portions of the program of particular concern to the AASLH should have a western bias. It had been suggested that if the convention were to go west "the participants should hear about the West." There was variety to suit the taste of all the delegates; yet from the opening remarks of greeting from Governor Clyde when he pictured this western land on the eve of settlement, this western theme was carried to the concluding address of the convention.

Professor William Mulder in his address at the opening dinner meeting gave a succinct, precise, and yet highly literary explanation of "The Mormons in American History." Too often the local historian, both amateur and professional, becomes antiquarian and provincial.

He loses or never obtains a frame of reference. He does not relate his field of interest to the larger stream of history. Mulder's essay con-

4

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

tributes greatly to an understanding of the place of the founders of Utah in American history both in time and space.

Utah is presently fortunate in having as governor a man sensitive to the history and culture of the state over which he presides as chief executive. His competency as an engineer and specialist in reclamation is matched by his understanding and knowledge of the history of irrigation in Utah and elsewhere in the West. Governor George D. Clyde was the first speaker in a panel devoted to the general subject, "Reclamationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Its Influence and Impact on the History of the West." His particular paper was entitled "History of Irrigation in Utah." The outstanding speaker and authority on reclamation, Marshall N. Dana, was the next performer on the panel. He drew a dramatic word picture of what water has done to transform large regions of the arid but otherwise fertile West into areas of useful and valuable productivity. Paul Jones, chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, was the final speaker on the panel. Because of the aridity of most of Navajo country and the great need for the development of its water resources, his paper on "Reclamation and the Indian" was most appropriate.

The West is many things to many people. The various stereotypes publicized and perpetuated by our modern instruments of entertainment and communication only serve to confuse the true picture. It was appropriate, therefore, that the concluding paper of this western convention of specialists in various areas of American history should be addressed "Toward an Understanding of the West." The thoughtprovoking, excellently delivered remarks of John W. Caughey sent both visitor and native westerner home with an appreciation of the history and contemporary condition of that great area commonly designated the American West. If Turner's famous thesis contributed significantly to an understanding of the West as a movement and a process, Caughey's paper is a contribution to an understanding of the West as an area, a geographical entity with metes and bounds.

A word of explanation for the inclusion of the article by S. K. Stevens, "The States Act to Conserve Their Heritage," would seem appropriate, for while this piece was not delivered at the convention, it is an outstanding explanation and justification for the important work state historical agencies are doing in the preservation of a form of natural resource too often neglected. It has particular cogency for the relatively young states of the American West, where only now active steps are being taken to preserve the great historical traditions and heritage of the region.

JOHN W. CAUGHEY

John W. Caughey was born in Wichita, Kansas. He received his B.A. at the University of Texas, his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of California. For many years he has resided in southern California, where for most of that period he has been a member of the history faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. He has held all professorial ranks at that institution, and since 1946 has been full professor. For more than twenty years he has been on the editorial staff of the Pacific Historical Review, and at present is managing editor. In addition to his editorial work he is the author of at least a dozen books and innumerable articles and book reviews.

For the year 1958 he served as the president of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.

TOWARD

AN OF

UNDERSTANDING

THE

WEST

By John W. Caughey

The West is not shown neatly bounded on any official map, but it is a geographical reality. It begins about halfway across the states that are piled up from Texas to the Dakotas. It extends on through a baker's dozen of states to the coast and Alaska, with one to grow on in Hawaii.

Even if Alaska and Hawaii are regarded as thrown in for good measure, this is a big area — half the United States.

Lots of people outside this area think they live in the West. There are all the youngsters everywhere who get into boots and stetsons and strap on their sixshooters. And there is the whole population from Ohio to Iowa who call their region the Midwest. In an antiquarian sense they are right, but of course in accuracy they should reckon that they live in the Middle East.

It is the legitimate West that I propose to deal with — the part of the United States beyond the halfway point on the road to the Pacific — the West of the Plains and Rockies, the Great Basin, and the Pacific Coast.

The outside world began to hear of this land in the sixteenth century with the reports of Coronado and Cabrillo and Drake. Late in the

UNDERSTANDING

THE WEST

9

eighteenth century another wave of reporting began, initiated by mariners who sailed to the Pacific Coast. Pike and Lewis and Clark made dramatic penetrations across country, and before long other visitors emerged with glowing reports â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Moses Austin from Texas, Josiah Gregg from Santa Fe, Marcus Whitman from Oregon, and Richard Henry Dana from California. To the fever and ague sufferers in Missouri, Antoine Robidoux carried tidings of California's healthgiving climate, while John C. Fremont waxed lyrical over the Eden-like valley of Bear River and the flower-bedecked plains of the San Joaquin.

A trifle later the West had promoters who were even more dedicated. Some, such as James M. Hutchings, the first worshipper of Yosemite, had no visible ulterior motive. Others had railroads in need of customers, towns to boom, or lands to sell. Successive mining strikes gave the West the aura of a great bonanza, and there were bonanzas also in wheat and cattle. The Mormons, meanwhile, found the most ulterior motive of all: they set it up as a religious duty to move west.

By 1890, through these channels and others, several million souls had been lured to the Plains and Rockies and beyond, and they were sufficiently distributed that the Director of the Census could announce that the frontier of free land was so much broken into that it had disappeared.

After 1890 the lure of the West became even more seductive and more scientific. Chambers of commerce and convention bureaus solicited tourists and businesses. The automobile put the open spaces within reach. Hollywood glamorized the appeal. During World War II draft boards saw to it that thousands of young men saw the West first. Now this same West has a population of forty or forty-five million.

With this growth in population an increasing number of persons knew something about the West just from living in it. As travel became easier, other millions paid it the honor of a visit. Some of these outsiders came specifically to make written report: this was true of Bayard Taylor in the Gold Rush, of Henry Villard in Colorado a decade later, of Horace Greeley another ten years later, and of many other journalists and sociologists. Fictionists by the score have also spread information about the West. Irving, Bennett, Twain, Helen Hunt Jackson, Hough, Norris, Wister, Vardis Fisher, Steinbeck, Stegn e r â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these and others worked in a great deal of the real West, and there is some of it in Ned Buntline, Zane Grey, and Raymond Chandler.

Historians also have helped to make some things about the West

10

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

common knowledge. Topics such as the Lewis and Clark expedition and the building of the Pacific Railroad are recognized as part of United States history and have been so treated; other episodes such as the Mormon exodus to Utah, the Santa Fe Trail, and the San Francisco fire have been so ably presented in state history that they are well known.

The most characteristic historical study of the West has been narrowed down to relatively small particulars. Thanks to Herbert Eugene Bolton we can follow Anza's marches from campsite to campsite.

Thanks to Dale Morgan we can go with Jedediah Smith almost step by step on his travels. LeRoy Hafen has done as much for the Old Spanish Trail. For many a town we can be told who opened the first store; who built the first house, and just where.

At the other end of the scale the West has tempted free-hand generalizers to offer interpretations or single themes upon which the whole history of the West could be strung. Hubert Howe Bancroft, for instance, though having to work with a foreshortened view because he was writing in the seventies and eighties, saw what had happened in the West as the last and most glorious chapter in the transit of civilization from Greece to Rome to western Europe, to the Atlantic seaboard, and at last to the edge of the Pacific. The Frederick Jackson Turner thesis on the significance of the frontier, though based almost entirely on studies of the Piedmont and trans-Appalachian frontiers, was extended by Turner and more especially by his disciples as the masterkey for comprehension of the farther West.

In 1931, with special reference to the Plains segment of the West, Walter Prescott Webb argued what amounted to a doctrine of geographical determinism. This new region, he held, was such a contrast to the land between the Atlantic and the ninety-eighth meridian that it blocked settlement for a generation and then forced radical change in institutions. This thesis was sharply contested by certain scholars, and James C. Malin offered a constructive amendment by applying the concept of possibilism, extending his view to the West at large. Henry Nash Smith, meanwhile, pointed out that Americans had habitually looked at the West through the rose-colored spectacles of great expectations. A footnote might add that a fair number of these myths and dreams came true.

In 1957 Webb extended his view to the West at large, seized upon aridity as the supreme fact west of 98° and, again with strong tinge of

UNDERSTANDING THE WEST

II

geographical determinism, concluded that the history of the region has comparable dryness and emptiness.

Before exploring theory, however, we might do better to explore the West and its history.

To begin with, it had better be stressed that this is a land where the environment has to be taken into account. It may be lavish in resources, but unlike a South Sea island with its coconuts and breadfruit, it does not automatically nourish. The mark of the land is strong on its history, and die facts of geography are these: First, it is a big country, a land of distances, of remoteness. The problem of transportation has always been uppermost for those who wanted to use or develop the West.

Second, it is a rugged land, a land of sharp uplifts, canyons, and gorges, a region complex in topography and with a great deal of exposed geology. The multiplicity of landforms â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the alternation of plains, mountains, basins, mesas, valleys â&#x20AC;&#x201D; complicates the transportation problem.

It also sets up a broad diversity of climates. The isothermal lines climb the mountains more rapidly than they do the degrees of latitude.

Zones of climate ranging from subtropical to arctic may be only a few miles apart, and the precipitation on one side of a mountain range often is much greater than on the other side.

The West is a land of extremes. It has the highest and the lowest points in the United States. From the scorched depths of Death Valley one used to be able to look up more than 15,000 feet to the highest point in the United States. This is no longer allowed, but one can stand there and imagine Mount McKinley towering another 5,000 feet above Mount Whitney. Day after day the West reports the highest and lowest temperatures. It has the highest and the lowest annual rainfalls. This diversity is also shown within many of its parts: in Alaska or Idaho or California, for example. Parts of the West fall all along the scale from hyperhumid to arid. The parts where it rains all the time and the parts where it never rains sort of balance each other off, and sometimes have been made to do precisely that. This is part of the secret of the existence of Los Angeles. At the downtown weather station the average annual rainfall is only fifteen inches, but within a forty-mile radius of the city hall there are locations where the average reaches forty inches. For the greater part of the West the classification that fits is subhumid or semiarid. And that of course spells a contrast to the humid East.

To the eye of a stranger the West often looks utterly desolate. Parts

12

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

of it are bleak; yet on closer inspection the West repeatedly has proved ever so much richer than the first inventory showed. It has or had great deposits of gold, silver, copper, sulphur, petroleum, and uranium.

It offers nine-tenths of the nation's hydroelectric potential and now has the nation's best stand of timber. In variety of crops it surpasses the East. Two of its states consistently lead the other forty-seven in total value of agricultural output, though the East as a section continues to have a substantial over-all lead.

There was a time, nevertheless, when the West carried as large a population as the East. This was in the days when people lived closer to the land and were more directly dependent on the local resources.

That was before the coming of the white man, when the peak density of Indian population was in the upper Rio Grande Valley, along the northwest coast, and in California. Other factors such as the unwarlike character of some of the tribes were partly responsible, but the populaThis aerial view of the Kolob country, Zion Canyon area, illustrates the extremes in topography and land forms which complicate problems of man's adjustment to his environment in the great West. Photo, Hal Rumel.

ifdPlS"-*."-.. *C

,. ,guÂŁf

:

#

UNDERSTANDING

THE WEST

13

tion count is also a testimonial to the resources of the western half of the continent.

The West of our day also represents very clearly the interaction of man and society upon the land. The contemporary West, in other words, is also the product of its history. That history is long and varied.

It is characterized by drastic changes, period by period, and within it there are local peculiarities both of omission and commission. On closer scrutiny, however, an unmistakable regional unity shows through.

Throughout the West history begins with an Indian prologue (for Alaska and Hawaii add Eskimo and Polynesian). For lack of conventional records we lump this whole fifteen- or twenty-thousand-year period as prehistoric, but from the anthropologists we have learned a great deal about the patterns of living that evolved. We also have some awareness of the carry-over of influence on later developments.

Then followed what is often dismissed as a second prologue â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the opening of the West by agents of European imperialism. Throughout most of the West, it was these agents who were first on the scene: Spaniards working north from Mexico as far as Nebraska and Nootka, the French from Canada advancing west and southwest all the way to the Rockies, Drake to a Nova Albion (New England) in California, other Britishers leading the way to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest, and Russians in the Aleutian Islands and southward.

Clearly these activities of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were not prehistoric; many of them have been recorded much more meticulously than has the later American pioneering. These Europeans gave the American West an early start. Two of its states were named before any of the "original thirteen" and one, New Mexico, was colonized before Jamestown. These Europeans came to take possession and to settle as well as to explore. Especially in the belt from Louisiana and Missouri through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, they implanted customs and institutions that greatly influenced what followed. Through Mexico in the Greater Southwest, the Hudson's Bay Company and Russian-American Company in the Northwest, and the Hawaiian monarchy in its realm, these regimes that we call "foreign" had continuing importance in the nineteenth century.

With the nineteenth century, the people of the United States took over as the dynamic force. Ships from Boston had already touched along the Northwest Coast, and Lewis and Clark, Pike, Long, James, and Fremont entered from the east as official explorers. The fur men searched out every possible beaver stream. Traders opened shop in

14

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Santa Fe, Hawaii, and California, missionaries went to Hawaii and Oregon, and later a sprinkling of settlers moved into Oregon, California, and Utah. By 1848, with the military and the diplomats functioning in the final moves, the United States fulfilled its Manifest Destiny by taking possession all the way to die Pacific.

Even when these events are brought between die covers of a single book, there is a tendency to fragment this history by isolating the Oregon missions, or to treat the Santa Fe Trail as though it had no relation to the fur trade. On the other hand, a book on the fur trade necessarily ranges most of the West, and a biography of Kit Carson or John Marsh or James K. Polk has to have a wide spread.

As of about 1848, the West passed over a historical divide. The fur trade, the Santa Fe trade, the hide trade, the Oregon missions, and Manifest Destiny became closed chapters. Jim Marshall's gold discovery in the Sierra foothills ushered in a new era which would be characterized by the prospector for gold and silver, the cattleman of the open range, the farmer more gradually advancing the agricultural frontier, the stage driver and wagon freighter, their superior the railroad builder, the regular and volunteer Indian fighters, and the architects of state government. Here is an epoch readily distinguishable from the early nineteenth century, but again these are historical elements that are widely distributed over the West.

Once again western history hangs together as well as it did in the days of the mountain men and Manifest Destiny. Cattle raising on the open range flourished in California before it did in Texas and spread not only over the Plains but into the grasslands of the Rockies, Great Basin, and Northwestern Plateau. Rolvaag and Cather found prairie farmers in the Dakotas and Nebraska; Vardis Fisher found their counterparts in Idaho, Frank Norris in California, and Dorothy Scarborough in Texas. So it went with other components of the real West of the late nineteenth century.

And once again an epoch came to an abrupt end and gave way to a new one. The Director of the Census may have exaggerated the disappearance of the frontier, but as of 1890, give or take a few years, the era of the gold and silver rushes, the open range, the stage lines, the Indian wars, and the railroad builders did come to a close.

In the generation after 1890 the cattle industry stabilized with improved stock and closed range. Wool and wheat growing also solidified, but a more spectacular change was in agricultural specialty lines such as orange and apple growing in the Southwest and the Northwest.

UNDERSTANDING

THE WEST

15

Lumbering scored heavy gains. The West experienced a health rush and the tourist business boomed. These are elements in the picture, but a simpler description for the period from 1890 to the 1920's is to say that the West lived by the railroad.

The East in these years piled up many ton-miles and passengermiles on its railroads, but continued to have coastal shipping, lake steamers, and river barges as active competitors. There were ships plying the west coast, but everywhere else in the West the railroad was the one carrier. It determined where people should live and what they might produce for market. The railroad was the prime giver of value to land. It brought the tourists and the new settlers. A generation ago, to give one example, we all would have come to this Salt Lake City convention by rail.

The railroad clearly enriched the West of this generation, but it exacted a price. Many a westerner felt that he lived by the railroad, as a puppet of the railroad, and for the railroad. In a few eastern states an occasional politician might give major attention to railroad regulation as La Follette did in Wisconsin. In almost every western state or territory at the turn of the century it loomed up as the prime issue.

The West of later date has no single feature that so dominates the scene. Ours is the automobile age and also the air age, but not to the exclusion of the railroads and the pipelines. It also is the age of the engineer, with display performances in San Francisco's bay bridges, the causeway now building across Salt Lake, the elaborate highway systems, and the tremendous dams such as Boulder, Shasta, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee. The crop list bears close resemblance to that of a few decades ago, but agriculture is increasingly mechanized and scientific. And as the place names Geneva, Fontana, Hollywood, Hanford, and Los Alamos may suggest, the West at last has something to show in industrial capacity.

In resume, its sharply stratified character may be the most spectacular feature of the history of the West: the Indian period, followed by an epoch of European contact and limited occupation; then the early nineteenth century invasion by American explorers, traders, missionaries, and empire builders; another era dominated by miners, farmers, cattlemen, Indian fighters, and railroad builders; then a generation dedicated to making the most of the railroad, but with attention also to the tourist, the health seeker, real estate speculation, and developing the eastern markets; and next our own more sophisticated

16

UTAH H I S T O R I C A L

QUARTERLY

generation, with a more far-reaching application of science to the problems of production, processing, and transportation.

The history of the West has odier characteristics. It is full of adventure, of the haphazard violence so dear to the creators of "westerns." It includes many instances of suffering and endurance â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is how we remember the women and children of the covered-wagon migrations. It has its sordid and lamentable parts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Chinese massacres at Los Angeles, Tacoma, and Rock Springs; the harsh treatment of the Wobblies and the migratory farm laborers; the wartime concentration of the Japanese-Americans; and the misuse of the land that produced the Dust Bowl. Our history is full of accidents, some of which were happyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;among them the opening of the market for furs in China, most of the gold discoveries, and the introduction of the navel orange and Russian wheat.

For the eastern half of the nation, especially through the early stages, much of the history is written properly in terms of state and local development and state and local politics. That was how it was throughout the colonial period and the tendency persisted. In early nineteenth-century New York, for instance, the government that mattered most was certainly that of the state. Who built the Erie Canal?

And in the South to 1860 the addiction to states' rights was not just an argument for use in Washington, but was in line with the habit of looking more to state legislatures and executives than to those of the nation.

In contrast, westerners from the beginning have been acutely conscious of the federal government. The White Father in Washington has not always remembered them, but they have known that their regional interest as often as not would rise or fall by virtue of federal action or inaction. Parts of the West only now are reaching the point where state government has more prestige, and a shift from the United States Senate to a governorship is thought of as a step up.

Americans in the West before 1848 looked to the federal government to extend United States sovereignty to the Pacific. The West from 1850 to 1890 counted on Uncle Sam to underwrite transportation improvements, to quiet the Indians, to clarify land titles, and to admit to statehood. The federal government was beseeched to purchase silver or in other ways inflate the currency as a means of relieving western debtors. It was asked to bar oriental immigration, to regulate the railroads, to proceed with reclamation projects, to give federal aid for highway construction, to move more rapidly in flood control, to elimi-

UNDERSTANDING

THE WEST

17

nate the freight-rate differential against the West, and to give western industry a fair chance.

The stages in federal relations reflect the evolution of the West.

All told it is a more persistent thread and a bigger one in our regional history than in that of the East.

The West quite patently is a region that has depended heavily on imports. Throughout recorded time its most valuable import has been people: Spanish soldiers and settlers, French-Canadian voyageurs, Indians pushed out of the American East, pioneer settlers from the older states, Chinese and Japanese, other immigrants fresh from Europe, later comers from Canada and Mexico, and millions more from all the more easterly sections of the country.

All these people brought with them as much as they could of their institutions and culture. In this way and in others the history of the West is rooted outside its borders and particularly in the older part of the United States. Thus the West claims a share in die colonial heritage and sees the Founding Fadiers, the Bill of Rights, Jefferson and Marshall, the Fourteenth Amendment, and many other elements of the nation's history as components without which the history of the region would be incomplete.

From the beginning, Americans who came west have been consumed with the desire to make their new home a reasonable facsimile of the old one in the East. Some of the effects have been pathetic: only after repeated failures were the pioneers willing to concede that eastern methods of farming just would not work in western Dakota or eastern New Mexico or even in southern California. Some of the consequences are ridiculous. I cite but one: by enslaving ourselves to it, my wife and I manage to have a quarter-acre of green lawn where Nature strongly prefers chaparral and salvia. Some imported institutions are as obviously misfits.

To such an extent have we Americanized or "easternized" the West that most people from the East soon are able to feel at home.

Belatedly we have shown a little more wisdom about adjusting our ways to fit the peculiarities of the environment.

The West has been chided for various deficiencies, among them an alleged lack of wars and warfare. As a matter of fact, soldiers were the chief participants in many early western activities. Wars or threats of wars contributed to the Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Texas, the Oregon Treaty, the Mexican Cession, and the annexation of Hawaii.

The American military were deployed in far-flung exercises in the

18

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Mexican, Mormon, and Civil wars, and from 1865 to 1890 the chief occupation of the United States Army was in the Indian wars in the West.

As it happened, many a military operation in the West ended up as an exhibition of "brinksmanship." Again and again westerners worked themselves up to a warlike pitch but stopped at the brink, or just over the brink. For example, in 1846 General Armijo in New Mexico prudently decided not to resist the entrance of General Kearny's Army of the West. That same year at San Pascual the southern California rebels showed their mettle, but as soon as they could they found a friendly general to whom they could capitulate with honor. Meanwhile, at Santa Clara the principal northern California battle was fought. Chronicler Pickett reports heavy cannonading that did "considerable damage" â&#x20AC;&#x201D;to the wild mustard stalks. He also reports two men wounded, but later in the same letter enters this correction: I am just informed that the wounded men on our were not touched by the enemy, as they at first supposed so reported, but hurt themselves in the oak bushes. And even doubted whether the Californians reed, any injury. fight lasted several hours. And the treaty which was made way between the Mission and the oaks, in sight of the armies, lasted nearly one whole day.1

side and it is The half two

In the Mormon War the Saints found that it was more effective to concentrate on burning Johnston's supply trains rather than on pitching into his troops. The Confederates who invaded the Mesilla Valley and Arizona countermarched rapidly enough to evade the California column, and at Glorieta in New Mexico, when Union and Rebel forces came face to face, Colonel Chivington executed a brilliant flanking movement and butchered six hundred mules. Such was the decisive action that turned Sibley's army back. The Indian wars of the next quarter century were much bloodier, even though the Indian habit insofar as it was possible was to avoid battle whenever it promised to be too costly. By 1890 those wars had run their course.

From the Spanish-American War through the first two World Wars and the Korean War, the West has been as much involved as any other part of the country and presumably would be also in a third World War. As in Civil War days the situation of westerners has been ' Q u o t e d in Lawrence Clark Powell, Philosopher

Pickett

(Berkeley, 1942), 144-45.

UNDERSTANDING

THE WEST

19

that they had to go away to do their fighting, which is awkward but certainly the lesser evil.

Alas, the West owes much to war. The Civil War made a number of San Franciscans rich, chiefly because they could buy in the East for currency and sell in the West for gold. The Civil War made possible the passage of the Pacific Railroad Bill. The two big booms in west coast shipbuilding were strictly wartime. That also is how the West got the bulk of its steel industry and most of its airplane, missile, and electronics industries. The uranium rush was triggered by defense demands, and so it has gone with many other features of the western economy.

All this may sound as if the West would have an impressive indebtedness to Mars, but on balance these war-generated profits probably were considerably below the national average. In steadily mounting federal taxes, most of which are for wars already fought or for wars that may come, the West has paid out considerably more than its grand total of war profits, and since 1898 it has suffered its share of the casualties. Perhaps it could be argued that the West has received whatever values a military past has to offer. No sane westerner would long for a greater military involvement for his region in the past or in the future.

The history of the American West, nevertheless, is not most effectively told in terms of officers and soldiers. Nor is it most effectively told in terms of politicians, although some of its elected representatives have been of utmost importance. I think, for instance, of Hiram Johnson of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League of political reformers in California and of George Norris, whose major monument, TV A, is not in the West but symbolizes a method of transcendent value to the region.

Our emphasis more characteristically goes to men such as Stephen F. Austin, who shepherded the early migration to Texas; Brigham Young, who directed the settlement and the early economic development of Utah; Theodore Judah and his successors, who built the Pacific Railroad; George Chaffey and his genius in water and power development; banker William Ralston, who built San Francisco, and A. P. Giannini, who created the Bank of Italy; to an industrialist like Henry J. Kaiser or Donald Douglas; to David Starr Jordan for the creation of Stanford University; to all those who planned and built Grand Coulee Dam; and to Oppenheimer and company for what they produced at Los Alamos.

The booster spirit has taught us to revere whatever can be registered on a rising graph or chart. At rare intervals we entertain doubts

20

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

whether more people, more production, more loans, more sales on credit are really good for the country. Yet it is hard to see how anyone can take stock of the American West since 1848 and not see growth and development as the dominant characteristic. More than for New England, more than for the Soudi, that has been die case, and if historians have so interpreted they are hardly to be criticized.

Sometimes the emphasis on colossal material growth is so great that it is assumed that the West has no culture. On every frontier the first necessity has been to solve the problem of making a living, and refinements could only be achieved a bit later. The homesteader's shack or the sheepherder's camp was not the most likely spot for artistic or intellectual flowering, nor was the mining camp, the tracklayer's camp, the logging camp, or the army post.

Yet the West does have a cultural history, some of it on the level of simplicity as in Mormon hymns and cowboy ballads, some of it reflecting a striving for improvement as in the early school systems and the initiation of the Hollywood Bowl concerts, some of it more ambitious as in the performances at Red Rock and the conferences at Aspen, some of it unmistakably topnotch as in the attainments of our physical scientists.

In things cultural we continue to take inspiration from the East — which may be why we show such enthusiasm for the San Francisco Forty-Niners and Giants and the Los Angeles Rams and Bums, and why in higher education we try to achieve an Amherst or Oberlin of the West, a western Columbia or Chicago. Perhaps we do not altogether measure up to the attainments of die schools in the Ivy League and the Big Ten, but much of the gap that once separated us has been closed, and the West is working vigorously to continue its improvement.

Throughout, the western economy has been mainly extractive.

The role of the West has been to supply raw products which, widi a minimum of processing, were sent off to market. First it was furs, then sandalwood from Hawaii and cowhides from California. Later it was gold and silver; wheat and beef; salmon from the west coast and Alaska; sugar from Hawaii, Utah, and Colorado; lumber; wool; wine; fruits and vegetables; oil and gas.

Many pioneer communities dabbled in manufacturing, essentially on a subsistence basis — wagon-making for local use; bricks or bread or harness — again for the locality. With cigar-making and printing and engraving, San Francisco became something of an emporium for the region. But manufacturing for export from the region is a phe-

U N D E R S T A N D I N G THE WEST

21

nomenon of no more than the present and the immediate past. The commodity list proves die recency: moving pictures, airplanes, oil machinery, Indian curios, sports attire, plywood, plastics, electronics.

Important though this industry is, the basic output of the region still is in raw products. It is, in other words, still the kind of colony that mercantilists before Adam Smith would have commended as ideal.

Not only has the economy of the West been persistently colonial, the plain truth is that the West is also a minority section. It always has been and it probably always will be. As such it naturally and inevitably has been discriminated against.

Political discrimination is easy to document. For a time the West may have had more "sons of the wild jackass" in die Senate than its population rated, but reapportionment of the House never has kept pace with the shift of population westward. The West was underrepresented when it consisted of the western townships of Massachusetts and later when it was in the western counties of Virginia. The later instances are as glaring; Congress, for example, sat out the whole decade of the twenties without reapportioning. Except for Nevada, which was rushed into the electoral college, and Texas, which was in position to strike a good bargain, every part of the West has had reason to complain about unreasonable delay in admission to statehood.

Utah had earned admission long before 1896. Hawaii is the current example; even with Alaska as an icebreaker her ship of state may not make port.

Economic discrimination has been and is more crippling. Much of it is applied without malice. There was a Wall Street before the American West as we know it took shape; eastern financial dominance grew of its own accord, and the subordinate position of the West in money matters thus came about in a way that seemed natural and inevitable. The industrial headstart of the New England-Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes axis likewise set the stage for the absentee ownership and out-of-area management of so much of western industry. A similar explanation holds for the concentration in the Northeast of ninety per cent or more of the wholesale drug business and the underwriting of insurance.

In part, however, the discrimination against the West has been more overt. It is written into our tariff law. It has been put into our code on patents and particularly on the licensing of patents. It appears in pricing systems, such as "slightly higher west of the Rockies," "F.O.B., Detroit," and "Pittsburgh plus." By these devices a trans-

22

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

portation charge often fictitious was and is collected from customers in the West.

Even more damagingly the discrimination is embedded in the freight schedules. These schedules are unbelievably complex. It would take a whole battery of electronic brains to calculate how much the West has been gouged, but the evidence is overwhelming that there is a differential. Take any manufactured item â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sugar, automobiles, shoeleather, or television sets. Spot a factory or a distributor in the Northeast and another in the West. Then spot a customer equidistant from these two suppliers. The freight rate from the West almost invariably will turn out to be appreciably higher than the rate from the East. This is not the whole story of discriminatory freight rates, but it will illustrate.

Curiously, westerners have shown relatively little awareness that they are cast in this subordinate role. In part, no doubt, the colonialism is not felt because it is concealed. A great deal of it comes in the form of indirect taxes and hidden charges. Western climate and scenery doubtless distract from the hard realities. And many a westerner is blissfully unaware that it is costing him politically and financially to live in the West.

Another good reason is that comparatively few westerners have much realization that the West is a region. The main lines of communication drain eastward instead of focussing on a regional metropolis. Several of the cities that mean most to the West are not in it: New York and Washington, but also Minneapolis, Omaha, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. The West has never been organized as a political unit, much less as an independent confederacy. It has no flag, no shibboleth such as states' rights, no feeling of cultural and intellectual mission like that of New England. It has never gone to war on its own account, much less had a great defeat to cherish as a lost cause.

When the history of our nation is being told, the western half of the continent gets very little space. In school histories Webb found that the average allotment was no more than six or seven pages in a hundred. He might have added that in standard college texts the percentage is even smaller. The West crops up in a chapter on Manifest Destiny and another on growth and problems, 1865-90, and 5 per cent of the total wordage is about the maximum. In Turner's writings the fraction devoted to the area west of 98° is even less. The general works on the American frontier give the area more space: Paxson 42 per cent, Branch 29 per cent, Riegel 46 per cent, Clark 36 per cent, Billington

UNDERSTANDING THE WEST

23

42 per cent. The striking thing is that all these writers seem to have felt that most of America's frontier history — most of its western history — took place short of the Mississippi in what is now the far-eastern and middle-eastern half of the country.

At the level of state and local history, however, the West has been very well served. The Pacific Northwest, for instance, in the works by Bancroft, Shafer, Fuller, Winther, Johansen, and Gates has a shelf of general surveys that compares favorably with those on the Old Northwest. With its long roster of distinguished historians from Castaneda and Villagra to Gregg and Garrard to Fergusson and Hammond, New Mexico can compete with any eastern state. And on Utah contributions in the last few years by Mortensen, Mulder, Brooks, West, O'Dea, Morgan, and Arrington are something of which any state would be proud.

Some corners of the West have less to show, but there is good news from Arizona, which is going to launch a new historical quarterly, from Idaho, which has just done so, and from Alaska, which is going to reward its best historian with a seat in the United States Senate.

But a history of the West as a region — a history geared toward explaining the West that is ours today — has not been achieved or even attempted. And the outline for such a history, the general contour of what it would include, seems to have eluded the grasp even of eminent historians who have dealt with the West.

Friends and foes agree that the West does differ from the eastern half of the United States. It is distinctive or possibly bizarre, and this quality arises partly from the geography and partly from its history.

The West offers a challenge which is a composite of problems and opportunities more or less peculiar to it.

For any such western problem our standard practice is to do one of two things: either we try to get the nation, perhaps through the federal government, to work out a solution, or in our particular subregion we try to get one state, perhaps through the state government, to tackle the problem. These are natural impulses. But the nation has other worries; the power center of that government is far away, and three-fourths of its citizens and voters are not of the West and cannot be expected to have full understanding or full sense of crises in its problems. The state to which we turn is western, but often is too small or too synthetic to be competent for the task. The authorities who subdivided this land are partly to blame. They did their work mostly at the drawing board by putting straight lines on the map, and all too

24

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

often the units they produced were artificial. We love these states and we will keep them, but that does not mean that they fill the bill in serving the region.

For the West challenges on a broader front. To make the most of the water that is available, to attain peak efficiency in hydroelectric power development and distribution, to achieve a viable reclamation program, to eliminate the discriminatory freight rates, to give western industry an even chance, and so on down the line, the regional approach has far more to recommend it than the alternatives of state or nation on which we have been depending.

In the light of the hardcore sectionalism that has flourished in one or two other parts of the United States, an appeal for that kind of westernism would seem unpatriotic. Regionalism, however, need not be antisocial; in fact, rightly channeled it can inure to the benefit of the nation as well as the region. To achieve it we need to rise above provincialism, cultivate an awareness of the essential unity of the West, and strive for at least a measure of solidarity.

Many a western pioneer operated notebook in hand because he was acutely aware that he was making history. Many later westerners have seen the light and realizing that there is such a thing as western history have devoted themselves unstintingly to its study â&#x20AC;&#x201D; usually, it is true, on topics that take in considerably less than the whole West.

The time is at least ripe for a discovery of the regional history. Such a discovery would be of the greatest possible assistance toward achieving throughout the West a sense of regional unity. Indeed, it may be a prerequisite.

Some things about such a history can be forecast. The whole is sure to be greater than the sum of its parts, the history of the West as a region something more and more significant than the totalling of the state histories. Also it should be simpler. In the history of the region, many of the purely local peccadillos would fall away and some of the nonentities who have to be noticed in lesser works would be eclipsed.

Other matters would fall into perspective; the relationship to the nation should become much more apparent; and the over-all importance ought to stand out more clearly. Such is the intriguing prospect that lies beyond frontier history of the conventional sort and western state and local history as it has been practiced.

GEORGE D. CLYDE

George D. Clyde, Utah's governor, grew up on a farm near Springville, Utah, early learning the problems of farming in an arid land.

He obtained a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Utah State Agricultural College and a Master's degree in Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. For more than thirty years he has followed a career in engineering and water development, serving as dean of the School of Engineering, US AC; as chief engineer for the Soil Conservation Service; as advisor to two secretaries of Agriculture; and as director of the Utah Water and Power Board and the state's commissioner of Interstate Streams prior to his election as governor in 1956.

wpr-

HISTORY

OF

IRRIGATION

IN

UTAH

By George D. Clyde

Utahans take just pride in the fact that our desert literally has been made to bloom as the rose, and even our city-bred children who have no first-hand knowledge of farming can tell you that the miracle was performed by aid of irrigation, starting with the damming of City Creek on that hot July day in 1847.

We like to tell tourists that modern irrigation began on that day, and to a large extent that is true. The use of irrigation by the Mormon pioneers was the beginning of the first irrigation-based economy in the Western Hemisphere in modern times. In our pardonable pride, however, sometimes we tend to overlook some important elements in the irrigation picture: that irrigation had been practiced for countless centuries; that the irrigation principles applied in Utah in 1847 were those handed down from the east; and that those ideas were primitive in the extreme â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they served to meet the exigencies of the moment, but they could not begin to serve us today.

We do not know when man first learned to apply water to the land in order to make crops grow. Irrigation is so ancient an art that it has no recorded beginning. We find references to it in the books of the Old Testament beginning with Genesis; i.e., "and a river came out of Eden to water the Garden." And there are paintings, sculp-

28

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

tures, and records of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Iraq, and China which clearly prove that irrigation was known and practiced on an extensive scale. In fact, it is significant that our first great civilizations were founded on watercourses in arid lands where irrigation was a necessity.

I think we may draw a logical conclusion that this was not mere coincidence, but that it was a determining factor in shaping the course of history. The need for intelligent supply and planning in the use of scarce water, and the fact that artificial irrigation guarantees a better and more stable food supply than does natural precipitation unaided — even in humid areas — were major factors in the development of the world powers in the dawn of history.

In this Western Hemisphere, irrigation was known and practiced centuries before the coming of Columbus, and modern archeologists have found many evidences of these ancient developments.

When the first white men began to explore the western — and arid — lands of the North American Continent, they found the Indians using a primitive form of irrigation, and they adopted irrigation practices themselves. The early Spanish-Catholic missions in Arizona, New Mexico, and California were all built around small irrigation systems.

These were small individual ventures, however; there were no permanent community developments such as were later established by the Mormon pioneers in Utah. There was one organized effort to found an irrigation community made by the Spanish government about 1796 near the site of the present town of Santa Cruz, California, but it failed to survive for a variety of reasons, leaving the later Utahans clear title to the founding of Mormon community irrigation in this country.

The beginning of the Utah irrigation story virtually has become a legend in this western country, and I think every Utah school child knows at least something about it. The pioneers, arriving at their destination very late in the growing season and faced with the necessity of producing crops to see them through the coming winter, dammed the clear waters of what is now known as City Creek to soften and moisten the hard dry soil and made their first planting of potatoes.

This first community-irrigated garden was only the beginning.

Brigham Young directed that ditches be dug to serve the first pioneer fort, and a more or less complete irrigation system within the fort was ready for operation in the spring of 1848. The system was steadily enlarged. Waters from City and Red Butte creeks were brought inside the fort, and in 1849 a system of irrigation ditches was dug by community effort around each of the ten-acre city blocks. Later, a delivery

IRRIGATION IN UTAH

29

canal from the mouth of Big Cottonwood Creek to the city was dug, again by closely co-ordinated community effort. As a matter of practical convenience, supervision of the irrigation system was placed in the hands of the twelve ecclesiastical wards into which Salt Lake City had been divided; even after the establishment of a city government and the appointment (in 1853) of a general water master, it was found simplest to continue the supervisory administration of the bishops over the irrigation facilities in their wards.

As the early Utah pioneers spread out from their original settlement in the Salt Lake Valley to colonize the surrounding area, they took their irrigation practices with them. They had to, of sheer necessity, for the natural precipitation in this semiarid region was insufficient — and insufficient particularly in the growing season — to raise stable crops otherwise. The aim of the Utah pioneers, and they succeceded in achieving it, was to establish an enduring agricultural economy on the basis of irrigation. They were the first to do this in the modern western world.

By 1850 — just three years after the first permanent settlement was established — there were 926 improved farms in Utah, covering a total of 16,330 acres; by 1860 the number of farms had grown to 3,636 and the acreage to 77,219. By 1865 almost 150,000 acres were under cultivation, 1,000 miles of canals had been dug and there were approximately 65,000 people living in reasonable comfort on the reclaimed land.

The first phase or period of Utah irrigation development extended, roughly, from the 1847 beginning to the mid-1880's. This was the period of purely co-operative development, and it was remarkable for the degree of success it achieved. However, operations were necessarily confined to the comparatively easy projects, which involved the diversion of water from accessible streams to land reasonably close by. There was no major storage of water, and that meant that the capacity of any irrigation project was die capacity of the stream furnishing the water supply at the extreme low-flow period of the summer. The pioneers learned by hard experience that they could not expand their crop land to take advantage of the relatively abundant water supply in the spring and early summer. If they did so, diere would not be enough irrigation water to go around in the critical hot summer period, and many crops would die.

Nevertheless, the results obtained during this period of co-operative effort, with a minimum of tools and equipment, command our respect and admiration today. I shall have more to say in a moment of the

30

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

An artist's sketch, which appeared in an early magazine, showing how a network °f ditches was dug for the fencing and watering of farms.

Logan-Hyde Park-Smithfield canal, carved out of solid limestone by Mormon pioneers in 1861-62 and still in use. Each farmer contributed labor equivalent to enough water shares to irrigate ten acres. Photo, Carroll F. Wilcomb.

IRRIGATION IN UTAH

31

The wide but shallow Virgin River two miles below Atkinville, in Southern Utah's "Dixie" late in the spring, May 25,1902.

Dry bed of the Virgin River five miles below Atkinville on the same day.

The precious water had sunk into the dry bed of the lower narrows and the entire flow was lost. Such were the early water conservation problems.

32

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

development of tools and equipment and the effect this had on our irrigation enterprises.

The second period in Utah irrigation development came in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and was, comparatively, far less successful than had been the initial co-operative effort. Seeing the impressive results obtained by irrigation, private capital became interested in the construction of irrigation projects as an investment. Many private companies were formed to construct and operate irrigation projects, but most of them failed for a number of reasons. I have not the time to analyze the reasons in detail, but these factors are obvious: an irrigation project is basically unsuited to development by private capital because of the necessarily long time that must elapse between the making of the original investment and the realization of a substantial return. This is especially true in the construction of complicated and costly projects, and I have already noted that the obvious and easy projects had been constructed during the first period of co-operative enterprise. Perhaps the primary reason for die failure of the commercial enterprises of the 1880's and 1890's — not only in Utah but throughout the West — was the fact that their direction was in the hands of other than the actual water users. We have learned over the years that the success of any irrigation undertaking depends on the intelligent efforts of the people who apply the water to the land and who stand directly to benefit — or to lose — from the operation.

In 1894 Congress passed the Carey Act in an effort to assist in irrigation development. Without going into technical detail, die dieory behind the Carey Act was that the federal government would give title to the state to tracts of desert or otherwise valueless public domain on condition that the states would reclaim them and make them productive. The results were, in the main, very disappointing. Major reclamation projects were required, and this meant large investments of capital. The states themselves were unable to supply the large capital outlays that were needed, and private capital, as I have already noted, was not suited to the task. Here in Utah, nearly 142,000 acres of public domain were segregated under the Carey Act, but only a little more than 37,000 acres were finally patented to the state — the remaining acreages in excess of 104,000 were left in the hands of the federal government. The acreage actually irrigated was somewhat less dian the land patented under the act.

The era of modern irrigation opened with the passage of the Federal Reclamation Act on June 17, 1902. This act provided a logical

IRRIGATION IN UTAH

33

and workable plan for financing major reclamation projects and was the salvation of the West. The federal government supplies the capital for construction, and the costs are paid back, without interest, over an extended period of time. The federal government derives tremendous benefits in the form of direct tax returns on the new wealth created and in many less obvious ways, far in excess of the interest charges, which it waives. In recent times, when huge, complicated, multipleuse reclamation projects have been and are being constructed, it has been found necessary to allocate revenues derived from the production of hydroelectric power at the storage dams to the repayment of the over-all cost of the project, which would be far too great for the water users alone to repay. Total costs of a modern project are allocated to a number of uses — including flood control, fish and wildlife benefits, and municipal and industrial water uses in addition to irrigation and power production; and the repayment demanded of irrigators is limited to their ability to pay. Some people, particularly in the East where the principles of reclamation are not well understood, object to what they mislabel a subsidy to irrigation farmers. Full analysis proves that the government receives an unusually high return on its investment and that the water users pay for what they receive.

Some of the early projects constructed in Utah under the reclamation act, notably the Strawberry Valley Project, have been in operation long enough to demonstrate the full value of such undertakings. It has been shown that at the present time, the direct return to the government in taxes on new wealth created by the Strawberry project — and which could not have been brought into being without the development of an adequate stable water supply — is each year more than the total original cost of the construction.

The Strawberry, and other reasonably large projects built under the reclamation act, went far beyond the original pioneer irrigation projects which merely diverted flowing water from the streams. The larger projects were based on large dams, creating reservoirs to store the year-round flow of rivers and preserving the spring floodwaters, which formerly ran to waste, for use in the dry late summer when water is at a premium. Most recent and still larger projects, of which the Colorado River Storage Project now under construction is an excellent example, go still further. They not only store the year-round runoff, they store water in such quantity that they can regulate several years' supply and hold the water from long-term cycles of relatively abundant moisture for use in extended drought periods. Such projects

34

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

are costly in terms of dollar investment, but economical in the long run, for they represent the only feasible method of making maximum use of the water which flows dirough dry regions.

The development of tools and equipment has had a great influence on the shape of irrigation development. As I mentioned earlier, in pioneer days there were few tools and these were of the simplest.

As a result, the pioneer irrigation structures were also of the simplest.

Diversion dams were generally made of whatever materials were available on the site: rocks, brush and any odds and ends that were handy. Where a small diversion dam was put in to serve a single farm, it was not unusual for the farmer to haul wagonloads of barnyard manure to dump in the stream, replenishing with more of the same when the original dam began to erode away. Ditches were dug with the pick and shovel, the crowbar and occasional use of a little black powder for blasting large rocks. Water was turned over the land in the simplest and most obvious way, without regard to scientific practices.

The more modern and far more complicated dams and distribution systems of later times were made possible only by the tremendous advance in equipment and tools. The early rock-and-brush diversion structures and laboriously constructed masonry dams gave way to concrete structures, carefully designed and engineered. Some of our modern dams are earth fill structures more economical to build, under certain conditions, than dams of solid concrete, but practical only because of the fabulous power shovels and other modern earth-moving equipment that can handle twenty to thirty tons of eartii in a single operation.

The primitive, hand-hewn canals have been replaced by carefully engineered watercourses that are fully lined widi concrete, asphalt, glass fabric, or other twentieth-century materials. The water savings represented by the improvements in canal lining are immense. Where the old ditches sometimes lost as much as thirty-three per cent of their flowage in a single mile, loss by seepage through the walls of properly lined canals is negligible.

Modern farmers have made similar advancements over pioneer methods in the application of water to the land. The first Utah irrigators knew virtually nothing of the science of irrigation beyond the fact that it was necessary to have water in the soil to raise crops. They often operated on the fallacious theory that if a little water was good for crops a lot of water must be that much better, and much good land was ruined through the application of far too much water. This prac-

IRRIGATION IN UTAH

35

tice can ruin good soil through accumulation of excess of salinity or alkalinity if the subsoil does not provide proper drainage; or it can result in tremendous wastage of water and considerable erosion if porous gravel beds are directly under the surface.

A review of the history of irrigation in Utah would logically end at the present day, but I feel that it would be incomplete without at least a quick look into the future.

As of the 1950 census, Utah had 3,165 irrigation enterprises of all types serving a total of more than a million and a quarter acres. We are still proceeding with a number of major reclamation developments and quite a few smaller developments that are financed through the revolving fund administered by the Utah Water and Power Board.

However, when the Colorado River Storage Project, including the vast and fascinating central Utah project, is completed in another twenty years or so, the potential major developments on the old pattern will be virtually complete.

Does this mean irrigation expansion in the state will be at an end ?

I sincerely hope and believe it does not.

We regard Utah as a semiarid area, which indeed it is. Yet accurate measurements indicate that fifty million acre-feet of water â&#x20AC;&#x201D; twice the total capacity of Lake Mead â&#x20AC;&#x201D; falls on this state each year as rain or snow. But our total reservoir storage capacity holds only 5 per cent of this amount, and somediing less than 4 per cent is actually used each year in irrigation. I believe our future lies in better conservation practices that will enable us to use quantities of the water that is now going to waste. Let me outline just a few of the possibilities.

Some of our large water losses are due to evaporation. Evaporation is particularly heavy from large storage reservoirs and is one of the prices we have had to pay for water storage; and, in terms of the saving which the storage makes possible, the price is reasonable. However, experiments are continuing on the use of chemicals that spread a film only a single molecule tiiick over the surface of a lake or reservoir. This film retards evaporation to an amazing extent and may someday save the world millions of acre-feet of usable water each year. I think the day is not far off when the use of such a check on evaporation losses will be practical.

Losses in transportation through seepage and evaporation from canals have already been considerably checked, and still further progress can be expected in this line.

I have already touched on losses in the application of water to land.

36

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Further developments must be energetically pushed, for the loss of water through improper application practices is not only serious in itself but also usually involves serious loss of fertile farmland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; something we can ill afford as our population grows.

There is yet another source of future development that may be even more important to Utah's future than any of these already mentioned. That is the full scientific use of our "underground reservoirs" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the natural underground storage of water that is the basis of our springs and wells.

In some areas of the state, underground water sources are extensively used. But in many areas these underground reservoirs are neglected, and the water that drains into them each year is wasted through useless vegetation which develops over such a source of supply. In other places strategically located underground reservoirs may be ignored and the water allowed to follow underground channels and emerge at such low levels as to be virtually useless to agriculture.

Developing the full use of our underground water supplies will require careful study and intelligent development to preserve existing rights and still make use of the maximum amount of water that is surplus to them, but it can and must be done. It represents one of our greatest untapped sources of water for the future.

Irrigation and reclamation have played a large part in the development of Utah over the past 110 years. Some people say these factors will be less important in the future because we will be turning more and more from an agricultural to an industrial economy.

Let me point out that an industrial economy requires even more water than does an agricultural economy. Whatever form our future development takes, its final limiting factor will be our available water supply. Water developed now or in the past for irrigation may someday in the future be turned to municipal or industrial uses as conditions may demand. Indeed, such changes have already been made and have been an important part of our modern industrial development.

The establishment of the Geneva steel plant in Utah, for example, would have been impossible without the water rights, originally developed for irrigation, that were attached to the land acquired for the steel plant.

Water developed for irrigation purposes is "water in the bank" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; often far more valuable than money in the bank in this dry country.

Irrigation has been a key factor in shaping Utah's history in the past, and I am sure it will play an equally vital role in our future.

MARSHALL N . DANA Marshall N. Dana was born in Washington County, Ohio. He attended Denison University, Granville, Ohio. A newspaper editor by profession, he has lived and worked for many years in the Pacific Northwest, serving for forty-two years with the Oregon Journal.

He was the first president of the National Reclamation Association; regional advisor and regional chairman of the Public Works Administration, 1932-36; and has been active in forest management problems. He received the Department of the Interior's Conservation Service Award for devoted service to conservation and resource programs in 1958. Currently he is assistant to the president, United States National Bank of Portland, working in civic and business activities directed toward building the state and the region.

RECLAMATION, IMPACT

ITS

INFLUENCE

ON THE

OF THE

AND

HISTORY

WEST

By Marshall N. Dana

The sun rises upon a plain bounded by faraway purple-blue mountains. Through the sagebrush swings a pair of cowboy boots, their owner humming — as he rides — a song that in the dust of arid sand repeats over and over "cool, cool water." The steady clippety-clop of the bronco makes a rhythm with the song.

Under the same sun the scene changes. Where the bespurred cowboy boots swayed below the high-pommeled saddle, a pair of farmer boots trudges patiently behind the plow down the long furrow.

The morning sun — with its new welcome to meadowlarks — looks down upon other scenes that seem to dissolve one into the other.

The farmer boots become familiar with business shoes. The plow gives way to the tractor. The bulldozer and the tractor have been there.

Where the sagebrush grew is a home, with paint and flowers.

The tiny, summer-dried trickle gives way to a cemented canal in which, repeating the cowboy's song, "clear, cool water" flows.

40

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The steep, high, rock walls of the mountain are linked by towering masses of masonry. The flood, that once in the melting of winter s snow and because of cloudbursts sometimes ripped away in accented erosion the mineralized volcanic soil, becomes a deep, long lake, ready to make the new fields green and fruitful and to send over copper cables the white dynamic electric power. Along its shores the hopeful cast their lures, and frequently its otherwise placid surface erupts into the rainbowed wake of small but energetic pleasure craft.

The sense of great and aching emptiness has departed from the wide valley. There are farms lush with alfalfa and rustling with corn.

There are roads in the successive stages of dust and gravel and pavement. All the evolution of the trail becomes the broad highway, and over the tops of the trees, which grow where trees never grew, rise the spires of churches. Even closer by, sound the voices and the laughter of children in the school playground.

The cow pony rounds up the sheep and the cattle only where irrigation's magic does not reach. But white-faced beeves and longwooled sheep graze contentedly on the swift-growing meadow grasses.

There is a congestion of traffic and some of it is in constant motion upon the highways. Some of it is signaled by die whistling of railroad trains, and some of it drones in the sky. There is a central meeting place, and that place is the city with its intriguing window displays, its meters to take toll of parking, its warehouses, railway stations and airports, and the skeleton towers of radio and TV. Regularly meeting are the luncheon clubs where people eat and listen patiently to speakers even as you and I. And there where the city rises, it glows as though Aladdin had rubbed the magic lamp, because the mountain has become a reservoir, and the current flows through aqueducts and over wires into the valley that once was dead with drought and now is splendidly productive.

There is another way to tell about "Reclamation — Its Influence and Impact on the History of the West." The statistics also are vivid.

In the sixteen states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming (later Texas and Alaska were added) —named in the first reclamation act signed

by President Roosevelt on June 17, 1902, there were then eleven million people. There are now some thirty-four million. Twenty-five million acres have been irrigated — six and a quarter million in federal reclamation projects.

RECLAMATION,

INFLUENCE AND I M P A C T

41

The federal investment in reclamation approximates two billion dollars, of which one billion has been invested since the 1930's. Reclamation was placed upon a pay-back basis without interest as the federal government's acknowledgment of stewardship, but called for repayment of principal as the honest debt of settlers. There are some additions to the reclamation fund through the disposal of public lands, but this too represents a genius inasmuch as the depleting areas and mineral assets could be converted into the nondepletive and living values of irrigated farms and prosperous communities.

There has been good faith. Water users have repaid almost one hundred million dollars. Power users have paid more than two hundred million dollars for more than four million kilowatts of developed electric current. Crop values are ascending toward one billion dollars a year. The products are vital essentials of public health and trade, such as fruit, dairy products, foods, feed, and fibers. But the profit to the nation is shown with greatest effect in the fact that taxes paid from the properties and income of federal reclamation projects have gone beyond two and one-half billion dollars.

Reclamation was not unknown before the act of 1902. The Indians in the American Southwest had discovered that they could subsist upon food produced from moistening the dry soil by means of small ditches.

Brigham Young and his fellow Mormons in 1847 took from the water of City Creek near Great Salt Lake enough of die current to prove the value of irrigation and to build in the desert the splendor of stone made into temples, clay molded into sculpture, and music converted through rippling water into the melody of the Salt Lake City choir.

Let it be noted, however, that the influence and impact of reclamation on the history of the West was felt first in the growth of a contentious idea. Two schools of thought were vociferous as the debate proceeded. Congressman Ray of New York echoed the doubt as to whether there was any value in the West, or anything save sagebrush and rattlesnakes. Said he: "An acre of arid land that a coyote can not live on is not a free home to any human being." Others ascribed ulterior motives. They called reclamation a railroad scheme, a scandal, and unconstitutional. Reclamation, they insisted, would be "a very dangerous power to put into die hands of the Secretary of the Interior."

The President, Theodore Roosevelt, with farther-reaching vision declared: It is as right for the national government to make the streams and the rivers of the arid region useful by engineering

42

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

works for water storage as to make useful the rivers and harbors of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the headwaters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river control, under which levees are built on the lower rivers of the same streams.

Debate became acrid on the question of federal versus private responsibility. But President Roosevelt again had the answer: These irrigation works should be built by die national government. The lands reclaimed by them should be reserved by the government for actual settlers, and the cost of construction should, so far as possible, be repaid by the land reclaimed. The distribution of the water, the division of die streams among irrigators should be left to the settlers themselves in conformity with state laws, and without interference with those laws or with vested rights.

The profit pointed to by this great American president was realized in a nation occupied as it never could have been without reclamation.

It was the conversion of wilderness into man-controlled civilization.

What do we mean by civilization? That very authoritative volume, Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, says that civilization is "A state of social culture." Civilization is "characterized by relative progress in the arts, science, and statecraft." All true! But the definition that comes closest to the dreams and vision of the settlers who moved out upon die western lands speaks simply and beautifully of the "aspirations of the human spirit."

Reclamation repudiated the errors of ancient times. Of Mesopotamia, traditional site of the Garden of Eden, W. C. Lowdermilk, noted authority, says: "At least eleven empires have risen and fallen in this tragic land in 7,000 years. It is a story of a precarious agriculture practiced by people who lived and grew up under the threat of raids and invasions from the denizens of grasslands and the desert, and of the failure of their irrigation canals because of silt."

Nebuchadnezzar boasted of works which he had built in Babylon such as "no king before had done," but, because the irrigation canals which he dug filled with silt, the palaces and temples were buried by desert sands, and Babylon became "a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth."

The American reclamation West is learning the secret which the

RECLAMATION,

INFLUENCE

AND I M P A C T

43

ancient and fallen civilizations failed to learn. That secret is the management of water to combine with the management of land and with the newer science of management of forests.

Water is the controlling factor of the American future. What has been done and is being done in the reclamation states in the development and use of water resources is an object lesson for the nation as a whole. The causes that reduced the vast domain of a Ghengis Khan to bitter aridity frequented only by small nomadic groups will not be repeated here if the western example becomes the basis of a national water policy. Within a ten-year period, the issue of water resource development will become as prominently acute as the missile program is today.

We have had, among others, the report of the President's Advisory Committee on Water Policy. The administration seems sluggish in presenting implementing legislation, but action cannot be long delayed in the face of a study made jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Reclamation. This is a study of the needs for food, feed, and fiber related to land resources fifty years hence. The forecast by these agencies is a population of 370 million in the United States by the year 2010, only fifty-two years from now. It is less time than has elapsed since the Reclamation Act of 1902.

Also forecast is 151 million persons in gainful employment, a gross national product of twenty-three billion dollars and a personal income of eighteen hundred billion. Such growth is inevitably premised upon the sound development of land and water resources. It could not come to pass odierwise.

In 1955 the daily estimated water use in the United States was 262 billion gallons. By 1975 the forecast is for a daily water use of 453 billion gallons. The increase in the consumption of water for irrigation and for industry has grown in the same proportion. It will not be enough to plan water use for irrigation alone, nor for power alone, nor for domestic and municipal supply, industry and recreation alone. All legitimate users must have their place in the planning of water use, in the planning of water storage, its protection against pollution, and its equitable distribution.

A national water policy is a mandate laid upon this generation in trust to generations unborn, in faith to the vital precept of leaving the land better dian we found it. We cannot dodge the duty of a national water policy. Equitable multiple use of water has its counterpart in

44

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

another growing idea. This is the multiple-purpose river basin development.

In the total concept of river basin development, there is a policy that should dominate. All values appurtenant to natural resources should be listed and interrelated. Since all are interdependent, all should be reciprocally contributive. Specifically, power, which is the most saleable merchandise of water resource development, should help to pay those charges for irrigation which are beyond the settlers' ability to pay.

The basin account is a sound formula under which to operate. A productive agriculture is essential to a balanced economy which otherwise contains industry, business, mining, forestry, fishery, the professions, and recreation. When irrigation shares in the revenues of electric energy, it helps to animate all other enterprises and thus to broaden the markets in which the power is sold.

The National Reclamation Association is one of the first great conservation organizations to declare that the development of water resources must be programmed not for localities alone but for the multiple purposes of entire river basins and the people that dwell therein.

It is not a simple matter to define the most worthy claimants upon water supply. Nor is it a simple matter to make one program fit all geographic areas.

We must, as a nation, settle upon essential and fundamental principles. These include storage, flood control, protection from pollution, and prevention of erosion. Beyond this point lie necessities of distribution in accordance with the controlling factors of geographic areas, river basins, and localities. In the West the emphasis will be on reclamation, although growing industry will more and more exert its claims. In other sections of America it will be industry above reclamation. Whatever is paramount in need for water supply should be well served but without detriment to other worthy claimants.

As the water program expands, it will be urgently necessary to clarify the relative authority of the agencies which develop and administer wafer resources. It is traditional that when the federal government undertakes programs for the benefit of subnational areas and interests, it extends restrictive authority where federal money is spent.

In the reclamation West this has taken the form of disregard of state water laws. More, than a score of federal agencies concerned widi water administration have more and more, and by means of legal devices, sought to set aside state water laws in the expansion of their own activities. Thus we have the contests involving the licensing of

ABOVE: Fertile farmlands reclaimed from the desert by water made available by the construction of huge western irrigation projects. BELOW: Recreational facilities keeping pace with the great water conservation projects are contributing to the growth of a new industry. Photos, Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation.

^

~z?**ÂŤm

46

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

power developments. Thus we have the theory that the government is the over-all water master and will continue to supply and control water for irrigation even after districts have paid in full the price of the works. Thus we have the proposals for subnational and regional authorities standing between the states and the federal government, exercising power never established by any plebiscite, and setting up controls that extend not only to the general economy but to the earning and the living of every person.

It is to be hoped, if the administration does not soon submit clarifying legislation which will also implement national water policy, that the Congress will take its own initiative as the legislative representative of the American people, acting in their behalf to preserve popular free enterprise and initiative and the home rule, which are the genius of free America for free Americans.

A bright thread in reclamation and indeed in all our land and water development is the startling expansion of what we call recreation. An inventory of recreational resources in the Pacific Northwest conducted at the instance of the Columbia Basin Inter-Agency Committee showed that there were 10,750,000 visits to state parks, national forests, national parks, and federal reservoir areas in 1947. In 1954 total attendance was approximately thirty million, an increase in eight years of 300 per cent.

On the basis of these figures and the accompanying study the estimate is made that there will be over forty million visits in 1960.

Shorter hours of work, extension of highways and the big highway program, the allure of motorboats, and die deep human instinct for fun account for the amazingly swift growth of the recreation industry. The healdi and sanity increases among the millions who seek the play side of the great out-of-doors, and the several billions of annual expenditure make the industry one of the nation's top economic factors. In all of the planning and building of public works, recreation must have its co-ordinate place along with irrigation and power, flood control, and fishery.

Find the influence and impact of reclamation upon the history of the West in the vast works it has produced: for example, Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete mass in the world, and its adjacent millionacre irrigation project which is fed with water pumped from Lake Roosevelt behind the dam through enormous pipes, one of which could supply the daily needs of New York; Hoover Dam, which went far to solve the water supply problem of Los Angeles and the American Southwest; Shasta Dam, key of the great Central Valley Development

RECLAMATION, INFLUENCE AND IMPACT

47

in California; the Hungry Horse Dam in Montana; the Anderson Dam of Idaho; the Owyhee Dam in Oregon; and the innumerable smaller irrigation projects with their farms and their cities.

In a more simple and homely way let me find another example.

It is a report on the Moses Lake School District in the Columbia Basin Project. "Less than ten years ago the town of Moses Lake had wooden sidewalks, dirt streets, a handful of houses." Two hundred children comprised the total school census. But in ten years there was a growth of 1000 per cent. The school population rose to thirty-six hundred.

Preparations are being made for twelve thousand children by 1960.

In the Owyhee Project, the farmer planted sugar beets. A milliondollar sugar factory followed the water to the land.

Only sagebrush grew on a spot I visited before the water came, but, after the water began its flow, I found a home with every electrical facility. There were a living-room equipped with deep upholstery, a glassed-in porch with a fireplace, and shelves filled with intriguing books. A table was covered with magazines. It was a home equipped for living, sustained by the yield of the now fertile soil; and happiness did dwell therein.

The adventures in homemaking tiiat reclamation permits have for me as significant a historic value as the huge power and irrigation dams, and the skillfully-spread distribution systems. For here we meet the people who justify the immense structures. Here we meet the children who are to be the engineers and the scientists, the builders and leaders of the years to come.

Reclamation has its economic proof in the billions of dollars of value it represents and produces; reclamation with a fluid pen writes its history in soil and water productively combined; in the funds which advance the American standard of living and raise the level of public health; in the balanced economy of agriculture, industry, mining, and forestry; and in the great works of water conservation that have been built and will be built greater in die future.

But it is in the scientists who will solve this nation's complex problems of growth, in the engineers who master the combinations of structural material, in die production of leaders capable of guiding this nation through the atomic age, that we find not only the more lasting values but the promises of future security and the prophesies of human attainment beyond our present dreams.

The impact of reclamation upon Western civilization was felt when pioneers first led the water from the mountains to make green

48

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the desert. It is still felt by their successors, who are, in very practical ways, helping to write an epic of freedom.

The history of reclamation is a history of people. The effect of reclamation is to be recorded not only in the transformation of the sterile land into fruitful soil, but in the development of vivid and resourceful human personality.

In the unirrigated land there are wide spaces and large establishments such as ranch headquarters. When the water reaches the soil and it is possible to farm on twenty-acre tracts, not only are the line fences succeeded by nearer boundaries, but the people come closer to each other.

As the roots of food and fiber become more numerous and reach deeper into watered soil, the roots of people are sunk deeper in the love and nourishment of the soil that nourishes them. Then is introduced the community and its mutual interests which presuppose organization and co-operation.

Where there were in the sagebrush the isolated and highly individualistic few, in the irrigation districts there are the many who know that the word "neighbor" means the tie that binds and the neighborly interchange that is precious.

The successes of reclamation attract from far away the visits of engineers and technicians who are seeking to correct the fatal errors of land and water management in foreign and ancient lands. These visitors, experience shows, are impressed not only by great dams and mighty power plants and widely arrayed water distribution systems, but by the character and the quality of the people who live upon the land.

They prove not only the promise given to the food resources of the nation by their products, but the promise to the future of die nation Grand Coulee Reservoir.

Photo courtesy Bureau of Reclamation

When the water supply

fails!

RECLAMATION,

INFLUENCE

AND I M P A C T

49

represented by their children. I submit that here is a gain in international good will that even excels a Point Four Program.

The miracle of irrigation is also the miracle of the good life won by courage and vision and hard work by bringing water to the arid and semiarid land. There is the same contrast between the lives of people deprived of opportunity and those who enjoy the advantages derived from well-managed resources of nature upon the reclamation projects. It is the line which marks where the water stops that tells the story, on one side, emerald green and fragrant flowers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on the other the desperate gravelike gray of the desert.

The values worthy of being recorded by history become also the fulfillments of the future. The writing of the history of reclamation is a continuous process. There is a way, profiting from experience and responding to clear necessity, by which the future history of reclamation may be reduced to a format of order and co-operation.

Let national administration first acknowledge that water resource development is a task so urgent that it must be met with the best plans and facilities at the command of American genius.

Let the agencies of government which deal with multiple-purpose developments get together and share their ideas and their plans. People who get together do not stay apart. Also, make national water policy a subject for the conferences of American governors as well as of action for the President and the Congress.

Dredge from many water resource reports their best ideas. Condense them into a coherent pattern. Let the great natural resource organizations of citizens participate not only in formulating a water management program but in informing the public. Let the great information media â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the newspapers, the magazines, the radio and TV â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tell the story well and fully.

America cannot be better defended by guns and bombs than by such a program with the action that follows wide understanding of necessity, and with the active support of public opinion.

Do this and our nation, a thousand years hence, will still be steering a course toward the greater prosperity and happiness of all its people.

PAUL JONES

Paul Jones was born on the Navajo Indian Reservation sixty-two years ago. When he was twenty-two years old, a kindly missionary doctor took him to New York. Mr. Jones enrolled in high school, and to pay for his board and room did janitorial work in a church.

When the doctor moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mr. Jones went along, and while there attended Calvin College. In 1955 he was elected chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council at Window Rock, Arizona. Recently, under his leadership, the council approved a $9,000,000 development program, part of the $30,000,000 received as bonus from oil and gas leases on reservation land. Another $5,000,000 was earmarked for a scholarship fund.

RECLAMATION

AND

THE

INDIAN

By Paul Jones

My part of the discussion this afternoon has to do with "Reclamation and the Indian." Now I do not mean the reclamation law and the Indian, but the reclamation of arid lands and the Indian people, because we started reclaiming arid lands in this country thousands of years before there was a reclamation law and even many, many years before the Mormon settlers at Salt Lake City or the Spanish settlers in New Mexico started to build irrigation works in North America. Relics of irrigation works are to be found in many places in the Southwest.

Some of the irrigation ditches of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico have been in continuous use since before the coming of the whites. In the Salt River Valley close to Phoenix, I am told, some of the old canals of the ancient people can still be seen from an airplane. Along the San Juan River in our own Navajo Reservation there are still some irrigation works in use that were constructed by our Navajo people themselves in ancient times.

Undoubtedly the oldest as well as the most extensive of the prehistoric Indian agriculture in North America took place within the basin of the Colorado River. Many ruins of prehistoric civilization based upon irrigated farming are found in the San Juan Basin, which is now within the Navajo Indian Reservation. These ancient ruins were built

52

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

by Pueblo Indians, who have since moved out of the country, but our ancestors moved to the area in the fourteenth or early fifteenth century and made use of some of die same irrigation works. Within the lifetime of some aged Navajos, our people cultivated lands on both sides of the San Juan River, using irrigation of course, as far upstream as the mouth of the Navajo River in New Mexico and well into the state of Utah downstream.

The modern era of Indian irrigation appears to have started in 1867 when Congress appropriated fifty thousand dollars for constructing an irrigation canal on the Colorado Indian Reservation near Parker, Arizona. It appears that this first attempt ended in failure because of lack of proper operation and maintenance.

As you probably know, the Navajo people were rounded up by die army in 1863 and taken to a reservation on the Pecos River in New Mexico, known as Bosque Redondo, near a place known as Fort Sumner. It is my impression that the government intended to make irrigation farmers out of, us Navajos on the Bosque Redondo Reservation; but looking over the old appropriation act for subsistence of Navajo Indians on the reservation, which we considered a concentration camp, I can find no mention of irrigation, but only of providing agricultural implements, seeds, and other articles necessary for breaking the ground. Apparently the government intended die Navajos to construct their own irrigation works. As you know, the Bosque Redondo experiment was a failure. Crop failures on the part of most of the Navajo captives required the government to support the Navajo people on issues of rations; and at the time the experiment was abandoned in 1868, over a million dollars had been expended by the government, and the Navajos were no closer to being self-sufficient as irrigation farmers than they were in 1863.

A somewhat similar experiment was started in 1945, under which the government planned to resettle Navajo and Hopi Indians on the Colorado River Reservation. One hundred forty-nine Navajo and Hopi families were removed to the Colorado River Reservation, voluntarily of course, since the government has abandoned its former harsh policies of forced removal of Indians. Of that number only sixty-seven families, fourteen of them Hopis, remained on the Colorado Indian Reservation as of the end of 1957. Most of the Navajo colonists on the Colorado River Reservation failed because they were taken there by the government without any training in irrigated farming and put down on a forty- or eighty-acre plot which had already been sowed to alfalfa. The

RECLAMATION

AND THE I N D I A N

53

first year good cutting came up, the second year a poor cutting, the third year a poorer cutting, and the fourth year nothing came up at all.

At the end of this time the Navajos did not know what to do except go back to their own country. Some of the Navajos left simply because they could not stand the climate. On the Colorado River Indian Reservation the summer temperature sometimes goes up to 127 degrees, and we just are not used to that kind of heat. Political differences between the Colorado River Indian tribes and the Navajo Tribe have also contributed to the failure of the resettlement program.

The Fort Sumner experiment and the Colorado River Indian Reservation experiment, I think, show fairly conclusively that largescale resettlement of the Navajo people as farmers outside of their own country will not work. In a few minutes I shall discuss why a largescale irrigation project in our own country will work, and the steps we are taking to see that it does.

During the period between the Fort Sumner and Colorado River experiments, the government subjugated about 26,000 acres of land on the Navajo Reservation itself. All of this was not new land, however, because in some cases, along the San Juan River particularly, the government's work consisted in rebuilding or replacing primitive irrigation systems built by my own people themselves many years ago. Since 1950 under the Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Act, an additional 4,334 acres have been subjugated.

Irrigation on the Navajo Reservation to date has not been a failure, but it has not been a success either. The so-called farm units range in size from one acre up to ten acres. In some cases several members of a family have acquired units and have combined them into a single farm.

Thus Yellowman, a member of our Tribal Council, has managed to get together a forty-acre farm upstream from Shiprock, New Mexico.

He has been chosen the best farmer in San Juan County, although he has never been to school and does not speak English. He frankly admits, however, that he cannot make a living from his farm. He supplements his income by his fee as a member of the Tribal Council.

I know there is no need to labor the point before this audience that two and one-half, five, ten, or even forty acres is inadequate to make an economic farm unit. The government in times past tried to crowd the maximum number of Indians on each Indian irrigation project, with almost uniformly unsuccessful results.

Both the Navajo Tribe and the government have realized the futility of this policy. A bill is now pending before Congress to au-

54

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The seventy-four member Navajo Tribal Council meets in its modern building to put into action programs to improve the economic and cultural wellbeing of 80,000 Navajo people. Photo, courtesy David W. Evans. thorize the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project in New Mexico to include a gross area of 115,000 acres. This will be the largest Indian irrigation project ever undertaken. It is, of course, a participating project of the Upper Colorado River Storage Project.

The plans for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project call for farm units of ninety acres; however, the Advisory Committee of the Navajo Tribal Council has requested that this figure be revised to 120 acres.

We know that this will mean fewer Navajos will get farms on the project, but we feel it will mean that the Navajos who do get farms will succeed and will have a fair chance.

To make sure that the Navajo people are ready for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, the Navajo Tribe at its own expense has set up a farm training school on twelve thousand acres of newly subjugated land. We hired an outstanding farm manager, Clifford Hansen, as manager of our farm school. We put up all the necessary buildings and bought all the necessary equipment for this farm. We also erected

RECLAMATION AND THE I N D I A N

55

sixteen houses for married trainees, consisting of two bedrooms, livingroom, kitchen, and bathroom. We have a dormitory for unmarried trainees.

Our training started off with twelve men in a two-year course.

We now have twenty-four men in training. The first six will graduate in February of 1959 and will be assigned to 120-acre farms recently developed under the Hogback Project below Fruitland, New Mexico.

We hope to have farms for every graduate of this school immediately upon his graduation. Existing projects will take care of the first few graduates, and after that the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project should be available.

The course of training at our school takes two years. The cost is about five thousand dollars per student, all of which is paid by the Navajo Tribe without government assistance. However, we believe eventually our training farm will be self-sustaining from the value of crops sold from it.

At our farm training school we not only teach the men to be farmers, but we have adult education to teach English to the farmers and their wives who do not speak the language. These classes are also open to persons who are not regular students at the training farm.

We also have a home economist on our payroll at the farm training school to teach the farmers' wives housekeeping, sanitation, child care, gardening, canning, nursing, first aid, and budgeting. We believe this training of Navajo women in modern housekeeping is just as important if the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project is to be a success as training the men in modern irrigated farming methods.

We expect to have about two hundred persons graduate from our training farm in ten years. According to the projected construction schedule of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, the first farms will be available about four years after the commencement of actual construction of the project. Additional farms will open up over a period of eight years. We estimate the project will be complete about thirteen years from now, and at that time we will have nearly enough trained farmers to take over all the farm units.

In spite of the fact that the present farm units on the Navajo Reservation are not of economic size, on one project â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Fruitland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; last year 93% per cent of the land was in use and 61/2 per cent was idle.

This compares with the usual experience on Bureau of Reclamation projects of 10 per cent idle land. On the Hogback Project a little over 20 per cent of the land was idle. The projects are in our own Navajo

56

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

country where we can stand the climate and where the crops are those with which we are familiar. Of course the farmers on the Fruitland and Hogback projects must supplement their farm incomes in order to make a living. Nevertheless they have a remarkable record of attachment to the land and intensive effort to get the most they can out of inadequate acreage.

On the basis of the spirit of our people and our intensive farm training program, we believe the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project will not only be the most extensive Indian irrigation program ever constructed in this country but will be by far the most successful. Approximately eighteen thousand Navajo Indians will gain a living at the American standard from the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project. Under present conditions the lands proposed for inclusion in the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project support 5,116 sheep units the year long. The same land under irrigation will support about 436,000 sheep units.

I think you can see why we consider the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project a life and death matter.

When the modern water storage projects in their land are completed the Navajos of today will not find it necessary to replenish their water supply in the manner depicted in the painting, "The Water Hole',' by Paul Salisbury.

WILLIAM MULDER

William Mulder was born in Haarlem, Holland, in 1915. He is at present associate professor of English and director of the Institute of American Studies, University of Utah. He received his A.B. in 1940 and his A.M. in 1947 from that university. The Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization was taken at Harvard University in 1955. During the academic year 1957-58 Dr. Mulder was a visiting lecturer at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He is editor of the Western Humanities Review; a regular contributor to professional and historical journals; sometime contributor and staff member of the Improvement Era; author of Homeward to Zion, the story of the Mormon migration from Scandinavia, published in 1957; and coauthor of Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers, published by A. A. Knopf in 1958.

THE

MORMONS

IN

AMERICAN

HISTORY

By William Mulder*

I bring you not history so much as an invitation to history, an invitation to take a fresh look at a familiar subject. As historians and keepers of history you know that a history of the world narrowly conceived and poorly written may be very parochial, whereas the history of a town or country written with insight and imagination and a sense of the humanly significant may be universal. All history is inescapably local history in the sense it happened in a particular place at a particular time. Yet a musket fired at Concord bridge may be the shot heard round the world, or a word spoken at Gettysburg find itself addressed to the ages. So I offer no apology for dwelling, especially on this occasion, on an eddy in the mainstream of American history. The eddy is part of the larger current. The waters of history originate in a thousand remote and local springs, but they issue in the same great sea that is the story of mankind.

I The formal separation of church and state, so dear to the American tradition, has not meant a separation of church and society, religion divorced from our national life. The story of religion in America is in * T h e article here printed is basically an abridgment of the Twenty-first Annual Frederick William Reynolds Lecture delivered at the University of Utah, January 14, 1957, by Dr. Mulder, and copyrighted by the University.

60

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

many respects synonymous with the history of our country. From the Bible Commonwealth of colonial New England to the Bible Belt still with us both as a state of mind and as a region, the religious background of American culture deserves equal attention with the political, the social, and the economic. They are, in fact, inseparable. Piety consorted well with commerce in the very founding of our civilization.

The connection between religion and American life has remained organic and surprisingly vital, whether we think of Jehovah's Witnesses selling their Watchtowers on our street corners or of the revival of Harvard's Divinity School under Paul Tillich. Lift any of America's respective faiths out of the cocoon in which their limited denominational histories have wrapped them, and they take on new interest in the vivid light of this connection.

Mormonism seen in this perspective assumes an unusual identity with American history, all the more because it is as native to the United States as Indian corn and the buffalo nickel. We have to specify an American Judaism or an American Catholicism, but Mormonism is American by birth, although the United States was long reluctant to accept the honor. In its New England origins, its Utopian experiments and reforms, its westward drive, and its early expansion to Europe resulting in a great program of immigration and settlement, nineteenthcentury Mormonism expressed prominent traits and tendencies that were already shaping American society. It was not simply a colorful reflection of the times; it was a dynamic reworking of the diverse elements of American culture. Mormonism is unique primarily in the way it combined these elements, in what it added or neglected, making it now a perfect epitome of its time and place, and now a puzzling contradiction.

In early Mormon theology, for example, we get a fairly complete cross section of the American mind in the early nineteenth century.

In the current argument among scholars over the degree and nature of the nineteenth century's optimism and stress on progress, Mormon eschatology is especially pertinent. It embraced both the belief in progress and the underlying sense of doom and destruction in an era we have too simply thought of as a romantic Age of Jackson.

Other illustrations come easily to mind. The Mormons believed in universal salvation and perfectibility, the theological counterpart, perhaps, of the democratic faith in the common man and his natural goodness; but they also believed in blood atonement, suggesting a sense of man's guilt so deep that only the spilled blood of the wicked smok-

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

61

ing up to heaven could save them. Implicit in the hope of millennium were the wrath and judgment which would first be poured out upon a wicked generation. The Utopian communities of the Rappites, the Moravians, the Shakers, the Fourierists, the Owenites, and the Mormons were at one and the same time an expression of optimism and of disillusionment, a radical rebuke of the imperfections of the existing social order.

Mormonism's social experiments are another illustration of the way it captured the spirit of the times. The Word of Wisdom was its version of the widespread temperance movement in a day when even bran had its prophets, water cures had become a fad, and Sylvester Graham, who also did not believe in using meat, tea, or coffee, gave his name to a health bread. The temperance movement gained enough momentum to become a political force, but the Word of Wisdom went in a moral direction: it reads like scripture rather than just another health platform, and it holds out a unique spiritual promise: all who do and keep its sayings shall not only run and not be weary and walk and not faint, but they shall furthermore gain treasures of great knowledge, even hidden treasures.

Again, the Order of Enoch, or the first United Order, tried briefly in Missouri from 1831 to 1833, was Mormonism's version of economic equality. Through its law of consecration and stewardship it hoped to preserve initiative and avoid the pitfalls of common stock that were ruining communal societies living like big families. In principle it tried to bring together the advantages of both private enterprise and cooperation. In the same way the blueprint for the ideal city of Zion tried to combine the advantages of town and country living, an anticipation of the garden cities of our own time. And in the same way Mormonism combined the advantages of lay leadership and central authority in giving the priesthood to every man subject to the direction of revelation from the president and prophet.

Again, polygamy was the Mormon version of the daring attempts by contemporaries to modify the basic structure of the family, attempts which ran from the celibacy of the Shakers at one extreme to the free love of the Oneida Community at the other. The Oneida people under Charles Humphrey Noyes, whose descendants today manufacture the famous Oneida Community Plate, called their system Complex Marriage. It shortly became a eugenics experiment in controlled mating to produce superior offspring. The Mormons argued the same selectivity for polygamy, with women better off with part of one good man than

62

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

with all of a bad one. Sooner or later an expansive America had to produce its cult of fertility to match its own teeming natural abundance. But polygamy was not a pagan indulgence: a Puritan asceticism disciplined it in practice and an Old Testament sociology exalted it.

Only the image of Mormon clerks and farmers seeing themselves as Abrahams and girding themselves for godhood in the eternities to come can fully explain this most imaginative of all doctrines.

In its sociology Mormonism expressed the bold, experimental spirit of the times, on occasion moving far ahead of them. In its theology, however, it reacted strongly against the progressive religious liberalism of the day which made the mind its own church. Mormonism returned to the Puritan tradition which made church covenants as important as civil covenants. Again the Mormons combined elements: they combined dissent with authority; they restored the one true authoritative church, as they supposed, with a divinely ordained prophet to lead it but reserved to the membership at large the right of common consent to the nominations from on high. With Emerson and his Transcendentalists they claimed inspiration for every man, a priesthood of all believers, but they avoided the dangers of antinomianism by channeling revelation and putting approved interpretations on Scripture. Mormonism had no traffic with the wild revivalism of the times; Joseph Smith quickly disposed of the barks and the jerks and maverick revelation by branding them of the devil. In its insistence on the role of intelligence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of "Scripture and right reason" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mormonism expressed its New England intellectual tradition. Its School of the Prophets at Kirtland, Ohio, was a venture in adult education. "They are by no means men of weak minds," reported an early observer. The Mormons were confident that nothing science would discover would betray the revelations of living prophets or the Word of God in the Scriptures.

It remains a sublime belief among devout Mormons today.

Besides these topical connections, the Mormons had dramatic connections with American history in time and space. In their westward movement they were like the fine filament preceding the thread as it seeks the eye of the needle. They were part of the vanguard of settlement that was already making the Oregon and California Trail a dusty highway. The first company of Mormon pioneers, by the way, was not a ragged band of refugees but the best prepared of all western overlanders in terms of purpose, knowledge of the country, organization, and equipment. What made the Mormon participation the more dramatic was their three-fold commitment to the westward-running

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

63

stream in 1846, the "year of decision": first, the main body of pioneers which evacuated Nauvoo in February and, after wintering over in Iowa and Nebraska, went on to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847; second, a company of Saints which left New York in the same month on the sailship Brooklyn and made its way around the Horn to Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, to become the first American settlers in the San Joaquin Valley and publishers of San Francisco's first newspaper; and finally, the Mormon Battalion, which was mustered in along the pioneer trail to march against Mexico, going by way of Santa Fe and taking the first wagons over the route later followed by the Southern Pacific. Several members of the Battalion, scattering for employment in California, were among the workmen who discovered flakes of gold in the mill race they were building for John Sutter on the American River. Ironically, they helped to start the great rush of Forty-Niners who converted Salt Lake Valley from a hoped-for isolated refuge into the Half-Way House in the Wilderness, a great crossroads of the West.

In national affairs the Mormons were at times like the small cloud on the horizon heralding the gathering storm. Their differences with Missouri, for example, were in part the differences of New Englanders with Southerners over slavery. The Mormons not only considered themselves the meek who should inherit the earth, which made old settlers uneasy, but the Mormons besides favored the "free people of color," a position they later repudiated. But at the time it was a touchy point in Missouri, for such a caste would set slaves a bad example.

"Mormonism, emancipation, and abolitionism must be driven from our State," cried one frontiersman. The anti-Mormon outrages in Missouri in 1833 and again in 1838 were the counterpart of the anti-abolitionist violence breaking out all over the country. In 1835 respectable Boston dragged the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison through the streets by a rope, intending to hang him. In 1837 Alton, Illinois, murdered Elijah Lovejoy after twice destroying his emancipationist press. "Is not this a free state?" Lovejoy had asked, echoing the Mormons. "Have I not a right to claim the protection of the laws?" The Mormons were not in fact abolitionists, but gradualists. Joseph Smith in 1844 advanced the progressive idea that the national government should purchase the slaves from their owners with money from the sale of public lands.

But the country paid instead the price of civil war.

The Mormons were involved in other touchy issues of the day.

Early in their career they encountered the same blind prejudice and mass hatred that greeted the Freemasons. Like Freemasonry, Mormon-

64

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ism bred suspicion because to nativists it seemed secret, undemocratic, and subversive of American institutions. Mormon rights as a religious minority tested the larger issue of states' rights. Mormon appeals to Congress and the President for redress after expulsion from Missouri in 1838 got no satisfaction because the national government felt it had no jurisdiction. "Your cause is just but I can do nothing for you," said Van Buren. Whereupon Joseph Smith, after a visit to Washington, declared, "He is not as fit as my dog for the chair of state," and vowed Van Buren would lose 100,000 Mormon votes throughout the country.

The Mormons bewailed what they felt was a betrayal of the Constitution, leaving them at the mercy of arrogant state governments. The Prophet was led to run for President because neither Clay nor Calhoun could give him satisfaction on the Mormon question. Nullification, secession, and finally the Civil War tested the whole issue of the relative jurisdiction of the federal government and the states.

Another "Mormon Question" to vex the nation was Utah's long struggle for statehood: Mormon theocracy, complicated by polygamy and the influx of thousands of supposedly ignorant and subservient immigrants, seemed a bad risk to the Union, and Utah had to be content with carpetbag government for forty years. Reverend John P. Newman in the 1870's called for General Sherman to march through Utah as he had marched through Georgia. It was all too reminiscent of Missouri, a period of conflict so bitter and prolonged that the Mormon-Gentile complex on occasion still divides the state.

II This rapid review of a few highlights â&#x20AC;&#x201D; theological, social, and political â&#x20AC;&#x201D; may suggest how Mormonism was at once traditional and different in American experience. As a movement making religion both the center and the circumference of daily life, it released energies that made it a wayward current in the mainstream of our history and earned it a lasting notoriety. In our own day a Mormon girl has been crowned Miss America, a Mormon apostle has been named to die President's cabinet, and the great Tabernacle Choir from Salt Lake City has received the applause of Europe in an unprecedented tour; but the news was at one time more sensational and on occasion the country's chief diversion.

In a letter now preserved in the Coe Collection at Yale, we have an early inkling of the excitement Mormonism was to create. On February 12, 1830, Lucius Fenn of Covert in upstate New York wrote an old

MORMONS IN A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

65

neighbor in Connecticut about a curious book being published at Palmyra, some fifty miles away. It was said to be a bible which had been concealed in a stone chest in the earth for fourteen hundred years and which an angel had now revealed to a man named Joseph who could not read at all in English but who could read the book's gold leaves.

Along with Freemasonry, the temperance movement (which Fenn called "the cold sober societies"), and the considerable stir religion was making that winter in the lake country, the gold bible was the news of the day. "It is expected that it will come out soon," wrote Fenn, "so that we can see it. It speaks of the Millenniam [sic] day and tells when it is a going to take place. . . . Some people think that it is all a speculation and some think that something is a going to take place different from what has been. For my part," Fenn confided, "I do not know how it will be but it is something singular to me." He could only hope that in a time of "general solemnity upon the people in these parts" there would be "a greater outpouring of the spirit than ever."

In March, 1830, within a few weeks of Fenn's remarkable letter, the Boo{ of Mormon appeared and on April 6 Joseph Smith, the youtiiful Yankee seer whose visionary powers had already won him a local reputation, founded his Church of Christ.

Mormonism proved as singular as Lucius Fenn had speculated.

Its earliest years, from the miracle at Cumorah to the martyrdom at Carthage, were the lengthened shadow of Joseph Smith himself as he rose from village seer to American prophet. In his progress from Palmyra to Nauvoo he commanded attention in an age already full of the uncommon doings of common men. His unfolding theology seemed tuned to all the reform fiddles of the times, and he filled the breathless years of his brief but crowded career with expectations of the millennium and the Second Coming, with worldwide evangelism and practical programs of immigration and settlement and town planning, and with political aspirations and social nonconformities which the frontier, despite its vaunted individualism, could not abide. A powerful original mind, but untaught by the lessons of history, the Prophet came at length to regard himself, as Whittier put it, "a miracle and a marvel."

He aroused deep loyalties and rankling hatreds. The hatreds finally destroyed him; the loyalties kept alive his movement after him.

Mormonism was a movement in a very real sense. In their efforts to plant Zion the restless Mormons were constantly in motion. In less than a generation they crossed the continent in one tragic uprooting after another, leaving their houses unsold and their crops unharvested

66

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

in a dozen communities hopefully begun in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa, until the final removal to the West. Mormon names still dot the map from Mormon Hill in New York to Mormon Island in California, with historic Mormon roads and trails and ferries in between. In the process the Mormons became a genuine people, a covenant folk like ancient Israel with a shared history and at last a homeland. They moved widiin a magnificent metaphor, the image of themselves as Latter-day Israel. The parallel sustained them, and events sustained the parallel. Persecution and martyrdom deepened the image.

Their exodus under Brigham Young, an American Moses, and their chronicles in early Deseret, the new Land of Promise â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with its Dead Sea and River Jordan, and with its patriarchal order of marriage and the ensuing struggle with the Philistines, or Gentiles â&#x20AC;&#x201D; completed the Old Testament likeness. Emerson, visiting Brigham Young in 1871, noted this Biblical imagination and called the Mormons "an afterclap of Puritanism."

It is all part of a highly usable past. The mind of even the backsliding Mormon today teems with the scenes and images of his heritage.

There is much in Mormonism that is merely curious, quaint, and picturesque, and much in the past that is lurid. But a leopard is more than his spots. There is much in Mormonism that is moving and significant as the history of a people earnestly seeking New Jerusalem on the American frontier and diligently preparing themselves to be its fit inhabitants.

As late as 1920 my father landed in Hoboken, New Jersey, a Dutch printer and his young family bound for Zion in the New World as die Pilgrim Fathers had once set out for New Canaan. Coming to America was still a religious experience. For six years we dwelt among die Gentiles, like Ruth amid the alien corn, earning enough to pay our immigration debt and helping other families to come over. Each year found us more eager to move on to Salt Lake, the saintly city of our dreams. As a ten-year-old, I had read the poem "Out Where the West Begins," and I could hardly wait for the handclasp that was a little stronger and the smile that lasted a little longer. At last, in 1926, the family packed its belongings into a sway-backed, seven-passenger, fourcylinder Willys-Knight and headed west along the newly completed Lincoln Highway. I remember how we shouted when we crossed the Utah line. We felt kin to Columbus kneeling on the blessed shores of the Bahamas and William Bradford praising God for safe arrival at Plymouth. My Uncle Bill, who was with us, I remember blew a long

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

67

blast on his battered army bugle. It was an act of pure joy. We had at length, six years and six thousand miles after our departure from Rotterdam, come home. We were not unlike early wagon trains of Mormon immigrant-converts who used to pause in the mountains as they approached Zion's borders. After a prayer of thanksgiving, the pioneer men shaved and put on clean shirts, and the women donned their Sunday best for the final descent into the Valley, where they were often met by music and gifts of flowers and fruit and were promptly rebaptized in City Creek to wash away the sins of Babylon with the dust of the journey. They were renewing more than their covenants: they were renewing a characteristic American experience, an experience as old as the discovery of America and as new as the arrival of the latest refugees from Hungary.

America as a land of promise and destiny, where the ancient dream of a more abundant life could be realized, is a major theme in Mormon as in American history. It finds eloquent expression in "the gathering," long the heart of the whole Mormon movement. The gathering, not polygamy, is Mormonism's oldest and most influential doctrine. It looked back to the promises made to ancient Israel and forward to the Second Coming. It was Mormonism's way of channeling what the nineteenth century called the religious affections; it disciplined into action the fervor that in revival faiths was dissipated in an aimless love affair with Christ.

Mormonism, like other adventist faiths, was a millennial proclamation, a warning that a final judgment was at hand. But it was also a program designed to prepare for this eventuality. The gathering involved more than a trip to the sinner's bench. It was to be a roll call of Saints without halos, an assembling of a people not already saved but eager to create conditions under which salvation might be achieved.

This determination was the mainspring of Mormon social reform, whether it was a United Order or a Deseret Alphabet. Building the Kingdom meant providing an environment that would regenerate the adult and rear the young so that they would never know themselves otherwise than Saints. Salvation was an on-going process: "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be," so runs the most quoted line in Mormon doctrine. To become like God required an eternity, an endless unfolding of regenerated powers by study, faith, experience, and the intelligence which is the glory of God. The immediate need before the trump sounded was to get out of Babylon and unite with God's people to await greater spiritual endowments.

68

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The quaint Box Elder tabernacle, an outstanding example of Mormon church architecture, typifies the buildings the Saints constructed in every community to create conditions necessary for salvation. Photo, Norman Van Pelt.

Inspiration for the gathering sprang from a literal interpretation of Scripture, from a providential reading of history, and from the circumstances of free-land society in early nineteenth-century America. Joseph Smith split the Biblical metaphor of Zion and Jerusalem: he saw Judah returning to Jerusalem, Israel to Zion. And America was Zion. While other millennialists set a time, the Mormons appointed a place. America was the preordained site of this stupendous homecoming of the Lord's scattered hosts. On this continental stage the last great dramas foretold in the Old and New Testaments would be enacted: Daniel's stone would roll forth, St. John's heavenly city come to earth, and Rachel would weep no more for her children. For this, all history had been mere prologue. The discovery of America by Columbus, the Reformation in Europe, the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers, the founding of the Republic, and the raising of "that glorious standard" as the Mormons called the Constitution, were all preliminary to this grand

MORMONS IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

69

design. "The happiness of America," as George Washington himself believed, was in turn to be but "the first link in a series of universal victories."

The Mormons made this common Protestant view of Providence controlling America's destiny peculiarly their own. In Mormon sermons, the American eagle spread broad wings. In a Fourth of July oration in Salt Lake City in 1853, Parley P. Pratt, Mormon apostle, gave America and the latter-day gathering a central role in leading the world to seek deliverance from oppression, not by local revolutions, but by a "voluntary emerging into freedom." Providence, he said, opened the way whereby "the first and best spirits from all countries might liberate themselves." Though they could not master their tyrants at home, they could leave the Old World to crumble in its own decay and come to America. In time their influence would change the old cultures. It was to be a two-way passage of liberated peoples and liberating ideas in a day of unrestricted immigration and no iron curtains. Pratt echoed an earlier patriot. Thomas Paine in his famous tract The Rights of Man had already observed that America was the country best suited for the beginning of "universal reformation." Mormonism attempted it in miniature. Zion was to be model for America as America was to be model for the world.

Joseph Smith's vision of Zion, a holy commonwealth, was nothing new in his America. Everywhere, as we have seen, communitarian societies, secular and religious — backwoods Utopias as Bestor calls them — were springing up protesting a wicked and competitive world. What was different was the Mormon Prophet's continental imagination, the magnitude of his dream, and its adaptation of Biblical prophecies and events to the American scene. Mormon scriptures like the Book °f Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants assisted in this naturalization. Not only was America the promised land, and not only was Missouri, heart of the continent, to be the site of the New Jerusalem. It had in fact, said the Prophet, been the site of the Garden of Eden itself; not Mesopotamia, but the great valley of the Mississippi had been the cradle of mankind, and the Prophet pointed to the very spot where Adam, Ancient of Days, had once built an altar and where he would come again to preside over his righteous progeny.

Once more Mormon belief reflected a contemporary idea and went beyond it: America as the Garden of the World, an Arcadia of civilizations, was just then pleasing America's poets and painters, whose imaginations were being fired by a bountiful and still virgin land ex-

70

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

tending from the Hudson to the Columbia. The Book of Mormon was part of that literature, as moral as it was romantic. With its grand refrain of the continent as a favored land providentially preserved for the gathering of a righteous people, it provided the American dream its own scripture and endowed it with sacred legend. Whatever else the Boo\ of Mormon may be, it is America's oldest immigration story, chronicling several folk wanderings. It gave the country the immemorial past it yearned for. Centuries before the Pilgrim Fathers, it said, America had sheltered refugee bands from the Old World. Their survivors were the Lamanites, America's Indians, who were to be won back to a knowledge of their forefathers and become a "white and delightsome people." The moral of the Book was unmistakable: only by serving Jesus Christ, the God of the land, had any civilization flourished in America. America on these terms, taught the Prophet, had been held in special remembrance for the righteous in ages past, was even now fulfilling its characteristic role as a sanctuary, and for the redeemed would provide an inheritance in eternity.

The doctrine of inheritance went hand in glove with the doctrine of the gathering, domesticating for the American freeholder the promises made to Abraham. The prospect of a stake in an agrarian Kingdom, a celestial homestead of forty acres on a renewed and redeemed earth, was long the lodestone of the Mormon convert. Joseph Smith's four-square plat of the City of Zion, an idealized New England town with adjacent farmlands, could have been conceived only in a freeland society. It was to serve as pattern for the communities with which he hoped to fill up the earth, just as his contemporary Charles Fourier, the French socialist whose idea influenced Brook Farm, hoped to fill up the earth with his phalanxes. Only Fourier would make Constantinople on the Golden Horn the archphalanx, his secular New Jerusalem, the natural capital of the world, whereas the Mormons would plant theirs on the American frontier. Fourier would adorn his capital as Joseph Smith would adorn Zion's chief city, with all the material and cultural splendors befitting a world seat.

In this respect the Mormons had extravagant hopes for Nauvoo, the beautiful city which they redeemed from a swamp on a great bend of the Mississippi in Illinois. By 1843 they were calling it "the great emporium of the west," confident it would take the lead in art, science, and literature as well as religion. The Saints emigrating to Zion from afar were urged to "snatch from the ruins of ancient greatness everything . . . interesting, great, valuable, and good" and bring it to Nauvoo

MORMONS IN AMERICAN

HISTORY

71

to make it the city set upon a hill to which the whole world would look while kingdoms elsewhere were crumbling. "We must send kings and governors to Nauvoo," said Joseph Smith, "and we will do it."

What for other millennial faiths marked die end, for the Mormons was just the beginning. Their expectation of the Second Coming was momentary, but they planned for mansions on earth rather than in the sky. The Advent itself would bring no more than a change in administration, so to speak â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the benevolent monarchy of the King of Kings.

The Kingdom, already established, would go right on, and its yeomanry would keep their inheritances, tilling their fields and tending their shops as they had done the day before. If in America every man was king, in the Mormon Zion every man was to be king and priest. This breathtaking vision of Zion was Biblical, its ardor and materialism characteristically American. It could have been conceived only in the heady atmosphere of Jacksonian democracy, when, as Lowell put it, every man carried a blueprint for Utopia in his pocket.

Ill Zion, with the great heart of the gathering pumping converts and their resources into it, made history in two directions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the west and in Europe. The Mormons planted approximations of the ideal on the frontier and took Zion's image abroad, where Mormonism became an influential American "ism" leading thousands of northern Europeans to try America's promise on Mormon terms. The ideal was tried briefly in its purest form in Jackson County, Missouri, in the early 1830's; in the city-state of Nauvoo in the 1840's; and in Deseret's theocracy, quickly modified after the arrival of the first federal officials in 1852 but a very lively and visible ghost for years afterward.

America rejected each of these attempts, and for the traditional American reason that the Mormons united the civil and religious order to an uncomfortable degree and posed a political threat. The Mormons interpreted the Biblical Kingdom all too realistically. Americans insisted that God must not dare unite what man and the Constitution had sundered. It was once possible to arouse the nation with the implications of Mormon power for American freedom, just as certain factions attempt today with the implications of Catholic power for American freedom, on the theory that both Mormon and Catholic allegiance is supranational, demanding loyalty to church first and only secondly to country.

From Missouri to Utah, Zion's changing fortunes described an arc

72

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

of conflict growing out of this major issue. The root of the trouble was political, but it sprang from the religious principle of community.

Missouri in the 1830's, seeing Jackson County fill up with Mormons, offered to buy them out, but the doctrine of inheritance went so deep the Mormons could not be brought to part with their dedicated lands.

"To sell our land would amount to a denial of our faith," they said.

The old settlers mistakenly feared the Mormons as another Israel ready under Joseph Smith as Joshua to take Canaan by the sword. Vowing to drive them from Daviess to Caldwell and from Caldwell to hell, Missouri expelled them from one county after another in a series of civil wars. In Illinois in the 1840's, where once more the Mormons congregated in exclusive settlements, both Democrats and Whigs at first curried Mormon favor, for the Mormons held the balance of power in Hancock County. A backwoods lawyer named Abraham Lincoln was one of the state legislators to vote for a liberal charter which made Nauvoo a virtual city-state with a municipal court having wide powers of habeas corpus and with a Mormon arm of the state militia in the form of the Nauvoo Legion. Joseph Smith seemed at last safe from the snares of his enemies.

But Joseph Smith as prophet, mayor, and lieutenant general personified an un-American alliance. The Mormons might believe, as their Articles of Faith said they believed, in "being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law," until Christ came, whose right it was to reign; but meanwhile the country refused to accept Joseph Smith as Deity's vice-gerent.

Besides, in the name of religion he outraged one sacred American institution by introducing polygamy, and finally â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and fatally for him â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he assaulted another American untouchable, the freedom of the press.

His arbitrary seizure of the dissenting Expositor press in 1844 sealed his death warrant. But it was a mob that destroyed him rather than due process, and he died a martyr.

The longest trial of Mormon social and political nonconformity growing out of its religious collectivism came in Utah after an exodus from Nauvoo which rivaled the trek of the Boers in South Africa and the flight of Longfellow's Evangeline and her fellow Acadians from Nova Scotia. At the outset Zion in the West was the provisional State of Deseret, a regional empire bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras, the Oregon country and Mexico, with a corridor opening to San Diego on the Pacific as an eventual port of entry for immigrants expected to come the water route around the Horn. Congress clipped

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

73

Deseret's wings in the Compromise of 1850 and caged it in as the territory of Utah. But it still challenged the imagination, for it included Nevada, western Colorado, and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona.

Utah's present greatly altered boundaries, seemingly so arbitrary on the map, actually reflect political, social, and economic realities: as the silver mines opened in and around Carson City in the western and in the Colorado Rockies in the eastern extremes of the territory, attracting Gentile populations, separatist movements developed and Utah lost ribs in the creation of neighboring territories which soon outran her in achieving statehood. The Nevada and Colorado lines drawn down the approximate middles of the no man's lands between the Mormons and the Gentiles east and west of diem, preserved the social and political integrity of what geographers call the Salt Lake Oasis, the heartland of die Mormon Kingdom. Even today it is essentially intact, though modified by the inroads of other interests for nearly a century. The unity of daily life within the early Mormon Kingdom and the forces gradually giving Zion the face we know today are of course die-whole history of Utah, a colorful patch on the nation's garment.

Utah was a land where the Mormons at last could be the original settlers, keeping the outsider in the decided minority. Brigham Young at once sent out exploring parties to discover every habitable valley and preempt the Kingdom. If arable land was scarce and water the price of blood, the limitation proved an advantage: a federal commission in 1888 noted ruefully that the Mormons "have not only settled but have filled all of tillable Utah," and concluded that "those who hold the valleys and appropriate and own the waters capable of use for irrigation, own and hold Utah, and nature has fortified their position more strongly than it could be done by any Chinese wall or artificial defense."

Colonizing the drought-ridden, scattered valleys of Zion demanded co-operation both far-flung and intimate, with every new settlement part of the larger design and every settler a responsive part of the community in a life at once determined by desert conditions and overcoming them. The Mormon farm-village at the same time expressed an ideal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it was the Kingdom in small, patterned after Joseph Smith's blueprint for the City of Zion. Isolation, Indians, irrigation, and a New England town tradition were merely immediate causes of what already had a final cause in the heavenly model.

As pioneers the Mormons differed little, perhaps, from Americans pioneering other frontiers. But as yeomen developing Zion they were

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

75

significantly different. Desperate private struggle and life-saving cooperation were common enough on the American frontier, but on the Mormon frontier the idea of the Kingdom encouraged survival when lesser hopes failed, and the conditions of life "under the ditch" promoted co-operation not merely occasional like a house-raising or a harvesting bee but daily and endemic to the society. Their commitment to Zion's larger purposes was all that sustained the Mormon settlers through successive adversities â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mat and the unfaltering example of Brigham Young, whose annual visitations magnetized the commonwealth. His voice and his handshake were a living experience as he made his progress through the settlements. He was the President of the High Priesthood and Governor of the Territory, but also always "Brother Brigham," who knew his people intimately and their need of his homely advice.

The Mormon village was a state of mind framed by the Old Testament, with daily affairs constantly seen in the light of eternity. It was a snug cosmology for the believers, who worked out their civic and religious problems by common consent â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by motion, discussion, and vote â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether it was to put down card-playing, to take an assignment to the "cotton mission," or to expel a member for sending his children to a Gentile school. It was expected, of course, that the outcome would always conform to the ideals of the Kingdom and uphold the hands of "those in authority" in whose inspiration they believed. Whoever was not content to exercise his influence always within the determined pattern, soon found himself numbered among the apostates. A closed society like Zion, where every social and civil difference amounted to a religious difference, could not brook dissenters. There was no room for what the British Parliament calls a loyal opposition. Who was not for the Kingdom was against it. The archetype lay in heaven itself, which had cast out the rebel angels.

The world outside, unaware of Zion's unique workings, saw in all this only an oppressive society made up largely of the ignorant and the superstitious. The cathedral builders of medieval Europe would have understood Zion's unity and devotion, but not a Protestant America, more at home among warring and freespoken sects and splinters.

Denominational crusaders bent on Christianizing Utah, and political carpetbaggers bent on wresting control from Mormon hands considered Utah alien and seditious and kept it a vassal territory for nearly half a century. The slanders of quarrelsome federal officials brought an army to Utah in 1857 to quell a supposed rebellion and replace

76

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Brigham Young with a new governor. After the Civil War, which the Saints considered God's judgment on the nation for their sufferings in Missouri, the country turned its undivided attention to the "Mormon Question." "We mean to put that business of the Mormons through," a New Englander told a British traveler in 1866. "We have done a bigger job in the South; and we shall now fix things up in Salt Lake City."

Extremists called for cannon of the biggest bore to thunder the seventh commandment into the Mormons; they wanted to dissolve the legislature and govern Utah by commission; they clamored for enforceable legislation that would disfranchise polygamists and prohibit Mormon immigration. On a rising tide of public feeling against the Mormons, one congressional bill after another and one presidential message after another sought the formula that would at last throttle Utah's unorthodoxies. Against a background of bitter enmity between the Mormon People's party and the Gentile Liberal party in Utah, Governor Eli Murray in 1883 warned the country that Utah beset them with "another irrepressible conflict." The Edmunds Act that year sent the cohabs, as polygamists were called, underground; and in 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Act finally brought the Mormons to their knees: it disincorporated the church itself, disfranchised the women, dissolved the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, and led to the Manifesto of 1890 abandoning polygamy. The next year the United States added polygamists to the excluded classes in the Immigration Act, along with paupers and imbeciles.

But it was anticlimax. The legislation merely hastened what changing social and economic conditions were already accomplishing. By 1896 Utah was considered unspotted enough to be admitted to the Union. The conflict and crusade gave way to an era of good feeling, and the Mormons became in time eminently respected.

Zion, once preached with so much intensity and conviction, and expressed in the great program of gathering into Utopian communities on the frontier, was no longer a closed society. As the price of survival it had to accommodate itself to the times. Mormonism's millennial hope burned out, the great events which had seemed so imminent retreated into a future comfortably remote, and Mormonism settled down to an indefinite postponement of prophecy. It spiritualized its message and no longer frightened the nation as an imperium in imperio. Insisting less on building a literal Kingdom, it joined hands with eastern capital to build instead a greater Intermountain West.

MORMONS

IN A M E R I C A N

HISTORY

77

A visitor to Salt Lake City once observed that the angel Moroni on its temple spire seen at nightfall "seems to have very little to do with Mormon his father, or Joseph Smith his prophet, or the Hill Cumorah or the golden plates, but a great deal to do with human aspiration."

To Mormons, of course, he has everything to do widi all of these. But it is well that out of Mormonism and its history, at once so strange and so familiar in the American tradition, there should come the figure of the angel at sunset with something to say for all men. Among the Mormons, though perhaps not of them, it is today possible to foster a humanity broader tiian any dogma. Salt Lake City is the home, not of any single or singular people, but of every questing spirit who lives, or has lived, here deeply. If it is not yet the prophetic City of God, it is on occasion, as I hope you find it, certainly an hospitable City of Man.

THE

STATES THEIR

ACT

TO

CONSERVE

HERITAGE

By S. K. Stevens*

State action in the field of conservation of natural resources, including streams, forests, game and the land itself, has become a common feature of governmental policy in the last fifty years. It is only within the last decade or so that very much attention has been directed toward conservation of historical resources. These include letters, diaries and records, early newspaper files, archives of governments, both state and local, object materials such as tools, utensils and implements used by former generations, and historic sites and buildings which were the places with which notable persons had an association or where great events took place. The loss or destruction of such materials can be more permanent than the depletion of natural resources. The latter can be replaced. Forests can be replanted, streams purified and cleared, game supplies restocked, and land improved. Original historical resources, once lost or destroyed, can never be fully recovered. Historic * Dr. S. K. Stevens is executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This article, which originally appeared in State Government, published by the Council of State Governments, April, 1958, is reprinted by permission.

80

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

buildings, it is true, can be restored, but the accuracy of such restorations is almost entirely dependent upon documentary historical evidence. Even the adequate marking of historic sites and buildings must rest upon basic source materials for authentication.

Accurate and comparative figures are not available, but it is a considered judgment that fifty years ago no state spent more tiian a few thousand dollars which could be considered as devoted to conserving or restoring any of its historical resources. Pennsylvania, with its historical riches, did not create an official state historical commission until 1913. The principal early pattern of activity at the state level was that of the state historical society, so termed because it was chartered by the state and utilized the name of a state as the prefix to the words "historical society." New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were leaders in establishing such societies early in the nineteenth century.

Actually, these societies were largely semiprivate institutions. As Americans moved westward, they took with them the idea of the state historical society. But there developed one very important difference.

While the eastern societies basically were both privately supported and controlled, many western states subscribed to the idea that the state government should have more responsibility. In return for aid to the society in preserving state historical records, the state itself was given representation on the governing board of the state historical society.

State funds were appropriated in small sums to aid in this work. In such typical midwestern states as Ohio and Wisconsin, die State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Ohio Historical Society today receive an increased portion of their financial support from the state, and the state is represented on the board of trustees in each case, although the societies retain the idea of individual memberships and operate essentially as semiprivate associations.

PATTERNS OF ORGANIZATION Several states now combine the privately supported and directed society with a state department of history or historical commission which is an official unit in the state's governmental organization.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official state historical agency. It is concerned with research and publications; marking historic sites; preserving, administering, and interpret-

STATES CONSERVE THEIR HERITAGE

81

ing historic buildings and sites placed under it by act of the General Assembly; operating the State Museum and the Pennsylvania Farm Museum; caring for the state's public and historically important records, and carrying on a general program of informational and publication services in the field of Pennsylvania history. At Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania sits serenely as one of the nation's oldest privately endowed and managed state historical societies, with one of the largest and finest historical manuscript collections in America.

New York has the even older New York Historical Society, in New York City, with marvelous manuscript and other collections, and the New York State Historical Association, based at Cooperstown, has its nationally famous Farmer's Museum. Both are private rather than public institutions. In Albany, in the Department of Education, a state Division of Archives and History administers state historical markers, sites and museums, preserves state and local records, and promotes a program of statewide historical activity.

Michigan has both a privately functioning Michigan Historical Society and a Michigan Historical Commission â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the latter the official state agency, with archival, research, publication, historical marking and related functions under its official direction, and using state funds.

Other examples could be cited. Obviously there is today no fixed pattern of state-supported historical work in terms of the way this function is organized.

STATE ATTENTION RISES The more important point, however, is the fact that, whatever the pattern of organization may be, there is a noticeable increase in state attention to conservation of historical resources. More money is being spent out of state budgets to support this work. On the other hand, no taxpayer need yet be frightened at the size of the state historical agency budget in any state; it remains a mere drop in the bucket. Pennsylvania is a fair sample of the present trend. The biennial budget of the Pensylvania Historical Commission in its early years averaged a few thousand dollars; today it has climbed over the million mark. Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio are states with comparable budgets for this purpose.

Why are states turning more attention to state history, and spending more money in this area despite mounting pressures on total state budgets? One reason certainly is that Americans today are searching

82

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

as never before for an understanding of their historical tradition. The search has been intensified by world events of the last few years and a realization that the American tradition needs to be revitalized more than once a year on the Fourth of July. As Americans reach out for this understanding of their heritage, there is a growing realization that it rests upon knowledge of the nation's history. A quick look at the dates when a majority of the national historic sites and monuments administered by the National Park Service were taken under the wing of the federal government will indicate that a majority were acquired less than thirty years ago.

T H E ROOTS OF HISTORY In part, at least, the growth of state activity in historical conservation may be attributed also to a growing recognition tiiat the roots of American history are in the soil of the states and the communities within the states. There is indeed an increased realization that the American heritage is best understood when it is examined at state and local levels, where it is closer to the life and experience of people, dian is possible at a national level. State shrines and state history implement basic appreciation and understanding of the American past.

Increased state attention to the problem may also be said to be a part of a revolt against national centralization. Half a century ago Josiah Royce in his The Philosophy of Loyalty wrote: "We need . . . in this country a new and wiser provincialism . . . which makes people want to idealize, to adorn, to ennoble, to educate their own province."

He went on to say, "Further centralization of power in national government, without a constantly enriched and diversified provincial consciousness, can only increase the estrangement of our national spirit from its own life."

The essence of this thought is that achieving a philosophy of loyalty to an abstract and general thing we know and think of as "America" is not enough. Indeed, it is the most difficult of all loyalties to cultivate in a land so broad and so diversified as ours. People tend more readily to understand and to idealize and venerate those things which are close to them than those which are remote. It is my considered opinion, based on twenty years of association with historical activity at the state level, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the country, that the growing attention to conserving and emphasizing state and local his-

STATES

CONSERVE

THEIR

HERITAGE

83

tory on the part of our state government is in large measure a response to a realization that it is important as the very foundation for preserving our national heritage.

ATTRACTING TOURISTS Yet another important reason for cultivating the historical heritage of the states is that it is proving to be good business to do so. A recent survey by Redbook Magazine presents further striking evidence of the interest of Americans in America. More than 90 per cent of those queried indicated that their future vacation trips would be limited to the United States. Granted that much of this travel is purely recreational, who can deny that in its course increasing hundreds of thousands are being brought into contact with more recreational benefits?

The very scenery of America is an inspiring panorama which cannot help but create a new spirit of appreciation of the greatness of the nation. The American landscape is truly a vital part of the American heritage. Every person in charge of state historical shrines, as distinguished from those administered by the National Park Service, will testify that visits to these places are increasing by leaps and bounds, just as they are at the federally administered historical parks, buildings and monuments.

Recognition that there "is gold in them thar hills" in tourist travel is leading many states to take a new look at their history. Virginia went all out last year in celebrating the Jamestown tercentenary and with resulting economic benefits. Every tourist who can be attracted by a state's historical shrines into spending a few days in that state will spend on an average of $12.00 to $15.00 a day for food, lodging, gasoline, and odds and ends. National Park Service statistics show that national historical monuments, for the first time, are competing with and even running ahead of scenic areas in the percentage of increase in tourist visitation. Like figures are not available at the state level, but it is reasonable to believe that they represent a comparable trend.

To conclude and summarize, conservation of the history of our states is an increasingly important concern of state government. It is, and should be a concern, in terms of its very real place in the pattern of a rising consciousness of the need to translate the American heritage into terms which will lead Americans to become educated in the historical tradition of dieir own particular states. Provincialism is no

84

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

longer a "dirty word" to those concerned with developing a truly national spirit. It is rather, perhaps, the indispensable means to that end.

At the same time, with increasing thousands of Americans milling about â&#x20AC;&#x201D; searching out the physical evidences of their past as preserved in museums and historical monuments and buildings, or as pointed out by increasing thousands of state historical markers alongside the highways, or as recorded by the landscape itself â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there is a very practical aspect to increasing state budgets of the agencies entrusted with historical tasks. In most states conservation of our state historical heritage is at once a contribution to better citizenship and a sound business practice.

UTAH, THE MORMONS, AND THE WEST: A

BIBLIOGRAPHY SELECTIONS

FROM

"A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THESES AND DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING UTAH OR THE MORMONS WRITTEN OUTSIDE THE STATE OF UTAH"

By Ida-Marie Clar\ Logan*1

INTRODUCTION The bibliographical items here printed have been taken from a Master of Science thesis in English, Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah, 1956. In the thesis the items were grouped under the following subject categories: Religion and Philosophy — Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; the Earth Sciences — geography, geology, meteorology, and mining; the Biological Sciences — agriculture, botany, entomology, forestry, wildlife, and zoology; the Social Sciences — business and economics, education, history, home economics, political science, * Mrs. Logan is reference librarian at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. The above item constitutes the sixth article in the series, "Utah, the Mormons, and the West: A Bibliography." For other articles in the series see the Quarterly for July 1954, January 1955, July 1955, July 1956, and April 1957.

86

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

sociology and anthropology; the Humanities â&#x20AC;&#x201D; art, journalism, literature, music, speech and drama, and supplementary titles. D u e to space limitations, as well as the fact that certain areas of study are not pertinent historically, the thesis is not here printed in its entirety. However, all items in each category which could be considered as within the area of interest of this magazine have been included and arranged in alphabetical order by author.

Mrs. Logan in the Introduction to her thesis points out that: "Knowledge of the existence and location of contributions to scholarship is important to all research workers in order to prevent duplication of study, to bring salient facts into focus, and otherwise to facilitate research." Furthermore, "A bibliograhy of such studies written outside the state of Utah but pertaining to Utah, to its natural resources, its culture (particularly that established by or pertaining to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and those phases of interest that have been significant in the heritage of its development, has not been compiled previously into a single volume."

ALLEN, EDWARD JONES. " T h e Second United Order A m o n g die Mormons." P h . D . 1936, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

ANDERMAN, GEORGE G. "Geology of a Portion of the N o r t h Flank of the Uinta Mountains in the Vicinity of Manila, Summit and Daggett Counties, Utah, and Sweetwater County, Wyoming." P h . D .

1955, Princeton University, Princeton, N e w Jersey.

ANDERSON, C. ALBERT. " A Study of die Certification of Teachers in the Rocky Mountain States." M.A. 1931, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

ANDERSON, CHARLES BROOKS. " T h e Growth Pattern of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Its Determining Factors." P h . D . 1945, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

ANDRUS, H Y R U M L. "Joseph Smith, Social Philosopher, Theorist, and Prophet." P h . D . 1955, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N e w York.

ARBAUGI-I, GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW.

"Revelation

in M o r m o n i s m :

Its

Character and Changing Forms." P h . D . 1931, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

ARCHIBALD, ROBERT LAMBUTH.

" T h e Development of the Social and

Ethical Life of the Mormons During the Last Century." B.D. 1933, Emory University, Emory University, Georgia.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON MORMONS

87

ARRINGTON, LEONARD JAMES. "Mormon Economic Policies and Their

Implementation on the Western Frontier, 1847-1900." P h . D . 1952, University of N o r t h Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

ATWOOD, WALLACE WALTER.

" T h e Glaciation of the Wasatch Moun-

tains." P h . D . 1903, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

AXENFELD, SHELDON. "Geology of the North Scranton Area, Tooele County, Utah." M.L. 1953, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

BABISAK, JULIUS. " T h e Geology of the Southeastern Portion of the Gunnison Plateau, Utah." M.S. 1949, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

BACA, P H I L I P . " T h e Sheep Industry in the Rocky Mountain Area."

M.A. 1951, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BACON, DAVID CLARENCE. " T h e Teaching Problem of a Lay Church."

[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.] E d . D . 1951, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

BADDLEY, ELMER R. " A Study of the Tintic Standard Ore Deposit, Dividend, Utah." M.A. 1924, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

BAILEY, WILFRID CHARLES. " T h e Social Organization of the Mormon

Village." P h . D . 1955, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

BAKER, ARTHUR A. "Geology of the Moab District, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah." P h . D . 1931, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

BALLIF, ARIEL SMITH. " A n Analysis of the Behavior of Rural People on

Relief in Utah County, Utah, During the Years of 1932 to 1943."

Ph.D. 1946, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. . " A Study of Social Security Planning and Organization in the M o r m o n Church." M.A. 1937, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BAMBERGER, CLARENCE GREENWALDE.

"Report on the Property of the

Daly West Mining Company, Park City, Utah." M.E. 1908, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York.

BANE, LAVERNE CLARENCE. " T h e Development of Education in Utah,

1870 to 1896." E d . D . 1940, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

88

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

BANKS, L O Y OTIS. "Latter Day Saint Journalism." M.A. 1948, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

BARIEAU, SALLY LAMBATH.

"Migration to California by W a y of the

Isthmus of Panama, 1848-1855." M.A. 1936, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BARKER, LINCOLN. "History of the State Junior Colleges of Utah."

Ph.D. 1945, University of N e w York, N e w York, N e w York.

BARNWELL, MYRTLE CARVER. "Polygamy A m o n g the M o r m o n s up to

1896: A Thesis." B.D. 1933, D u k e University, D u r h a m , North Carolina.

BARTON, W I L L I A M GEORGE.

" T h e Utah Indian W a r , K n o w n as the

Black H a w k W a r of 1865-6-7." Master's Essay 1919, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

BATEMAN, EDWARD ALLEN. "Development of the County-Unit School

District in Utah." P h . D . 1940, Columbia University Teachers College, N e w York, N e w York.

BATEMAN, JAMES LAVAR. " T h e Speaking in the M o r m o n Missionary

System." Ph.D. 1950, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. . " T h e Use of Public Speaking in Conducting the Mormon Church Welfare Plan." M.A. 1947, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

BATES, LOUIS A. "Contractual Relationships Between Teachers and School Officials in Utah." Master's Thesis 1938, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BAYLEY, RICHARD W I L L I A M . "A Heavy Mineral Study of the Morrison

Formation of South-Central Utah." M.S. 1950, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

BEAL, SAMUEL MERRILL. " T h e Salmon River Mission." M A . 1935, Uni-

versity of California, Berkeley, California.

BEAL, THOMAS ANDREW. " T h e Significance of Brigham Young's Lea-

dership in the Economy Development of Utah." Master's Essay 1910, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

BEARSON, JULIUS B. "Private and Public Relief in Utah with Special Reference to the Mormon Church Welfare Plan." P h . D . 1948, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Survey of the Utah Coal Industry." M.A. 1917, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

89

BELL, HAZEL ADA. "Federal Relations of the Territory of Arizona from 1863-1893." M.A. 1929, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BELNAP, BRYAN WEST. "Proposed Plan for Religious Education Courses to be Given at Brigham Young University." E d . D . Project 1951, Columbia University Teachers College, N e w York, N e w York.

BENNETT, LEEMAN BELL. " A Follow-Up Study of the Graduates of the

Parowan H i g h School." M.S. 1941, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BENNION, MILTON L Y N N . " T h e Origin, Growth, and Extension of the

Educational Program of the Mormon Church in Utah." P h . D .

1935, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BENTLEY, ANTHONY IVINS. "Social and Utopian T h o u g h t in the Writ-

ings of Joseph Smith and Other Mormons." M.A. 1940, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BERFORD, STUART R. "Intramural Athletics in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast Conferences." M.S. 1933, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

BIDDULPH, LOWELL G. " T h e Status of Physical Education in the Schools of the Intermountain Junior College League." M.A. 1939, University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, Michigan.

BILDERBACK, JAMES CLIFFORD. "Masonry and Mormonism, Nauvoo, Illi-

nois, 1841-1847." M.A. 1937, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

BILLINGS, W . D . AND THOMPSON, JOHN H . "Vegetational Zonation in

the Great Basin of Western North America." M.S. 1950, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.

BISHOP, LEROY. " A Survey of the Tintic H i g h School, Eureka, Utah."

M.S. 1942, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. . "Utah — A Study of Educational Resources." E d . D . 1947, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

"Utah — A Study of H u m a n Resources." Field Study 1946, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

BJORKLUND, ELAINE M. "Changing Occupance in Davis County, Utah."

M.A. 1951, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

90

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

BLACK, THERAL R. "Child-Rearing Practices in Dragerton, U t a h : T h e Relation Between Social Status of Family and Restrictiveness in Child-Rearing Practices." P h . D . 1951, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

BLACK, WILFRED W . "Historians and die Tradition of Pioneer Hardships." P h . D . 1942, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

BLAIR, ALMA ROBERTS. " A n Analysis of Variations in Ideas in Certain

Religious Education Materials of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1830 to 1945." M.A. 1955, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

BLANCH, GEORGE THOMAS. " A n Economic Analysis of Dairy Cash Crop Farms in the Market Area of Ogden, Utah, 1937 to 1939." P h . D .

1941, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York.

BLASE, FRED WOODWARD. "Political History of Idaho Territory." M.A.

1926, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BLOUNT, BERTHA. " T h e Apaches in United States History, 1846-1886."

M.A. 1919, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BLYTHIN, MARGARET A. " T h e Kern Diaries, 1848-1849: A Contribution to Western History." M.A. 1940, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BOCK, COMFORT MARGARET. " T h e Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day

Saints in the Hawaiian Islands." M.A. 1941, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.

BONAR, CHESTER M. "Geology of Ephraim Area, Utah." M.S. 1948, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

BOUQUET, FRANCIS LESTER. "A Compilation of the Original Documents

Concerning the Nauvoo, Illinois, Mormon Settlement." 5 volumes.

S.T.D. 1938, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BOYLE, CLARENCE SIDNEY.

" A Survey of Business Education in the

Public H i g h Schools of the State of Utah." P h . D . 1942, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

BRADFORD, REED HOWARD.

"A M o r m o n Village: A Study in Rural

Social Organization." Master's Thesis 1939, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

BREW, JOHN OTIS.

" T h e Archaeology of Southeastern Utah and Its

Place in the History of the Southwest." P h . D . 1941, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON MORMONS

91

BRIMHALL, WILLIS H . "Stratigraphy and Structural Geology of the N o r t h e r n Deer Creek Reservoir Area, Provo Canyon, Utah."

Master's Thesis 1951, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

BRINLEY, ELDON DENZIL. " T h e Recreational Life of the M o r m o n Peo-

ple."

E d . D . 1943, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

BROOKER, RAYMOND L. " T h e Mormon Movement in Missouri." Master's Essay 1932, Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg, Kansas.

BROUGH, CHARLES H I L L M A N .

"Irrigation in Utah."

P h . D . 1898, T h e

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

BROUGHTON, HAROLD EDWARD. " A Comparative Study of the Source of

Ideas of the Apostle Paul and Joseph Smith, with Reference to the Present Appeal to Youth." Master's Thesis 1933, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BROWN, ROYAL ALLEN. " T h e Social P r o g r a m of the Mormon Church."

M.S. 1938, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BURKE, CASEEL D . " A n Evaluative Study of Elementary Teacher Education in Utah." P h . D . 1954, University of California, Berkeley, California.

BURLINGAME, G. " T h e Role of Social Situations in the Origin and Development of Religious Attitudes of a Selected Group." Master's Thesis 1928, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

BURNETT, MYRTLE M I N N I E . " T h e Industries of the Mormons, 1847-1900."

M A . 1936, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

Buss, FRED EARLE. " T h e Physiography of the Southern Wasatch Mountains and Adjacent Valley Lands, with Special Reference to the Original Topographic Forms." Thesis 1924, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

BYRNE, LAURA L. " T h e Federal Indian Policy in Utah, 1848-1865."

M.A. 1920, University of California, Berkeley, California.

CALDEMEYER, R. H . " T h e Overland Mail and Stage to Salt Lake City, 1847-1861." Master's Thesis 1939, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

CALDWELL, GAYLON LORAY. " M o r m o n Conceptions of Individual Rights

and Political Obligation." P h . D . 1952, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

92

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

CALEF, WESLEY CARR. "Land Associations and Occupance Problems in

Uinta Country."

Illinois.

Thesis 1948, University of Chicago, Chicago,

CAMPBELL, EUGENE E. "A History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, 1846-1946." P h . D . 1952, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

CAMPBELL, R U T H JANE. "St. Joseph, Missouri: Gateway to the West."

M.A. 1946, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

CANNON, KENNETH L . "Changes in Divorce Rates for Selected Rural and Urban Areas in Utah and Iowa." M.S. 1948, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

CANNON, M. H A M L I N . " T h e 'Gathering' of British Mormons to Western America: A Study in Religious Migration." P h . D . 1950, American University, Washington, D.C. . " T h e Mormon W a r : A Study in Territorial Rebellion."

M.A. 1938, George Washington University, Washington, D . C .

CARLSON, ELLEN O. " T h e Latter Day Saints as a Factor in Illinois History." M A . 1926, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

CARNAHAN, THOMAS SAMUEL.

" T h e Development of the Little Bell

Mine, Park City, Utah." Master's Essay 1905, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York. . "Underground Mining Methods of Utah Copper Company." E.Mi. 1916, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

CARTER, D O N CURRY. " T h e Administration of Juvenile Detention in Utah." Master's Thesis 1948, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

CHASE, DARYL. "Sidney Rigdon â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Early Mormon." M.A. 1931, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

CHEEL, CHESTER WALTER.

"Historic Development of Western Utah,

Between 118 to 120 Degrees West Longitude, 1827-1861." M.A. 1939, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.

CHERNISS, SHIRLEE BALABAN. " A Social Study of T w o Experiments in

Communal Living: T h e Mormon United Order and the Israeli Kibbutz." M.A. 1951, University of California, Berkeley, California.

CHEVILLE, ROY ARTHUR. " T h e Role of Religious Education in the Accommodation of a Sect." P h . D . 1942, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

93

CHILDERSTON, HARRY VERNE. "Relative Economy and Efficiency of the

County Unit System of Utah and the District System of Colorado."

M.S. 1939, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

CHOATE, JULIAN E. " T h e Myth of the American Cowboy: A Study of the Cattleman's Frontier in History and Fiction." P h . D . 1954, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

CHRISTENSEN, ANDREW L E E . "Geology and Physiography of Deer Creek and Silver Fork Tributaries of American Fork Canyon, Wasatch Mountain, Utah." M.A. 1928, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

CHRISTIANSEN, FRANCIS W . "Geology of the Canyon Range, Utah."

Ph.D. 1948, Princeton University, Princeton, N e w Jersey.

CHRISTOPHERSON, VICTOR A. "Family Life and Family Life Education in the Mormon Church from Early Times to the Present Day." Ed.D. 1953, Columbia University Teachers College, N e w York, N e w York.

CLARK, HERALD RAY. "A Study of Bank Failure." M.A. 1924, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

COFFMAN, W I L L I A M E L M O . " T h e Geography of the Utah Valley Cres-

cent." P h . D . 1944, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

CONRAD, WARREN D . "College Training for Vocational Teachers in the Rocky Mountain Area." Master's Report 1948, Colorado A. & M. College, Fort Collins, Colorado.

COOK, EARL FERGUSON. "Geology of the Pine Valley Mountains, Utah."

Ph.D. 1954, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

COOPER, LOIS LAIL. " A Study of Local News in the Missouri Weekly from 1831 to 1931." M.A. 1933, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

CORAY, GEORGE. " T h e Mormon People." Master's Essay 1904, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

CORBIN, HARRY F I N C H , JR. " T h e Social Values of Modern Mormon-

ism." B.D. 1943, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

CORCORAN, JOHN D E N N I S . " A n Appraisal of the Governments of Ogden

City and Weber County, Utah." M.S. 1942, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

CORTEZ, H E L E N MAGDALENE. " T h e Rise of the Liberal Party in Utah."

M.A. 1929, University of California, Berkeley, California.

94

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

COTTAM, WALTER PACE. " A n Ecological Study of the Flora of Utah

Lake, Utah." P h . D . 1926, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

COULTER, HENRY W., JR. "Geology of the Southeast Portion of the Preston Quadrangle, Idaho-Utah." P h . D . 1954, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

COWAN, DORA. "St Joseph, Missouri, as a Starting Point for Western Emigration, Freight, and Mail." M.A. 1939, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

COWLES, LEON L E R O Y .

" A n Investigation of the A t t a i n m e n t of the

Aims of Modern Language Teaching by the Pupils in the Secondary Schools of Utah." M.S. 1934, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

COWLES, LEROY EUGENE. " T h e Utah Educational P r o g r a m of 1919 and

Factors Conditioning Its Operation." P h . D . 1927, University of California, Berkeley, California.

Cox, DOROTHY JUNE. "Mormonism in Illinois." M.A. 1951, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois.

CRANE, ALMA E. " T h e Participation of Young People in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." M.A. 1937, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

CRAWFORD, JACKE NEWTON. "Fort Supply, Wyoming's First Agricultural Settlement." M.A. 1939, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

CRAWFORD, THELMA. "Transportation Across the Great Plains, 18491865." M.A. 1921, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

CREER, LELAND HARGRAVE. "Utah and the Nation, 1846-1861." P h . D .

1926, University of California, Berkeley, California.

CROFT, EVAN M. " T h e Status of Teachers of Business Subjects in the Public H i g h Schools of Utah." M.S. 1941, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

CROY, HAZEL M. "A History of Education in San Bernardino during the Mormon Period." P h . D . 1955, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

CUMMINGS, CHARLES EDWIN. " T h e M o r m o n System of Colonization."

M.A. 1946, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

CUMMINS, DENSIL H . "Social and Economic History of Southwestern Colorado, 1860-1948." P h . D . 1951, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON M O R M O N S

95

CUSHMAN, R. B. "American Religious Societies in Norway." P h . D .

1942, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

CUTLER, HAROLD HARRIS. "Property T a x Levies in Utah." P h . D . 1949,

Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

DAHL, HARRY M. "Alteration in the Central Uranium Area, Marysvale, Utah." P h . D . 1954, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

DAHLQUIST, JOHN W . " A Comparison of the Salient Features of the Public School System of Utah and North Dakota." Master's Thesis 1932, N o r t h Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, North Dakota.

DALY, WALTER K I R K .

" T h e Settling of Panguitch Valley, U t a h :

A

Study in M o r m o n Colonization." M.A. 1941, University of California, Berkeley, California.

DANE, CARLE H . "Geology of the Salt Valley Anticline and the Northwest Flank of the Uncompahgre Plateau, Utah." P h . D . 1932, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

DAVIES, GEORGE KALB. "A History of the Presbyterian Church in Utah."

Ph.D. 1952, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

DAVIES, MAURICE BROWN. "Some Factors Affecting Fertility Rates in the Intermountain Region: A Correlative Analysis." P h . D . 1940, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

DAY, W I L L I A M H . " T h e Marketing of Colorizer Paint (a Case Study of an Innovation Developed by Bennett's, a Regional Paint Manufacturer Located in Salt Lake City, U t a h ) . " P h . D . 1953, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

DAYTON, DELLO G. " T h e Mountain Rendez-vous, 1824-1839." M.A. 1939, University of California, Berkeley, California.

DEAN, W I L L I A M NELSON. " T h e Mormons of the El Dorado Stake and

the Valley City W a r d : A Study in Social Norms and Their Effectiveness." P h . D . 1954, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

DEBOER, RAY L . " A Historical Study of Mormon Education and the Influence of Its Philosophy on Public Education in Utah." E d . D .

1951, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

DEFORD, PLEASANT CLAY.

" T h e M o r m o n Occupation of Missouri."

M.A. 1919, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

96

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

D E H A R T , WILLIAM A. "Relation Between Religious Affiliation and Population Fertility in Selected Counties of Utah and Adjoining States." Master's Thesis 1941, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

DENHALTER, WILSON CHARLES. " A Sociological Analysis of the Official

Literature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Master's Thesis 1954, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

DENNEN, W . L. " T h e Yampa Vein of Bingham, Utah." M.S. 1920, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

DIAL, J. H . " A Comparison of the County Unit System in Utah with the District System in Oklahoma." Master's Thesis 1937, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

DITMARS, R. MAUD. "History of Baptist Missions in Utah, 1871-1931."

M A . 1931, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

DIXON, HELEN. "Ecological Studies on the H i g h Plateaus of Utah."

Ph.D. 1933, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

DIXON, HENRY A. " T h e Management of Permanent School Funds as Illustrated by a Study of the Utah Endowment." P h . D . 1937, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

DONE, G. BYRON. " T h e Participation of the Latter-day Saints in the Community Life of Los Angeles." P h . D . 1939, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. . " A Study of Mormon-Gentile Intermarriage in Los Angeles, California." M.A. 1937, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

DOTY, INA. " A Survey of Business Education in the Four-Year Colleges of Utah, 1940-41." Master's Thesis 1941, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

DUNLAP, FLORENCE M C L U R E . "Samuel Brannan." M.A. 1928, Univer-

sity of California, Berkeley, California.

D U N N , FRANK KUEHLE. " A Description and Evaluation of the Welfare

Plan of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." M.A. 1948, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

D U N N , PAUL M. " A Study of Some Forest Tree Plantings on Agricultural Land and Watershed Areas in Utah Showing Methods of Reforestation and First Results." Master's Thesis 1933, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON MORMONS

97

DURHAM, LOWELL M . " T h e Role and History of Music in the Mormon Church." M.A. 1942, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

DURRANT, STEPHEN D . " T h e Mammals of Utah, Taxonomy and Distribution." P h . D . 1950, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

DUSENBERRY, ROBERT B. "Attitude T o w a r d Religion in Representative Novels of the American Frontier, 1820 to 1890." P h . D . 1952, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

DUTTON, GRANVILLE WIDDOWS. "Travel and Transportation to Califor-

nia via Panama, 1848-1858." M.A. 1939, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

DWYER, REV. ROBERT JOSEPH. " T h e Gentile Comes to U t a h : A Study

in Religious and Social Conflict (1862-1890)." P h . D . 1941, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. EARNSHAW, W I L L I A M ARNOLD. " T h e Employment Placement Program

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." M.B.A. 1952, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

EGGERTSON, PAUL. " A Study of the Effect of Changing Economic Conditions on the Schools of Utah During the Decade 1930 to 1940."

Ed.D. 1942, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

ELLIOTT, H E L E N ELIZABETH. " A n Archeological Survey of Utah." M.A.

1942, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

ELLISON, LINCOLN. "Subalpine Vegetation of the Wasatch Plateau."

Ph.D. 1948, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ELLSWORTH, SAMUEL GEORGE. "History of Mormon Missionary Activi-

ties in the United States and Canada, 1830-1846." M.A. 1947, University of California, Berkeley, California. . " A History of Mormon Missions in the United States and Canada, 1830-1860." P h . D . 1951, University of California, Berkeley, California.

EMERSON, ETHEL M A E . " T h e Relation of the United States Government to the Mormon Church." M.A. 1933, Oklahoma A. & M. College, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

ENGLAND, ORVIL CHARLES.

"Comparative University Achievement of

Students H a v i n g 11-Year and 12-Year Elementary-Secondary School Preparation." E d . D . 1948, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

98

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ERICKSEN, EPHRAIM EDWARD. " T h e Psychological and Ethical Aspects

of Mormon Group Life." P h . D . 1918, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

EVANS, EDMUND E M I L . "A Historical Study of die D r a m a of the Latter

Day Saints." P h . D . 1941, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

EVANS, PANSY ALICE (Mrs. S. R. I n c h ) . " A Plant Ecology Study in

Utah." P h . D . 1925, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

EYRING, ROSE. " T h e Portrayal of the California Gold-Rush Period in Imaginative Literature from 1848 to 1875." P h . D . 1944, University of California, Berkeley, California.

FACER, ELDEN JACKSON. "Trends in Financial Soundness of Utah Banks, 1929-1947." P h . D . 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

FAWCETT, HELEN. " T h e San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856."

M.A. 1929, University of California, Berkeley, California.

FITZGERALD, JOHN W I L L I A M . "One H u n d r e d Years of Education in a

Utah Community."

California.

FLANDERS, ROBERT BRUCE.

E d . D . 1948, Stanford University, Stanford, " T h e Mormons W h o D i d N o t Go West:

A Study of the Emergence of the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." M.A. 1954, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

FLEMMING, JOHN ELLSWORTH. " T h e Political Relations of the Mormons

with the United States, 1849-1896, as Discovered in Government Documents." M.A. 1935, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w

York.

FLITTIE, EDWIN G. "Fertility and Mortality in the Rocky Mountain West: A Study in Demography and Ecology." P h . D . 1955, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

FORRESTER, JAMES DONALD. "Structure of the Uinta Mountains." Ph.D.

1935, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York.

FOSTER, H . M I N N I E . "History of Mormon Settlements in Mexico and N e w Mexico." Master's Thesis 1927, University of N e w Mexico, Albuquerque, N e w Mexico.

FOULGER, JAMES R. " T h e Public Junior College â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with Special Reference to the State of Utah." P h . D . 1947, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THESES AND DISSERTATIONS ON MORMONS

99

Fox, FERRAMORZ YOUNG. " T h e Mormon Land System. A Study of the Settlement and Utilization of Land Under the Direction of the M o r m o n Church." P h . D . 1932, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

FREDERICK, JAMES VINCENT. " T h e Holladay Overland Mail and Express

Company." P h . D . 1937, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

FREECE, H A N S PETER.

" T h e M o r m o n Church and the Union Pacific

Railroad." Master's Essay 1909, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

FUHRIMAN, WALTER ULRICH. "Property T a x Delinquency in Utah with

Special Reference to Delinquency on F a r m Property Taxes." Thesis 1936, University of California, Berkeley, California.

F U N K , ROBERT AND HURST, HAROLD E. " A n Appraisal of Local Govern-

ment in Davis County, Utah." M.S. 1940, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

FURR, CARL JETHRO. " T h e Religious Philososphy of Brigham Young."

Ph.D. 1937, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

GAMETT, LAVELL CLARENCE. "Proposal for Reorganizing the Industrial

Arts Program at Brigham Young University." M.S. 1950, Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon.

GARWOOD, JOHN DELVERT. "Industrial Migration to the West: A n Analy-

sis of Post-War Location Policies of N e w Manufacturing Enterprises in Colorado and Utah." P h . D . 1951, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

GEDDES, JOSEPH ARCH. " T h e United Order A m o n g the Mormons (Missouri Phase)." P h . D . 1924, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

G E H M A N , HARRY MERRILL.

"Geology of the Notch Peak Intrusive,

Millard County, Utah." M.S. 1954, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York.

GILLIGAN, JAMES P . " T h e Development of Policy and Administration of Forest Service Primitive and Wilderness Areas in the Western United States." P h . D . 1954, University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, Michigan.

GILLILAND, W I L L I A M N . "Geology of the Gunnison Quadrangle, Utah."

P h . D . 1948, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

100

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

GILLULY, JAMES. "Geology of a Part of the San Rafael Swell, Utah."

Ph.D. 1926, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

GIRARD, EDWARD NELSON.

"Guidance Programs in Utah Secondary

Schools." E d . D . 1952, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

GLEDHILL, PRESTON R. "Mormon Dramatic Activities." P h . D . 1951, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

GOODRIDGE, RANDOLPH. "A Review of Rocky Mountain Structure." M.S. 1928, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

GOULD, LAURENCE M C K I N L E Y . " T h e Geology of the La Sal Mountains

of Utah." Sc.D. 1925, University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, Michigan.

Gow, P . A. "Report on the Property of the Daly-Judge Mining Company, Park City, Utah." S.P. 1907, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado.

GRANGER, ARTHUR E. "Geologic Aspects of Torrential Floods in Northern Utah." M.S. 1939, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

GRAY, CHARLES WENDELL. " T h e Growth of Manufacturing in the Moun-

tain States, 1939-1947, with Special Reference to Colorado and Utah." M A . 1949, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

GRAY, ROBERT MACK.

"A Study of the Personal Adjustment of the

Aged Members of the Mormon Church." P h . D . 1954, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

GREAVES, HALBERT SPENCER. "Public Speaking in Utah, 1847 to 1869."

Ph.D. 1941, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

GREEN, JACK. " T h e Marysvale Canyon Area, Marysvale, Utah." Ph.D. 1954, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

GROVER, ELIZE JEANETTE. " T h e Establishment of Territorial Govern-

ment in Utah and the Struggle for Statehood, 1849-1862." M. Letters 1913, University of California, Berkeley, California. (to be continued

in April

issue)

CROFUTT'S

NEW

OVERLAND TOURIST -AND-

I

PACIFIC COAST

GUIDE,

C O N T A I N I N G A C O N D E N S E D A N D Al THENT1C D E S C R I P T I O N O F OVER

I One Thousand Two H u n d r e d Cities, Towns, Villages, Stations, Government v

o r t and Camps, Mountains, Lakes, Rivers, Sulphur, Soda and Hot Springs, Scenen , "Watering Places, and Summer Resorts; AVHKKK

I To look for and hunt tlir Buffalo, Antelope, Deer and other game; Trout Fishing, etc., etc.

In fact, to tell yonivliat is worth seeing—-where to see it—where to go how to go—and whom to stof with while passing over the

UNION, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROADS, Their Branches and Connections, by Rail, Water and Stage, FROM

S U N R I S E T O SUNSET, A N D P A R T T H E W A Y BACK; Through Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California and Arizona.

BY CEO. A. CROFUTT,

AUTHOR

OF " G R E A T

TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD GUIDE," A N D " CROFUTT's TRANS-CONTINENTAL TOURIST."

VOL.

1—1878-9.

CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS:

THE OVERLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY. Sold by News Agents on the Railroads, at News-stands, and at the Book Stores throughout the United States.

ELI S. DENISON, General News Agent Central and Southern Pacific railroadB, General Agent for th Pacific Coast, Sacramento and San Francisco.

Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 187S, by A. M. CHOKLTT, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Wellington, D . C

A title-page from an early travel "brochure!' Such publications served to advertise and disseminate much real as well as romantic information about the West while they lured the prospective tourist and homeseeker with grandiose descriptions.

UTAH

" I

STATE

I

I

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

April, 1959

ABOUT THE COVER

Pony Express Rider.

A WILLIAM H . JACKSON PAINTING REPRODUCED COURTESY OF CLARENCE S. JACKSON

CONTENTS ThePony

Express,Heroic

Effortâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Tragic

End,BY RAYMOND w. SETTLE. . 103

Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,

BY ROBERT G. ATHEARN

129

The Utah Idaho Central Railroad, BY PHILIP E. SORENSEN

145'

The Apostasy of Samuel Brannan, BY EUGENE E. CAMPBELL

157

Selections from A Bibliography of Theses and Dissertations Concerning Utah or the Mormons Written outside the State of Utah, BY IDA-MARIE CLARK LOGAN (conclusion)

Reviews and Recent Publications ARRINGTON, Great Basin Kingdom.

169

An Economic History of the

Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900, BY DALE L. MORGAN HAFEN AND HAFEN, The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858,

BY HAMILTON GARDNER

191

193

LAVENDER, Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950,

BY PHILIP c. STURGES

194

BJORK, West of the Great Divide. Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847-1893, BY WILLIAM MULDER

196

SANDOZ, The Cattlemen from the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias,

BY W. TURRENTINE JACKSON

Other Publications

197

199

ILLUSTRATIONS William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, William B. Waddell

102

Pony Express letters

'"6

Russell, Majors & Waddell Bible

I 15

Pony Express Notice of Rate Reductions

117

Bill of the Kansas Valley Bank; Promissory note issued to W. B. Waddell 122 William Jackson Palmer

' "

D & RG single track lines in Utah

'32

D&RG

134

depot in Salt Lake City; Train crossing the Colorado River

David Eccles, M. S. Browning

'44

Collinston hill track; Freight train in Logan City

149 153

Birney model street car 156 Samuel Brannan Yerba Buena, 1846-47; Old Custom House Brannan s home in San Francisco

16' 00

WILLIAM H. RUSSELL (1812-1872)

Russell, a volatile New Englander, engaged in many successful and unsuccessful business ventures before he joined R.M.&W. Ii was he who insisted upon proving the practicability of the Central Route for the Pony Express, and at one time was hailed in the nation as the "Napoleon of the West."

Majors, born in Kentucky, engaged early in the freighting business. As a partner in R.M. & W. firm, he took responsibility for all the business on the road. He believed that orderly, sober, God-fearing men made the most efficient employees and would tolerate no other kind.

Waddell, born in Virginia, engaged in farming in his early years, operated a dry goods store in Kentucky, later moved to Lexington, Missouri, operated a store and engaged in other successful businesses before finally joining Russell and Majors.

WILLIAM BRADFORD WADDELL (1807-1872)

1857 Russell, Majors and Waddell had e government contract to carry supplies r the Army for Utah, which enterprise, as turned out, proved to be a financial ;bacle for all parties concerned.

THE HEROIC

PONY

EXPRESS

EFFORT â&#x20AC;&#x201D; T R A G I C

END

By Raymond W. Settle*

Everyone connected with the Pony Express knew, from the very beginning, that it would operate only temporarily. On April 3, 1860, in a celebration commemorating the start of the first rider from St. Joseph, Missouri, Alexander Majors, partner in the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, which founded, operated, and owned the Express, said in a speech that it was but the forerunner of "a more important and greater enterprise, which must soon reach its culmination, viz., the construction of a road upon which a tireless iron horse will start his overland journey."1 Mayor M. Jeff Thompson grew prophetic on the same occasion, and said, "Hardly will the cloud of dust which envelops the rider die away before the puff of steam will be seen upon the horizon."

That a railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, which both speakers had in mind, would make the Pony Express unnecessary and terminate its service was both logical and inevitable. William H. Russell, another partner in the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell and president of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, who had helped promote several short railroads in Missouri * Mr. Settle is the author oÂŁ several articles and books on the Pony Express era, among them Empire on Wheels published in 1949 and Saddles and Spurs in 1955. Illustrations for this article not otherwise indicated are reproduced through the courtesy of Mr. Waddell F. Smith and the Pony Express History and Art Gallery, San Rafael, California.

'Arthur Chapman, The Pony Express (New York, 1932), 105.

104

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

a few years before, also knew this,2 and so did William B. Waddell, the third partner.

Public interest in a transcontinental railroad across the plains and mountains was keen, and mounting year by year. Mayor Thompson and the people of St. Joseph had been dreaming dreams and seeing visions about the proposition for a long time. The recent completion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, the first to be built across the state, and plans to push the Roseport & Palmetto line across the plains of Kansas to Denver, with the expectation of later extending it all the way to the Pacific Coast, made them believe their little city of St. Joseph was destined to be the gateway to the boundless West.3 Since the Pony Express constitutes an important segment of the story of transporting United States mail to the Pacific Coast, it is necessary to outline that broader narrative here. It all began with the discovery of gold at Sutter's mill in California on January 24,1848. During the following year 100,000 people rushed into that region seeking riches.

In 1850 the population was estimated to be about 300,000. By the time the Pony Express was started it numbered almost 400,000.4 The first agitation for mail service to the Pacific Coast was promoted by immigrants to Oregon. In March, 1847, a bill to provide this service, which included the building of five steamships under the supervision of the secretary of the navy, was passed by Congress. While the ships were being constructed, contracts for transporting the mail to Oregon via the Isthmus of Panama were let. The one for the Atlandc end of the line went to A. G. Sloo, of Ohio, and that for the Pacific to Arnold Harris, of Arkansas. In April, 1848, William Aspinwall formed the Pacific Steamship Company. Sloo transferred his contract to George Law, and that of Harris went to Aspinwall.5 The service was to be once a month, with a stop at the infant town of San Francisco. While the first steamer, the California, was en route to the Pacific around Cape Horn, gold was discovered at Sutter's mill. When the ship reached San Francisco she was left stranded in the bay by her entire crew, who stampeded off to the gold diggings.

From the beginning the once a month arrangement was unsatisfactory to the people of Oregon and California. The majority in both terri2

Lexington Weekly Express, October 2, December 22, 1852; April 6, 1853.

Contract Between Citizens of St. Joseph, Missouri, and William H. Russell and W. B, Waddell, representing the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, March 2, 1860. Record Book X, Buchanan County, Missouri, 508-11. ' Chapman, op. cit., 30.

"Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Oregon (2 vols., San Francisco, 1886-88), II, 187. s

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

105

tories, having come overland from the Missouri River, were convinced that a mail line over the same road would render far better service than a sea route via Panama.

Thus, the stage was set for a long, bitter, sectional controversy between the advocates of the Central and Southern routes to the Pacific Coast. The dispute continued for about a dozen years but was abruptly terminated by the outbreak of the Civil War.6 The people of the west coast not only wanted more frequent, regular service, but also a speedier one. After several unsatisfactory attempts to establish a line on the Central Route by way of Salt Lake City, Congress, in 1857, authorized a semiweekly overland mail to California on a twenty-five day schedule, with pay of $600,000.00 per year.

The route, chosen by the postmaster general, ran from St. Louis through Little Rock, Arkansas, El Paso and Preston, Texas, Forts Fillmore and Yuma, Arizona, to San Diego and San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a distance of approximately 2,800 miles. In the East it became known as the "Horseshoe" or "Ox-bow Route."

The contract to carry the mail over this long route was given to the Overland Mail Company, whose president, John Butterfield, was also one of the organizers of the American Express Company. This concern, which had much to do with the Pony Express during the last four months of its existence, was organized and financed by representatives of the four principal express companies in the country, the American, Adams, National, and Wells Fargo.

Before service on this line began, a storm of protest over its length was raised in California and the East. In spite of complaints, however, Butterfield laid out his route, built stations, bought equipment, and stocked it with good horses. Service began on September 16, 1858. The criticisms continued in spite of the fact that the coaches ran with amazing regularity and on schedule time.

About the time the Overland Mail Company went into operation, gold was discovered in Colorado. The great number of people who flocked to the new El Dorado on Cherry Creek led William H. Russell and John S. Jones to organize the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company and run a line of stages from Leavenworth, Kansas, to the infant town of Denver.7 The organization of this company introduced B Raymond W. and Mary Lund Settle, Empire on Wheels (Stanford, California, 1949), 123- Roscoe P. and Margaret B. Conkling, The Butterfield Overland Mail 1857-1869 (3 vols., Glendale, 1947), II, 325 ff.

7 Settle, op. cit., 33.

UTAH

106

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

â&#x20AC;˘;

*-ÂŁlJUr

/A*/,*^

~~j

7

TpUv- f&tfc

The above letter written by General Mariano Vallejo, last Mexican military commandante in northern California, to his son Plato Vallejo in New York was posted in San Francisco, carried by boat to Sacramento, and from there was carried by Pony Express to St. Joseph, Missouri, a distance of 1,966 miles.

This letter, mailed in Denver on June 19, 1960, was canceled at St. Joseph, Missouri, seven days and approximately seven hundred miles later. At the time it was carried, the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company operated a daily stage from the Missouri River to Denver, K. T. (then Kansas Territory), a semiweekly stage to Salt Lake City, and a semimonthly stage to California, in addition to running a semiweekly Pony Express from the Missouri River to California.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

107

Russell to the stagecoach and express business and opened to him the possibilities of transporting the mail to California over the Central Route.

About a week before the line went into actual operation he bought J. M. Hockaday & Company's contract to carry mail from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City.8 The Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company was destined for only a brief existence. Because of the firm's inability to pay running expenses and notes owing for equipment and stock, Russell, Majors & Waddell were compelled to take over the line on October 28, 1859. Instead of discontinuing the former, a new concern, the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, was organized to absorb it.8 Without a doubt competition with the Overland Mail Company for the business of carrying the mail to the west coast was one of the primary reasons for organizing the new company. On May 11, 1860, the postmaster general annulled George Chorpenning's contract for carrying the mail from Salt Lake City to the west coast, and awarded it to the Central Overland California Pike's Peak Express Company. This put the company into the stagecoach, express, and mail business for the territory from the Missouri River to California over the Central Route and in a position to compete with the Overland Mail Company.

Although the Central Overland now had two mail contracts on that route, the combined pay was only $260,000.00 per year, less than half the amount the Overland Mail Company received. That, as experience quickly demonstrated, was not even enough to pay the actual expenses of operation. It did, however, encourage the friends and advocates of the Central Route to hope that a contract to carry all of the mail might be eventually secured.

In normal circumstances and with the Pony Express to dramatize and keep that route in the public mind, both in the East and West, the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell and their new company might have wrested the great mail contract away from its rival, the Overland Mail Company. The struggle between the giants, however, never progressed beyond the preliminary stage of jockeying for position. The probabilities are that had the threat of civil war been abated in 1860 there would have been two lines with profitable mail contracts covering them. The one could have served southern California, and the other the central and northern portion and the Northwest. Under this arrangement good 8 0

Ibid., 43.

Ibid., 57.

108

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

service could have been provided and the sectional controversy over the routes satisfactorily compromised.

The situation in the nation as a whole, however, in the year 1860 was not normal. Following the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency of the United States in June of that year, the bitterest campaign in American history got under way. While it was in progress, Governor Gist, of South Carolina, sent a circular letter to the chief executives of the other cotton states inquiring whether they were ready to secede from the Union in the event Lincoln was elected.

Although the response, as a whole, was not reassuring, the legislature of that state convened on November 5,1860, to choose presidential electors as usual. Instead of doing so it issued a call for a secession convention. This body assembled, adopted a "Declaration of Independence," and on December 20 voted unanimously to secede from the Union. During the next six months or so nine other states followed South Carolina's lead.10 When Congress convened in December, 1860, the hoary "battle of the routes" was resumed. In spite of the fact diat Southern influence and power declined daily by the secession of states and the resignation of members of both Houses, the struggle promised to be almost as bitter as ever.

On February 2,1861, the annual Post Route bill, which provided for a daily mail from the Missouri River to California with pay of $800,000.00 per year, was introduced. This did not designate the Central Route, but apparently its backers had it in mind. Senator William M. Gwin, of California, thought the pay should be $1,000,000.00 and that the contract should go to Russell, Majors & Waddell and their Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company.11 William H. Russell and William B. Dinsmore, president of Adams Express Company and also John Butterfield's successor as president of the Overland Mail Company, were both in Washington at this time.

Moreover, they were without doubt carrying on negotiations relative to the consolidation of the two routes. That this was so is indicated by the fact the Post Office and Roads Committee of the Senate was debating this very thing. What happened later regarding those routes and the plan adopted by the rival companies is further evidence of it. Therefore, it is plain that with the decline of Southern power in Congress a move to 10 Henry William Elston, History of the United States of America (New York, 1914), XXVI, 628-29.

"Settle, op. cit., 121-22.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

109

settle the issue and at the same time conserve the interests of both great companies was being organized.

Unfortunately a common sense plan did not mature. While the Post Route bill was being debated in the Senate, and before the Post Office and Roads Committee of the same body had made a report, word reached Washington that the Overland Mail line had been "cut up by the roots" by the Confederates in Texas and all its stages stopped. This was all too true. The mail had been halted at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the east and Tucson, Arizona, in the west. The stage station at Syracuse, Missouri, and the principal railroad bridges on the Missouri Pacific Railroad west of St. Louis had been burned. Service on the Southern Route was never resumed. For a period of approximately three months the only mail service the people of the west coast had was carried to them by Pony Express and the Russell, Majors & Waddell Company or by sea.

If this company ever received any extra pay for the added burden and expense it cheerfully bore during that interim, no record of it exists.

The Overland Mail Company, however, received full pay during the time its line was out of commission and $50,000.00 besides for losses in stock and equipment.12 With Texas out of the Union and Confederate forces being rapidly mobilized in Arkansas and Missouri, it was obviously impossible to continue the transportation of mail to California over the Southern Route.

For the time being the Overland Mail Company was out of business, a casualty of the war.

The breaking up of that company's line and the stopping of mail to California over it presented the government with as pretty a dilemma as one could hope to find. The Overland Mail Company had faithfully discharged its obligations under its contract, and the stoppage of the mail to California could in no manner be charged to it. The case was so simple and plain that everybody's sympathy was aroused, and no one thought of attempting to find grounds for annulling the contract and awarding it to the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. Neither was there any complaint against the Central Overland's handling of the mail on the Central Route; nor was there any reason for annulling its two contracts and awarding them to the Overland Mail Company. To further complicate the situation, the financial condition of both companies, plus the shattered economic structure of the whole country, made it almost impossible for either of them to secure 12

Settle, op. cit., 121-22; Conkling, op. cit., II, 325-26.

MO

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

large loans which would be necessary if one company were to attempt to carry the whole burden alone.

The truth of the matter was there was no simple, easy way out of the dilemma. The Overland Mail Company had the main contract for transporting mail to California, but no line over which to travel. The Russell, Majors & Waddell Company had two minor contracts and the only open, unexposed route. What to do ? Solution of the dilemma by the process of annullment and the certain ruin of one of the contractors was not considered.

And something had to be done, for the regular flow of mail to and from California had to be maintained at any cost. A movement to carry that state out of the Union, or divide it North and South, was already being promoted with some promise of success. If California seceded, her gold would be denied the hard-pressed Union. Furthermore, if that catastrophe occurred, the position of Oregon and Washington would be jeopardized.

Without a doubt the dilemma was solved by an understanding between William H. Russell, William B. Dinsmore, and Congressional leaders as to what could and should be done in the crisis. Five days after the news of the disaster to the Overland Mail Company reached Washington, the Senate Finance Committee reported the Post Office appropriation bill. This provided for the bodily removal of the Overland Mail Company from the Southern to the Central Route, letter mail on a twenty-day schedule eight months of the year and twenty-three days for the remaining time, and the continuation of the Pony Express semiweekly until the transcontinental telegraph line was completed. The pay was $1,000,000.00 per year.13 The swift, smooth progress of the bill through both branches of Congress, together with what happened immediately afterward, indicates previously considered plans, harmony, and understanding between all parties concerned.

The bill was approved by President Buchanan on March 2,1861, and became the law of the land immediately. On March 12, E. S. Childs, acting second assistant postmaster-general, officially notified Dinsmore that the postmaster-general had ordered service discontinued on the Southern Route by the Overland Mail Company and that a like service was to be performed on the Central Route.1'1 This service was to begin July 1,1861.

13 Settle, op. cit., 122; Conkling, op. cit., II, 336-38.

"Letter of E. S. Childs to W. B. Dinsmore and E. S. Alvord, March 12, 1861, MS. Copy in library of author.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

III

Four days later, March 16, Russell and Dinsmore signed a contract in New York, under which the Central Route was divided into two sections with each assuming operation of one of them. Since it is of such vast importance it is given here in full.

This memorandum of contract—witnesseth—that whereas the last session of the 36th Congress a law was passed autiiorizing the Postmaster Gen'l to make certain modifications in the contract for mail service on route 12,518 — among others changing their route to what is known as the Central or Salt Lake Route — to be accepted by the contractors.

And whereas the Overland Mail Company now performing the service and the recognized contractors on said route have accepted said modifications, and entered into a contract with the Postmaster Gen'l for the performance of service under said act of Congress — a copy of which contract is hereto appended and made a part of this agreement. And whereas it has been agreed that "The Central Overland and Pike's Peak Express Company" shall perform a part of said service: now these presents witness — that the said Express Company acting by William H. Russell its president and duly authorized by its Board of Directors, party of the first part, and the said Overland Mail Company acting by William B. Dinsmore its president duly authorized by its Board of Directors, party of the second part, do mutually agree as follows.

1st — Said first party agree to perform the entire service between the eastern terminus and Salt Lake City and to furnish facilities to accomadate [sic] travel both "through" and "local."

The second party to perform the balance of the service and to afford like facilities and to pay over to the first party quarterly as it shall be received from the government and no sooner mail pay at the rate of Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand dollars per annum, after deducting therefrom one half the amount of sea service.

2nd — The passenger business and Express business to be divided as follows —the local passenger and express business of the first party to be divided seventy per cent to the first party and thirty per cent to the second party. And the local business of the second party to be retained by them entire. Settlements are to be made quarterly and all accounts balanced. Business going only part way on both divisions charged as local and price to be fixed by the parties.

3rd — Each party is to pay all fines occasioned by failures on their respective divisions. The division of time to be as fol-

112

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

lows — on the 20 day schedule the first party has 12 days and the second party has 8 days. On the 23 day schedule the first party has 14 days and the second party 9 days — and a like ratio on the 35 day schedule.

4th —The receipts from Pony Express to be divided equally.

Each party as in carrying the mail paying their own expenses on their divisions.

5th — A general superintendent, to be appointed by the second party and paid equally by the two parties, shall have general charge and supervision of the eastern line, as far as to see that the service is properly performed, but is not to interfere with the management and detail of the first party's division.

6th — The Superintendent or other authorized agent of the second party shall have the right to examine the books of the first party in which are kept the accounts for this division — and an agent shall be kept at Fort Kearny, paid equally by both parties who shall copy way bills and attend to the business of both parties.

7th — The second party reserves the right and privilege of making an exclusive contract for the Express business with Wells Fargo & Co., for all business going from the East to any point west of Salt Lake City and for all business originating west of Salt Lake City going east — at a fair compensation — said business shall be called through business and divided as such.

8th — In case any change or modification by Congress or the Postmaster General of the said contract was to deprive second party of the mail pay then the second party are not to be held liable or responsible to the first party.

9th — Whenever either party reaches the common point of Salt Lake City the other party shall proceed with the mail without waiting for the schedule time and it is understood that the whole trip is to be made as rapidly and promptly as possible.

10th — It is further stipulated and agreed that in case the first party should fail to perform their contract and a serious interruption should take place and it should become necessary for said second party to assume the performance of the entire service then second party shall have the right to at once take possession of the entire stock and equipments of the first party, and use same in performing the service and they shall have the right to and shall purchase said stock and equipment at an appraised value each party selecting an appraiser, and the two an umpire

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

M3

(whose decision shall be final) if necessary. And it is further expressly stipulated that in case said first party shall pay the sum of one hundred thousand dollars to the second party, which sum shall be the liquidated damages and paid without deduction or offset.

In witness whereof the parties hereto have subscribed their names this 16th day of March, 1861, at New York.

Wm. H. Russell Pres. the C.O.C. & P.P. Ex. Co. W. B. Dinsmore Pres. Overland Mail Co. Interlineations on 2nd and 4th pages made before signing in presence of Milton S. Latham.15

Gentlemen:

Post Office Department Central Office March 12, 1861

The Postmaster General has this day signed an order of which the following is a copy, viz.: "Pursuant to act of Congress approved 2nd of March, 1861, and the acceptance of the terms thereof by the Overland Mail Company â&#x20AC;&#x201D; modify the present contract with that company for route No. 12,518 executed the 16th of September, 1857, to take effect the 16th of September, 1858, so as to discontinue service on the present route and provide for the transportation of the entire letter mail six times a week on the Central Route; said letter mail to be carried through in twenty days time, eight months of the year, and in twenty-three days the remaining four months of the year from St. Joseph (or Atchison, Kansas) to Placerville, Cal., and also for the delivery of the entire mails three times a week, each way to Denver City, and Great Salt Lake City; and in case these mails do not amount to six hundred pounds per trip then other mail matter to make up that weight per trip to be conveyed. The contractors also to be required to convey the residue of all mail matter in a period not exceeding thirty-five days, with die privilege of sending the latter semi-monthly from New York to San Francisco in twenty-five days by sea, and the public documents in thirty-five days.

"And to be required also during the continuance of their contract, or until the completion of the Overland Telegraph, to run a Pony Express semi-weekly at a schedule time of ten days 15 Contract between William H. Russell, representing the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company and William B. Dinsmore, representing the Overland Mail Company March 16, 1861, MS. Copy in library of author.

114

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

eight months of the year and twelve days four months of the year, and to convey for the government free of charge five pounds of mail matter; with the privilege of charging the public for transportation of letters by said Express not exceeding one dollar per half ounce. The compensation for the whole service to be $1,000,000.00 per annum to take effect on or before 1st July, 1861, and to expire 1st July, 1864.

"The number of the route to be changed to 10,773 and the service to be recorded in the route register for Missouri.

"Be pleased to state your acceptance of the terms of the foregoing and report the date of your commencement of the service on the Central Route. _ . ,.

Tr Very Respectfully Your obt. Servant E. S. Childs Acting Second Asst.

P.M. Gen'l."

Everybody concerned with this great contract was satisfied with its provisions. Russell wrote William B. Waddell that it was "all the Co. could ask, and as much as I ever encouraged diem to hope for, and with all an A No. 1 contract, one that will pay big money if well managed, I am content. We should get the thing up right, work it with energy, and with its results entirely relieve R M and W." 16 Russell's feeling of satisfaction with die contract was fully justified.

In the first place,he and his partners, Majors and Waddell, would receive $220,000.00 a year more for operating over approximately half the route from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City than they were then receiving for covering the whole line to Placerville, California. It is true that the cost would be greater, but with improved facilities an increase in passenger and express receipts was expected. Considering the precarious condition of the company, the new contract was a windfall indeed.

Dinsmore was also highly pleased with the contract. Hiram S. Rumfield, agent for the Overland Mail Company at St. Louis and later at Salt Lake City, said that after the service on the Soudiern Route was stopped the proposition of abandoning die business altogether was freely discussed by the officers of the company. He also said that the contract with Russell was "regarded as advantageous to the Overland Mail Company." 17 10 Letter of William H. Russell to William B. Waddell, March 20, 1861, MS. Copy in library of author. " Hiram Rumfield, Letters of an Overland Mail Agent, Archer Butler Hurlburt, (ed.)

(Worcester, Mass., 1928).

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

115

Technically, and according to the provisions of the bill passed by Congress, the Overland Mail Company was the sole mail contractor on the Central Route. N o t only that, orders for service upon that route were delivered only to that company. Under a strict interpretation of the bill the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company would be put entirely out of the business of carrying the mail and operating the Pony Express over the Central Route.

It was not so intended and did not turn out that way. Under his contract with Russell, Dinsmore surrendered the Eastern Division, the best and easiest managed half of the line from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City. For his own company he retained the more difficult, hazardous Western Division. This was the obvious thing to do since Russell's company, being familiar with the Eastern Division and already established upon it, could carry on as usual during the critical period of change and readjustment. In addition the western end of the old Overland Mail line on the Southern Route, not having been raided as was its eastern sections, still retained intact its stock, equipment, and personnel. Therefore the simplest, easiest, and cheapest way to put the new line on the

The open Bible is inscribed "Mrs. M. E. Cloud, Great Salt Lake City, February 3rd, 1860." Few such copies are now known to exist. The firm had a payroll of over five thousand men strung out between the Missouri River and California, and every new employee was required to take the following oath: "I , do hereby swear, before the great and Living God, that during my engagement, and while I am an employee of Russell, Majors & Waddell, I will, under no circumstances, use profane language; that I will drink no intoxicating liquors; that I will not quarrel or fight with any other employee of the firm, and that in every respect I will conduct myself honestly, be faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win the confidence of my employers. So help me God." The new employee was then given a Bible imprinted in gold letters: "Presented by Russell, Majors & Waddell."

116

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Central Route into operation was to move it all north from southern California to Placerville.18 Convenience and economy probably account for making Placerville the western terminus of the Overland Mail Company line instead of Sacramento. The situation regarding that short fifty mile stretch was practically identical with diat on the Eastern Division. The Pioneer Stage Line was already successfully operating a line of daily stagecoaches between Virginia City and Sacramento. Arrangements were therefore made with that company whereby it assumed responsibility for the mail, express packages, and passengers from Placerville onward.19 Under the provisions of the bill passed by Congress, the Pony Express line also ended at Placerville. The arrangement with the Pioneer Stage Line and the fact that the telegraph line now extended eastward to Fort Churchill made it unnecessary, so far as the Overland Mail Company was concerned, for the Express to go farther.

In view of the oft-repeated statement that the Pony Express never had official government recognition or sanction, it is significant that the bill not only expressly stipulated tiiat the Express should be operated, but also fixed the fee to be charged. After July 1, 1861, and as long as it operated, it was a government authorized service running on a schedule included in the law.

It has been claimed that Wells Fargo Express Company made die reductions in Pony Express rates in 1861 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from $5.00 to $2.00 an ounce in April and to $1.00 on July 1. Wells Fargo had nothing whatever to do with these changes, although on April 15 William H. Russell appointed it temporary agent for the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company in San Francisco. Since the contract with Dinsmore was already signed, this appointment would expire on July 1. With these simple and relatively unimportant facts as a basis, the exaggerated claim has been made that Wells Fargo Express Company rendered a great public service by reducing Pony Express rates.20 The plain truth is that Wells Fargo Express Company was merely acting temporarily as agent for the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company during the interim between the passage of the bill providing for the removal of the Overland Mail Company to the 18 Oscar Osburn Winther, Via Western Express and Stagecoach (Stanford University, 1945), 138-39.

I0 LeRoy R. Hafen, The Overland Mail (Cincinnati, 1926), 211-12; Conkling, op. cit., II, 338.

20 See Scott's Catalogue of United Stales Stamps, 1953, p. 441; advertisement in San Francisco Daily Bulletin, April 15, 1861.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

117

Central Route and the first of July, a period of a few weeks. D u r i n g that period Wells Fargo's duties and responsibilities were identical with those of other agents elsewhere—in St. Louis and Chicago, for instance, where activities consisted of handling express and passenger business, Pony Express letters, and carrying out instructions as agent from the company.

A m o n g those instructions was the reduction of Pony Express rates from $5.00 to $2.00 per ounce. T h u s whatever praise is due anyone for this reduction must go not to the agent but to the Russell, Majors and Waddell Company, who alone had exclusive authority to make it.

T h e second reduction, on July 1, was made by act of Congress, widi which the Overland Mail Company and the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company were obliged to conform. N o more need be said on this particular point. So far as the actual history of the Pony Express is concerned, and under normal historical circumstances, the reduction of rates in 1861 would be merely one of many minor points worthy of no more than brief mention. However, since the reduction has been made the basis for inflated claims and sweeping misstatements designed to elevate Wells Fargo to the detriment of the daring men, William H . Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, who founded, financed, and operated the Pony Express, a detailed analysis of the rate reductions is necessary here. vision was made in the Overland Mail bill, which transferred the Butterfield Overland Mail to the •tral Route, to ma\e the western terminus Placerville, California. That order also applied to the Pony tress. Accordingly, W. H. Russell, having no further need for the Sacramento office, appointed Wells %o Sr Company agents and ordered the local office turned over to them. The first third of this adver•nent has in the past been published separately, with a following statement that "the original manment had been ousted" and that Wells Fargo had tak.cn over the Pony Express. Such a construction ard to conceive when actually only a transfer of the agency office in Sacramento was made.

PONY EXPBESS AND MAIL.

PONY EXPRESS NOTICE. O R D E R S H A V I N G B M I N RK* J CEIVED from W. H. BTJSSELL, President Pony xpress Company, I hereby * ^ r * ^ ^ F T ¥ 5 ? rerytbtog appertaining thereto to Messrs. w*.id.s, ARGO * 00. All letters to be forwarded by Pony xpress most be delivered at their office, on Second sreet. between J and K, Sacramento.

J. W. COLEMAN, Agent Pony Express Co.

POKY EXPBESS NOTICE RATES !!

tEDUCBD

T U B RATES FOR 1BXTEBS, P e r P o n y Kxpresa, U N T I L F I R S T JUI.Tr N E X T , —-WIIX BH—

Letters must be enclosed in Ten Cent Government W e d n e s d a y a n d Saturday Nights, OF EACH WEEK, ... .v.. „„I-»I nt the Boat from San Franolsco.. " aPlt-ln?

FSSroTcOURTESY WELLS, BANCROFT FABGO LIBRARY,ABERKELEY, CO., Agente.

CALIFORNIA

ETT Kit rJtfJ by PONY are now rsduced to TITO UOLLARS per b * » ounce each way. four K x p f f s leave* SA1* FRANCISCO on W«|M«iUv« and Saturdays, at 4 p.m., U due in Salt JUU» tUty In toor a»vs, and St. Joseph In ten days.

Le»v*s St. Juseph en Sundays amiThursdays a t B a . m . arriving In Salt L»*e City on Satutrtsys and Wtdneadays, six day, and Sa» Franehteo in tun d a t s .

MAIL COA0SBS le**a Salt Lake CHy *ve»y Friday »t 8 a.m. until Stsl June, for St. J w e p h , H * Panaaga $116. After which Coaches wffl pass dally on «•«» «»»• tract, and earry pa**<"ne«t* at'educed r a ' » .

L

t*

tavixusrox, BXWL. * ««., *ww».

PHOTO, COURTESY L.D.S. CHURCH

The above announcement appeared in the Deseret News, April 24, 1861. The oft-repeated claim that Wells Fargo reduced the rates cannot be substantiated. Local agents along the route made the announcements at the personal direction of William H. Russell. Mr. William R. Parser, philatelist, of Oroville, California, has a personal letter written by Mr. Russell to the agent of the Express at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, advising him of the reduction from $5.00 to $2.00.

118

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The question of why in April, 1861, Wells Fargo Express Company issued its first two adhesive franks, die so-called "Pony Express Stamps" with the likeness of a pony express rider upon them, when it had nothing of that kind of its own, is a rather intriguing one. One answer could be for its use as agent, and die other that it was preparing to inaugurate a pony express on the fifty mile section between Sacramento and Placerville on July 1 when the Overland Mail Company would take over die Western Division of the Central Route.

Without a doubt the starting of that line figured in the negotiations between Russell and Dinsmore, as did the arrangement widi the Pioneer Stage Line prior to the passage of the overland mail bill by Congress.

On June 26, 1861, Wells Fargo Company advertised that beginning July 1 it would "run a pony express from San Francisco to Placerville on Wednesdays and Saturdays . . . connecting with die Overland Mail Company's Pony Express from Placerville to St. Joseph." 21 The latter was, of course, the original Pony Express. In the meantime the Overland Mail Company appointed Wells Fargo its agent in San Francisco. Just here it should be borne in mind that the management and operation of these pony express lines were two separate, unrelated functions. Although the advertisements stated that the Wells Fargo line would run from San Francisco to Placerville, it was understood that letters from the former city would go to Sacramento by boat.

Philatelic journals indicate that on July 1 Wells Fargo Express Company issued three new adhesive franks. These consisted of a $1.00 red, a $2.00 green, and a $4.00 black, which complied with the rate stipulated in die overland mail bill. These were followed by odiers of ten and twenty-five cent values in 1862. In addition to diose bearing the likeness of a pony express rider, others of a different design were later issued.22 The idea for these adhesive franks was neither new nor unique.

Boyd's City Express, New York City, used them as early as 1844. The first of this type used in the United States, antedating the gummed postage stamp by about five years, was used by the City Dispatch Post, New York, in 1842.23 Adams & Company, which started in the express business in California in 1849, put out two of them in 1854. These were the earliest issued west of the Mississippi River.24 In 1861 scores of letter 21

Ibid., June 26, 1861, and following issues; advertisement in the San Francisco Alta California, June 28, 1861, and following issues.

"Scott's Catalogue, 441-42.

23 Ibid., 409-13.

21 Ibid., 403.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

119

and newspaper city delivery concerns, called by various names, were in operation all over the United States, including California, most of them using adhesive franks.25 Neidier the fact that Wells Fargo issued these franks nor that letters bearing them were carried over the original Pony Express line is to be taken as proof that this company had anything whatever to do with the management and operation of either the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company or the Overland Mail Company. There was, of course, an arrangement whereby letters bearing these franks were honored, first by the Russell, Majors & Waddell Company and after July 1 by the Overland Mail Company, and their share of the fee collected. They prove nothing except that Wells Fargo Express Company advertised that they would run a fifty mile pony express of their own.

The contracts between Russell and Dinsmore having been signed, steps looking toward the beginning of service on July 1 were taken. In the East the Overland Mail Company stock and equipment, whatever remained of it, was sold to Russell's company. This was possibly in exchange for similar property of the latter on the Western Division, and doubtless included Pony Express horses, stations, and other apparatus.

E. S. Alvord was appointed general superintendent of the whole route, Hiram S. Rumfield was Overland Mail Company agent at Salt Lake City, and H . Montfort, agent for the Pioneer Stage Line at Sacramento, filled the same office there. Fred K. Cook, assistant treasurer of the company, had his headquarters at Salt Lake City.26 In southern California William Bulkley, superintendent of the Coast Route from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and his assistant, James G. Beggs, moved horses, stagecoaches, and other equipment north to Placerville.27 Some of the old Overland Mail Company employees went along, but most of the station keepers, stock tenders, and Pony Express riders in the employ of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company retained their jobs.

It is indeed unfortunate that after almost a century the personalities of William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, the men who founded die Pony Express and heroically bore the disastrous expense of it, should be obscured, and the name of Wells Fargo Express 25

Ibid., 403-43.

Contract between William H. Russell, William B. Dinsmore, and E. S. Alvord, March 16, 1861, MS. Copy in library of author. Rumfield, op. cit.; Conkling, op. cit., II, 329n.

"Ibid.,11, 261, 328-29.

20

120

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Company, which was not responsible for it in any manner at anytime, be more prominently associated with it in die public mind. It is interesting to note that prior to the year 1930 there is nothing in documented history which even purports to connect Wells Fargo with the origin, management, or operation of the Pony Express. But following the lead of misinformed writers, publicity agents, and motion picture producers, vast numbers of Americans of all ages today believe this untruth.

On June 16, 1860, about ten weeks after the first Pony Express riders took off at both ends of die line, Congress authorized the enterprise that would terminate its career some eighteen months later. This was the passage of a bill instructing the secretary of the Treasury to subsidize the building of a transcontinental telegraph line to connect the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast, to an amount not to exceed $40,000.00 per year for ten years.28 The passage of the bill resulted in the incorporation of two companies to build the line â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Overland Telegraph Company, of California, and the Pacific Telegraph Company, of Nebraska. On July 4, 1861, Edward Creighton began building the latter company's line westward from Julesburg, Colorado, toward Salt Lake City. Twelve hundred miles to the west on the same day at Fort Churchill, James Gamble set the first pole in the Overland Telegraph Company's eastward reaching line, and a race to be the first to reach Salt Lake City was on.29 While the lines were under construction the Pony Express operated as usual. Letters and newspapers were carried the entire length of the line from St. Joseph to Sacramento, but telegrams only between the rapidly advancing wire ends. The Pony Express riders, who knew that the meeting of the lines in Salt Lake City would terminate their occupation, took a deep interest in the progress of the work. They carried news and reports from one construction crew to another and were able to forecast, almost to a day, when the job would be completed.

Creighton won the race by setting his last pole in Salt Lake on October 20,1861. Four days later Gamble's crew arrived. On the twentysixth the wires were joined, and San Francisco was in direct telegraphic connection with New York. On that day the Pony Express was officially terminated, but it was not until November that the last letters completed L "* Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming (San Francisco, 1890), 230-31; Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California (7 vols., San Francisco, 189(1), VII, 154.

2 'Herbert Hamlin, "Westward H o Goes the Telegraph in 1861," The Pony Express, October, 1944; George A. Root and Russell Hickman, "Pike's Peak Express Companies," Kansas Historical Quarterly, XIV (February, 1946), 66-68.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

(21

their journey over the route. Thus the telegraph, and not the transcontinental railroad as prophesied by Alexander Majors and Mayor M. Jeff Thompson in St. Joseph on April 3, 1860, brought an end to the Pony Express.

As a final salute to the Pony Express the following editorial written

by Mr. McClatchy of the Sacramento Bee appeared in his Daily Bee, Sacramento, California, October 26,1861.

FAREWELL PONY: Our little friend, the Pony, is to run no more. "Stop it" is the order that has been issued by those in authority. Farewell and forever, thou staunch, wilderness-overcoming, swift-footed messenger. For the good thou hast done we praise thee; and, having run thy race, and accomplished all that was hoped for and expected, we can part with thy services without regret, because, and only because, in the progress of die age, in the advance of science and by the enterprise of capital, thou hast been superseded by a more subtle, active, but no more faithful, public servant. Thou wert the pioneer of a continent in the rapid transmission of intelligence between its peoples, and have dragged in your train the lightning itself, which, in good time, will be followed by steam communication by rail. Rest upon your honors; be satisfied with them, your destiny has been fulfilled — a new and higher power has superseded you. Nothing that has blood and sinews was able to overcome your energy and ardor; but a senseless, soulless thing that eats not,sleeps not,tires not — a thing that cannot distinguish space — that knows not the difference between a rod of ground and the circumference of the globe itself, has encompassed, overthrown and routed you.

This is no disgrace, for flesh and blood cannot always war against the elements. Rest, then, in peace; for thou hast run thy race, thou hast followed thy course, thou hast done the work that was given thee to do.

The following notice of discontinuance of the Pony Express appeared as an advertisement in the Sacramento Union, Sacramento, California, page 2, column 6, October 26,1861.

Pony Express will be discontinued from date. WELLS, FARGO & CO., Agents.

Sacramento, Oct. 25th, 1861 o26-2t Through approximately eighteen months of variable weather, Indian disturbances, and almost insurmountable difficulties, the Express had faithfully discharged its responsibilities in such a manner as to win

UTAH

122

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

7

The bill issued by the Kansas Valley Bank °f Atchison, Kansas, bears the contemporary likeness of William Bradford Waddell who was its president.

William H. Russell was the bank's cashier. The side wheeler steamer pictured bears the name, W. H. Russell, on pennant and stern. It was built for and owned by the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell and was used in the Mississippi and Missouri River freight and passenger traffic.

The promissory note was issued by the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company to W. B. Waddell. Six months prior to the close of the Pony Express, William H. Russell resigned as president and was succeeded by Bela M. Hughes, who signed the note. However, the company never ceased to be a"Russell,Majors and Waddell"company,and maintained control over the Pony Express until its end. The steel engraving pictures a Pony Express rider arriving in St. Joseph, with the terminal, the Missouri River, and the Hannibal and St. foseph Railroad in the background.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

123

unstinted, unanimous praise. During that time 308 runs were made, covering a total distance of 616,000 miles.30 On those runs 34,753 letters were carried, with the loss of only one mochila. Of the total, 23,356 letters originated in California and 11,397 in the East. Estimated receipts were $91,404.00, of which the West supplied about two-thirds, or $60,844.00.31 From the very start it was evident that the people of California prized the Pony Express more highly tiian did their countrymen in the East. Everybody on the Pacific Coast wanted rapid communication with the rest of the country, but most of the people east of the Missouri River, being preoccupied with the daily unfolding tragedy of the Civil War, were unconcerned. If they wrote to anyone in California at all, and die vast majority of them did not, they were content to send the missive by stagecoach or by sea, even though it took ten or twelve days longer for it to reach its destination.

The people in die East, however, were no more backward in their use of the Pony Express than the United States government. Prior to July 1, 1861, the various departments in Washington, including the War Department, mostly ignored it, although there were military establishments at Camp Floyd, Utah, Fort Churchill, Nevada, and at various points on the Pacific Coast. After that date the Pony Express carried five pounds of mail per run, thirty-two pounds per month, for the government free of charge.

About the time Russell and Dinsmore signed their contract, an undated "Estimate of Receipts and Disbursements" from May 1, 1861, to July 1, 1862, by the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company was prepared and a copy sent to William B. Waddell. This shows an expected 500 letters per trip each way, or 2,000 per mondi, with total receipts of $120,000.00 for the fourteen-month period.32 This estimate, as proved by actual subsequent experience, was far too optimistic, as were most of the other items in it. Alexander Majors sadly remarked many years later that the Pony Express cost him and his partners $100,000.00. This statement made without access to actual balance sheets is, without doubt, much too conservative. The probabilities are that it cost them approximately half a million dollars.

Early in the organizing of the Pony Express, Benjamin Holladay, an old friend and business associate of Russell, made loans and advanced 30 Chapman, op. cit., 303-4.

"Julius Loeb, "The Pony Express," The American Philatelist (November, 1930), 118-19.

32 "Estimate of Receipts and Disbursements," May 1, 1861 to July 1, 1862, MS. Copy in library of author.

124

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

money to the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company.33 By July 1,1861, when the Overland Mail Company moved onto the Central Route, these loans amounted to $200,000.00. On April 26 of that year at a meeting of the board of directors of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, Russell resigned as president, and Bela M. Hughes, his old friend and formerly agent for Russell, Majors & Waddell at St. Joseph, was elected to the office.34 On the following July 5 in another meeting of the board, Hughes was instructed to give Holladay a note and deed of trust upon the entire personal property of the company. For some reason this was not done until four months later.35 Since the financial status of the company showed no signs of improvement, Holladay asked for further protection of his loans and advances. Consequently, on November 22, 1861, almost a month after the Pony Express passed out of existence, Hughes and John W. Russell, secretary, were ordered to give him a bond in the amount of $100,000.00 and a mortgage upon all of its real estate.36 On the same day the deed of trust authorized the preceding July 5 was made to three trustees, with Holladay as beneficiary.

The progressive measures taken to protect Holladay constitute an index to the declining fortunes of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. Three weeks after the bond and mortgage were given, Holladay declared the bond forfeit and asked the trustees to sell the company under the deed of trust. They complied with his request, and advertised that it would be sold at auction in Leavenworth, Kansas, on December 31,1861. Other creditors, however, secured an injunction, the sale was not made, and the company went ahead as usual.

In spite of heroic measures to finance and rehabilitate the company it went from bad to worse. In derision its own employees dubbed it "Clean out of Cash and Poor Pay." After a hearing in court the injunction was dissolved, and on March 7, 1862, the company was again advertised for sale at auction. There being no interference this time, Holladay bid it in for $100,000.00. He said it owed him $208,000.00 and he would give it to anyone who would reimburse him for his bid and the loans he had made.

33 Settle, op. cit., 48; J. V. Frederick, Ben Holladay The Stagecoach King (Glendale, 1940), 63 fT. "'Settle, op. cit., 124. "'â&#x20AC;˘Ibid., 128.

"Ibid.; Frederick, op. cit., 65.

THE

PONY

EXPRESS

125

Holladay has been accused of "freezing out" Russell, Majors & Waddell, but such was not the case. Since the company was hopelessly in debt, not making operating expenses, and was being crowded by other creditors, there was nothing else for him to do. Any other businessman would have done the same under the circumstances.

It has also been said that Holladay acquired the Pony Express and operated it for some time. This could not be true, for that institution ceased operating four and one-half months before Holladay came into possession of the Central Overland & Pike's Peak Express Company.

The simple truth is that no one ever owned the Pony Express except the men who founded it. There is no record whatever that even the Overland Mail Company came into possession of the western half of it under the contract between Russell and Dinsmore. That company managed and operated the western section, but never owned it.

During those tragic closing days of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, apparently no help came from the Overland Mail Company. This was probably due to inability rather than to disinclination, for the latter company too was suffering from heavy expenses and lack of anticipated receipts.

Having taken over a nonproductive company with some 1,200 miles of stage lines, Holladay vigorously applied himself to a program of rehabilitating the line to Salt Lake City. He changed the lengthy name to Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company, added new coaches, built new stations, and made changes in the route. Within four years he had extended his lines from Salt Lake City into Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. As he reached out into new territories, he secured favorable contracts for transporting the United States mail.37 In 1866 he bought David Butterfield's Overland Dispatch line running from the Missouri River to Denver. Neither this line nor the owner are to be confused with John Butterfield and the Overland Mail Company. By this transaction Holladay became supreme in the stagecoach business east of Salt Lake City and in the Northwest.

In order to meet the growing threat of Holladay's competition in the West, Wells Fargo Express Company inaugurated a program of expansion. Prior to 1864 it was engaged exclusively in the express and banking business. Not having any stagecoaches of its own, Wells Fargo relied upon the Pioneer Stage Line, the California Stage Company, and others for its California business. Shipments of express packages to the 'Ibid., 71-129; see also Edward Hungerford, Wells Fargo (New York, 1949), 85-112.

126

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

East went over the Overland Mail line, and gold was generally transported by sea.

In order to meet Holladay upon his own ground, the Wells Fargo people knew they had to expand eastward. The first step in this direction was taken in 1864 when they bought die Pioneer Stage Line from Charles and Louis McLane. Two years later they bought Holladay's empire, thus securing a monopoly upon the stagecoach, mail, and express business west of the Missouri River. Some two weeks later the Holladay lines, the Overland Mail Company, and die Pioneer Stage Line were all brought under the name of Wells, Fargo & Company.38 In writing this summarized account of great and involved events, the author is animated by two motives â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to give everyone concerned whatever credit is due him, and to correct certain widely believed errors and misstatements of fact. The story of Wells, Fargo Express Company is one of the most thrilling, most fascinating in the whole range of American history. Its contribution to the building of the West was incalculable, and the men who created and operated the business rank with the greatest organizers and promoters the country has produced. The measure of praise due them is exceedingly large.

On the other hand, to credit that company widi important things someone else did and lavish unearned praise upon it to the detriment of the ones who actually did those things is not right. Nevertheless, tiiat unworthy act has been committed by misinformed, careless, or selfish persons willing to profit by the misinterpretation or misstatement of thoroughly documented historical fact.

In 1960 the first Centennial of the Pony Express will be celebrated.

Already plans for a nation-wide observance are in the making. Therefore, it is to be hoped that the spotlight of unstinted praise will be turned upon the men, William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell, who conceived the Pony Express and possessed die daring to make it a reality.

' Ibid., 260.

WILLIAM JACKSON PALMER (1836-1909) William J. Palmer was born in Delaware. He was well educated, worked for the Hempfield Railroad, later was affiliated with the Westmoreland Coal Company, and still later was secretary to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He served in the Civil War, emerging as a brevet brigadier-general, and in 1894 received the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, leaving it in 1870 for the D. & R.G. In the eighties he promoted railroads in Mexico. He was a founder of Colorado Springs and Colorado College, was first president of the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, and laid out part of Pueblo.

UTAH

AND

THE

COMING

DENVER

AND

RIO

GRANDE

OF

THE

RAILROAD

By Robert G. Athearn*

As it was originally conceived, the Denver and Rio Grande had not the slightest interest in Utah. General William Jackson Palmer, former Civil War officer and promoter, set out to build a road from the Colorado capital to El Paso with the hope of tapping major transcontinental lines and of one day making a connection with Mexico City. The projected eight hundred and fifty mile road was to be strictly a north and south creation, designed to pick up local trade from a growing mountain community. By staying close to the Rockies it was presumed that the road would serve a large population of miners, a class of people quite dependent upon transportation for supplies. Palmer buttressed his arguments for such a route by pointing out that the Union Pacific, with a population of forty millions at its back, had no significant mining population along its tracks, and it was, therefore, not yet a particularly profitable venture.1 Ignoring the westward pattern in railroad building, he chose to look south toward a land of semitropical products, and along a strip of country populated by those who had passed over the Great American Desert to locate their new homes. * Dr. Athearn is professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

For other articles by him on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad which have appeared in the Quarterly see "Railroad Renaissance in the Rockies," January, 1957, and "The Independence of the Denver and Rio Grande," January, 1958.

1 William J. Palmer, The Denver and Rio Grande Railway of Colorado and New Mexico (London, 1871), 10.

130

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

From 1870, when the Denver and Rio Grande was incorporated, until 1878 die direction of the main fine was unswervingly southward.

By the fall of 1871 it had reached the new colony town of Colorado Springs, seventy-six miles out of Denver. Less than a year later Pueblo was receiving regular service. Here the first magnetic pull westward was experienced when a branch line was thrown out toward Canon City, a little town lying at the moudi of "Grand Canon" of the Arkansas.

Rather than follow this river course into the mountains before continuing southward, the directors decided to head straight for New Mexico by way of Trinidad, Colorado. But again the attraction of die mines was great, and as the Trinidad extension was nearing completion, a second branch was commenced, reaching out over La Veta Pass toward the San Luis and San Juan valleys.

The Panic of 1873 struck hard at die little narrow gauge road, having its most severe effect several years after that year. During 1875 Palmer and his wife visited Paris trying vainly to interest French financiers in the road. About this time the eastern banking house of Duncan, Sherman and Company, in which the road had considerable deposits, failed.

Then came more trouble. Early in the spring of 1876 the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad reached Pueblo, bound for New Mexico where it would compete with the D. & R. G. Desperately, Palmer and his associates drove on, trying to shake off the effects of the panic, and to beat out die Atchison line. Even as they struggled widi this problem the Rio Grande men were struck from behind. The company's unhappy bondholders asked for a receivership, and while it was denied by a Denver court, the road's reputation in financial circles was further jeopardized.

The Rio Grande's time of trouble was just beginning. In die spring of 1878 it approached Raton Pass, the only feasible passageway into New Mexico within miles, confident diat no other road was near enough to pose a threat. To the utter dismay of Palmer's chief engineer, the Atchison men got there first and laid claim to the crucial site just thirty minutes before the appearance of their rivals. Quickly the scene shifted to the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, known also as the Royal Gorge, which was the only other practical pass through die mountains. Again, the Rio Grande management was negligent. As in die case of Raton Pass, Palmer had neglected to file a plan of proposed route widi die General Land Office, as required by law. For a second time the A. T. & S. F. moved in, determined to cut down its smaller rival. To the Rio Grande people this was the final aggression. Since there was room for just one

UTAH AND THE D & RG

131

track through the Gorge, it was either fight or give up. Desperate, the Rio Grande elected to fight.

The story of the "Royal Gorge War" has been so frequently repeated that it has become the railroad historian's "Custer's Last Stand." Even Hollywood has not overlooked its dramatic possibilities. While both sides did rush to arms and shots were fired, it was more of a cold war than one of bloodshed. There were exciting moments and tense episodes as the opposing camps sought to establish a prior right, but most of the fighting was done in court. For two years the tide of legal battle ebbed and flowed. During this time Jay Gould bought into die Rio Grande, and now Palmer had a powerful ally in his fight. Early in 1880 the pair threatened to form a new company called the Pueblo and St. Louis, designed to parallel the A. T. & S. F. eastward across Kansas. Then came a Supreme Court decision, unfavorable to the Atchison Company. It was time to talk terms, and at die "Treaty of Boston" in March, 1880, an out-of-court settlement was made.

The terms of the agreement changed the whole course of Rio Grande history. It was agreed that if the narrow gauge would pay the Atchison Company $1,400,000.00 for the work it had completed west of Canon City, the Rio Grande could have control of the Royal Gorge route. But in return for this surrender, the Rio Grande was obliged to abandon plans to build east of Pueblo or into Santa Fe, New Mexico. Palmer's road now had no odier way to go but west.2 By now this was die most desirable direction it could take. Originally the road's promoters had planned to follow the Arkansas, by way of Canon City, only to change their minds in 1872 when they decided die route south of Pueblo was the shortest way into New Mexico. Then, quite suddenly, the fabulous mining camp Leadville sprang into existence, and the whole transportation picture changed. Freight rates from diere down to Canon City, a distance of 120 miles, were four cents a pound. It is small wonder that both the Rio Grande and the Atchison people were ready to fight over so rich a plum.

Widi renewed enthusiasm Palmer proceeded, happy over the general revival of business activity and excited at the prospect of serving numberless new mining camps springing up throughout the central Rockies. During 1880 and 1881 his road made heavy purchases of new 2 A good brief account of the war is found in L. L. Waters, Steel Trails to Santa Fe (Lawrence, Kansas, 1950), 97-127; William S. Greever, "Railway Development in the Southwest," New Mexico Historical Review, XXXII (April, 1957), 151-204. For Gould's interest see Julius Grodinsky, fay Gould: His Business Career, 1867-1892 (Philadelphia, 1957).

The D.&R.G. single track cut through the Wasatch Mountains serving the mining districts of Utah. From an old stereoscope in the Utah State Historical Society files.

ii>, Passengers must have received a thrill! From an artist's sketch of the "Tramway in Little Cottonwood Canyon," in the Utah State Historical Society files.

|Vff ^g,

»-5»Hk •SSIrk

^^

Sfl|^_. * ;

>x fe-

'••

-•-•aHHl

r ,

. •'-, r7*&~ ''<-.i *-vi ^KtHSm."

The Denver and Rio Grande line running through Castle Gate, Utah. From a W. H. Jackson photograph.

' 4 Ji£l LliflF

—>v *mEfej

...

,. -

o

•

UTAH AND THE D & RG

133

equipment and pressed forward the construction program. In 1881 more than four hundred miles of track were laid as the railroad spread across western Colorado, threading its way through narrow defiles and across impossible mountain passes. Actually, the advance was a twin-headed thrust with one line moving northwestward from Salida, toward the Utah line, and the other running west of Cuchara to the San Juan mining country of southern Colorado with a branch projecting into New Mexico as far as the "treaty" agreement would permit.

Meanwhile, the new goal of the Rio Grande was revealed. Early in December of 1880, Dr. William A. Bell, who had been widi the road since its inception, quietly organized the Sevier Valley Railway Company in Utah. Its announced purpose was to build south from Ogden to the northern boundary of Arizona, with a branch stretching eastward toward Colorado. During the summer of 1881 the Sevier Valley Railway and the Salt Lake and Park City Railway combined with a new line to be called the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company, popularly known as the "Western." 3 Toward the end of the year the Western acquired two more small roads: the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad. Six months later the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway Company was added.

The little railroads that die Western acquired in Utah were primarily mining roads. The Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley railways totalled less than diirty-five miles in length. Together they formed a line from the Little Cottonwood mining district, through the Salt Lake Valley, to the Bingham mining district on the west. The Utah and Pleasant Valley ran southeasterly from Springville over the Wasatch range. It was begun in 1878 by Milan Packard, an old-time Montana freighter. Many of his railroad workers received part of their pay in merchandise, and since they often asked for calico, the standard cotton material used for clothing at the time, the short narrow gauge was called the "Calico Line." * There was no doubt that the Rio Grande Western was another of Palmer's projects. Both he and Dr. Bell were on the board of directors; D. C. Dodge, general manager of the Rio Grande, was the new line's president. During August, 1882, the entire picture came into focus when the Denver and Rio Grande leased the Western for a period of thirty 3 For details of the organization, July 21, 1881, see Proofs of the Organization of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company (Salt Lake, 1881). In Coburn Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs.

4 Hannah M. Mendenhall, "The Calico Road," Kate B. Carter (ed.), Heart Throbs of the West (12 vols., Salt Lake City, 1936-51), II, 28.

I

A standard gauge train and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Depot in Salt Lake Ci years guaranteeing to pay the leased line 40 per cent of the gross receipts from its trackage and to pay all operating and maintenance expenses.5 With that agreement the whole Rio Grande axis officially was shifted from a north-south position to one lying east and west. A rich silver strike at Leadville and a war with the Santa Fe had thrown it into the arms of Utah. El Paso watched with disappointment as the world's longest narrow gauge took a new direction.

As early as March, 1881, residents of Salt Lake City were alerted to the possibility of increased railroad activity in their region. A local newspaper published a rumor that die Denver and Rio Grande had bought the Utah and Pleasant Valley with die idea of connecting Utah and Colorado. The rumor was properly denied, since the sale had not yet been made. However, the Mormons knew that something was afoot because a good deal of real estate was changing hands in die city. Thirty acres of land were reported purchased for die future site of a Rio Grande depot in Salt Lake City. Eastward, at Saline Pass in Colorado, three hundred men were busily grading and laying track. Utah business men guessed that they would soon enjoy a railroad boom.6 5 Annual Report of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, 1882, p. 9.

"Salt Lake Herald, March 28, 1881. Clipping in Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.

The first passenger train to run over the Colorado River into Grand function, Colorado

UTAH AND THE D & RG

135

Within a few months direct benefits of the Rio Grande's expansion began to be felt in Utah. Reports from Provo related that all available laborers were being put to work, grading, laying track and even boarding up the sides of flat cars for hauling coal. Farmers along the line used the opportunity for "putting their teams and boys to remunerative employment." Better yet, the promptness with which the Western paid its employees and the liberal prices offered for rights-of-way made a very favorable impression upon the Mormon community.7 Utah was delighted. The Herald, of Salt Lake City, said the narrow gauge was by no means narrow track in its plans. "The Denver and Rio Grande is one of the most enterprising, largest, best managed and most active railway corporations in the world. Its managers and chief stockholders are among the oldest, and most diorough-going, as well as wealthiest people in the world." To prove his point the editor explained that nearly thirty-three thousand men were at work, digging through cuts, putting in bridges, laying rails and driving spikes. The number of paid employees exceeded that of the entire United States Army. This corps of workmen was laying track or planning new routes in twentyseven different directions. Happily, said the journal, Utah was a part of this great project and it was well, for if Utah would need anything in the next five years, it was railroads. "If the Union Pacific was a blessing to this country, the Denver and Rio Grande will be no less so, in helping to develop resources, and its advent will be hailed widi delight." s Almost at once the Denver and Rio Grande was adopted as a "home" railroad by a good many people in Utah. They were convinced that one of its prime objects in entering southern Utah was to tap the rich iron and coal resources. This would give the users a chance to buy coal mined at home and by local men, "instead of being compelled to keep men at work in another and rival territory, and to burn foreign coal, while we have equally as good an article here." To them, the D. & R. G. meant a boost for home industry and lower coal prices.9 The road's construction was watched with great interest and there was continuous talk in the newspapers as to the probable date of connection with Colorado. Newsmen proudly reported that the road had already put new life into parts of Utah. Clear Creek, for example, had become a boom town. Hundreds of tons of coal arrived there every day from Pleasant Valley. So did immense quantities of supplies and freight 7

Ibid., October 22, November 10, 20, li Ibid., July 27, 1881.

"Ibid., April 22, October 26, 1881.

8

136

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

shipped from Provo and Salt Lake City. Like the richest mining camps, Clear Creek was a spectacle of overcrowded hotels, of men sleeping on the ground, on flat cars, on depot platforms. Utah was experiencing a railroad bonanza.10 Local interest further heightened as Rio Grande tracklaying progressed. Farmers and merchants watched widi pleasure as the Union Pacific's Utah Central was goaded into action. When it began to move into Pleasant Valley in late 1882 to capture coal outlets, the Rio Grande at once transferred surveyors and graders from other construction and sent them into the endangered area. This delighted Salt Lake City newsmen who wrote that if such keen rivalry continued their city would certainly be a great railroad center. To them, the Rio Grande was becoming more meaningful every day. "The completion of this new route east will be of vast benefit to Utah in opening up competition in transportation, which will bring a reduction in prices," said the Tribuneâ&#x201E;˘ Soon the Rio Grande would provide an outlet to the Burlington and Santa Fe in Colorado, both of which were barred from the region by the Union Pacific's prohibitive rates. In addition the Rio Grande would provide an increased local traffic. Correspondent "A. Z.," revealed that his trip to the end of die line in November, 1882, had given such indications. "I hear that many settlements and towns are springing up between Utah and Colorado and diat Denver merchants are already sending their drummers 200 miles westward to catch the new trade," he told Utah readers.12 Excitement rose to a new high in the spring of 1883 as the east and west termini of the road neared each other. "The benefits of this new outlet for Utah will be very soon perceived," said the leading Mormon newspaper. "Leaving out all considerations of the competition which it may promote for the passenger and carrying trade to and from the East, there will be new fields opened for local enterprise. Between Salt Lake and Denver supplies will be needed by the settlers in new places, and our farmers and gardners will find a market for their produce all the way to the Colorado centre." 13 When the last spike was driven at the Colorado line on March 30, the event was rated as next in magnitude to the completion of the Pacific Railroad in 1869. Now the people of Salt Lake could go to Denver and points east by an alternative route. The 10 Territorial Enquirer (Provo), August 26, 1882. In Journal History. " Salt Lake Daily Tribune, October 11, 1882.

12 Ibid., November 15, 1882.

13 Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), March 28, 1883.

UTAH AND THE D & RG

137

distance to Colorado's capital via the Rio Grande was 734 miles, a trip that could be made in thirty-five hours.14 Additional service meant more than added convenience. The completion of the new line, said a small town paper, meant Utah emancipation from "the throes of a monopoly." The editor agreed widi a Rio Grande official who said, "One day the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific people are like two chums in a bed, the next day they are like two cats hanging over a clothesline." The newspaper concluded that when two companies were so engaged other companies are liable to step in to take advantage of the quarreling. He was certain that the frequent ruptures between the two larger lines were really the prime movers that brought the Rio Grande westward to Salt Lake City.15 Certainly, other lines watched with jealousy as the Union Pacific and Central Pacific controlled through traffic by the original transcontinental route. But the Central Pacific, a partner in this monopoly, felt no concern at the appearance of the Rio Grande. Rather, it saw an opportunity to threaten its quarrelsome mate. The new mountain railroad, soon to be standard gauged, provided a link between the Central Pacific and roads east of the Rockies, such as the Burlington and Santa Fe lines.

With it they could hold a gun to the head of the Union Pacific. In die latter part of 1881 these four roads entered into an agreement to this end.

The Central Pacific agreed to make a traffic division with the Rio Grande on eastbound business, and it was promised similar favors on westbound traffic from Palmer's road.16 Utah showed little sympadiy for the Union Pacific. For years it had been in a position to act as capriciously as it chose. Now, with the completion of the Rio Grande, the older road showed its resentment. In May, 1883, Provo businessmen learned that the Utah Central, a Union Pacific subsidiary, would charge them the same rate to ship south of Provo that Salt Lake City houses had to pay. "In other words," said their newspaper, "it is the purpose of the Utah Central and the Union Pacific to discriminate unfairly against this city and in die interests of Salt Lake merchants." Overnight Provo became an all-out Denver and Rio Grande town. "Now is the time for the D. & R. G. Co, to do something and that very speedily," said the Territorial Enterprise. "They will find lots of warm friends and allies in the south who only await an opportunity to let the U. P. monopoly understand that they have not forgotten their "Bear Lake Democrat, April 21, 1883. In Journal History.

15 Bear Lake Democrat, April 28, 1883.

10 Ibid.

138

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

oppressive treatment in the past." 17 At once businessmen in Payson and Spanish Fork called meetings asking the Rio Grande to offer them service. They talked of grain and other produce from their fields and of the necessity for a connection with Colorado markets. More than that, "the farmers and business men are naturally very desirous of having the facilities given them for making through shipments directly east without being under the necessity of looking to Salt Lake alone for a market, or the U. P. railway alone for transportation east." 18 The Union Pacific's undisguised resentment of the interloper became apparent as Rio Grande tracks neared Ogden in May, 1883. The depot site, upon which the Rio Grande intended to make a connection with the Central Pacific, was owned jointly by die Union Pacific and Central Pacific. The two larger lines had an agreement that no other road might approach this preserve without the consent of both parties.

The Union Pacific now objected and secured a temporary injunction that barred the newcomer's entrance. Rio Grande workmen, veterans of the great Royal Gorge war, had been threatened before. Once again they took matters into their own hands. On Saturday night, May 12, during a heavy rainstorm they nailed together sections of track, fishplates, and ties. Then, hoisting the units on their shoulders, they carried diem forward into enemy territory. When about two hundred feet of track had been laid the plot was discovered, and Union Pacific men rushed to dieir posts. A switch engine was at once dispatched to the battleground where a heavy chain was attached to die oncoming tracks. Steam was applied and away went part of the Rio Grande railroad. All during the remainder of the night Union Pacific cars were kept running across the contested ground to prevent further penetrations.

The Rio Grande got around legal and physical barriers by laying a third rail along the Central Pacific's standard gauge track and entering the depot grounds on that company's tracks. The Union Pacific then tried to freeze out its rival by reducing rates between Ogden and Salt Lake City. "Baby roads and giant corporations engross the public mind now," said the Ogden correspondent of the Salt Lake Daily Tribune as he described the bitter rivalry. The Rio Grande, always willing to fight, now offered free train rides between the two Utah cities. Immediately a rumor was spread to the effect that the Union Pacific would not only meet this challenge but would give a cash bonus to anyone patronizing its branch, the Utah Central.19 " Territorial Enterprise (Provo), May 8, 1883. In Journal History.

Ibid., May 25, 1883. " Salt Lake Daily Tribune, May 15, 18, 20, 1883.

18

UTAH AND THE D& RG

139

During the preceding year as the Rio Grande neared completion, Salt Lake City journalists had talked about the grumbling of older railroads when new ones entered such places as Omaha and Denver. They anticipated a similar situation for Salt Lake City, and one of them wrote, ' Speed the time, for the people are able to stand that sort of thing right well." 20 The people of Utah were entirely familiar with the Union Pacific's power, and as they watched odier roads battling it in the Denver region, there was rejoicing over the probable benefits of competition.

A correspondent to the Tribune wrote: All Northern Colorado is under the sole rule of the Union Pacific. It owns all the railroads and all the railroads that are possible. Where it can't run a broad guage it runs a narrow gauge, and builds and builds aimlessly save to forestall others.

It owns the coal, the quarries, everything, but the soil. It is a pity the people couldn't find it to their advantage to move out of such a country and let the boss thief of the world do its own farming as well as hauling.21 By the summer of 1883, with the Rio Grande and Union Pacific battling for traffic between Ogden and the Utah capital, the fondest dreams of the users who wanted transportation competition apparently were realized.

As the new road went into operation, it was editorially welcomed to Salt Lake City. In a serious and well-balanced appraisal the Tribune editor said: We do not hail the Denver & Rio Grande expecting that it will revolutionize business or religion here; we expect nothing more from its management except that the owners will try to make money out of the road, and that they have already discovered that generous management is more profitable than a too severe one.

He saw the railroad correctly when he spoke of it as "a new outlet for Utah to the whole East; as a means of opening up a large and valuable new country; as a new artery of commerce " 22 Denver papers viewed the development in a different light. To them the Rio Grande was a knight in shining armor, come to save the Mor20

Ibid., August 24, 1882.

Ibid., September 30, 1882. The correspondent signed himself O. J. H. This probably is Ovando J. Hollister, a well-known Coloradoan, who was then working for the federal government in Salt Lake City. He was a great admirer of Palmer and openly prejudiced in favor of the general.

22 Ibid., March 29, 1883.

21

140

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

mons from Union Pacific perfidy. "It is well known that the Union Pacific has never been very popular with the Mormons," said the Denver Times. It was with these people, not the Utah Gentiles, that the Rio Grande would trade. Already, by its generous contracts given them, the Rio Grande had gained the favor of the Mormons, "who naturally looked to it as an ally against the Union Pacific and the Gentiles." It was the Times' opinion that "had it not been for the Mormon friendship the Rio Grande perhaps never would have been built to Utah." The Salt Lake Daily Tribune called this piece of journalism "trash." The Union Pacific, it stated positively, had been suspected even of favoring the Utah Mormons rather than the Gentiles. Of course, the Rio Grande would do business with the Gentiles. It was built largely to tap mineral resources, and at least two-thirds of Utah's business fell into that category. In Utah mining was substantially Gentile in character.23 If Palmer's company aspired to the position of a Mormon pet, it was to be disappointed. While these people openly welcomed any and all new roads, they were not entertaining any ideas of permanent economic preference. As a matter of fact the Rio Grande's first official operational act was criticized. It announced its initial run for April 8, which it happened, was the Sabbath. On that day tiiere appeared in a Salt Lake paper a complaint against this violation of the Lord's day. Even before this, a Provo paper charged it with having little regard for its employees. But even if working conditions were undesirable, die Rio Grande was guilty of commiting a more serious offense: it was not hiring enough Mormons. The Colorado railroad was charged with the capricious firing of Mormon workers by superintendents who replaced them with imported favorites.24 During the fall of 1883 there were further complaints of Mormon boys returning to Utah from Colorado after having been discharged by the railroad because of their religion. The aggrieved men quoted their former boss as saying the Rio Grande intended to fire every d â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mormon on the road. The Territorial Enquirer took the stories at face value and promptly advised its readers to boycott the Rio Grande. Suddenly the Utah Central returned to favor. The Enquirer's editor pointed to it as an example of a Mormon-run road and said that where it had one accident, the Rio Grande had scores of them.25 Obviously it was safer to ride with the faithful.

23

Ibid., April 18, 1883.

Territorial Enquirer (Provo), May 25, 1883. In Journal History.

-' Ibid., November 9, 1883.

24

UTAH AND THE D & RG

141

From Castle Valley came more charges against the Rio Grande.

A correspondent told the Mormon Deseret News that the narrow gauge had appropriated lumber and other private property for its own use and had refused to pay for it. The railroad also was said to have run down stock, and instead of receiving compensation the owners were told they ought to be sued for being so neglectful. Worse yet, the railroad discriminated heavily against Utah in favor of Colorado. "We have also got papers to show where they charged us $62.00 for a car of freight 46 miles, while at the same time they were bringing cars of lumber from Montrose for $50.00," said the complainant.26 Another user, signing himself "Biz.," indicated that the brief honeymoon was over. Utah people, he said, were not blind to the benefits conferred by the Rio Grande, but its appearance had not changed the transportation picture very much.

We all know that when the D. and R. G. got through here it would open up a market for our produce in Colorado [he explained, in hurt puzzlement], but in this we have not realized quite what we expected. They have thus far [1884] brought produce from the east for a mere song, and charged at the same time the most extortionate express and freight rates, with few exceptions. . . . We find today that we are blocked out from all trade with the near towns of Colorado, from the fact that the rates are against us.27 Thus the Mormons discovered, that so far as railroads were concerned, there were no chosen people. Coloradoans could have told them that if freight rates were discriminatory, it was not the first time Palmer's railroad had imposed such conditions. He and his associates subscribed to the current principle of charging all the traffic would bear and that "nice guys" come in last. The Rio Grande was built to tap mining country, a trade that Palmer had described back in 1871 as being highly lucrative. It would be a long time before it looked upon bridge, or through traffic, as being more important than local, short haul business. While connections to the east and west were important, the Rio Grande could not hope to compete effectively with the Union Pacific, for the winding, tortuous way through the mountains was long and costly to operate.

Not until 1934 with the completion of the Dotsero Cutoff, which shortened the Rio Grande's distance between Denver and Salt Lake City ' Deseret News, February 16, 1884. '' Territorial Enquirer, February 19, 1884. In Journal History.

142

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

by 175 miles, did it pose a serious threat to the Union Pacific. Fifteen years after that date with the institution of the Ogden Gateway suit, the Rio Grande made its bid for joint through rates from the Union Pacific. To date it has gained only a portion of die share it demanded.

Suits asking for the remainder are still pending.

In modern railroading the Denver and Rio Grande Western can match anything the Union Pacific may offer in die way of schedules, rates, and excellence of service between Salt Lake City and Denver. But during the eighties and for decades after tiiat time, it was a chronically bankrupt, second-rate railroad that provided little more than a species of rail service to parts of Utah and Colorado. Quite correctly it was then known in both places as the "Dangerous and Rapidly Growing Worse."

DAVID ECCLES (1849-1912) David Eccles was born in Glasgow, Scotland. At fourteen years of age he came with his family, converts to the Mormon Church, to Utah. The family settled in Huntsville. Though he had very little formal education, in his lifetime he built up an immense business empire, engaging in lumbering, banking, railroading, sugar, construction companies and various other enterprises.

M. S. BROWNING (1859-1923) After coming across the plains with the Saints, the Browning family settled in Ogden and opened a gunshop in 1851. A son, Matthew Sandefur Browning early displayed keen business ability in the handling of patents, contracts and investments. With his brother he organized the J.M. & M.S. Browning Company, the Browning Arms Company and the Browning Brothers Company, branching out from gun-making, to banking, mining, stock-raising, and railroad, sugar and coal industries.

â&#x20AC;˘Much of the civic growth and development >f Ogden and northern Utah was furthered ,oy the efforts of David Eccles and Matthew 3. Browning who were intimate business associates for a number of years.

THE

UTAH

IDAHO

CENTRAL

RAILROAD

By Philip E. Sorensen^

No history of Utah can be fairly written without repeated and emphatic mention of the railroads which wrought so great a transformation in the state, developing its economy, broadening its social base, and creating a large part of its folk-history. This paper presents only a tiny part of the story of Utah's railroads, but it is a colorful chapter and one which reflects, at least to some degree, the histories of the other small railroads whose lines once crossed die state.

The Utah Idaho Central Railroad was the longest electric railroad in the West at the time of its abandonment. It was die creation of one of Utah's important economic pioneers, David Eccles, whose family widi that of M. S. Browning, was associated with die enterprise throughout its history.

That history began with the creation of two local traction systems, the first, Ogden Rapid Transit Company which was organized May 16, 1900. This company took over the properties of the Ogden Electric Railroad, constructed other lines in the city of Ogden, and in 1909 built a line to The Hermitage in Ogden Canyon, which was extended to Idlewild * The above article is derived from the author's larger work, "A Corporate and Financial History of the Utah Idaho Central Railroad" (M.S., Utah State University, Logan, Utah).

146

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

two years later. A second Eccles railroad, die Ogden and Northwestern, took over an existing line from Ogden to Hot Springs at the time of its formation in 1903 and extended this line to Brigham City in 1907. A separate branch from Five Points to Plain City was built in 1909 which, with the other properties of the Ogden and Northwestern, was conveyed to Ogden Rapid Transit Company on June 22, 1911, uniting the Eccles system.

Success greeted the Ogden Rapid Transit Company in its first years of operation and determined David Eccles to build a similar system in Cache Valley. This determination was strengthened by the appearance in Logan in the spring of 1909 of a stranger from the East, a Mr. Mahler, who presented the Logan Commissioners widi his proposition to build a local traction system, an idea greeted with such enthusiasm that an immediate franchise to build such a line was granted. Prompted to action, Mr. Eccles made his own application for a similar franchise but was turned down by die commissioners on the grounds that Mahler had precedence.

After several months passed without further developments, it became clear, at least to the Logan Journal, that Mahler intended only, "to hawk his franchise about the East in an attempt to make money." So on August 4, 1909, when David Eccles again applied for the Logan franchise, his request was granted. He immediately organized a construction team and ordered the rail, and on October 19, 1909, the first track was laid.

With the exception of Mahler's short-lived interruption, die city line of Logan Rapid Transit Company was built without interference; but the Eccles interests received considerable competition in dieir attempt to build an interurban line in Cache Valley. The history of this spirited battle is told most picturesquely in die pages of die Logan Journal in which the following facts were reported: On April 6, 1912, Logan Rapid Transit Company asked the county commissioners for a franchise to build a branch from Smithfield to Providence. Some three weeks later, on April 27, M. J. Golighdy and a group of Cache Valley citizens petitioned for a similar franchise which was conditionally granted. On May 1 diis action was rescinded in favor of David Eccles. Then on May 4 both franchises were granted.

The indecision of the commissioners aroused the ire of a group of local readers who fired a letter to the Journal on May 7, reading in part: The franchise of Mr. Golightly has been delayed to make room for the petition of David Eccles. The latter agreed to build five miles only, a proposition which was turned down flatly.

THE UTAH

IDAHO

CENTRAL

147

After Mr. Eccles was turned down . . . he took his doll and dishes and went home. Mr. Golightly, however, undaunted and fearless, looked about him for additional support.

David Eccles, expressing utmost scorn for his competitors, ordered the steel for his extension which, together with Japanese laborers, began arriving in the Valley on June 1. Robert Anderson, well-known Logan lumberman, was named manager of the new construction project. Purchase of the right-of-way proved the most difficult hurdle for the company as many landowners sought to gain exorbitant prices for their land.

One woman wanted $500.00 for a corner of a small tract and finally settled for $83.00. Numerous such incidents caused the Journal to comment on September 10, "It is evident that not all die grasping, greedy manipulating is done by die corporations."

On September 17, 1912, the Eccles interurban reached Hyde Park, and on September 26 was completed into Providence. October of 1912 was the first full month of operation of the branch between Smithfield and Providence.

Despite the completion of the Eccles interurban, promoters of the Golightly railroad continued their efforts to build a competitive line.

Rumors of the imminent construction of this second interurban appeared to have real basis when the Journal announced on September 6,1913: Attorney Fred Crockett has returned from Philadelphia with the news that the interurban will be constructed this fall and as soon as bonds can be printed and sent to Paris, France, where the money is to come from. . . . The road will run from Alexander in Gentile Valley, Idaho, to Ogden. Total cost will be between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000.

Then on November 20, 1913, a headline appeared in die Journal which seemed to settle, finally, the question of whether the road would indeed be built: "GOLIGHTLY FRANCHISE A WINNER AT LAST," it declared: Delivery of $6,000,000 in bonds for the construction of the new Ogden, Lewiston and Northern Railway will be made this week to French capitalists who purchased the securities. The bonds have all been sold and the money is available for immediate construction work. Right-of-way has been secured and construction is to begin in the near future.

The Ogden, Lewiston and Northern Railway never became a reality, however. Six months after the Journal report, on June 28,1914, the Arch-

148

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

duke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, heirs to the Austrian throne, were assassinated at Sarajevo in Servia. This event, as everyone knows, unloosed the First World War. The $6,000,000.00 which was to come out of France evaporated, and the Golightly franchise quietly died.

There are no records available to die writer which state the financial makeup of the ill-fated Golightly railroad, and it is therefore impossible to report what financial support, if any, was lent the enterprise and how much was lost in its collapse. The company filed no articles of incorporation in Utah, and possibly not a share of stock was printed. No further mention of the railroad is to be found in the pages of the Journal, and it is therefore probable that die whole affair was believed to be better forgotten.

Less than two years after the death of David Eccles, an event of utmost significance in the history of the Utah Idaho Central took place, one which Mr. Eccles might never have permitted had he lived. On October 17, 1914, Ogden Rapid Transit Company and Logan Rapid Transit Company were merged to form a new corporation, the Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway Company. The merger was prompted by the decision to connect the two systems and provide rail service between Logan and Ogden. This promised to be the greatest construction project in the history of the company, for not only was the Ogden-Logan connection to be built, but also a twenty-one mile extension from Smithfield to Preston, Idaho, and a five mile extension from Idlewild to Huntsville.

There were three possible routes for the road between Ogden and Logan: from Huntsville over the divide to Hyrum, a route which offered the easiest grades and the shortest mileage; the central route from Brigham City to Wellsville via Mantua, generally the present route of U.S. 91; and finally, the route north from Brigham City over Collinston hill and through Mendon to Wellsville, providing access to a greater agricultural area and more towns than either of the other prospects. The company "decided" upon the central route, originally; then, in February of 1915 announced it had reconsidered and determined to build over Collinston hill. This it finally did do. Work on die new lines proceeded at a rapid pace through the summer of 1915, and Logan and Ogden were finally joined on October 14 of diat year.

When regular passenger service on the new lines was inaugurated, October 27, 1915, a huge celebration was staged in Logan widi thousands of people streaming in from towns in Utah and Idaho to witness two parades, various sports events, speeches by Utah's Governor William H. Spry and other dignitaries, and in the evening a giant barbecue dinner

PHOTO, FRED FELLOW

Building the track over Collinston hill in 1915. and a masked dancing carnival. This celebration gave the O. L. and I. (or the "Ollie" as it was known) a strong beginning, which it truly deserved. But after this time the railroad was never again as popular or successful. Short years later traffic on the line began a slow decline which, with few recoveries, continued through all the years of operation.

On January 1, 1918, the articles of incorporation of the company were changed, and the Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway Company became the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company. The new name gave the line added prestige and lent credence to the report that the company planned to extend the rails further into the Gem State.

In terms of total revenue, 1919 was the best year the company ever had â&#x20AC;&#x201D; over a million dollars â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but profits at the end of the year were only $11,622.00, about 1 per cent of gross revenue. The directors of the railroad decided that the trouble was in Ogden, specifically the uneconomic Ogden Canyon branch. Accordingly, the decision was made to An early freight train on Logan City's Main Street.

PHOTO, FRED FELLO>

150

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

separate the Ogden lines from the direct operation of the U. I. C. The Utah Rapid Transit Company was formed on September 29,1919. The U. I. C. transferred to the new company its rail properties in Ogden City and Ogden Canyon, receiving back the full issue of stock in Utah Rapid Transit. The latter company took over operations of the Ogden system on January 1,1920, and at this time local rail operations in Brigham City, which had begun in 1910, were ceased. In 1932 passenger service through Ogden Canyon was discontinued, and the line was operated solely for freight. On December 26, 1935, the Ogden Canyon branch was abandoned, and busses were substituted for rails in Ogden City. Continuing losses having been suffered from the beginning, Utah Rapid Transit Company entered receivership in 1936, and its properties were sold to Ogden Transit Company on December 5 of that year. Ogden Transit Company, also owned by the Eccles interests, operated the Ogden lines until May 19, 1952, when the system was abandoned and sold to Ogden City, which now operates the busses as a municipal utility.

Returning to the discussion of the Utah Idaho Central, the divorcement of the Ogden lines from the parent company did nodiing to cure the staggering economic deficit which the company suffered in the 1920's.

Although bondholders had forfeited or contributed most of the interest accrued to this time, after the July, 1926, cumulation die company found itself facing a matured interest of $443,905.00, which would somehow have to be erased if the company were to continue operations. Thus, on August 20, 1926, the Utah Idaho Central entered its first receivership and was subsequently purchased by a committee of its bondholders. A new corporation, the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company, was organized on October 18, 1926. At this time an event of some importance took place, for control of the company was divested from the EcclesBrowning interests and fell into die hands of a group of promoters from St. Louis, headed by M. E. Singleton and A. B. Apperson, who operated the railroad for some eleven years.

This new directorship began its reign widi some significant changes in operation. Rails in Logan were abandoned in 1926 and busses were substituted. Two busses a day were placed in operation between Ogden and Logan over U.S. 91, conserving for time-conscious patrons the twenty-odd minutes lost on the rail schedule between these points. By reducing the size of its debt, die company cut interest charges to half their previous figure and paved the way for two profit-making years: in 1927, $42,477.00; and in 1928, $33,858.00. From 1927 to 1935, all interest charges were fully paid, in spite of falling revenue.

THE UTAH IDAHO CENTRAL

151

In 1932, $4,754.00 was expended in engineering expenses in regard to a proposed extension of the line to Idaho Falls. Although the extension was never built, this practical effort in that direction indicates a degree of optimism on the part of the new promoters and a belief diat one of the problems facing the railroad was the shortness of its line.

The company suffered continuing losses after 1929, however, and prospects for improvement were small. Early in 1939, therefore, the Singleton interests sold back tiieir holdings for an undisclosed sum to George S. Eccles, trustee for the Eccles-Browning bondholders, and the U. I. C. was again in its original hands. A reorganization was immediately decided upon, since the company faced a staggering figure of accrued interest, $557,777.00, at the time of the institution of the second U. I. C. receivership on July 1, 1939. On October 30, 1939, a new company, the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Corporation, was organized by the Eccles-Browning bondholders, and this new company took over operation of the railroad on November 30 of that year.

Before the 1939 receivership the properties of the Utah Idaho Central were carried on the books at a value of $5,644,162.00. After reorganization this value was realistically restated to be $1,630,945.00, which permitted the company to obtain a loan of $241,920.00 from the Reconstruction Finance Company and at the same time a loan of $192,000.00 from First Security Bank.

The new bond issue placed the company in the most favorable financial position in its history. Interest charges were reduced to a fraction of their original figure and were decreasing yearly. With the economy undergoing full-scale war mobilization, significant profits must have been expected.

But these profits never materialized, and this fact deserves some attention. Being a short line carrier and operating through a primarily agricultural district, the U. I. C. had little access to government shipments of freight or personnel. Too, the demand for tank cars to haul petroleum products was so critical on the major railroads that small lines were almost completely unable to consign them. This drove gasoline and fuel oil wholesalers, who had previously shipped their products over the interurban, to obtain their own trucks or seek other means of shipment. The U. I. C. was forced to rely to a greater and greater extent upon the carriage of low revenue freight such as coal and sugar beets, the latter a seasonal crop. The widespread strikes which crippled the coal industry in 1946 had a disastrous effect on the U. I. C ; indeed, diey sounded its death knell.

152

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

On March 20, 1944, P. H. Mulcahy, who had managed the railroad during most of its history, including bodi receiverships, resigned as general manager and was replaced by R. E. Titus. A second change of managers came on January 1, 1945, when Amalgamated Sugar Company, an Eccles corporation, took over ownership and control of the U. I. C , and its president, H. A. Benning, became general manager of the railroad. In 1945, the U. I. C. registered its greatest loss since 1917, a whopping $215,667.00, and Mr. Benning, who had hoped to change the fortunes of the line in his year as manager, regretfully resigned on December 26. Amalgamated retained ownership of the company, however.

Total revenue for the railroad in 1945 was about $225,000.00 above the figure for 1939. During the same time, however, operating costs had increased by over $425,000.00. In 1944 and 1945 operating costs alone exceeded the total revenue figure, in the latter year by almost $150,000.00.

Without cash advances of $320,000.00 from Amalgamated, the U. I. C. could not have met its payroll in 1945. This increase in costs, together with a tremendous increase in automobile registrations, was die ultimate cause of the collapse of the U. I. C. In 1946, losses were kept to $45,448.00, a result accomplished largely by neglect of regular repair and maintenance of the road and equipment.

The coal strikes of this year were the final blow to hopes of recovering the mounting deficit. A receivership now would not solve anything, since operating costs alone were greater than total revenue. Furthermore, die railroad was badly in need of extensive repairs, and this would involve even greater expenditures.

This unhappy picture confronted the board of directors of the Utah Idaho Central at a meeting held November 25, 1946. Seeing no alternative, the board resignedly adopted resolutions of abandonment.

Since abandonment required the permission of both the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Utah Public Service Commission, an application was filed with the I. C. C. on December 18, 1946, which stated in part: The U. I. C. has sustained an operating loss for the years 1943, 1944,1945, and 1946 (10 months) in the aggregate amount of $237,664. Increased costs without a corresponding and commensurate increase in revenue has been and is responsible for the loss. There is no prospect that sufficient additional revenue can be obtained to meet the corporation's operating charges, which are increasing, taxes, and other costs and expenses.

THE UTAH IDAHO

CENTRAL

153

Upon court order, the railroad suspended operations on February 16, 1947. A hearing was conducted by the I. C. C. on May 5, 1947, and die commission issued its final order on June 20 of that year, which read in part, "Aside from operating losses, the line is in need of rehabilitation, for which large expenditures will be required. Its abandonment might inconvenience or damage some shippers . . . but continued operation at financial losses would impose an undue burden upon the applicant and upon interstate commerce." T h e order authorizing abandonment became effective July 5,1947.

Most Utah citizens had little reason for concern over the demise of the U. I. C , but a few, notably officials of the California Packing Company and Logan coal dealers, tried widi some desperation to keep the railroad operating. There was no avoiding the economic facts of life which had convinced the Eccles-Browning interests to abandon the A Birney model Ogden City street car in about 1918. At the time this model was used it was the salvation of the industry as the cars were small and comparatively economical to build and operate. When these trolleys were no longer to be seen on city streets, an era had come to an end.

^B

â&#x20AC;˘at m i II... -TF i

II! M i l 1

â&#x20AC;˘J

i. L. *K

154

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

enterprise, however, and neither Union Pacific nor Denver and Rio Grande was interested in purchasing the line for these same reasons.

So it was that on March 18,1947, the last train of the U. I. C. clattered from Preston to Ogden with a single motorman aboard. Soon after, the Hyman-Michaels Company of Chicago, which had scrapped another Eccles railroad, die Salt Lake and Utah, a year earlier, began the task of tearing out the rails, routing the ties, and winding the miles of aluminum and copper wire into bales.

In spite of the abandonment of the U. I. C , some of its properties saw further service in transportation. Some ninety steel gondolas were sold to other railroads along with two electric locomotives. Certain rights-of-way in Ogden were sold to the Bamberger line, while the L. D. S. Church purchased the Ogden car barn and its adjacent rails.

Other buildings in Ogden, including a large repair shop, were sold to the Ogden Transit Company. Burlington Trailways purchased the U. I. C.'s bus franchise and much of its automotive stock. And Hyman-Michaels Company shipped some of the U. I. C. rails to Brazil for use in the construction of coffee plantation roads there. The remainder of the railroad's properties was sold to miscellaneous bidders or scrapped.

The reasons for the failure of the U. I. C. have already been suggested, the overwhelming cause being overexpansion: an investment of nearly eight million dollars in transportation facilities serving a total population of less than one hundred thousand, with more dian half of that number concentrated in Ogden. That the Utah Idaho Central was operating in a falling market after 1925 is a foregone conclusion. The almost precipitous decline in patronage corresponded, as might be presumed, with the increase in automobile registrations during the same period, a period which, notably, encompassed the Great Depression.

Indicating the magnitude of its operations, statistics submitted by the railroad to the Public Service Commission of Utah show that the U. I. C. during its history (from 1915 on), carried 33,320,823 paying passengers; transported 10,186,030 tons of freight; paid wages of $9,586,938.00; expended $7,242,841.00 for equipment and real estate; and paid taxes of $1,755,100.00 to state and local governments in Utah and Idaho and to the federal government. With the co-operation of the Amalgamated Sugar Company, the U. I. C. did a great deal to encourage development of the sugar industry in northern Utah and southern Idaho, and other food processing businesses. It provided inexpensive freight service for coal and oil dealers and other bulk shippers also. It was therefore a major economic agent in the agricultural area it served.

THE UTAH

IDAHO

CENTRAL

155

There are many who believe that the Eccles-Browning promoters profited greatly from the operation of the U. I. C , but such is not the case. A comprehensive audit of all company records would be necessary in order to exactly state the total losses suffered by the railroad. The records of the Public Service Commission of Utah show an investment by the railroad's owners and creditors of over eight million dollars, with a return of about three million dollars in interest, less than four hundred thousand in installments on the principal of the debt, and about one million dollars from the proceeds of the final sale of properties. Returns from the sale of Utah Rapid Transit Company and other interests, not specified, could not amount to over half a million dollars. These figures indicate a loss of over three million dollars by the railroad's investors.

Furthermore, dividends were never declared by the company, so stockholders received no> return on their equity either during the years of operation or at the abandonment. A consideration of the "opportunity" losses suffered gives an even more startling picture: accruing interest at 6 per cent, compounded semiannually, an investment of $8,000,000.00 in 1917 would have grown to over $47,000,000.00 by 1947.

Thus the once-proud Eccles interurban came to its end, bowing finally to the leveling forces of the new automotive economy. It declined with die passing of an old way of life, a simpler, slower, and kinder society which first found in a rumbling, ungainly electric gondola the key to an exciting outside world, which dimmed with familiarity. Not a few were saddened at the scrapping of the Utah Idaho Central, for it told them, as other events had done, that there is little in life which can resist the devastations of time.

SAMUEL BRANNAN (1818-1889) The epitaph on Brannan's grave fittingly sums up his tempestuous career. It reads: " 'Sam' Brannan, California Pioneer of '46. Dreamer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Leader â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and Empire Builder." It does not mention that he died in poverty, and his body lay unclaimed in the San Diego receiving vault for over a year until a one-time friend donated a gravesite.

Picturesque Sam Brannan rated many "firsts" in early California history. He published the first newspaper in San Francisco, became the first millionaire, and also contributed valuable service in government, industry, and agriculture.

THE

APOSTASY

OF

SAMUEL

BRANNAN

By Eugene E. Campbell*

Samuel Brannan has become a legend in Mormon and California history. His activities in connection with the Brooklyn Mormon colony in San Francisco, die founding of New Hope, the announcement and exploitation of the discovery of gold in California, the first Vigilance Committee in San Francisco, and the development of Calistoga have been recorded in numerous books and articles. His alleged reply to L.D.S. Church leaders Lyman and Rich, when they requested that he give them tithing money that he had been collecting, to the effect that "when they could produce a receipt signed by the Lord, he would turn over the Lord's money to them" is a favorite quotation. Yet little has been written about his activities as the Mormon Church leader in California and of the steps that led to his apostasy and excommunication.

Following is an attempt to trace these developments in his life.

Apostasy is defined by Webster as "the abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; a total desertion or departure from one's faith. . . ." It follows from this that if Brannan is to be classified as an apostate, it should be shown that he had once held the faith and had subsequently renounced it. Although there can be no question as to * Dr. Campbell is acting chairman of the Department of History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

158

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

whether Brannan was a baptized, active member of the Mormon Church or not, there has been some conjecture as to whether he was a sincere convert. Sergeant William Coray, a member of the Mormon Battalion who knew Brannan in San Francisco, recorded in his journal that Brannan "would play billiards and drink grog with the greatest blacklegs in the place, saying that it was policy to do so. He said to me one time when he was intoxicated, 'every act of my life is through policy.' " 1 If this is true, there may be some basis for a question as to the sincerity of his espousal of the Mormon cause.

Whatever the state of his true convictions, Brannan joined die Mormon Church in 1833 in Kirtland, Ohio, and was an active member until his sudden defection in 1849. According to Bailey, he "paid his tithing, aided in building the Kirtland Temple, and was convinced that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God." 2 He became inactive during the troublesome times in Kirtland, but later returned and went on a short-term mission. Eventually he traveled to Nauvoo, where he received a call to go to the New England Mission to print a paper for the church. He became closely associated with William Smith, president of the mission and brother to the Prophet. In the struggle for control of the church after the death of Joseph Smith, Brannan supported William's claims, which resulted in his being disfellowshipped. Brannan seemed to be genuinely concerned about this turn of events, and made the long trip from New York to Nauvoo where he presented himself as a penitent sinner and begged for the restoration of his rights and standing in the church. He was successful in his quest for reinstatement and was sent back to New York to work with Apostles Orson and Parley P. Pratt in defending the faith tiirough publication.3 It was at this time that Brannan conceived the idea of leading a group of Mormons to California by sea, and received Apostle Orson Pratt's approval and appointment as presiding elder of the group. Thus, on February 4, 1846, the ship Brooklyn cleared the New York harbor with 238 Latter-day Saints aboard under the leadership of Elder Samuel Brannan.

Brannan, who was only twenty-seven years of age at this time, seemed to take his position seriously. A list of twenty-one rules was drawn up to govern the lives of the members and diese were strictly 1 Journal of William Coray, Journal History of the Return of the Mormon Battalion, MS, July 6, 1847, in L.D.S. Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.

2 Paul Bailey, 5am Brannan and the California Mormons (Los Angeles, 1943), 16, 18.

3 B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), III, 38.

APOSTASY OF SAMUEL BRANNAN

159

enforced. Among these rules were requirements for participation in religious services. Speaking of this rule, Bailey says: Brannan was punctilious in his demands for proper religious devotion. Prayers were to be held every evening â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on deck when the weather was fair, in the mess hall when cold or storms made the deck untenable. Attendance was obligatory.

Sabbath was a day of rest and praise, during which the young elder loudly exhorted his pilgrims to a "true sense of duty." ' An article written in the Sacramento Daily Union, thought to have been written by Edwin Kcmble, a non-Mormon passenger, bears out Bailey's statement. It states that "every evening when the weather permitted, the company were assembled for prayers, and on Sunday, there was preaching, generally by the Elder in charge of the expedition."''

When the boat docked at Honolulu, the Saints were instructed to be careful about discussing their religion, and if anyone should ask them what their religion taught, they were to reply that it was "to mind one's own business." " This attitude was in sharp contrast to the usual aggressive willingness of Mormons to teach their beliefs to anyone who would listen to them. The friendly reception given them by the Honolulu press, and by the citizens in general, is credited by the author of the Sacramento Union article with changing this churlish attitude, and the Saints mingled freely with the citizenry. Brannan himself gave interviews to the press concerning the church. On July 1,1846, the Honolulu Friend carried the following article: The arrival of the Brooklyn has brought to our shores a hirge company of emmigrants on their passage from New York to California. Rumors are afloat, and numerous inquiries are made respecting the origins and sentiments of those people, and the desire has been expressed that we should furnish for the readers of the Friend, some information on the subject. It cannot be expected that an extended account would appear in our columns, but we offer the following summary of information gathered from various sources.

Then followed a fair account of the history of Joseph Smith and of the rise of the church, and then a statement of the basic beliefs. Commenting on this, the article continued: ' Bailey, op. cit., 32. " "After Twenty Years," Sacramento Daily Union, September 11, 1866. " Ibid.

160

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The following summary of their articles of belief, we publish upon the authority of Mr. Brannan, who is the leader of the company now bound for California. We would remark in regard to Mr. Brannan, that he is a young man, about 27 years of age, a native of Saco, Maine, a printer by trade, has resided for three years in the family of Joseph Smith, Jr., has been editor of a weekly newspaper in New York City called the New Yor\ Messenger, and is intending to establish another paper on his arrival in California.

Brannan also conducted public services while in Honolulu, for on July 27,1846,the Honolulu Polynesian published the following notice: "Elder S. Brannan will lecture at the seaman's chapel on Sabbadi afternoons, at three o'clock, upon the subject, 'Salvation to Eternal Life.' " The other religious activity of which we have record during die voyage had to do with the excommunication of four of the members.

According to Brannan's letter to the Millennial Star, these four were dropped from the church because they were "back-biters, evil-doers, and guilty of wicked and licentious conduct." 7 The trials were held after the Saints left Honolulu, and Brannan acted as judge in each case.

From the foregoing evidence, it would appear that Samuel Brannan took his position as a Mormon leader seriously, and, other than his initial reluctance to discuss his religion in Honolulu, there is little reason to question the sincerity of his convictions as he arrived in California.

Bancroft remarks that the arrival of the Brooklyn made San Francisco "very largely a Mormon town." 8 On the second day after dieir arrival, the usual Sunday service was held, this being the first L.D.S. Church service to be held in California. There is no record of die details of the service, but from the testimonies of those held on board the ship, as well as those subsequently held in San Francisco, it is safe to assume that Samuel Brannan conducted the meeting and did the preaching.

Bailey comments on the religious services as follows: Religious services were immediately instituted in the Portmaster's "Case Grande." Elder Brannan called his Saints to worship with a small handbell, conveniently hung in the Plaza.

Findla, who came to San Francisco in the fall of 1847, says that he heard Brannan preach, and that "he didn't preach very different than other men." 9 7 Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Liverpool, 1847), IX, 307.

"H. H. Bancroft, History of California (7 vols., San Francisco, 1886), V, 551. ° Bailey, op. cit., 46-47.

LI,

if

wk

~^s^-_&^Mt^F^--< KJK 4ÂŁ*1*

'wm*mimm-7 PHOTO, COURTESY CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY

Yerba Buena (San Francisco) as it appeared in 1846-47 to the Saints of the Brooklyn. The sleepy little village in the cove of the surrounding sand hills numbered several Spanish families, a few Americans, about one hundred Indians, and the men from the ship Portsmouth.

This statement to the effect that Brannan's preaching was about the same as other m e n is an indication of Brannan's lack of sincere conviction, although it may be interpreted as a wise policy in their situation.

T h e fact that Brannan failed to organize a branch and hold Mormon services was almost fatal to the spirituality and cohesiveness of the little M o r m o n group. It was not long before they were "acting in the same manner as their neighbors . . . speculating in land, drinking, gambling, and giving their daughters in marriage to non-Mormons." 10 10 Letter from James Ferguson recorded in the Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 1, 1848, in Church Historian's Office.

The old Custom House, 1846. About sixteen of the Saints found shelter in this building.

Some pitched tents on a vacant lot, and others camped at the deserted Mission Dolores.

PHOTO, COURTESY CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY

162

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Brannan's failure to promote the cause of the church in California, even though he was the appointed leader, may be seen in die policy he announced for his newspaper, the California Star, which first appeared on January 9,1847. In his editorial entitled "Prospectus of the California Star," he said among other things that, "it will eschew with the greatest caution, everything that stands to the propagation of sectarian dogma."

This policy was certainly followed, for a reader may look in vain to find a single mention of die church activities and attitudes in San Francisco.11 Apparently Brannan felt that it would be wise to avoid missionary activity, and try to appear die same as other religious groups.

Another factor which led to Brannan's apostasy was his visit with Brigham Young when the pioneers first entered Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847. Brannan, apparently feeling the need of advice and desiring to lead the church to California, made the trip through the Sierras in the spring of 1847 and met Brigham Young and die pioneer party at the Green River in present day Wyoming. He accompanied the pioneers into Salt Lake Valley and participated in the early exploration of the valley and lake as well as Tooele Valley. Roberts states that Brannan did not receive a very cordial reception because of die agreement he had signed with A. G. Benson and Company.12 He left the valley to return to California, on August 9, 1847, and when he met returning members of the Mormon Battalion at Donner Lake, he told them that Brigham Young had made a mistake in settling in Salt Lake Valley and expressed confidence that he would have to lead the Saints to California the next spring.13 On the day after his arrival in San Francisco, he wrote Brigham Young a letter in which he evidenced no bitterness, and on the seventeenth of October he wrote President Young another letter in which he said: On my return home I deemed it prudent to dissolve our company association for the fact that a great many were idle and indolent and would try to live upon the hard earnings of a few, and at the same time it would leave me less encumbered to perform the duties involved upon me in sustaining the cause of Zion.

11 Bancroft says that a few extras were printed from time to time which were devoted to church affairs. See Bancroft, op. cit., V, 552.

"Roberts, op. cit., Ill, 201-2. Brannan had committed the church leaders to deed every alternate section of land and city lot that the Mormons might acquire to A. G. Benson 8c Co. in exchange for promised protection on their movement out of Nauvoo.

13 Bailey, op. cit. (enlarged ed., Los Angeles, 1953), 111.

APOSTASY

OF SAMUEL BRANNAN

163

I hope, brethern, that you will not be prejudiced or doubt my loyalty from any rumor or report that may be circulated....

14 My whole soul is bent on laboring for you day and night To this letter Addison Pratt attached an appendix stating that he had returned from his mission in Tahiti in June (1847) and that the church was growing there, and many more elders were needed.15 Brannan seemed to feel that if he could convince die church leaders that there was no possibility of persecution he might be able to encourage them to come to California. In a letter on December 5 written to Brigham Young he said, "If two or three hundred families of our people be thrown into this town, within four years the wealth and influence of this place could be entirely secured to our interest." 1G In the same letter Brannan expressed his great desire for the growth of the Kingdom, and told of the influence of the Star and ended by saying, "I hope you will not forget my situation. I am surrounded by the allurements of the world and need your prayers and blessings." 17 Three days before writing this letter (December 2, 1847) Brannan called the Mormons in San Francisco and organized diem into a branch with Addison Pratt as branch president. Four months later he wrote to President Young including the comments about this development and said that he had a great desire to serve the church and to abide by her council, and then expressed the hope: . . . that another year would not pass until I have the pleasure and happiness of receiving one of the "12" in this place. I feel assured in saying that the good results that would arise from it would pay a thousand-fold the cause and interest of Zion Many wish to exhalt themselves, especially Brother Coray and Ferguson, who are now in this place; much confusion here exists from their teaching unmarried sisters the "spiritual wife" doctrine.18 On the latter point, Brannan said that tiiey were unsuccessful and that he was greatly opposed to it. Then speaking of Addison Pratt's leadership, he says: When Bro. Pratt took the presidency of the branch, I was in hopes of receiving better results than I have; he is one day car" Journal History, September 18, 1847.

Ibid.

"Ibid., December 5, 1847. " Ibid.

"Ibid., March 29, 1848.

15

164

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ried away with them [brethren complaining against Brannan] and the next day against them; and so it has been for three months. I do not say this with any feeling against Bro. Pratt, for I have none; it arises from the lack of a natural stableness of purpose and firmness in decision and character.18 Brannan concluded the letter by saying, "I am not carried away by the world." 20 Meanwhile, events were developing that were to carry Brannan and many others "away with the world." James Marshall, who was foreman over six Mormon Battalion boys at Coloma, made the discovery of gold that was to set the world aflame widi the desire for easy wealth. Sam Brannan made the public announcement of the discovery and dien began his energetic career that was to make him California's first millionaire.

Among other activities Brannan went to Mormon Island, where many of the Mormons were securing gold, and began collecting tithing.

Evidently he used a number of arguments in order to get die men to pay him some gold. It seems Azariah Smith understood it to be a tax because Brannan was securing the claim of Willis and Hudson; Pratt thought it was for tithing, widi an additional tax or contribution asked in order to buy cattle for the church;21 and John A. Sutter's account indicates another purpose for this collection. He says that he was under the impression that the "Mormons were being assessed to build a temple to the Lord. Now that God has given gold to the Church, the Church must build a temple." 22 Meanwhile Brannan continued to send letters to Brigham Young protesting his loyalty and whole-souled devotion to the cause, and requested that they not listen to complaints of the members in the region against him. Finally on April 5, 1849, Brigham Young sent him a letter that brought matters to a head and drove Brannan from his hypocritical position into the ranks of avowed apostasy. This letter informed Brannan that Amasa M. Lyman, of the Council of the Twelve, was coming to California bearing a general epistle to all the faithful saints, and that either the epistle or Lyman would answer the numerous questions he "â&#x20AC;˘Ibid.

"-" Ibid. " Eugene E. Campbell, "The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, 1846-1946" (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1952), 135.

12

John A. Sutter, New Helvetia Diary (San Francisco, 1939), 175.

APOSTASY

OF SAMUEL BRANNAN

165

had asked in his letters. He then made a very unusual request. After stating that no legal complaints had been filed, he said: The man who is always doing right has no occasion to fear any complaints that can be made against him, and I hope that you have no cause to fear.

I am glad to hear you say that I may rely on your "pushing every nerve to assist me and sustain me to the last," for I do not doubt that you have been blessed abundantly and now shall have it in your power to render most essential service. I shall expect ten thousand dollars, at least, your tithing, on the return of Elder Lyman, and if you have accumulated a million to tithe, so as to send $100,000.00, so much the better, and you may get two million next year. If you want to continue to prosper, do not forget the Lord's treasury, lest he forget you, and with the liberal, the Lord is liberal, and when you have settled widi the treasury, I want you to remember that Bro. Brigham has long been destitute of a home, and suffered heavy losses and incurred great expenses in searching out a location and in planting the Church in this place, and he wants you to send him $20,000 (a present) in gold dust to help him with his labors. This is but a trifle where gold is so plentiful but it will do me much good at this time.

I hope that Bro. Brannan will remember that when he has complied with my request, my council will not be equal with me unless you sent $20,000 more, to be divided between Brothers Kimball and Richards, who, like myself, are straightened; a hint to the wise is sufficient, so when this is accomplished you will have our united blessing, and our hearts will exclaim, "God bless Brother Brannan, and give him four fold for all diat he has given us."

Now Brother Brannan, if you will deal justly with your fellows, and deal out with a liberal heart and open hands, making a righteous use of your money, the Lord is willing that you should accumulate the treasures of the earth and good things in time of abundance, but should you withhold when the Lord says give, your hope and pleasing prospects will be blasted in an hour you diink not of, and no arm to save. But I am pursuaded better things of Brother Brannan. I expect all that I have asked when Brother Lyman returns and may God bless you to this end is die prayer of your brother in the new covenant.

B. Young23 'Journal History, April 5, 1849. See also Bailey, op. cit. (enlarged ed.), 173-74.

UTAH

166

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

One can imagine Brannan's feelings when he read this letter. His numerous protestations of loyalty were now put to the test, the most difficult test an avaricious man can face, that of parting with some of his wealth.

One might also wonder at Brigham Young's motives in sending such a letter. If he is taken literally, his use of the "Lord's desires and wishes" in order to entice Brannan into enriching him personally seems little different from Brannan's use of the same device to get gold from the miners. Since Brigham Young's record does not give evidence of such hypocritical, unethical practices, it seems more likely that he was putting Brannan to a test severe enough to make him take a stand one way or the other. This does not imply that Brigham Young would have refused the money if Brannan had proved loyal, for he and his counselors had great need of it after devoting almost all of their adult lives in the service of the church. It is quite certain that Brigham Young was aware of Brannan's activities and attitudes, for Addison Pratt, as well as many of the battalion men, had talked with Brigham Young before he wrote this letter.

By the time Lyman had arrived, Brannan had disclaimed all connection with the church,24 although there is no evidence that he "offered to turn the tithing over to Lyman if he could produce a receipt signed by the Lord." In fact, both Lyman and Charles C. Rich, who had been sent to aid Lyman, investigate Brannan, and collect tithing, tell of meeting Brannan in their journal accounts, but neither mentions any such statement by Brannan. Rich simply reported that on June 28, "We paid Mr. Samuel Brannan a visit and learned from him that he stood alone and knew no one only himself and his family. He agreed to turn over some 24 Letter from Amasa Lyman to the First Presidency recorded in Journal History, July 23, 1850.

Sam Brannan's

home in San Francisco in 1847.

APOSTASY

OF SAMUEL

BRANNAN

167

books." 25 Lyman's account is essentially the same, although he adds one item. He said, "Spent the day in San Francisco and we visited Samuel Brannan who made me a present of some $500.00. Made an arrangement for the books in his possession." 26 It appears that the celebrated story is the figment of some journalistic imagination that has come to be accepted as an historical incident. It is interesting to note that aldiough both Rich and Lyman reported that Brannan had apostatized, neither took any action to excommunicate him. This remained die task of Parley P. Pratt, who was called to preside over the Pacific Mission in 1851.

By the time Pratt arrived Brannan had acquired much of his great fortune and was one of the leading citizens of the city. Among his other activities, he had taken a leading part in the organization of the Vigilantes in 1851.27 This activity has been applauded as a sign of courageous citizenship by California historians, but Brannan's contemporaries in the little Mormon branch apparently viewed it in a different light, for on August 25, 1851, Brannan was disfellowshipped from the church by a unanimous vote for "a general course of unchristianlike conduct, neglect of duty, and for combining with lawless assemblies to commit murder and other crimes."28 Fanny Corwin, Brannan's mother-in-law, was probably in attendance at the meeting diat voted to disfellowship Brannan.29 Ironically, Samuel Brannan's relationship with die church was severed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not for stealing the tithing, nor for his avowed apostasy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but apparently for questionable conduct and especially because of his leadership in the Committee of Vigilance, 1851.

25

Journal of Charles C. Rich, MS, June 28, 1850, in Church Historian's Office.

Journal of Amasa Lyman, MS, June 28, 1850, in Church Historian's Office.

27 See Mary Floyd Williams, History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 (Berkeley, University of.California Press, 1929).

28 P. P. Pratt, "A Mormon Mission to California in 1851," Reva H . Stanley and Charles Camp (eds.), California Historical Society Quarterly, XIV (March, 1935).

20

"Ibid.

UTAH,

THE MORMONS, AND THE WEST: A BIBLIOGRAPHY SELECTIONS

FROM

"A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THESES AND DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING UTAH OR THE MORMONS WRITTEN OUTSIDE THE STATE OF UTAH'

By Ida-Marie Clar\ Logan

(conclusion) HAEFNER, JOHN H . " T h e West as Seen T h r o u g h Frontier Biography."

Ph.D. 1943, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

HAFEN, L E R O Y . " T h e Overland Mail to the Pacific Coast, 1848-1869."

Ph.D. 1924, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HAGELBARGER, ALFRED L. " T h e Admission of Utah as a State." M.A. 1951, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

HALTER, DORIS MARION. " M o r m o n Literature of die Nineteenth Cen-

tury." M.A. 1946, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

HAMERMAN, SAM. " T h e Mormon Missionaries in England, 1837-1852."

M.A. 1938, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HAMILTON, BERTHA. " T h e Utah Commission." M.A. 1921, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

170

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

HANCHETT, WILLIAM F., JR. "Religion and the Gold Rush, 1849-1854: T h e Christian Churches in the California Mines." P h . D . 1952, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HANDLEY, WILLIAM HAROLD.

"A Long-Range Building Program for

Weber College, Ogden, Utah." E d . D . 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

HANSEN, ASAEL T . " T h e Role of the Auxiliary Organizations in the Mormon System of Social Control." P h . D . 1930, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. â&#x20AC;¢ HANSEN, HAROLD IVAN.

"A History and Influence of the Mormon

Theatre from 1839-1869." P h . D . 1949, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

HANSEN, MERRILL CHRISTIAN. "Borah's Defense of M o r m o n Rights in

the Idaho Political Campaigns of 1904 to 1906." M.A. 1952, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

HANSEN, WILFORD L. "A Recreational Development Plan for Logan Canyon, Utah." M.F. 1934, State University of N e w York College of Forestry at Syracuse, N e w York.

HANSON, ALVIN M. "Geology of the Southern Malad Range and Vicinity in Northern Utah." P h . D . 1949, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

HARBURG, CHESTER W . "Mormon Polygamy: A Study of Change in a Group's Value System." M.A. 1950, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

HARDY, CECIL Ross. " T h e Influence of Soil Type and of Barriers on the Local Distribution of Some Mammals in Southwestern Utah."

Ph.D. 1944, University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, Michigan.

HARRIS, CHATJNCY DENNISON. "Salt Lake City, A Regional Capital."

Ph.D. 1940, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

HARRIS, MILTON H Y R U M . "Social Value of the M o r m o n Organization."

Master's Essay 1917, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

HASKINS, ARCHIE. " A Proposal for Student Body Organization in the L.D.S. Seminaries in Southern California." M.S. 1954, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

HATFIELD, JOSEPH TENNIS. "Congress, Polygamy, and the Mormons."

M A . 1954, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON M O R M O N S

171

HAUGAARD, JUNE CAMBELL. "Some Aspects of Pioneer Life in Utah, 1846-1861." M.A. 1950, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

HAWKES, H . BOWMAN. "Mountain and Valley Winds — w i t h Special Reference to the Diurnal Mountain Winds of the Great Salt Lake Kegion." P h . D . 1947, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

H A W K I N S , CONRAD HAROLD. "Mormon Pioneering and Colonizing in

California." M.A. 1947, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

HAYWARD, CHARLES L Y N N .

"Biotic Communities of Mt. Timpanogos

and Wesiern Uinta Mountains, Utah." P h . D . 1942, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

HEAUNE, CARL RUSSELL. " T h e History of the Mormon Colony of Kel-

sey, Upshur County, Texas." M.S. 1949, East Texas State Teachers College, Commerce, Texas.

H E C K EL, CHARLES WILLARD.

"Mormonism and the Federal Govern-

ment in Utah, 1850-1896." Master's Essay 1936, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

HENDERSON, MYRTLE E. "A History of the Theatre in Salt Lake City from 1850 to 1870." M.S. 1934, Northwestern University, Evansion, Illinois.

HERRING, HUBERT CLINTON.

"An

Introduction to the Philosophy of

Mormonism." Master's Essay 1912, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

HiATT, JUNIOR LAFAYETTE. " T h e Health Program of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Theory and Practice." M.A. 1948, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

HICKMAN, JOSIAII EDWIN.

"A Critical Study of the Monogamic and

Polygamic Offspring of the Mormons." Master's Essay 1908, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

H I M E S , M. G. "Influence of the Mormons on Foreign Immigration."

M.A. 1(H8, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

HINTZE,

FERDINAND FRIIO.

"A

Contribution to the Geology of the

Wasatch Mountains, Utah."

N e w York, N e w York.

Ph.D. 1913, Columbia University,

H I P P L E , BYRON THOMAS. "An Analysis of the Administrative Costs of

the Utah Department of Public Welfare by Time Study." Master's Thesis 1942, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N e w York.

172

UTAH HISTORICAL

HOCK, CASSIE HYDE.

QUARTERLY

" T h e Mormons in Fiction." P h . D . 1941, Uni-

versity of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

HODGSON, MARION

ELLSWORTH.

"A Comparison of the Educational

Costs and Advantages of the Utah County Unit System and the Colorado District System." M.S. 1939, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

HOFFMAN, ALICE MARGARET. " T h e Evolution of the H i g h w a y from Salt

Lake City to Los Angeles." M.A. 1936, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

HOFFMEISTER, HAROLD ARTHUR. " T h e Uncompahgre Valley Irrigation

Project." P h . D . 1939, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

HOOPER, F . A . "Examination of a Portion of a Mine in Bingham Canyon, Utah." B.S. 1925, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

HOPKINS, JOHN ALFRED. "Economics of Western Range Resource Use."

Ph.D. 1954, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

HOSTETLER, MARION STEWART. " T h e M o r m o n Doctrine of Deity." S.T.M.

1941, Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

HOUSTON, FLORA BELLE. " T h e Mormons in California, 1846-1857." M.A.

1929, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HOWAT, A . M. "Report on the Property of the Daly-Judge Mining Company, Park City, Utah." S.P. 1907, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado.

HOWES, EDWARD H . " T h e Employment of Indian Scouts by the U.S. Army in Arizona, 1865-1886." M.A. 1947, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HULETT, JAMES EDWARD.

" T h e Sociological and Social Psychological

Aspects of the Mormon Polygamous Family." P h . D . 1939, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

H U L L , IRVIN, "Life Insurance Lapsation in Utah. A Case Study of 5048 Households." Ph.D. 1938, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

H U N T , ALICE PAUKER. "Archaeological Survey of the La Sal Mountain

Area, Utah." M.A. 1952, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

H U N T , ROBERT ELTON. " T h e Geology of the Dry Canyon Region, Gun-

nison Plateau, Utah." M.S. 1948, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

173

. " T h e Geology of the Northern Part of the Gunnison Plateau, Utah." P h . D . 1950, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

HUNTER, MILTON R. "Brigham Young, the Colonizer." P h . D . 1936, University of California, Berkeley, California.

HYDE, STUART W . " T h e Representative of die West in American Drama, 1849-1917." P h . D . 1954, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

INGRAM, JOHN WESLEY AND PEARSON, H E N R Y ROSCOE.

"Administration

of Public Affairs in Utah County." M.S. 1941, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

IVES, RONALD LORENZ. "Climate of the Southern Salt Lake Desert, Utah."

M A . 1948, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

JACOBSON, ERNEST A. " T h e Determination of Some Elements of a State Program of Higher Education with Implications for the State of Utah." E d . D . 1938, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

JANOSIK, GABRIEL E. " T h e Political Theory of the Mormon Church."

Ph.D. 1951, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

JAY, G. P . " T h e State of Deseret." Master's Thesis 1941, Texas Technological College, Lubbock, Texas.

JENSEN, MILTON B. "Utah Secondary Education." M.A. 1925, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

JENSEN, THERALD N . "Mormon Theory of Church and State." P h . D .

1938, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

JOHNSON, ARLIN REX. "History and Analysis of the Utah Poultry Producers Cooperative Association." Master's Thesis 1930, George Washington University, Washington, D . C .

JOHNSON, ELEANOR MOLIERE. " T h e Gathering of the Mormons in Jack-

son County, Missouri." M.A. 1927, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

JOHNSON, M I K E SAM. "Geology of the Twelvemile Canyon Area, Central Utah." M.S. 1949, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

JONES, HARRY HARDEN. "Treatments of the Mining T h e m e in Western

Fiction." M.A. 1950, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

JONES, RAY L . " A Handbook for Teachers Entering the Los Angeles Latter-day Saints Seminaries." M.S. Project 1952, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

174

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

JORDAN, LUELLA KATHLEEN. "Joseph Smith, with an Introduction and

Notes." Master's Essay 1939, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

JORGENSEN, ROY H . "Safeguarding School Funds in the West Central and Rocky Mountain Regions of the United States." P h . D . 1955, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

KEDDINGTON, JOHN B. "Mormon Symphony." P h . D . 1948, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

KENNEDY, CHESTER BARRETT. "Newspapers of the California Northern

Mines, 1850-1860: A Record of Life, Letters, and Culture." Ph.D. 1950, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

KILBURN, H Y R U M PARLEY. " T h e Administration of a State Industrial

School." E d . D . 1950, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

KIMBALL, RAYMOND A. "Earmarking of State Revenues in Utah." M.S. 1947, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

KINNEY, DOUGLAS M. "Geology of the Uinta River-Brush Creek Area, Duchesne and Uintah Counties, Utah." P h . D . 1950, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

KIRBY, KEITH P. " T h e Mormon Search for a City of Zion." M.A. 1950, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

KIRK, GEORGE. "A History of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad." M.A. 1935, University of California, Berkeley, California.

KLEIN, EDITH M. " T h e Beginning of American Missionary W o r k in the Hawaiian Islands, 1820-1826." M.A. 1927, University of California, Berkeley, California.

KNIGHT, HATTIE M. "A Study of the Reference Collection and Service at Brigham Young University as it Fits the Teaching Program." B.S. in L.S. 1951, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee.

KNOWLTON, BRYANT SUTTON.

" T h e Early History of Agriculture in

Utah." M.A. 1941, University of California, Berkeley, California.

KNUDSEN, DARWIN COWLEY. "George Q. Cannon's Effectiveness as a

Speaker." M.A. 1951, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

KRANSDORFF, DAVID. " T h e Geology of the Eureka Standard Mine, Tintic, Utah." P h . D . 1934, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

175

KREUGER, G. S. "Report on the Property of the Daly-Judge Mining Company, Park City, Utah." S.P. 1907, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado.

KULL, DAVID J. "Geology of the Uinta Mountains." B.S. 1948, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

LAGO, N I L S HENDERSON. " T h e Utah Expedition, 1857-1858." M.A. 1939,

University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

LANDGRAF, JOHN LESLIE. " L a n d Use in the Ramah Navaho Area, N e w

Mexico." P h . D . 1950, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

LANGLOIS, F . E. " T h e History of Mormonism with Special Reference to the Influence of the Mormon Church on the Economic Development of the F a r West." Master's Thesis 1926, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

LANTIS, DAVID W I L L I A M .

" T h e San Luis Valley, Colorado:

Sequent

Rural Occupance in an Intermontane Basin." Ph.D. 1950, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

LANTZ, EVERETT D . " T h e Status of Head Athletic Coaches of the Secondary Schools in the Rocky Mountain States." M.A. 1939, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

LAUTENSCHLAGER, HERMAN KENNETH. " T h e Geology of the Central Part

of the Pavant Range, Utah." P h . D . 1952, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

LAW, REUBEN D E E M . "Content and Criteria Relating to Professional Teacher Education." E d . D . 1941, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

LEAVITT, FRANCIS H . "Influence of the Mormon People in the Settlement of Clark County." Master's Thesis 1934, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.

LEE, HECTOR. " T h e Three Nephites. T h e Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore." P h . D . 1947, University of N e w Mexico, Albuquerque, N e w Mexico.

LEWIS, W I L L I A M , JR. " A n Adaptation of the Book of Mormon for Radio."

M.A. 1948, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

LINFORD, VELMA. " T h e W o m e n of the Intermountain States in Literature." M.A. 1935, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

176

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

LLOYD, WESLEY PARKINSON. " T h e Rise and Development of Lay Leader-

ship in the Latter-day Saint Movement." P h . D . 1937, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

LOGAN, EVERETT EMERY. "Wool Growing and Tariff Policy with Particular Reference to the Rocky Mountain Region." M.A. 1936, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

LONGHORN, MILTON. " T h e Mormons and the Founding of Utah, 18471851." M.A. 1932, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

LOVELL, ADALINE. "History of Stockton to 1860." M.A. 1931, College of the Pacific, Stockton, California.

LOVENDAHL, AGNES. " T h e Mormons in Fiction." Master's Essay 1920, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

LUNDY, DALE RAYMOND. "Educational Opportunities at Selected Indus-

trial Schools for Boys." M.A. 1942, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

LYON, THOMAS EDGAR. "Orson Pratt â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Early Mormon Leader." M.A. 1932, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

MADSEN, BRIGHAM D . " T h e Bannock Indians in Northwest History, 1805-1900." P h . D . 1949, University of California, Berkeley, California.

-. "History of the Upper Snake River Valley, 1807-1825." M.A. 1940, University of California, Berkeley, California.

MALAN, VERNON D . " T h e Development of Irrigation Institutions in the Semi-Arid West." P h . D . 1955, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

MANGRES, GLEN V. "An Investigation of Safety Education in the Public Schools of the T e n Mountain States." M.S. 1953, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

MARCH, DAVID DEARMOND. "Cheyenne and Sioux Indian Relations Along the Oregon Trail, 1841-1858." Master's Thesis 1941, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

MARGARET, HELENE. "Father DeSmet, Pioneer Priest of the Rockies."

Ph.D. 1941, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

MARGO, JOAN. " T h e Food Supply Problem of the California Gold Mines, 1848-1855." M.A. 1947, University of California, Berkeley, California.

MARSTON, RICHARD B. "Effects of Contour-Trenches and Vegetational Recovery upon the Hydrologic Characteristics of Parrish Basin, Utah." Thesis 1948, University of California, Berkeley, California.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

177

MARTNER, SAMUEL T . "Geology of the Manila-Linwood Area, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, and Daggett County, Utah." P h . D . (minor) 1949, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

MATTHEWS, MILTON P . " A n Analysis of D r u g Retailing in Utah." P h . D .

1955, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

MAXWELL, W I L L I A M LEGRAND. "Revision of the Music Study Program

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Ed.D. 1952, Columbia University Teachers College, N e w York, N e w York.

MCBRIDE, D O N WALLACE. " T h e Development of Higher Education in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." P h . D . 1952, Michigan State College, East Lansing, Michigan.

MCBRIDE, VEARL GORDON. " T h e Welfare Program in the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1936-1946." Master's Thesis 1948, Arizona State College, Tempe, Arizona.

MCBRIEN, DEAN D . " T h e Influence of the Frontier on Joseph Smith."

Ph.D. 1929, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. MCDIVITT, JAMES FREDERICK. "Economic Aspects of Mineral Resource

Development in Southern Idaho." P h . D . 1954, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

MCFADDEN, MAUDE W I C K H A M .

" T h e History of the Colorado River,

1848-1879." M.A. 1931, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

M C H E N R Y , MAUDE. "Transportation Across the Great Plains." M A .

1926, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

M C K E A N , SHIRLEY N E A L . " N a u v o o of the M o r m o n Era." M.A. 1933,

State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

M C N I F F , W I L L I A M JOHN. " T h e Part Played by the Mormon Church in

the Cultural Development of Early Utah (1847-1879)." P h . D . 1929, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

MELVILLE, JAMES K E I T H . " T h e Political Philosophy of Brigham Young."

M.A. 1949, University of California, Berkeley, California.

MERKLEY, MARION GIBB. " T h e Student Product of Utah Public Schools, 1947 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a n Evaluation." E d . D . 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MERRILL, HARRISON R. " T h e Latter Day Saint Press, 1830-1930." M.S. 1930, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

178

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

MERRILL, MILTON R. "Reed Smoot, Apostle in Politics." P h . D . 1951, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

MERRILL, RAY STODDARD. " A Proposed Plan of Junior Colleges for Utah."

M A . 1930, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MERRISAY, RICHARD JOHN. "History of the Cattle Industry in Arizona."

M.A. 1941, University of California, Berkeley, California.

METTER, RAYMOND E. " T h e Geology of a Part of the Southern Wasatch Mountains, Utah." P h . D . 1955, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

MILLER, DAVID EUGENE. " T h e Great Salt Lake, Its History and Economic Development." P h . D . 1947, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

MILLER, ELBERT ERNEST. "Agricultural Geography of Cache Valley, UtahIdaho." P h . D . 1951, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

MILLER, WILLIAM PETER. "Developments in Public School Land Policies in Utah, 1935-1948." Ed.D. 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MILLET, WILLIAM FLOYD. "An Evaluation of Recreational Programs in

Selected Communities in Utah." M.S. 1940, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

MILLIKIN, BRUCE EMANUEL. " T h e Junior College in Utah â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A Survey."

M.A. 1931, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MILLS, ELIZABETH H O E L . " T h e M o r m o n Colonies in Chihuahua after

the 1912 Exodus." M.A. 1950, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

MILTENBERGER, MAYOLA ROGERS. "Some Aspects of the Welfare Activi-

ties of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Master of Social W o r k Thesis 1938, Tulane University, N e w Orleans, Louisiana.

MITCHELL, HAROLD GENTRY. "A Geological Report on the Dry Canyon

Division of the Ophir Mining District, Utah." M.A. 1925, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

MOFFITT, JOHN CLIFTON. " T h e Development of Centralizing Tendencies

in Educational Organization and Administration in Utah." Ph.D. 1940, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

MONSEN, RAYMOND JOSEPH, JR. " T h e Economic Plan of M o r m o n Coloni-

zation." M.A. 1954, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

THESES A N D D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

179

MORTENSEN, ARLINGTON RUSSELL. " T h e Deseret N e w s and Utah, 1850-

1867." P h . D . 1949, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

MORTENSEN, W I N N I E H . " T h e M o r m o n Contribution to Early Pioneer Education in Arizona." M.A. 1948, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

MUESSIG, SIEGFRIED J. "Geology of a Part of Long Ridge, Utah." P h . D .

1951, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

MULDER, WILLIAM. "Mormons from Scandinavia, 1850-1905: T h e Story of a Religious Migration." P h . D . 1955, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MYERS, CHESTER JAMES. " A Critical Analysis and Appraisal of the W o r k

of Brigham Young as a Public Speaker." P h . D . 1940, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

NEBELSICK, ALVIN Louis. " T h e Admission of Utah." M.A. 1924, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

N E F F , ANDREW LOVE. " T h e M o r m o n Migration to Utah." P h . D . 1918,

University of California, Berkeley, California.

N E I L , W I L L I A M MACFARLANE. " T h e Territorial Governor in the Rocky

Mountain West, 1861-1889." P h . D . 1951, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

NELSON, LOWRY. " T h e Mormon Village: A Study in Social Origins."

Ph.D. 1929, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

NOBLE, LEGRANDE. " A Personnel Study of the Teachers of Uintah County, Utah." M.S. 1939, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. . " A Program of State Regulation of Teacher Supply and Dem a n d for Utah." P h . D . 1944, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

NORRINGTON, A N N I E . "Phycological Study of Some of the Mountain Lakes and Streams of the Wasatch and Uinta Ranges in Utah."

Ph.D. 1925, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

NUTTALL, DRAYTON BURNS. "State Aid for School Building Construction

in Utah." P h . D . 1951, University of California, Berkeley, California.

O ' D E A , THOMAS F . "Mormon Values: T h e Significance of a Religious Outlook for Social Action." P h . D . 1953, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

180

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ODISHO, WILLIAM CHARLES. "Salt Lake to Oakland: T h e Western Pacific Link in the Continental Railroad System." P h . D . 1941, University of California, Berkeley, California.

OESTERLING, WILLIAM A. "Geological Studies of Aerial Photographs of the Uinta Mountains, Utah." B.S. 1943, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

OLIVER, LOUISE D . " T h e Mormons and Missouri, 1830-1839." M.A. 1943, University of Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri.

OLLERTON, FAY. " T h e American Periodicals Treatment of Mormonism Since 1850." Master's Essay 1927, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

OLSEN, ARDEN BEAL. " T h e History of M o r m o n Mercantile Cooperation

in Utah." P h . D . 1935, University of California, Berkeley, California.

OLSEN, OLAF S. "A History of the Baptists of die Rocky Mountain Region, 1849-1890." P h . D . 1953, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

ORR, JOHN WILLIAM. "Federal Anti-Polygamy Legislation." M.A. 1951, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

ORTON, D O N ALFRED. "Appraisal of the Programs of Academic Specialization Of Utah's High-School Teachers." P h . D . 1950, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

PALMER, BELLE. " T h e Sojourn of the Mormons at Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 1846-1852." M.A. 1936, Colorado State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado.

PANCOAST, EVA L. "Mormons at Kirtland." M.A. 1929, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

PARKER, ISABEL M. "Apache Troubles in the Southwest." M.A. 1927, University of California, Berkeley, California.

PARSONS, F . N . "Report of the Property of the Daly-Judge Mining Company, Park City, Utah." S.P. 1907, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado.

PARSONS, PHYLLIS R. " T h e Trans-Mississippi West in Selected Popular Magazine Literature, 1820-1870. A n Annotated Bibliography." M.A. 1950, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

PAULES, CHARLOTTE. "Union Pacific Railroad Company: Promoter of Western Settlement." M.A. 1939, Mills College, Oakland, California.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

181

PEARSON, A N N E . " A Comparative Survey of Physical Education in State Industrial Schools with a Proposed Program for the Utah State Industrial School." M.S. 1938, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

PETERSEN, BRYAN LIND. "A Geographic Study of the M o r m o n Migra-

tion from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Salt Lake Valley (18461847)." M.A. 1941, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

PETERSON, VICTOR EDWIN. " A Study of the Geology and Ore-Deposits of

the Ashbrook Silver Mining District, Utah." P h . D . 1941, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

PHILLIPS, KENNETH A. " T h e Mining Geology of the Mt. Nebo District, Utah." M.S. 1940, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

PIERCE, JACK W . "Geology of the Uinta Mountains." M.S. 1949, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

-. "Structural History of the Uinta Mountains, Utah." M.S. 1950, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

PIERSON, GEORGE ARTHUR. "Procedures for Selecting and Guiding Pro-

spective Engineers." E d . D . 1944, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

PLATA, RICHARD ARTHUR. " T h e State of Deseret, A Political and Consti-

tutional History." M.A. 1938, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

POBORSKI, STANISLAW JOSEF. " T h e Virgin Formation of the St. George

Area, Southwestern, Utah." M.S. 1952, T h e Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

POLL, RICHARD DOUGLAS. " T h e M o r m o n Question, 1850-1865: A Study

in Politics and Public Opinion." P h . D . 1948, University of California, Berkeley, California. . " T h e T w i n Relic: A Study of Mormon Polygamy and the Campaign by the Government of the United States for Its Abolition 1852-1890." M.A. 1939, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.

POOLEY, W I L L I A M VIPOND.

" T h e Settlement of Illinois from 1830 to

1850." P h . D . 1905, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

POTTER, MARGARET SCHOW. " T h e History of Sericulture in Utah." Mas-

ter's Thesis 1949, Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon.

182

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

POULSON, JENNIEV JORGENSEN. "Resources for Rural Living in the Eco-

nomic Areas of Utah." M.S. 1954, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

POWER, JESSIE HAZEL. " T h e Dominguez-Escalante Expedition into the

Great Basin, 1776-1777." Master's Thesis 1920, University of California, Berkeley, California.

PRESTON, WILLIAM, JR. " T h e Watershed of Mormon History, 1890-1910."

Master's Essay 1950, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

PRICE, MILDRED MCCLELLAN. "Building the Union Pacific Railway."

M.A. 1930, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

PROCTOR, PAUL DEAN. " T h e Geology of the Bulley Boy Mine, Piute

County, Utah." M.A. 1943, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York. . "Geology of the Harrisburg (Silver Reef) Mining District, Washington County, Utah." P h . D . 1949, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

PUGH, BYRON GRANT. "History of Utah â&#x20AC;&#x201D; California Wagon Freighting." M.A. 1949, University of California, Berkeley, California.

RASMUSSEN, JEWELL JENS. "Severance Taxation in Utah." P h . D . 1948,

Stanford University, Stanford, California.

RAUZI, ERNEST.

" T h e F u r Men of the Missouri and Its Tributaries,

1822-1834." M.A. 1934, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

REED, RAYMOND J. " T h e Mormons in Chihuahua: Their Relations widi Villa and the Pershing Punitive Expedition, 1910-1917." M.A. 1938, University of N e w Mexico, Albuquerque, N e w Mexico.

REES, D O N MERRILL. "On the Biology of the Mosquitoes of Utah." Ph.D. 1936, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

REES, R U T H . " A Comparative Study of Utah Homes as a Basis for Curricula in H o m e Economics." M.S. 1937, Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon.

RENZETTI, BERT LIONEL. "Geology of the Scranton Mine Area, Tooele County, Utah." M.A. 1952, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

RICHARDS, WILFORD WOODRUFF. "A Study of the Contribution in Per-

sonal Guidance made by the Logan Latter-day Saints' Institute of Religion to the Students of the Utah State Agricultural College."

Ed.D. 1943, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

RICHARDSON, REED COLT. "Economic Security A m o n g the Mormons."

M.A. 1947, University of California, Berkeley, California.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S ON MORMONS

183

RICKS, ELDIN. " T h e Concept of Moral Freedom and Divine Justice in the Theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with Special Reference to the Writing and Discourses of Joseph Smith." Master's Thesis 1949, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

RICKS, JOEL EDWARD. " T h e Early Land System of Utah, 1847-1870."

M.A. 1920, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

"Forms and Methods of Early Mormon Settlement in Utah and the Surrounding Region, 1847 to 1877." P h . D . 1930, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

RILEY, WOODBRIDGE. " A Psychological History of Joseph Smith, Jr., the Founder of Mormonism." P h . D . 1902, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

RIRIE, BOYD H . "Character Training T h r o u g h Religious Education, a Practical Program Produced in the Development of the Educational System of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." M.S. 1940, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

ROBERTS, F . A . "Origin and Development of the Idea of a Cooperative Community Based upon die Christian Idea of Stewardship in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." M.A. 1923, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

ROBINSON, VERNON GEORGE. " T h e Public Career of Reed Smoot, 1903-

1937." M A . 1937, University of California, Berkeley, California.

ROMNEY, ANTONE K. " T h e Development of a School Building Code for Utah." E d . D . 1947, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

ROMNEY', THOMAS COTTAM. " T h e State of Deseret." P h . D . 1930, Uni-

versity of California, Berkeley, California. " T h e State of Deseret . . . 1924." M.A. 1925, University of California, Berkeley, California.

ROSE, DELBERT R. " T h e Theology of Joseph H . Smith." P h . D . 1953, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

RUNKLE, ALETHA M A E . "A History of the Choirs of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Lamoni, Iowa."

M.A. 1942, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

RUTLEDGE, RALPH MERRILL. "Emigration-Inheritance-Mortgages

a Factor

in Rural and Urban Economic Inequality." P h . D . 1931, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

184

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

RYAN, KENNETH WALTER. "Evaluation of the Physical Education Pro-

gram for Boys in Twenty Utah Junior H i g h Schools." M.S. 1935, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

SALO, RONALD R. "A Study of the Establishment of an Audio-Visual Library in the Latter-day Saint Seminary Program in Southern California." M.S. 1955, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

SANBORN, JOHN BELL. "Congressional Grants of L a n d in Aid of Rail-

ways." P h . D . 1899, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

SCHOFF, STUART L. "Geology of the Cedar Hills, Utah." P h . D . 1937, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

SCHWARTING, PAUL M . "Extraclass Activities in Lutheran Elementary Schools of Eighteen Western and Mid-Western States." M.S. 1955, University of N e w Mexico, Albuquerque, N e w Mexico.

SEBOLD, CHARLES EARL. " T h e Mormon Idea of God." S.T.M. 1941, Hart-

ford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut.

SELIM, IMAM MOHAMED.

"Planned Rural Community for the Nile

Valley." [Mormon villages studied.] P h . D . 1950, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

SHEFFIELD, SHERMAN BECK. " A Proposed System for the Selection, Pur-

chase, Storage, and Distribution of Supplies for the Southern California Seminaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." M.S. 1954, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

SHEPPERSON, WILBUR S. "British Views of Emigration to North America, 1837-1860." Ph.D. 1952, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

SILVERSTEIN, SANFORD. " T h e Early Development of the Mormon Church: A Study of the Routinization of Charisma." M.A. 1953, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

SKIDMORE, REX AUSTEN. "Mormon Recreation in Theory and Practice: A Study of Social Change." Ph.D. 1941, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

SMEDLEY, DELBERT WADDOUPS. "An Investigation of Influences on Repre-

sentative Examples of Mormon Art." M.A. 1940, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

SMITH, CALVIN SCHWARTZ. "Public-School L a n d Policies of the State of

Utah." P h . D . 1928, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

185

SMITH, FRANKLIN ABBOTT. "Railroads in the Territory of Utah." M.A.

1943, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

SMITH, H U G H D . "History of the California Press 1834-1860." M.A. 1940, University of California, Berkeley, California.

SMITH, MAUDE E. "Reed Smoot, Senator from Utah." M.A. 1934, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

SMITH, THOMAS L Y N N . "A Sociological Analysis of Some of the Aspects

of Rural Religious Culture as Shown by Mormonism." Master's Thesis 1929, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

SMITH, WILFRED EMERY. " A Comparative Study of Indulgence of Mor-

m o n and Non-Mormon Students in Certain Social Practices Which are Authoritatively Condemned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." P h . D . 1952, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

SNIDER, CECIL AUBREY. "Development of Attitudes in Sectarian Con-

flict: A Study of Mormonism in Illinois in Contemporary Newspaper Sources." M.A. 1933, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

SNIDER, H E L E N FULTON.

"Mormonism in Illinois: A n Analysis of the

Non-Mormon Press Materials, 1838-1848." M.A. 1933, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

SNOW, LORENZO H . "A Study of Mixed versus Non-Mixed Marriage among M o r m o n Groups." Master's Thesis 1954, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

SNOW, W I L L I A M JAMES. " T h e Great Basin Before the Coming of the

Mormons." P h . D . 1924, University of California, Berkeley, California.

SPENCER, JOSEPH EARLE. " T h e Middle Virgin River Valley, U t a h : A Study in Cultural Growth and Change." P h . D . 1936, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

STAGNER, LOWELL W . "Paleogeography of the Uinta Basin during the Uinta C T i m e . " M.S. 1939, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

STEELE, OLGA SHARP. " T h e Geography of the M o r m o n Trail Across

Nebraska." M.A. 1933, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.

STEFFENSEN, KEARNEY K. " T h e Mormon Church Government in Relation to Its Financial Methods." Master's Essay 1912, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

186

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

STEGNER, WALLACE EARLE. "Clarence E d w a r d D u t t o n : A n Appraisal."

Ph.D. 1935, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

STILLMAN, FRANCIS BENEDICT. " A Reconnaissance of the Wasatch Front

Between Alpine and American Fork Canyons, Utah County, Utah."

M.S. 1927, Cornell University, Ithaca, N e w York.

STRINGHAM, BRONSON F . "Mineralization of the West Tintic Mining District, Utah." P h . D . 1942, Columbia University, N e w York, New York.

SUTTON, SUSIE. " T h e Historical Development of Utah, 1847-1850." M.A. 1925, University of California, Berkeley, California.

SWAIN, RALPH BROWNLEE. " T h e M o r m o n Cricket and Range Vegeta-

tion." Ph.D. 1940, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

SWENSEN, RUSSEL BROWN. " T h e Influence of the N e w Testament Upon

Latter-day Saints Eschatology from 1830-1846." M.A. 1931, University of Chicago, Chicago', Illinois.

SWENSON, REED KNUTE. " A Survey of die Organization and Adminis-

tration of Physical Education for Boys in the H i g h Schools of Utah."

M.S. 1935, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

SYMONS, JOSEPH NATHANIEL. "Utah Residence Types and Criminal Be-

havior." P h . D . 1944, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

TANNER, GEORGE SHEPHERD. " T h e Religious Environment in which Mor-

monism Arose." M.A. 1931, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

TAPPAN, PAUL WILBUR. "Mormon-Gentile Conflict: A Study of die In-

fluence of Public Opinion on In-Group versus Out-Group Interaction with Special Reference to Polygamy." P h . D . 1939, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

TAYLOR, DOROTHY A N N . " T h e Geology of die Gunnison Plateau Front in the Vicinity of Wales, Utah." M.S. 1948, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

TAYLOR, D U N N L. "A Comparison of Instructional Costs of Physical Education and Other Subjects in the Senior H i g h Schools of Utah."

M.S. 1935, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

TAYLOR, ETHELYN PETERSON.

" T h e Counseling Service at Brigham

Young University: A Developmental History." M.A. 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

187

TAYLOR, LORENE. " T h e Cook County Latter-day Saints Diaspora." M.A. 1948, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

TEARE, EDWARD W . " T h e Organization of Pupil Personnel Services in Cities Between 100,000 and 300,000 Population widi Special Reference to Salt Lake City." P h . D . 1954, University of Wyoming, Laramie, W y o m i n g .

TELLING, IRVING, JR. " N e w Mexican Frontiers: A Social History of the Gallup Area, 1881-1901." P h . D . 1953, Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THATCHER, LIONEL W . "Development of Public Utility Regulation in Utah." P h . D . 1939, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

THAYNE, MELVIN ERICKSON. "Smoot of Utah (United States Senator, 1903-1933)." M A . 1950, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

THICKENS, VIRGINIA E. "Pioneer Colonies of Fresno County." M.A. 1942, University of California, Berkeley, California.

THOMAS, HAROLD E. "Geology of Cedar City and Parowan Valleys, Iron County, Utah." P h . D . 1947, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

THOMPSON, A N N A M A Y . "Mormonism in Missouri, 1831-1932." M.A. 1932, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

THOMPSON, MARGARET ALICE. "Overland Travel and die Central Sierra

Nevada, 1827-1849." M.A. 1932, University of California, Berkeley, California.

THREET, RICHARD LOWELL. "Geology of the Red Hills Area, Iron County, Utah." P h . D . 1952, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

THROPE, MALCOLM RUTHERFORD. " T h e Geology of the Abajo Mountains,

San Juan County, Utah." P h . D . 1916, Yale University, N e w Haven, Connecticut.

THROPE, W I L L I A M H E N R Y . " T h e Mormons and die D r a m a . " Master's

Essay 1921, Columbia University, N e w York, N e w York.

TILESTON, LAURENCE L . "Some Phases of the Establishment of L a w and Order in Southern California, 1846-1875." M A . 1940, University of California, Berkeley, California.

TILLSON, MERL W . " T h e Frontiersman in American D r a m a : A n Analytical Study of Characters and Plays Reflecting the Phenomenon of Westward Expansion." P h . D . 1951, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

188

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

TODD, EDGELEY W . "Literary Interest in the F u r Trade and F u r Trapper of the Trans-Mississippi West." P h . D . 1953, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

TODD, WALLACE. "Typical Lake Deposits of the Great Basin." M.A. 1931, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

TRAXLER, RALPH NEWTON.

" T h e L a n d Grants for the Thirty-Second

Parallel Railroad from the Missisippi to the Pacific." Thesis 1953, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

TRUE, CARROLL L. " T h e Doctrine of the Trinity in Mormonism."

Th.M. 1950, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

TUCKER, LEROY. "Geology of the Scipio Quadrangle, Utah." Ph.D. 1955, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

TUTTLE, ALBERT THEODORE. "Released T i m e Religious Education Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." M.A. 1949, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

TWEITO, THOMAS E. " T h e Correspondent in the West, 1850-1860." Ph.D. 1939, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

VEST, H Y R U M GRANT. "Capital Outlay and the Foundation Program

of Education in Utah School Districts." E d . D . 1950, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

WALL, CHARLES AUGUST. " A n Analysis of Courses of Study in Business

Education as a Basis for Revising Business Curricula in Junior Colleges of Utah." M.S. 1937, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

WALTER, ADOLPH W . "Geology of the East Flank of the San Rafael Swell near Black Dragon Canyon, Utah." B.S. 1943, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

WARD, ORLAND W H I T N E Y . " A Survey of Administrators' Opinions as to

Institutional Responsibility of Inter-Scholastic Athletics in the Secondary Schools of Utah." M.A. 1940, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

WASHBURN, D O N ELDEN. "Latter-Day Saint Church Welfare Plan."

M.S. 1941, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

WASHBURN, GEORGE R. "Geology of the Manti Canyon Area, Central Utah." M.S. 1948, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

WATKINS, NORMAN BOWRING. "Guidance Practices in Utah Secondary

Schools." M.S. 1950, Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon.

THESES AND D I S S E R T A T I O N S

ON MORMONS

189

WEAVER, ELLSWORTH ELIAS. " T h e Evolution of Political Institutions in

Utah." P h . D . 1953, N e w York University, N e w York, N e w York.

WELLS, MERLE W . " T h e Idaho Anti-Mormon Movement, 1872-1908."

Ph.D. 1951, University of California, Berkeley, California. . "Idaho: A Study in Statehood and Sectionalism, 1863-1890."

M.A. 1947, University of California, Berkeley, California WEST, EDD L E E . "Union Pacific Construction Irregularities." M.A. 1936, University of Oklahoma, N o r m a n , Oklahoma.

WEST, RAY B. "Rocky Mountain Reader, an Anthology of Contemporary Writing in the Rocky Mountain Region, Including a Critical Introduction and Summary." P h . D . 1945, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

WHEELWRIGHT, DAVID STERLING. " T h e Role of H y m n o d y in the De-

velopment of die Latter-day Saint Movement." P h . D . 1943, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.

W H I T E , CHARLES LANGDON. " T h e Agricultural Geography of the Salt

Lake Oasis." P h . D . 1925, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.

W H I T E , JOSEPH WELLES. " T h e Influence of Sidney Rigdon upon the Theology of Mormonism." M.A. 1947, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

WHITLOCK, LOYD C. " A Survey of the Factors Influencing the Holding Power of Provo City Schools." P h . D . 1952, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

WHITLOCK, VIRGINIA (MARZOLF). "Music in the M o r m o n Church Dur-

ing the Sojourn in Nauvoo." M.A. 1940, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

WILEY, FRANCIS A. "Jedediah Smith in the West." P h . D . 1941, University of California, Berkeley, California.

WILLIAMS, ORAN A. "Settlement and Growth of the Gila Valley in G r a h a m County as a M o r m o n Colony, 1879 to 1900." M.A. 1937, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

WILSON, MARK DALE. " T h e Geology of the Upper Sixmile Canyon Area, Central Utah." M.S. 1949, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

WILSON, O . MEREDITH. " A History of the Denver and Rio Grande Project, 1890-1901." P h . D . 1943, University of California, Berkeley, California.

190

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

WINHOLTZ, W . G. "A Project for a Community Study with a View Toward Integration of Church, Industry, and Society." M.S. 1943, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

WOODBURY, ANGUS M . "Biotic Relationships of Zion Canyon, Utah, widi Special Reference to Succession: A Survey of the Geological, Botanical and Zoological Interrelationships within a Part of Zion National Park." P h . D . 1931, University of California, Berkeley, California.

WOODWARD, VALLENA GIFFORD. "Early History of Stockton." M.A. 1925,

University of California, Berkeley, California.

WORMINGTON, HANNAH M. " T h e Archeology of Upper Colorado Plateau Area in the Northern Periphery of the Southwestern United States." P h . D . 1954, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

YOUNG, VERNON ALPHUS. "Some Chemical Factors of die Soil That Influence the Distribution of Desert Vegetation." P h . D . 1929, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ZELLER, HOWARD DAVIS. " T h e Geology of the West-Central Portion of

the Gunnison Plateau, Utah." M.S. 1949, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

ZINK, NORAH EVA. "Dry-Farming Adjustments in Utah." P h . D . 1937, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

ZINSER, RAYMOND DEWARD. " T h e Competitive Value of Sectarian Indoc-

trination." Master's Thesis 1947, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

REVIEWS

AND R E C E N T

PUBLICATIONS

Great Basin Kingdom. An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900. By LEONARD J. ARRINGTON. (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1958,534 pp., $9.00) Few scholars working in the Mormon field have displayed an industry and energy comparable to that of Leonard J. Arrington. Frankly delighting in the wealth of documentation that has come forth in recent years, and with aid from various foundations, he has intensively explored the resources of most of the institutions having significant Mormon collections. We have seen fruits of these researches in many articles published in professional journals, including this Quarterly. He has also completed a Ph.D. dissertation on Mormon economic history, accepted at the University of North Carolina in 1952. Great Basin Kingdom, his first book, is not merely a compilation of previous publications and his thesis, but an entirely new work.

Because I have serious reservations concerning both the conception and the execution of this book, I stress initially some of its positive virtues. Dr. Arrington has dug into aspects of Mormon history which have attracted no previous scholar, not even those primarily concerned with economic history. I cannot imagine that anyone seriously interested in Mormon history, whedier as reader or practicing scholar, will be able to do without it, for Great Basin Kingdom is a massive ordering of data about the Mormons. Informative in itself, a source-book up to a point, it is also an effective index of sources; and its bibliography is one of the

192

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

broadest surveys of Utah historiography yet attempted, by no means limited in its viewpoint to economic history. As is characteristic of so many of the books produced by university presses these days, Great Basin Kingdom is also beautifully designed and bound, and bountifully illustrated.

Its subtitle notwithstanding, Great Basin Kingdom is not "an economic history of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900." The period before the Mormon exodus to Utah is treated in only the most sketchy manner, and without much real comprehension of the operative economic factors.

The book is far more substantial as an economic history of the Mormons in Utah, 1847-1900, but in his preface Dr. Arrington specifically disclaims its adequacy as such, noting that he omits such developments as Utah's mining history after 1869 (which owed more to the Gentiles than to the Saints) to make possible "detailed treatments of die more unique and lesser known economic activities, institutions, and responses of the Mormons. The book is largely a study of Mormon concepts, and of the efforts of church leadership to develop an economy in harmony with those concepts."

Such an approach to a description of Mormon economic history seems analogous to the description of a pair of pliers with reference to one jaw only. I do not see how economic activity by the church can well be understood or evaluated without reference to the total economic situation, and in a book with ample space at his command we should expect Dr. Arrington to raise his sights beyond the narrow walls of the monograph.

In fact, Dr. Arrington's work is not quite the limited special study he declares it to be, for in the event he found himself unable to resist the wealth of information he had amassed, and he has taken it quite far along the road toward conversion into a general history of the Mormons in Utah â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without, however, following through as he would have had to do had the writing of such a history been his announced purpose.

Great Basin Kingdom ends up as not a general history, not quite an economic history of either the Mormons or Utah, and somediing at once more and less than a special monograph. As a professedly economic historian, Dr. Arrington has had freer rein than many other recent workers in the field of Mormon scholarship, there not being quite the same degree of sensitivity in Mormon culture about economic fact-finding and conclusions as in other areas. In this general atmosphere of acquiescence and well-being, Dr. Arrington has not pressed on very often to judgments that would bring him into the realm of controversy. As a

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

193

descriptive work, Great Basin Kingdom is an immense accomplishment, and can be consulted with pleasure and profit. But it stops short at the door of judgment, and the facts are not all in so that the reader can perform this final act of judgment on his own.

DALE L. MORGAN

Bancroft Library

The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858. By LEROY R. HAFEN AND ANN W. HAFEN. (Glendale, California, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958,366 pp., $9.50) The contents of this volume are best described in the subtitle: "A Documentary Account" of the Utah Expedition â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in short, a compilation of relevant source records. Such a book has long been needed. The pertinent documents are accessible only in such collections as the National Archives, Washington, D.C, the L.D.S. Church Historian's Office and similar accumulations scattered from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Even the applicable printed government documents are in short supply in Utah.

The editors have exercised commendable discrimination in their selection of material. Equally meritorious are their concise and scholarly introductions and footnotes. These stand out in refreshingly marked contrast to the multisided religious prejudice and political partisanship of many earlier writers.

To students of military history the Letter of Instructions issued June 29, 1857, by General-in-Chief (not "General of the Army" as designated p. 30) Winfield Scott to Brevet Brigadier General William S. Harney deserves far more consideration than has yet been accorded it.

Here was the basic grant of authority to the commanding officer of the Expedition â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mission, jurisdiction, tactics. It points out clearly what proved to be the decisive factor in the campaign, "the lateness of the season" in starting. As to tactical dispositions some of Scott's directives were not heeded: "keeping the troops well massed," "the cavalry should be sent well forward," "you should anticipate resistance." Actual responsibility for the unfortunate results following these deviations should be placed squarely on the intervention of Washington politicians rather than on the Expedition's officers. For example, it was political expediency which delayed Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke's 2d Dragoons in turbulent Kansas until September 17, almost at the same

194

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

time Colonel Robert T . Burton's Utah Militia cavalry scouts, near the South Pass, encountered the head of the federal column, an unguarded wagon train.

In contrast to the Scott letter the editors might also well have printed the instructions of Secretary of State Lewis Cass to Governor Alfred Cumming.

T o add to the objective realism of their material, the editors wisely included an excellent map. O n e feature might well have been added to it, die "Timpanogos Road." This led from Fort Bridger to the headwaters of the Provo River, down that stream through the canyon, across Provo Bench to Lehi, over the Jordan River bridge, constructed in 1853, and so to Camp Floyd. All personnel and supplies to the camp were sent over this route, and Colonel Cooke used it in 1861 when he departed for the Civil W a r with the small remaining garrison. T h e chief purpose of the road was to keep teamsters and soldiers out of Great Salt Lake City.

It is to be regretted that the editors did not extend their research to the Indian W a r Veterans Collection. This was brought together beginning about 1917 by the adjutant general of Utah and is now in the archives of the Utah State Historical Society. A m o n g its several thousand items are literally scores of documents concerning the Utah Militia in the "Echo Canyon War." O n e most important Militia order deserved printing: "Head Quarters, Nauvoo Legion, G. S. L. City, A u g 13 th /57.

Special Order N o . 13." This directed the mobilization of a cavalry force of 310 men under Colonel Robert T . Burton "to go back upon the road to protect our immigration now en-route to this city." Oddly enough no mention was made of the oncoming United States troops.

T h e present book constitutes Volume VIII of The Far West and Rockies Historical Series, 1820-1875, issued by the same publisher.

HAMILTON GARDNER

Cambridge,

Massachusetts

Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest 1750-1950. By DAVID LAVENDER. ( N e w York, Doubleday and Company, 1958, x + 468 pp., $5.95) T h e Mainstream of America series enters the Pacific Northwest in David Lavender's recent work. Idaho, British Columbia, and even Montana receive some attention, although the heavy emphasis is naturally on the Oregon country.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

195

Bent's Fort demonstrated Lavender's ability to combine fascinating narrative with excellent scholarship: the present volume, despite its obligation to a popularly slanted series, manages to strike near the same mark, although its contribution is much smaller. Carefully plodding through the many historical societies' pertinent publications as well as most of the sources and monographs, the author works from a solid, up-to-date knowledge of his vast area.

Historians seem so prone to guilt feelings whenever the charge of aridity is hurled at them that perhaps an examination of the methods of an indubitably entertaining member of the profession is in order. Certainly Lavender can draw almost any literate person through a hundred of his pages with dazzling skill. Of few historical novelists can this be so surely said. It is at once obvious diat Lavender is gaining his end by die employment of the dramatist's method: he sketches characters with vivid lines, throws them into long, interconnected scenes, builds suspense widi intermittent droppings and resumptions of the "meanwhile, back at the ranch" variety. It is amazing what colorful phrases will do for, say, Narcissa Whitman's sex appeal. At times our craftsman gives us descriptions of the natural setting which are at once poetic and full of malevolent forces.

Yet somehow the story of the Pacific Northwest carries in itself all these elements. A string of variegated anomalies like John Kendrick, Hall J. Kelley, Sir George Simpson, Isaac Stevens, Jason Lee, of course the Whitmans, Dr. McLoughlin, James Douglas, and a hundred more is hard to weave into a sober tapestry. That "pig war" on San Juan Island will never be a mere statistic. When Chief Joseph surrenders because "the little children are freezing to death. . . . From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever," he seems to deserve an epic. The Northwest was like that. Lavender, in the case of the last two subjects, enhances them by a beautiful job of underwriting â&#x20AC;&#x201D; surest sign of all that he is a crack writer.

With all its episodic character, the narrative is chronologically well balanced. The scholarly trappings do not deserve much praise: the maps are only fair; the index is inadequate.

PHILIP C. STURGES

University of Utah

196

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

West of the Great Divide. Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847-1893. By KENNETH O. BJORK. (Northfield, Minnesota, Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1958, viii + 671 pp., $7.50) In his new work, Professor Bjork of St. Olaf College, author of an earlier immigrant history, Saga in Steel and Concrete: Norwegian Engineers in America, has made a valuable addition to the distinguished list of publications of the Norwegian-American Historical Association. He tells a surprising story, its magnitude not sufficiently appreciated until now, of the Norwegian push into the Far West. He considers this advance, this shift from region to region, analogous to the original migration from the Old World to die middle western frontiers of the New. In his introductory essay, "Migration in Microcosm," which is the kind of interpretation that illuminates as well as informs, he points to striking parallels in motivation, the role of immigrant letters, the immigrant's dual relationship to what he left behind and what he met, and his adjustment to the new, often involving profound changes in social and economic status and in church allegiance. Clergymen and farmers were familiar figures in both migrations, but a new and prominent element in the transition to the Far West was an enterprising middle class — craftsmen, businessmen, and professional people — in part the product of a social advance in the Middle West, in part a direct migration from Norway to the Pacific Coast. The emphasis on their activities is one of the book's major contributions.

Dr. Bjork opens his account with the Norwegian goldseekers of 1849, "Argonauts in California," but returns in his second chapter to an earlier date, 1847, a year sure to catch the eye of Utah readers. Dr. Bjork is fully aware of the role Scandinavians played among the Mormons.

Two of his fourteen chapters—110 pages, or one-sixth of his book — are devoted to them. "From Babylon to Zion" and "A Kingdom Built with Hands" draw heavily upon Mulder's Homeward to Zion and on Andrew Jenson's annals, but with supplements from Professor Bjork's own field work during a visit to Salt Lake City when he read rich sources like the Danish newspaper Bikuben in the L.D.S. Church Historian's Office. In Utah the Norwegian story merges inevitably with the larger story of the whole Scandinavian Mormon immigration, unique for its special motivation and accommodation to the ideals of Zion.

A reproduction of the first issue of Bikuben and a map showing Scandinavian settlement in Utah enhance the account. It is encouraging to see this chapter in Scandinavian migration receiving the proportionate atten-

R E V I E W S AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

197

tion in the general histories it deserves. Mormon readers, now that an outside historian has acknowledged the findings of their own scholars, may appreciate it.

Professor Bjork's full and fair treatment of the Mormons is typical of the way he combines large perspective and revealing detail in the rest of his narrative as he describes in turn the Norwegian experience in California, with special attention to San Francisco; the activities of Norwegian farmers, seamen, fishermen, loggers, craftsmen, and businessmen in the Pacific Northwest and of goldseekers in the Rockies; immigrant involvement in the economics of railroads and lands; the conflicts and constructive efforts of the Norwegian churches; and the description of daily life among the newcomers. It is social history approaching the encyclopedic in its congestion of names and minute facts, but Professor Bjork imparts vitality and interest to whoever appears on his crowded stage, even momentarily. He succumbs to a fabled figure like Snowshoe Thompson for a whole chapter, carefully sifting fact and legend.

A final chapter, "Pattern of Settlement," is by way of a concluding survey, seeing the forest whose trees have been so fully described and bringing the history statistically and by regions down to 1893, a year of economic crisis which renewed interest in the Far West, but under changed conditions. Norwegian westward migration was by then but an aspect of widespread rural and urban discontent finding general expression in political, religious, and labor upheavals. The history closes as it began, with sensitivity to the larger economic, social, and political developments as they bear on the central theme.

One of the virtues of West of the Great Divide is the evidence of patient search among mountains of immigrant newspapers for the letters and firsthand accounts of the "simple folk who made history at the dirt and water levels." The book is a rewarding part of that grass roots history that Theodore Belgen, one of the scholars who inspired Professor Bjork, called for long ago.

WILLIAM MULDER

University of Utah

The Cattlemen from the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias. By MARI SANDOZ. (New York, Hastings House, 1958, xiv + 498 pp., $6.50) Fortunate are the men whose story Mari Sandoz elects to tell. In this most recent work she has turned her attention to those who worked with

198

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

cattle. Although her account runs the full gamut from the days of Coronado to the contemporary rodeo, the emphasis is on die period of the open range industry of 1865-1890. The book is a synthesis of the findings of several dozen scholars â&#x20AC;&#x201D; historians, folklorists, and librarians. Therefore, much is a twice-told tale, but never has it been related in as superb a fashion. Moreover, Mari Sandoz writes with an understanding of the business equal to that of the participants. Her numerous readers will find the book informative, entertaining, and in some sections reliable and authentic.

Like all researchers who have preceded her, the author discovered a vast collection of published material on Plains' cattlemen. Quite obviously she had difficulty in getting it under control. Although some effort was made to approach the subject chronologically, the chapter organization is not immediately apparent. On completing the study, die reader is apt to conclude that readability of the subject matter was the dominant factor in establishing the pattern of the book's organization. Many explanations about the ranching industry, its locale, and the handling of cattle, a few of which are not generally known, are unfortunately repeated over and over again. Miss Sandoz is devoted to the use of the descriptive adjective and die overuse of some of these, like "stinking," in time becomes objectionable. The wind, the water, snakes, cattle wounds, among many other things, are so described.

Although many professional historians may secretly hope to write as valuable and readable a book, they are obligated to note its inadequacies by guild standards. The account of die Johnson County War in Wyoming is the most revealing that has appeared. Historians have only been able to surmise what happened; manuscript evidence has been burned, destroyed, secretly filed away, or generally unavailable for years.

Miss Sandoz has been the first to gain access to quantities of this material. Scholars turning to the notes with eagerness to find the sources will read with disappointment a general remark, "There is much manuscript and interview material in private hands, usually not open to researchers." A selective bibliography, chosen widi care, has been included in die volume. In contrast, the notes appear to have been hastily prepared, as an afterthought, when the book was completed. As an example, this reviewer's studies in book and article form are generously recognized as sources of information for chapters in Book Four, but the material is actually used more extensively in Chapter II, Book Three (p. 236, pp. 246-47) without reference or citation. Miss Sandoz is eitiier unfamiliar with, or underestimates the importance of, the work of several his-

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

199

torians. In her dramatic accounts of the disaster to the cattle industry in the winters of 1886 and 1887, she apparently has overlooked the study of Wyoming's Professor T. A. Larson, which suggests that the disaster due to climatic conditions has been greatly exaggerated. Repeatedly the Hayes-Tilden presidential election is described as the "big steal" in spite of historical scholarship that has seriously questioned tins interpretation.

More disturbing is the continuous appearance of bias throughout the book. The author is anti-foreign, anti-British in particular, and antagonistic to the cattlemen's associations. In fact, nearly every personality emerges in a positive or a negative light. Nothing good can be said for John Clay; nothing too good for old Charlie Goodnight (p. 479). Miss Sandoz appears suspicious of big money, big organization, and big power.

Although the author suggests that the one enduring figure on die Great Plains has been "the man who works with cattle," one finishes her tribute to him feeling that although she admires his type, she does not like him and his ways very much. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that Miss Sandoz is, as she was in the beginning, a sympathizer with his adversary, the pioneer farmer-settler of the Plains, the little man.

W . TURRENTINE JACKSON

University of California Life and Adventures of Fran\ Grouard. By JOE DEBARTHE. Edited by EDGAR I. STEWART. (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1958, 267 pp., $5.00) First published in 1894, Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard is an intimate and valuable book about the Sioux Indians, but it is also a very scarce one. Here published is a new edition, edited and annotated by Edgar I. Stewart.

The story of Frank's life is a fascinating one. In 1852 at the age of two he came with his parents and two younger brothers to San Francisco from his homeland in Tahiti. Circumstances forced the breaking up of his own family, and eventually he was taken into the family of Addison Pratt. The boy stayed with his benefactors, moving with them to Beaver, Utah, and living there until he was fifteen years old. At diis time he tired of the monotony of his life and ran away. At nineteen he was captured by the Sioux Indians and spent seven years in the camps of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse where he acquired his uncanny knowledge

200

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

of the Sioux, their habits, language, signs, and customs, and the country through which they roamed. Putting this knowledge to use, he became a scout, serving for some time under General Crook and leading several scouting expeditions through difficult situations. This book has distinct appeal for enthusiasts of Western Americana everywhere.

Facts About Utah. (Salt Lake City, Utah Tourist and Publicity Council, 1958,110 pp., $.25) This comprehensive little booklet on Utah is well done and contains, as the title indicates, facts about Utah. In capsule form it covers: I — Governors of Utah; II — Utah, Its Land and Its Life — General Topography, Climate, Plant Life, Animal Life, Population; III — Utah, Yesterday — Before Man, Indians, White Man, Trappers, and up to and including Utah Since Statehood; IV — Utah, Today — Government, Towns, Cities and Counties, Culture, Economy, and Recreational Assets.

The booklet is nicely illustrated and is a valuable pocket book for the student, Utah resident, or the tourist.

The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona, 1861-1862. By ROBERT LEE KERBY. (Los Angeles, Westernlore Press, 1958,159 pp., $7.50) Volume XIII of the Great West and Indian series was written by Mr. Kerby as his thesis at Notre Dame for a Master's Degree in history, and it covers a phase of American history of which heretofore there has been very little written or published — the Great West and its part in the Civil War. California, with its untold riches in gold and its precious seaports, was the immediate prize of Sibley's invasion of the West. If the Confederacy had succeeded in its bold plan to take and hold the strategic areas of New Mexico and Arizona as a preliminary to taking California, the campaign might have won for her the gold, men, shipping routes, and materiel necessary for victory in the war.

Included in this book is a roster of regiments, companies and officers participating in every battle and skirmish of the far western campaign, and includes battle statistics.

^v% 1860

^aÂťV^ Pony Express Centennial,

1860-1960.

UTAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Valley of the Great Salt Lake

7: .7

ABOUT THE COVER

Valley

of the Great Salt

L,a\e.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

Sunset on the Great Salt Lal{e.

PHOTO, HAL RUMliL

CONTENTS This

is the Place,

The

Changing

Temple Utah's Mam

BY T . EDGAR L Y O N

Face of Salt Lake

Square: Capitols,

The

of the

203

BY DALE L . M O R G A N West,

209

BY T H E O D O R E L . C A N N O N

BY E V E R E T T L . C O O L E Y

Street:

Salt Lake

The

Shining

Mountains

The

Great

Wandering

Crossroads

City,

Salt Lake, in the

City,

259

BY A . R. M O R T E N S E N

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The

Oquirrh

Range,

275

BY J A C K G O O D M A N

BY DAVID E . M I L L E R

Wasatch,

247

BY J A C K GOODMAN

285 297 313

ILLUSTRATIONS Brigham Young Monument "This is the Place" Monument Great Salt Lake City in 1851 (Jones) Plat Map of Great Salt Lake City Great Salt Lake City in 1853 (Piercy) The Lion and Beehive houses; Z.C.M.I. viewed from Temple Grounds Temple Block; S"lt l-"ke Theatre; Eagle Gate Salt Lake City viewed from Capitol Salt Lake City, expansion to the west Eagle Gate and view north to the Capitol Main Street, Salt Lake City "Entering the Valley," BY J . T. HARWOOD L.D.S. Tabernacle, Salt Lake City L.D.S. Temple, Salt Lake City Gold Room, State Capitol State Capitol Ski Lift at Alta Alpine Autumn Scene Salt Harvest Saltair....'.

Bingham Copper Pit Tabernacle Choir Gates of Temple Square Endowment House; First Bureau of Information Assembly Hall Rotunda, Utah State Capitol Council House; Old County Courthouse; Old City Hall, City and County Fillmore State House Members of the Capitol Commission; R. K. A. Kletting, architect Mormon Battalion Monument Main Street, Salt Lake City, 1870 Second South and Main Street, turn of the century Main Street, 1912 Tithing Office Hotel Utah Bishop's Storehouse Bingham Cannon Shaft Robert C. Gemmell; Daniel C. Jackling Camp Floyd; Mercur parade Great Salt Lake Garfield Beach Resort; General Garfield at pier Wenner home and cairn on Fremont Island Wasatch Mountains Alta, Utah, in 1873 Alta Main Street in 1873 Park City miners' parade Park City Saloon

202 204, 206, 234 208 212 220 223 225 228 229 230 233 235 236, 249 237, 249 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 252 256 258 Building; 261 268 270 274 277 279 280 281 282 284 286 289 293 296 305 308 312 318 320 321 323

Executed by Cyrus E. Dallin, the Brigham Young monument at Main and South Temple was presented to the city and unveiled during Utah's "Golden Jubilee" celebration on July 24,1897. It wasfirstexhibited in 1892 at the Chicago World's Fair.

THIS

IS

THE

PLACE

By T. Edgar Lyon*

A pioneer, with vision clear, Looked o'er this wondrous sage-brush land, And said, 'We'll build a city here,' Our own dear city then he planned.

Standing on the west side of the "This is the Place" monument and looking toward it with the mountains in the background, the viewer is made aware of three epochs in the exploration and settlement of this expansive intermountain valley. To the right is a group of explorers from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first men to leave a record of their travels in this area, the Spaniards were searching for an overland route from Santa Fe to Monterey, California, in the summer of 1776. Following Indian trails which kept close to water courses, they penetrated as far north as Utah Lake (which lies about forty miles south of this monument). The journal of this expedition, written by the Franciscan friar Escalante, and the map drawn by Miera y Pacheco, who accompanied him, form the most important documents concerning this country and its Indians before the coming of the trappers.

On the extreme opposite end of the monument is a group of fur trappers and traders surrounding the equestrian figure of William H. * T. Edgar Lyon is associate director, L.D.S. Institute of Religion, University of Utah.

"This is the Place" monument, now the site of a State Park, was first unveiled on the 24th of July, 1947.

Ashley, the first large-scale entrepreneur of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The trappers and traders in the years between 1824-45 made their home in the Rockies trapping the valuable beaver. Following Indian trails and streams, they explored practically every stream, lake, and valley in the intermountain country. From their activities and reports much information was disseminated in the East concerning the fabulous West.

Prominent among the "Mountain Men" were Jedediah S. Smith, Jim Bridger, Etienne Provost, Joseph Walker, William and Milton Sublette, David E. Jackson, Hugh Glass, Robert Campbell, and Thomas Fitzpatrick.

The center pylon, rising far above the two groups of statuary on the two extremes of the monument, stresses the greater importance of the third epoch â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the arrival of the Mormons who came to make their homes, establish communities, subdue the untamed wilderness and turn the valleys into fruitful fields. These people, having experienced persecution because of religious, social, political, economic and cultural differ-

THIS

IS T H E PLACE

205

ences in Missouri and Illinois, came to the Great Basin to establish their own institutions according to the patterns they cherished. On top of the granite shaft of the monument are the gigantic-sized figures of Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, and two of his assistants, Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff (with whip in hand). Lower down on the shaft in low relief stand the figures of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow (with one horse, which they shared), die first two of the Mormon pioneers to view the valley from near this spot on July 21,1847. Rejoicing that their arduous journey of some 1500 miles was nearly at an end, they threw their hats into the air and shouted their "hosannas" in praise for their safe arrival.

The sight which greeted them was vastly different from that one sees today from this spot. On the hills above were groves of mountain maple and scrub oak. Below these small trees the slopes and hillsides toward the west were covered with sagebrush. Farther beyond this grayish brush was visible level land covered with tall grass, the grass becoming less luxuriant beyond the Jordan River and merging with the swampy marshes near the Great Salt Lake, which glistened in the sun.

Perhaps, as they paused on this benchland, they may have envisioned those who had preceded them into this valley. Foremost among diese was Captain John C. Fremont, whose published report of his expedition into the Far West they had studied and whose map they had used as their guide on the westward trek. Exploring the Far West in the autumn of 1843, Fremont had visited the island in Great Salt Lake which bears his name. The following year, returning from California on the Old Spanish Trail, he had come north as far as Utah Lake and then turned eastward to reach Fort Leavenworth. He had almost completely encircled the Great Basin and had written favorably of it as a place for future habitations. Again in 1845 this intrepid explorer had come into this valley from the southeast, on his way to California, and had passed along the shore of the Great Salt Lake and continued westward over the salt desert.

The Mormon scouts were also familiar with the activities of the adventurer, Lansford W. Hastings, who had met Fremont at Sutter's Fort early in 1846 and learned that Fremont's party had found a new and shorter route from Salt Lake Valley to California. In the early summer of 1846 Hastings, accompanied by some Mountain Men returning eastward from California, had followed Fremont's route and traversed this valley, crossing the desert south of the Great Salt Lake. He had found a passageway for his horses through the mountains behind this monu-

-I

jfi&S&i <SLJ* "This is the Place" monument was sculptured by Mahonri M. Young.

It is located at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, the route of the Pioneers, and commemorates the contribution of the Mormons to the early settlement of the West and also honors the others who preceded them into the Valley. ment, going on to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. After reaching die Green River, Hastings tried to lure California-bound emigrants into taking this shorter cutoff across the salt desert, claiming it would save them three hundred miles of travel.

Much more in the consciousness of the Mormons was the ReedDonner party, whose route they had followed from Fort Bridger. During the summer of 1846, following the vague directions given them by Hastings, the Donners had found their way through the mountains to this valley â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but at a terrible cost in toil and time. Forced to chop down trees, move boulders, fill swampy places and use teams from several wagons to haul one wagon up the steep hills, it had required twenty-one days for their party to cover the last thirty-six miles to the valley. Well could Pratt and Snow appreciate the debt they owed this party of the previous year. Even though stopping to make some improvements on the road, they had been able to travel the same distance in only seven days. And now, as they stood on this hill, they could see far to the west the salt-tinged desert where the Reed-Donner party had lost more of the time and equipment which led to their tragic fate in the Sierras during the winter of 1846-47.

While viewing the immense valley that stretched before them, it is doubtful if these two pioneer scouts had the slightest conception of the developments the next century would bring. Of one thing they were certain â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in this valley their city would be laid out, but no dream of theirs could envision the valley now filled with people, dieir homes forming an almost continuous line from north to south and from the mountainsides westward toward the lake.

Eighteen hundred forty-seven, Utah's founding year, brought the vanguard of the settlers into these valleys. Now more than one hundred years later we stand amid the efforts of many unnamed toilers who wrought the schools, business enterprises, banks, mills, factories, mines, and a city of beautiful homes surrounded by outdoor recreational facilities in the canyons and parks. At the mouth of Emigration Canyon stands the massive "This is the Place" monument, commemorating in enduring bronze and granite a memorial to the great souls and the great movements that led to the settlement of the Great Basin. The true monument, however, is found in the accomplishments of these hardy pioneers and the living institutions which they founded, discovered, or developed.

Great Salt Lake City in 1851, by J. Wesley fones, the first known daguerreotype of the city, has an unexpected viewpoint showing the western skyline with prominent landmarksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Heber C. Kimball's residence, the Council House and the Tithing Office.

PHOTO COURTESY, CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THE CHAHGING FACE OF SALT LAKE CITY

By Dale L. Morgan*

Salt Lake Valley is one of the handsomest on all the broad face of America. It is one of a fertile chain of valleys running along die western base of the Wasatch Mountains, collectively known as the Wasatch Oasis; it is also one of the many long valleys, all quite similar in character, which togedier comprise the Valley of die Great Salt Lake. But from the time the Mormons entered it in 1847, seeking a mountain refuge to which the Saints might gather from all over the world, it has had an identity all its own, "The Valley."

The city founded by the Mormon pioneers, known initially as Great Salt Lake City, but legally since 1868 by its present name, has changed continually since 1847 while its central identity has remained constant.

In this article we shall observe something of this process of continuous change, the emergence and disappearance of landmarks which have distinguished the Salt Lake scene in successive generations, like the upheaval and subsidence of islands in a sea of time.

So green and tree-grown is its aspect today that it is hard to visualize Salt Lake Valley in 1847 as a nearly treeless expanse. There were a few cottonwoods along the courses of the creeks, with here and there a strug* Mr. Morgan, a native of Salt Lake City, is one of the leading interpreters and authorities on Utah and Western history. He is a many-time contributor to this journal, author of many books and articles, and has been on the staff of the Bancroft Library since 1954.

210

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

gling scrub oak or juniper, but Willard Richards was not exaggerating much when he reported to Brigham Young, "Timber can hardly be said to be scarce in this region for there is scarcely enough of it to be named and sage is as scarce as timber."

Still, upon Norton Jacob of the Pioneer party there came a mood of poetic appreciation: We have here mild summer weather, a serene atmosphere, a most beautiful clear sky, with an excessive dry climate and arid soil. If it could receive timely rains, it would be one of the most beautiful, fertile regions on the face of the earth; being watered by numerous brooks and rivulets, perpetually flowing out of the mountains on every side, filled with trout... [and having] various kinds of rich grass and rushes....

These were first impressions, written on July 22, 1847. Next day the Mormon Pioneers established a temporary camp on a fork of City Creek, approximately at what became State and Third South streets, getting out their plows to begin the labor of breaking the soil, and meanwhile building a dam to impound the waters of the little creek for irrigation purposes. They were eating dinner at noon on July 24 when Brigham Young reached camp with the rear detachment of the Pioneer party; ill with "mountain fever," he had made a more leisurely journey across the mountains from the Weber River, and now expressed his pleasure in this place the Mormons had journeyed so far to find.

Men rode out in different directions to investigate the countryside for several days afterward, but their reports only confirmed the general conviction that God had led the Saints directly to the very place they sought.

On the afternoon of July 28 Brigham Young designated the site for the Temple Block, between the forks of City Creek, and there, after nightfall, he convened the whole camp. "It was," Norton Jacob wrote, setting down in his journal a delightful impression of the evening, a beautiful and instructive] sceneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the soft mild air that always prevails here at night so that the men sit down comfortably in their shirt sleeves; the full moon shone over the eastern mountain shedding her mild radiance on the quiet valley of the Utah outlet [the Jordan River]; whilst we were seated on the ground engaged in council....

Of the assembled camp Brigham Young inquired: "Shall we look further to make a location upon this spot and lay out and build a city?"

It was voted that the city be erected where the camp now stood, and that

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

211

Brigham Young and his brethren among the Quorum of the Twelve should be a committee to lay out the city and to apportion the "inheritances." Young then said: We propose to have the temple lot contain 40 acres, to include the ground we are now onâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what do you say to that? All right?

That the streets be 88 feet wide, sidewalks 20 feet, the lots to contain 1 % acres, eight lots in a block, the houses invariably set in the center of the lot, 20 feet back from the street. Neither will they be filled with cattle, horses and hogs, nor children, for they will have yards and places appropriated for recreation, and we will have a city clean and in order.

Next day, July 29, members of the Sick Detachment of the Mormon Battalion, who had wintered at Pueblo in present Colorado, reached the Valley. On Saturday, July 31, they put up the first thing like a building erected on the site of Salt Lake City, a bowery or "shade" of brush, some 40 feet long by 28 feet wide, where Sabbath services were held. During the course of those services, it was voted that a stockade of "adobies" be commenced to house the Saints who would winter in the Valley, and thus the year's building program was laid out.

There was nothing haphazard about the origins of Salt Lake City.

If ever there was a planned community, it was this one. The plat itself was patterned after one originated in 1833 by Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. Smith had adopted as his own the type of checkerboard grid familiar to America since William Penn laid out Philadelphia. Particularly well adapted to use in the prairie states, where the gently rolling land imposed no harsh logic of its own, the plat for the City of Zion was also suited to use in the Valley. Streets, as provided by this plat, were eight rods (132 feet) wide, made to run with the cardinal directions and to cross at right angles, while the square blocks into which the land was divided were ten acres each, exclusive of the streets. In theory, the Temple Block was the center of the city, but it could remain only the center of Plat A, for it was located so close under the rising land at the north end of the Valley as to make inevitable an asymmetrical city.

The first thought, that the Temple Block should consist of forty acres, or four full blocks, was reconsidered when it was realized how large a tract was forty acres and the impossibility of doing it justice; accordingly, the Temple Square was reduced to ten acres. The southeast corner of this reduced Temple Block was fixed as the zero point for beginning the survey of the city. (It was also used for subsequent U.S.

North. :

PlotC m

13 3

ML

49; _J£_

-MIL

£2_

Public Square..

9?

-&-

*

Mood to Tooele. over.

femf plot

West

~pT

ts_

rMrty

i£

muJ GREAT SALT LAKE CITY SURVEYS. All the blocks contain Shis ofl&acre- each, 'lOaaes AH the streets are S rods wide, including side walks 20 test each The lots nwiiberirom. the SouthEast comer 2V?1 JtotA was laid off in I8&7 contains 135 blocks.

B . . i8 63 .

C ..

A? .

2* . otxupud.

D the bUvkshave t-Ijjfs andcoiUam 2Vz acres.

South of this phi art the five acre lots.

The West boundry is the Jkver Jordan.

North, of this plot are the ffitrm Springs.

North East ofplotS is the Cemetery The City is divided into 20 Wards under 20 Bishops.

Old Fort.

g PLATTED

FOn

CAT RlCHAMD BY

F-BVRTON THOMAS

BULLOCK. G.S.L. CITY-UTAH-

N

w

Canal.

PlotD

IS Ward.

iW Ward.

•nr

si 3 1

» i

I

^t

-jS?

aa

fiU. East

ii_

-40 Public Square it-

Public Square

i ' -

-2.0-

.21

* I a I g I i I |a

I

J

214

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Land Office surveys, becoming the Salt Lake Prime Meridian.) Street numbering then proceeded with great simplicity, outward from North Temple, West Temple, South Temple, and East Temple streets, the next cordon of streets being named First North, First West, First South, First East, and so on out. This nomenclature has endured, except that in the course of time East Temple was renamed Main Street, and First East became State Street.

Decision was made that the temporary stockade should be erected near a convenient clay deposit which promptly became known as the Adobe Yard. On August 3 Orson Pratt and Henry G. Sherwood chained off three blocks south and three blocks west from the Temple Block, and on the site now called Pioneer Park the camp began to lay the outer stockade wall, intended to be nine feet high. Within this adobe stockade log houses were commenced, using green timber cut in the adjacent canyons. By August 23 the Saints had built twenty-nine log houses "between 8 and 9 feet high, 16 or 17 feet long by 14 feet wide," and roofed eleven of them with poles and dirt.

On August 26 Young and his fellow apostles left die infant settlement on their return journey to the Missouri River. (Some of the Pioneer party left ahead of them; the remainder wintered in the Valley.)

The numbers of Saints who pressed on to the mountains in the track of the Pioneers far exceeded estimates that had been made in the spring.

Sweeping in upon the embryoSalt Lake City, their incoming cattle mowed down the late and unfenced crops while they themselves swamped the accommodations provided..

In 1873-74, George Q. Cannon wrote in the Juvenile Instructor: When the companies which followed the pioneers came into the valley, additions were made to the south and north of the fort, which were called the South and North Forts. They were connected with the Old Fort by gates, and each of them had gates through which the people went to and from their fields and work outside. The houses were built close together, with the highest wall on the outside, which formed the wall of die Fort; the roofs sloped towards the inside, and all the doors and windows were on the inside, so as to make die houses more secure against attack in case any were made The roofs of the houses were made rather flat. The result was that nearly every house leaked during the first winter, and umbrellas, where such a luxury as an umbrella was owned, were frequently in demand to shelter those engaged in cooking, and even in bed persons would be seen sitting or lying under an umbrella.

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

215

In any society there are stubborn individualists, and in the history of Salt Lake City Lorenzo D. Young has his special place. He had built two houses inside the Old Fort, but after the immigration arrived, on the grounds that the situation of the fort was "low," and the health of his pregnant wife so demanded, he sold out his property in the fort and began erecting, on the site of the Beehive House east of the Temple Block, "a house of hewn logs, of two rooms and hallway between." Though the authorities called him on the carpet, Lorenzo's explanations were plausible, and he was allowed to live outside the fort that first winter. His two houses or rooms, completed December 23, 1847, were the first erected on any city lot. The rest of the wintering Saints, numbering 1,671, were packed into the 423 houses they had contrived to build within the forts.

Not until Brigham Young returned with the Mormon immigration of 1848 did occupation of the city plat begin; through the spring and summer the settlers carried out their farming operations from their homes in the fort.

Some of the apostles had been allowed, in the summer of 1847, to select their own "inheritances," mostly property fronting on the Temple Block, and at that time Young had picked out for himself and family the block immediately east of die Temple Square.

"After the lots were given out to the people," George Q. Cannon recalls further: a united effort was made to fence the city. Instead of fencing each lot separately, each ward [an area of nine blocks] was fenced in one field, and each owner of a lot in a ward built his proportion of the fence. This made the work of fencing the lots comparatively easy, and it answered every purpose for several seasons. The streets were all kept open, but not at their present width. The owners of lots cultivated the streets in front of their premises, leaving no more than a sufficient space for travel. At the end of each street leading out of the ward into die main thoroughfares which ran around each ward, there were bars, which every one who passed in or out with a team or on horseback was required to be careful in putting up. There was no monopoly of land allowed. No man was permitted to take up a city lot or farming land for purposes of speculation Farming land was divided and given out in small parcels, so that all could have a proper proportion,... The enforcement of this rule made the settlement of the city and the farming lands very compact, and created a community of interest which would not have been felt under other circumstances.

216

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

In respect of the farming lands, Cannon explains: that next the city was surveyed into five acre lots. This was for the purpose of accommodating the mechanics and odiers who would reside in the city. Next to die five acre lots the ten acre lots were laid out; dien the twenty acres followed by the forty and eighty acre lots, upon which farmers could build and reside.

All diese were, for safety and present convenience, enclosed in one common fence, each owner of land building in proportion to the amount he had in his field, and the fence to be erected in such a manner as to be satisfactory to men appointed to inspect and accept of it when completed.

The building of this fence was no small undertaking, for in a letter of October 9, 1848, Brigham Young estimated that the fence would be "17 miles and 53 rods long, eight feet high."

The structure thus given Salt Lake City lastingly influenced its development. To treat land indefinitely as "inheritances" was not practical in terms of the American political and economic system; the settlers upon it could have no valid titles until the Indian title had been extinguished, formal surveys made, and the land placed upon the market by the U.S. government. These tilings did not come to pass for several decades, and meanwhile squatter titles developed in Utah as elsewhere.

Presently Main Street began to take shape, with stores built on corners or anywhere else, on small and large plots of land, and not twenty feet back from the sidewalk. Still die ten acre blocks remained as the basic structure of the city, and until the pressure of population forced the expansion of Salt Lake into fringe areas â&#x20AC;&#x201D; first, in the late sixties and seventies, up on the sloping north benches that were carved into the small squares familiarly called the "Avenues," and later out beyond Ninth South Street, where blocks were laid out as oblongsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;diis pattern did not change.

Laying out streets as straight lines crossing at right angles persisted within the memory of the living generation, and curving streets are almost solely to be found in recent subdivisions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; east of Fifteenth East Street, west of Eighth West Street, and north of the State Capitol.

As early as the spring of 1849, ditches were dug along both sides of all streets to convey water diverted from the creeks, primarily, City and Red Butte creeks. This water served alike for drinking, culinary, and irrigation purposes. Not for some years did the settlers generally begin to put down wells, and it was many years before the increasing growth of Salt Lake City impelled die development of municipal (and ultimately sanitary) water supplies. Fencing, ditching, and the building and main-

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

217

tenance of bridges across the ditches became a main preoccupation of the bishops of die nineteen wards into which Salt Lake City was initially divided â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these bishops being invested with the civil powers of magistrates â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that these bishops had their troubles is abundantly reflected in the scoldings periodically incorporated into the sermons of Brigham Young.

The first new public building undertaken was the Council House.

As early as September 30,1848, Brigham Young proposed die building of such a structure by tithing labor (men who could not pay the monetary tithe to the church might work it out), and on October 29 he put the authority of the church behind die proposal. Although active work did not begin until February, 1849, the building was completed in December, 1850. Upon foundation and first story walls constructed of red sandstone, it had a second story of adobe, surmounted by a cupola which makes it instantly recognizable in any early view of Salt Lake City. The Council House was situated at the southwest corner of South Temple and Main streets, and until its destruction by fire on June 21,1883 (a calamity made a historical catastrophe in that die collection of the great pioneer photographer, Charles R. Savage, went simultaneously up in smoke), it served every public purpose; church services, sessions of the legislature, and all kinds of public meetings were held in it; at one time it housed the Territorial Library and the Deseret News; and from 1869 to 1881 it was the home of the Deseret University (the future University of Utah). The disappearance of this landmark is one of the first-generation cultural tragedies of Salt Lake City.

Other appurtenances of civilization introduced in die winter and spring of 1849 were a city cemetery, still existing on the north bench, though now surrounded by "The Avenues," and an armory.

It will now be appreciated how young a settlement was diat City of the Great Salt Lake into which poured the host of California goldseekers beginning in June, 1849.

Among those recording their impressions was a Pittsburgher who, on July 22, 1849, spoke for a great many who would share his sentiments in time to come: I shall never forget the first sight of this valley. It shall ever remain on my mind as the most beautiful spectacle I ever beheld The whole valley is surrounded by snow-capped mountains, forming a complete basin . . . occupied by die Mormons, who build their houses entirely of sun dried bricks. Their city occupies more ground than Pittsburgh, but each man has a large

218

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

piece of ground around his dwelling. The bridges are all good, the streets and roads wide, and the fences very regular. There are about 10,000 Mormons here [actually there were about half that number]. They say that they will welcome to their society any good citizen, no matter what his religion may be. There motto is 'do right.'...

They assemble every Sunday morning under a large shed [a new Bowery, erected on the Temple Block diis very month].

The Society is governed by a President, the Twelve and the seventy. The President and die twelve occupy the pulpit and do all the preaching. I went this morning when the bell rang, to church, where I saw a large assemblage, some dressed quite fashionably, and all clean and neat. A brass band first played a lively tune, and then the clerk rose and read several notices....

He then announced diat on Tuesday diey would have an anniversary feast, as it was the day of the month [July 24] on which they arrived at their present snug quarters. He stated that the city would be roused early in the morning by the firing of cannon and the music of the brass band. A procession would then be formed, which would march out of town, and at 2 o'clock dinner would be served. The emigrants were all invited to attend.

The anniversary feast thus forecast marks the beginning of Utah's Pioneer Day celebrations, an annual highlight of the summer, not only for Salt Lake City but for Mormon communities and groups everywhere.

The church service described had its peculiar character because there was as yet no newspaper in the Valley, and notices had to be given out at public meetings.

In April, 1849, the federal government had directed two U.S. Topographical Engineers, Captain Howard Stansbury and Lieutenant John W. Gunnison, to proceed to the Great Salt Lake country and map it thoroughly.

Gunnison, on arrival August 24, noted that die city was "built or'laid out at the foot of a low plain on the river valley & at present gives a disappointing view â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but the fields of corn & vegetables around the scattered houses are refreshing to our eyes â&#x20AC;&#x201D;" This observation was almost a leitmotif in travelers accounts for another generation; whether or not they were impressed by Salt Lake City as a metropolis, they were impressed by its oasis-like nature, its gratifying greenness. Stansbury again expressed this impression next spring, when he said: "The city looks beautiful contrasted with the desert wastes from which we have come, & when it comes to be built up & planted with trees will be a handsome city."

To the Stansbury Survey we owe the first pictorial representations

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

219

of the young Salt Lake City. If any Forty-Niner paused to limn the city before riding on to California, his work remains unknown. But F. R. Grist, a gentleman of artistic bent of whom little is known, accompanied the Stansbury expedition and made a number of drawings from which lithographs were prepared to illustrate Stansbury's report.

So far as known, the first daguerreotypes of Salt Lake City were made in the summer of 1851 by J. Wesley Jones, who crossed the continent daguerreotyping the principal sights, and afterwards had his views worked up by pencil artists for exhibition. His Great Salt Lake City has an unexpected viewpoint, showing the western skyline: In the distance at left is the northern tip of the Oquirrhs, which the Mormons then called the "Sugarloaf Peak," with Antelope Island at right, and Stansbury Island in the far center. Jones pointed out that the city was not very compactly built, owing to the size of the lots sufficient for the cultivation of "vegetables and even Wheat and Corn for quite a family."

Profiting by such examples, the Mormons themselves commissioned an artist to travel the overland trail and picture the outstanding scenes along the way, especially those of interest to' the Saints. The commission was given to Frederick Piercy, who in 1853 journeyed to Utah and made some of the most magnificent drawings ever to come out of the West, published in Liverpool in 1855 with letterpress, by James A. Linforth. Of his view of Salt Lake City Piercy remarked: The site of the city is large, a n d . . . the buildings were very much scattered, rendering it almost impossible to convey any idea of the place unless a large area was embraced in the view. Consequently a favourable point was chosen [a little west of what is now First North and Main streets], commanding the principal buildings, and the chief portion of the city which was then built upon. This, on the other hand very much reduced die size of the objects, but not to indistinctness. On the whole I think it may be presented as a faithful portrait of Great Salt Lake City in 1853.

Linforth elucidated this portrait at length, after noting that the city was laid out on a magnificent scale, being now nearly four miles square: An ordinance of the city requires the buildings to be placed 20 ft. back from the front line of the lot, leaving the intervening space for shrubbery or trees, which may be nourished by the irrigating canals flowing on each side of the street. The citizens are carrying out this design, and when the margin so appropriated is

CHANGING

FACE OF SALT

LAKE

studded with noble trees or planted with flowers, the effect produced will no doubt be delightful, especially in contrast with the neighbouring country, which has no woodland scenery.

He went on to say: The dark looking building . . . in the foreground, is President H. C. Kimball's. It was then unfinished. The street crossing die centre of the engraving, lies N . and S., and is called East Temple Street. Proceeding down it, or southward, the largest building on the left is the Tithing Office and Church Store. A little lower down on the right, is the Council House, a stone building 45 ft. square and 2 stories high. It was built by the Church, and originally used by it, but has chiefly been occupied by the State and Territorial Legislatures. Immediately in front of the Council House, and running to the extreme right of the engraving is Temple Block, on which are seen the Public Works to the left, and the [Old] Tabernacle to the right. The Tabernacle was built in 1851, is 126 ft. long, 64 ft. wide, arched without a pillar, and will accommodate 2500. [It stood in the southwest angle of die Temple Block, where the Assembly Hall was ultimately built.] Another building of wood has since been attached to it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; die Bowery, 156 ft. long and 138 ft. wide, which will hold 8000. At die present time the Temple itself is being erected....

Some idea of the magnitude of the edifice may be gleaned from the fact, that its foundation has swallowed up more stone than the Temple at Nauvoo contained altogether. A graded road has been made from Temple Block to the [red sand]stone quarry on the E., for the conveyance of building materials.

Other public buildings erected in the city since our view was taken, are the Social Hall, 73 ft. by 33 ft., built of adobies [on the east side of State Street between South Temple and First South streets, its site marked by the plat of grass at Social Hall Avenue], and used for public entertainments and dramatic representations; the Territorial Arsenal, on the "Bench," N. of the city [at the head of Main Street, virtually on the site of the present Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum; it blew up with frightful effect in 1876]; the Endowment House, on die N.W. corner of Temple Block, used by die L.D. Saints for the purpose indicated by its name [sacred ordinances, performed only in temples after temples were completed in Utah]; the Penitentiary at the S.E. of the city, and the Seventies' Council Hall, 50 ft. by 30 ft. [a block down State Street from die Social Hall, on the west side of the street].

221

222

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Then in course of erection were the Great Salt Lake County Courthouse, on the northeast corner of Second South and Second West streets, and other public buildings, including "an Office for the Church Historian and Recorder on the S. side of South Temple Street," where the Medical Arts Building now stands. Private buildings, manufactories, and stores, Linforth remarked, "have multiplied beyond all expectation. In the year 1854, as many as 8 stores were built in East Temple Street, and 6 more in other parts of the city. Several good hotels have been opened." And lastly, by reason of the Indian difficulties of 1853 which have come down in history as the Walker War, the city was being walled in, to the height of twelve feet.

The "down-town" city on which we will increasingly focus our attention began to emerge on Temple Block and the "Brigham Young" block to the east, during the 1850's. Here alone old-city and modern city find a common identity. On the Temple Block, the surrounding wall is older than any of the now famous buildings that rise within, constructed between 1852 and 1856 as a public works project. Parenthetically, this was the first of several famous walls.^The city wall, commenced in the summer of 1853, on which work continued desultorily for several years, was nominally for protection against the Indians, but basically a work project for needy immigrants^ undertaken at Salt Lake City as a kind of object lesson to smaller and niore exposed communities where a wall could serve a genuine defense function. Walls were also constructed around some private residences, principally those of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. The Brigham Young property fronting on South Temple Street was long shielded from the public view by such a wall, and a small remnant along State Street east of the Beehive House still stands.

The Beehive Mansion, like Brigham Young's adjacent office, was built in 1852. The gabled Lion House, farther west, was erected in 185556. But one who would see them today as in Brigham Young's time must envision the buildings cloistered behind their walls, with a gatekeeper to pass visitors and family members in and out. To the east, the Eagle Gate which spans North State Street dates from 1859. Brigham Young was early granted legal control of City Creek Canyon, to insure the purity of water supply, and access to it for logging or other purposes was to be had only with his permission, and through his propertyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;therefore, after 1859, by proceeding under the Eagle. Though this arrangement had advantages, it also made Young's property a semipublic thoroughfare, so he had the road through his property walled in on both sides. West of the Brigham Young family dwellings on this historic block were the adobe

The Lion House, constructed in 1855-56, was once the home of Brigham Young. It is connected to the Beehive House, located on its east, by a smaller office building which served as the general Church Offices.

Z.C.M.I. viewed from the Temple grounds across the street. Opened for business in March, 1869, it was one of the first department stores in the country and has been an architectural landmark on Main Street since 1876.

,'\

SsrS3.

\

'M**M

i r r ^MS. m- --

224

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

quarters of the GenerafTithing Store, prominent on the face of Salt Lake City for over half a century; the wall around the Young dwellings continued down the street to enclose diis edifice, too.

The Utah War, when the Mormons all but came to blows with the U.S. government, attracted national attention, and many correspondents flocked into the city in the spring of 1858 to describe it for the world. One writing to the New Yor\ Herald in June, 1858, described that curiosity, the useless city wall, then undertook to paint a picture of the city proper.

The town is very sparsely covered widi houses; in the major part of it there are only two or three little habitations on a square block, and it will be remembered that the blocks are very large.

The houses are built close to the sides of the blocks, the rest of the ten acres being tilled as gardens and fields; thus die city at present contains numerous small fields of wheat and some very fine gardens. The houses are all built of adobe The color of the buildings is a sort of slate white, and though widi an individual house it is not very agreeable, yet it gives to the tout ensemble of the city a very lively and pleasant appearance. . . .

Probably no other city in the world of this size presents to die eye of the approaching voyageur so magnificent a prospect; the exact space it occupies, the streets set as it were in a jewel of rippling brooks which glisten bright as silver in the sunlight, their breadth and regularity, the rows of young verdant trees that border upon them, the lively color of the houses, the beautiful gardens and orchards, with the small fields thick covered widi flowing wheat, give to it an aspect singularly attractive....

This city, so beautiful, so isolated from the rest of the world . . . is the work of but ten years, and that too in a barren valley, without spontaneous vegetation higher than a willow bush.

The sixties brought their own contribution to Salt Lake City's character. In the autumn of 1861 the Overland Telegraph was completed, so that the first utility poles, with their strung wires, appeared on Main Street. The Mormons subsequently connected all their principal settlements with a home-owned and home-operated Deseret Telegraph line, and the utility poles multiplied; when gas lighting of downtown streets materialized in the seventies, followed by electrified street railways, and the telephone, a veritable forest of utility poles sprang up down both sides of most streets and with a double line down the middle of some.

Cherished in Salt Lake City's memory is the great pioneer enterprise, the Salt Lake Theatre, constructed between July, 1861, and March, 1862, on the northwest corner of State and First South streets. Begun by Brig-

An early view of the Temple Block, looking south.

The Salt Lake Theatre, corner of State and First South.

Eagle Gate, a century-old Salt Lake City landmark-

' "5P»5*

SB!

mmf^

'W^^^^TttLsii^m

226

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ham Young and carried out as a community project, this majestic theatre (to speak of it as merely a building does not convey its character) for two generations was one of the great American theatrical landmarks, and its razing in 1928 was one of the bitterest pills Salt Lakers were ever asked to swallow in the name of progress, made the more bitter by the fact that for some years afterward a gasoline station did business on the site. A modest building, housing the Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, now stands there, with only a mournful plaque on its wall to summon up past glories.

In the first year of the Salt Lake Theatre, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor, commanding a regiment of California-Nevada volunteers, established on the bench east of the city a post designed to keep the Mormons under military observation. Fort Douglas became the center of a military reservation which in the course of time set limits to the eastern expansion of the city, forcing it southeast.

Successively the church had outgrown the buildings it erected upon the Temple Block for religious services. The Bowery had given place to the Old Tabernacle in 1852. The capacity of that building was limited, however, and a new Bowery erected north of it, along the west side of Temple Square, was usable only in good weather. At the April Conference of 1863 Brigham Young announced the intention of the church to build a huge tabernacle. The unique building that resulted, with its turtle-shaped roof, was completed in October, 1867, a monument of architectural ingenuity, if not externally the handsomest building ever erected by the Saints. It still stands substantially as when built* the only immediately obvious difference being the sheathing of aluminum which protects the roof from the elements.

Notwithstanding the early beginning made on the Temple, progress was so slow that some visitors, like Richard F. Burton in 1860, expressed doubts that it would ever actually get built. Ground was broken in 1853, and the cornerstone laid the same year. But no real progress was made until Salt Lake City's railroad era began with the completion of the Utah Central Railway from Ogden in January, 1870; when the line was extended south, a spur line could be built into Little Cottonwood Canyon, and from 1873 the freighting of the granite blocks was simplified and expedited. Meanwhile temple-building began elsewhere in Utah, first at St. George, subsequently at Manti and Logan, and all three of these sacred edifices were completed before the majestic Salt Lake Temple was dedicated on April 6, 1893. The reaching, uncompleted walls of the Temple give a graphic character to all photographs of the city made in the late

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

227

seventies and eighties. Smaller-cut granite blocks meanwhile were used to build the dignified Assembly Hall, a Gothic structure erected between 1877 and 1880 on the site of the Old Tabernacle, still playing a familiar role in the ecclesiastical and cultural life of Salt Lake City. Granite chips from the Temple Block were used to build a curious structure, Anderson's Tower, which was erected about 1884 on the east rim of City Creek Canyon, near Seventh Avenue; it was promoted as an elegant vantage point from which to view the city, but as a commercial venture its fate was foreordained, since the heights above the city everywhere afforded views as good or better. The tower came down finally in 1932.

"Elegance" was a word which came increasingly into the city's vocabulary. In particular it was associated with the name of William Jennings, one of Utah's early merchant princes, who, wrote Edward W. Tullidge in 1881, was: a lover of home magnificence. To his examples Salt Lake City owes greatly its fine solid appearance of today. With his Eagle Emporium [a stone structure built in 1864 on the southwest corner of Main and First South streets] he commenced the colossal improvements of Main Street, in which he was followed

by William S. Godbe and the Walker Brothers. His home is quite palatial....

Jennings was crucially important in the success of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, organized by the Mormon authorities in October, 1868, as a "parent store" or wholesaling establishment for the co-operatives the Mormons were organizing all over Utah. One of the first department stores in the country, Z.C.M.I. opened for business in March, 1869, in the Eagle Emporium, its insignia the all-seeing eye, with an accompanying motto "Holiness to the Lord." Soon expanding into several different lines, including the retail trade, and into several different buildings, Z.C.M.I. eventually established its own architectural landmark on Main Street by building on the east side of the street just south of the residence of the long-time mayor, Daniel H. Wells, a long, three-story structure. There, since March, 1876, Z.C.M.I. has been housed, its home now the most venerable of Salt Lake City's principal business buildings.

Street railways appeared in Salt Lake City in 1872. Horse-drawn at first, the cars congregated at "Emporium Corner" to leave "at the hour and half past to the first Ward, or southeastern portion of the city; to the railroad depot; to the Warm Spring baths; to the Twentieth Ward, or northeastern portion of the city [up in the Avenues]; and to the Eleventh Ward, or eastern portion of the city," as noted by H. L. A. Culmer in his

3E3ffrarr v

a

mt ' '.*.

Xj0,

" * â&#x20AC;˘

.

~

-

A favorite viewpoint, this panoramic view of the Valley from the Capitol at the head of State Street, looking south, was taken in the early thirties.

1879 Tourists' Guide Book- Culmer also observed that the city was "lighted with gas by theSalt Lake Gas Co., whose works are near the railroad depot."

This innovation had come about in 1872.

There were a good many more innovations as the eighties came in.

In May, 1880, Salt Lake City purchased from the Brigham Young estate the old Brigham Young farm, out beyond Ninth South Street, and opened it to the public in June, 1882, as Liberty Park. In September, 1880, an electric light exhibition was held in front of Z.C.M.I., and though it did not convert the city fathers immediately to Thomas Edison's discoveries, electricity had come into general use by 1888, in which year horse traction of the city railway ceased. That remarkable invention, the telephone, introduced into Utah in 1879, simultaneously began to exert its influence on communications. And in August, 1883, the City Council ordered a house numbering program instituted for the city, with a view to inaugurating free mail delivery, which followed in March, 1885.

jSSissu-;

Xf£* '*££»€ .^seci

'u:*'a

JT: PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

New subdivisions west, near the Jordan River, and the great industrial expansion of postwar Salt Lake City is shown in this aerial photograph of the 1950's.

Almost, the modern city had evolved. Yet the descriptive literature about Salt Lake City published in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and especially die views these pamphlets proudly reproduced, limn the face of the city with a somehow shocking emptiness for one who would orient himself by present landmarks. The Temple Block is there, complete; the Brigham Young monument is out in the middle of South Temple and Main streets, where it was planted during the Semicentennial Celebration of 1897; Brigham Young's family dwellings, now the property of the church, stand out in almost their modern aspect, and the Eagle Gate as well, elevated on new supporting columns in 1891, to permit the passage of streetcars under it. Some distance down State Street, the high clock tower surmounting the gloomily gray City and County Building, completed in 1894 on the old Emigration Square where incoming immigrants had camped on arrival in the city, gives the eye some anchorage. The great white oblong bulk of the Salt Lake Theatre, then present, is now

CHANGING

FACE

OF S A L T

LAKE

231

gone. After all, it is Main Street that remained.to be transformed, and that has been the business of the twentieth century.

The transformation began in 1909, when down-state mining money was sunk by Samuel Newhouse into the twin eleven-story Boston and Newhouse buildings, on the east side of Main between Third and Fourth South streets. Two years later the ornate white Hotel Utah reared its ten stories above the old site of the Tithing Office at South Temple. The Walker Bank Building, at Second South shot up in 1912 as the tallest skyscraper yet, sixteen stories and three on top of that foundation. The Newhouse Hotel, fifteen floors, appeared in 1915, and after a lapse of nine years, the thirteen-story Continental Bank Building. For a time, the last major structure reared against the Salt Lake skyline was the Medical Arts Building on East South Temple Street, completed in 1927.

A good many lesser buildings had been erected meanwhile, of course, more than we have space to enumerate, though all have contributed indispensably to the emergence of that vertical dimension which, to anyone who has lived in Salt Lake City, exquisitely balances out its horizontal dimension. Important among them is the Federal Building on lower Main Street, originally built in 1906, and extended in 1911. And on South Temple,below the Lion House, the imposing L.D.S. Church Office Building, completed in 1917, balances the Federal Reserve Building, erected in 1926 on the southwest corner of South Temple and State streets to replace the Gardo Mansion, commonly known as the "Amelia Palace."

We cannot take this narrative up South Temple to observe the various cathedrals and mansions, which with the tall trees arching their branches over the broad sidewalks have given this street a character and charm all its own. Nor can we venture to explore the subject of schools and hospitals. But no account of Salt Lake City could be adequate that did not raise its eyes to the State Capitol on the north bench, built between 1912 and 1916, or which did not wheel east to observe where the University of Utah in 1900 found a home below Fort Douglas, after many years of wandering about the valley floor. Here the university has grown since, an educational metropolis, fortunate in that its situation immediately below the military reservation enabled it to lay claim to land for expansion when the status of die honored old post changed after World War II. The advent of the electric light in the eighties gave to Salt Lake City a night-time charm peculiarly its own, for its situation under the hills enabled visitors and residents alike to climb the heights and see the stars wink in the dark depths of die Valley as well as in the gulfs of space.

Neon came in the mid-1920's to touch up the night-time scene with glow-

232

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ing color; and the arrival of the commercial airplane added another touch, the revolving beacon flashing from the mountain heights east of the city.

There is no end to change: a city that does not change is dying. The automobile came to Salt Lake City's streets soon after the rounding of the century, soon altering the very character of those streets and ultimately banishing the streetcar, a development made final in 1941. It accelerated the city's growth, especially to the east and southeast, where with a mighty assist from the Deer Creek water project, insuring adequate supplies of water under adequate pressure, homeseekers have now climbed to almost the last of the high benches left by ancient Lake Bonneville.

Here in the no less surprising new subdivisions west of the Jordan River, the bareness of the new developments, on which from a distance homes seem huddled like sheep, is a reminiscence of the earliest Salt Lake, for trees have not had time to grow and assimilate post-war Salt Lake City into the city's timeless identity.

There is change, too, in the inner city, symbolized in the appearance in 1955 of the First Security Bank Building at Fourth South and Main streets, the first major structure added to the Salt Lake City skyline in twenty-eight years, and so new a departure in its architecture as to seem a bit alien: It will have to grow into the scene. Yet perhaps its glassy expanse reflects something of the future, so that a Salt Laker of a future year will find in it the first reassuring oncoming of' the present. Still we may hope that Salt Lake City will not lose itself in growth, that as it has preserved its unique identity through its eras as village, town, and city, it will not lose that identity in its transformation into a metropolis.

I PI V

if

5>6 a

»»25*

>

MAIN STREET: SALT LAKE CITY Gone are the water ditches, the telephone, power, and trolley lines. After a century the modern Main Street has evolved. Viewed from Fourth South looking north toward the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Building on "Arsenal" hill.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

1

Hi HI

• • f t '"'

• » ' * * * •'

iff J|]

J J

Ml f Mi

f\9

•ft •ft

• V HH

J

A •

•

"ENTERING THE VALLEY"

• • •

Utah's famous artist J. T. Harwood painted the picture of the covered wagon pioneers entering the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. It hangs in the Salt Lake Public Library.

"THIS IS THE PLACE" MONUMENT Commanding a view of the entire Valley of the Great Salt Lake, "This is the Place" State Park ""'# eventually include terraced gardens, picnic facilities, an amphitheater, observation shelters and a toboggan run.

An Information Building was recently completed near the monument.

PHOTO, INTERMOUNTAIN TOURIST SUPPLY

• • •

THE MORMON TABERNACLE

This immense auditorium 250 feet long, 150 feet wide and 80 feet high is elliptical in shape topped by a massive roof resting like a great inverted bowl on forty-foot pillars of cut sandstone masonry.

A modern addition is the aluminum sheathing on the roof.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

Jti

• •>'

' g a l i J U l L . m ~ f •mmm

•W

'-

WM

->

ft

• *

* ufJe

••

*

^

^

^

•i

THE SALT LAKE L.D.S. TEMPLE Ground was broken for this magnificent edifice in 1853; it was dedicated on April 6,1893. The quiet and dignity of Temple Square is emphasized as the slanting rays of a winter sun glow on the Temple and the Seagull monument.

M

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

a ^

,1 Iltfil' 4

1 sttnTTitnr

5£ ha «

4rl

<3

"

I -»*

Si

8 •$

~<3

•5 5 o o

l-l« o

\«?

E o 8 .0

to

.•Risk

ilUftfi v

3-

3 »

1 *

ft£% i 4

:

-

•

•:•

\

•

'V-

ii

UTAH STATE CAPITOL "Cherry Blossom Time"

The capitol grounds are gracefully sloped and appropriately landscaped, offering color and beauty throughout the year.

The greens and blues of the evergreens predominate in winter and early spring, followed by the warm pinks of the cherry blossoms and the lavender and purple of the lilacs, later the bold reds of the hawthorne trees and finally the brilliant oranges and reds of the pyracantha. The tulips, roses, and annual flower beds contribute a riot of color in season.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

SKI LIFT AT ALTA Just seventeen miles from downtown Salt Lake City, Alta, once famous for its productive silver mines, is now gaining an even greater reputation for its world famous ski runs and fabulous Swiss type sk} chalets.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

ALPINE AUTUMN SCENE The bare ridges of Mount Timpanogos form the background of this autumn scene on the Alpine Loop highway. The switchbacks and turnouts of the road reveal mile after mile of such enchanting vistas to the viewer.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL L

SALT HARVEST Several companies operate plants on the Great Salt Lake shore refining salt for commercial consumption. Farther west, miles of "Salt Flats" sparkle and glisten like snow.

PHOTO, HAL RUMEL

-v?m-

SALTAIR The great Moorish pavilion at Saltair was built in 1893.

R. K. A.Kletting was the architect. In 1925 fire destroyed the resort, but it was rebuilt and through the years has remained as the amusement park landmark of the lake.

PHOTO, INTERMOUNTA1N TOURIST SUPPLY

«*;

P s ••a S

SO

S.1.8 s °

3

ii i . ' S -5! O

8

Hi 8Si"S "5

•S-S-S O V

* S "

i

K a, t*

£:* -...

*>

K

e

: "a ^•^

8

5

- 8 |.a

o

"* « -a .e b«.2 ~5 © *4

IHIIllllllUIHIIWIIIIIIIIi:

â&#x20AC;¢I I

-*'*'?-?1

l i t

i

t 1 World famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Organ.

I'HOTO, L.D.S. INFORMATION SERVICE

_-

*m •

...•••

& • i . -* -

c\.

tr

>A1

33k

.(-. .\.

a J

raw ff * SF

or *

•;!i i» J 5 1 8 1

I «. ,»: *

iRiJiE1'? •

«i§

II

ifli

m

II l

• 1IIP

: :::iiiiiiii^s

Through these gates pass more than one million people each year. Visitors from all ?/ the states in the Union and from many 'oreign countries as well have signed the Temple Square register in one single day.

TEMPLE

SQUARE: OF THE

THE

CROSSROADS

WEST

By Theodore L. Cannon*

On the evening of July 28, 1847, just four days after the entry of the first company of Mormon Pioneers into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young struck his cane into the sandy soil and proclaimed, "Here will be the Temple of our God!" In the days that followed, a forty-acre square was staked out surrounding that designated point (the square was later reduced to ten acres), and from its southeast corner, the streets of the new city were surveyed and laid out.

In the years that followed, Temple Square became the focal point and nerve center of the entire Intermountain West. From that day forward it was the principal central meeting place of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even as it is today—the place from which has gone forth the word of the church's latter-day prophets.

The temple Brigham Young mentioned was not started immediately — not, in fact, until 1853, and it was not completed until forty years later — but within days of his prophetic utterance, members of the Mormon * Theodore L. Cannon is news director of the Information Service of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and associate editor of the Deseret News.

248

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Battalion had built a "bowery," an open-air shelter of poles, branches, and brush, the first of many structures to be erected on the square.

Today, Temple Square, containing the many-spired gray granite Temple, the great domed Tabernacle, the graceful Godiic-towered Assembly Hall, and the Bureau of Information and Museum, entertains more than a million visitors per year.

Day after day, in every season, they come from far and wide to see and hear â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and marvel. During the summer tourist months thousands daily throng the "miles" of walks through the park-like grounds, learning the Mormon story as evidenced by the buildings and die several monuments and memorials, and explained by volunteer guides.

Each Sunday morning the world-famed Mormon Tabernacle choir and organ send fordi over a national radio network half an hour of sacred and secular music, along with "The Spoken Word," a brief nondoctrinal sermonette.

This weekly program, now in its thirty-first year, is believed to be the oldest continuously broadcast noncommercial feature in the history of radio. On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary with the Columbia Broadcasting System in June of 1958, congratulatory messages were received from President Eisenhower, former Presidents Truman and Hoover, and scores of leading public figures, educators, and musicians throughout the nation.

Twice annually, in April and October, tens of thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convene in the Tabernacle and nearby buildings for the church's annual and semiannual General Conferences. Between times other thousands gather in the Tabernacle for other church meetings and for public events â&#x20AC;&#x201D; concerts of the world-famed Utah Symphony and its guest artists, conventions, pageants, oratorios, and addresses by national and international figures. Nine presidents of the United States, several candidates for that office, and countless other public figures have spoken from its rostrum.

Free daily noonday recitals on the Tabernacle organ, one of the finest in the world, have been a feature on Temple Square for more than half a century. And as tourist groups increase in size during the summer months, afternoon recitals are added.

Guide service for visitors, free of cost, is provided at half-hour intervals each day during the winter season, from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., and in summer the tours start as early as 6:30 A.M. and continue throughout the day at twenty minute intervals until 8:00 P.M. Guides are volunteer

The reaching, uncompleted walls of the Latter-day Saint Temple contribute graphic character to all photographs of Salt Lake City taken in the late seventies and eighties.

The Latter-day Saint Tabernacle was completed in October, 1867. It remains a monument of architectural ingenuity and still stands substantially as when originally built.

250

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

"missionaries" taking time from their daily work, in businesses, trades or professions, to render this service.

Visitors do not enter the Temple, the largest and principal one of twelve such structures operated by the Mormon Church. Only church members in good standing and duly recommended may enter the temples where sacred ordinances of the faith are performed. Other temples are located in St. George, Manti, and Logan, Utah; in Cardston, Canada; Mesa, Arizona; Laie, Hawaii; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Los Angeles, California; Bern, Switzerland; Hamilton, New Zealand; and London, England.

Before their westward migration in 1847, the church had erected temples in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois.

Actual construction of the Salt Lake Temple was commenced with ground-breaking and dedication ceremonies on February 14, 1853, and the four cornerstones were laid the following April 6, the twenty-third anniversary of the organization of the church. Originally, it was planned that the Temple would be built of adobe and red sandstone quarried in Red Butte Canyon, immediately east of the city. A wooden railway was even constructed to the canyon for the transportation of the stone, but it was not used. A much more durable material, granite from the quarries at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty miles distant, was selected and the herculean task of hauling in the material was begun.

The rough blocks, wrenched and split from the mountains by hand drills and wedges and the use of such small quantities of low-power explosives as were available, were conveyed at first by ox teams; four yokes were required for each block and every trip was a labored journey of three or four days. A canal for the conveyance of the stone by water was projected, and work thereon was begun, but the plan was abandoned as the prospect of railroad transportation became more certain.

Meanwhile, it had been decided to surround Temple Square with a substantial wall — it was initiated as a make-work project — and labor was commenced in 1852. In three years the wall was finished, and for the most part it stands today as it did when firs,, completed. It extends a full city block — one-eighth of a mile — in each of its four directions. On a four-foot base of red sandstone, it is built above that base of pressed adobe brick, and then capped by a foot-thick coping of sandstone, to a total height of fifteen feet. Durable cement plaster covers the adobe portions.

In later years the four huge wooden gates, one in the center of each side of the square, were replaced with ornamental iron grill work, and some portions of the adobe sections, deteriorating under the inroads of

TEMPLE SQUARE

251

the elements, have had to be replaced. But for the most part the original wall still stands.

During the early years of the settlement, the Temple enclosure was the communal center of mechanical industry â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the one great workshop of the intermountain commonwealth. The church had established there its public works, comprising a power plant in which the energy of City Creek, which flowed through the site, was harnessed to die wheel. Machine shops and mills for the working of both wood and metal hummed with activity from dawn 'till dusk, and much of the work performed and materials produced in those early years was unconnected with the temple project.

The original 1847 bowery was replaced after two years with a newer and larger open air bowery on the south side of the grounds, and this, in turn, gave way to the first tabernacle, which was completed in December, 1851, on the southwest corner of the block.

This structure, of adobe on a sandstone foundation and having a sloping, shingled roof, was 126 feet long by 64 feet wide, was completely enclosed, and seated some twenty-five hundred people. To handle overflow crowds, a third bowery was built to the north of the tabernacle, and these two buildings were used for regular religious services and public meetings until the new and present Tabernacle, started in 1863, was completed in 1867.

In 1854, shortly after the walls of the great Temple had started to rise, it was decided to build a temporary structure in which temple ordinances and ceremonies could be performed. This was the Endowment House, a two-story adobe building, located on the northwest corner of the block. It was dedicated May 5, 1855, and continued in use until November, 1889, three years before the Temple was dedicated, but after three other temples â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those in St. George, Manti, and Logan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; had been completed and put into use.

Work on the Temple, commenced at a time when the handful of settlers in the valley were living in crude log shelters, some of them in tents and wagons, moved forward slowly but steadily. Interminable trains of oxen dragged in the great granite blocks, slung by chains from the lumbering carts, while on the square crews of masons and stonecutters chiseled and hammered incessantly, fashioning the stone for placement in the walls.

Arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in Utah in 1868 temporarily retarded work on the project as the call for laborers on the great transcontinental line was deemed imperative. Inevitably, however, the com-

The Latter-day Saint Endowment House, located on the northwest corner of the block, was dedicated May 5,1855, and continued in use until November, 1889, The old structure was used for Temple ordinance work and other ceremonies.

The first Bureau of Information Building has been replaced by the modern building which contains many interesting relics of the early history of the West and the Church.

TEMPLE

SQUARE

253

ing of the iron horse speeded the work, as by 1873 a branch track was built to the quarries, and another track, from the main line up South Temple Street and actually into Temple Square, permitted hauling the massive stones directly to the building site.

At the time of President Young's death in 1877, the walls had attained a height of twenty feet above ground. In the next fifteen years work proceeded at a comparatively accelerated pace, and as the spires began to take shape, a feverish anxiety to complete the work seems to have seized the people. The capstone was placed on April 6, 1892, in ceremonies in which fervent worship and thanksgiving were intermingled with jubilant celebration. Exactly twelve months later the interior was finished and the great structure completed and dedicated.

For forty years the people had toiled, suffered, struggled, and sacrificed to build the Temple, expending some $4,000,000 in the process. And concurrently diey had built homes, chapels, farms, communities, industries, and a great commonwealth encompassing the Intermountain West.

The magnificent building has a foundation sixteen feet wide and sixteen feet deep, upon which rise the walls, nine feet thick at the base and tapering to six feet at the top. The Temple is 186 feet long by 118 wide, and die central east tower, highest of the six, reaches 210 feet skyward. Surmounting it is the 1254 foot statue of the Angel Moroni, made of hammered copper thickly overlaid with gold leaf, sounding from his trumpet the tidings of the restoration of the gospel in the latter days.

Immediately west of the Temple stands the Mormon Tabernacle, an immense auditorium 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, 80 feet high, elliptical in shape, and topped by a massive roof resting like a great inverted bowl on forty-four pillars or buttresses. Of cut sandstone masonry, these supports are each nine feet from the outside to the inside of the building, three feet in thickness and from fourteen to twenty feet high. The spaces between them are occupied for die most part by huge double doors which swing outward, permitting full ventilation and circulation of air during pleasant weather, and rapid egress from the building at all times.

The roof, a marvel of engineering for the period in which it was conceived, is a ten-foot-thick span of wooden lattice truss construction, the maze of timbers fastened together by wooden pegs or dowels and rawhide bindings. In recent years the exterior shingles have been replaced by a metal covering.

The building was started in 1863 and was sufficiently completed to accommodate the General Conference of the Church held in October, 1867. A spacious gallery, forming a giant U around three sides of the au-

254

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ditorium, was added in 1870, giving the building a total seating capacity of close to eight thousand.

There have been several recorded versions of the origin of the idea for the Tabernacle's unique design. One is that Brigham Young patterned it after the construction of the ordinary umbrella; another, that he conceived it after reflecting on the strength of half an eggshell which lay before him on a table; still another, that he was impressed by the acoustical quality resulting from a shell-shaped wall at the rear of the old tabernacle building, similar in form to the band and orchestra "shells" of later date; and finally, his own reported statement that the design was inspired "by the best sounding board in the world — the roof of my mouth."

Whichever the case, the result is a building of world renown, not only for its unique beauty and utility, but for its unmatched acoustical qualities as well. Original cost of the structure was about $300,000, exclusive of the cost of the organ.

The first tabernacle pipe organ was built by an Englishman, Joseph Ridges, in Australia, whither he had emigrated, and where he joined the Mormon Church. He dismantled the organ and brought it by sailing vessel to California in 1856, and thence by mule train to Utah. It was set up in the Old Tabernacle and was first played for regular services on October 11,1857.

When the new Tabernacle was being planned, Brigham Young requested Ridges to build an organ of a size and quality in keeping with the new structure. After examination of specimens of wood from various parts of the West, a particular type of pine growing near St. George was decided upon, and great timbers were hauled the 350 miles by ox team for construction of the pipes. Ridges himself went to Boston to purchase such items as ivory for the keys, spring wire, thin sheet brass, soft fluff leather for the valves, and such other materials as could not be made or obtained in the pioneer settlement. These too were transported by team from the nearest railroad terminus, and the project was begun. Homemade nails, glue boiled up in great pots just outside the Tabernacle walls, rawhide and leather from the pelts of Utah cattle and calves, all went into the great instrument which was put into operation for the October Conference of 1867, but was not completely finished for another three years.

At that time the organ had two manuals, 27 pedals, 2,638 pipes — the largest 32 feet in length — and 35 stops. It was hand-pumped. Some years later a water wheel placed in a channel of City Creek, which flowed beneath the building, powered the organ. The instrument has been rebuilt, added upon and improved many times in the years since, until it is now

TEMPLE

SQUARE

255

recognized as one of the finest in the world. And some of the original pipes, made of southern Utah pine, are still in use. From the days of the first bowery, fine choral music has been a distinguishing feature and tradition on Temple Square, and the present 375-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir, dating its history back more than a century, has won world acclaim.

Over trie years, in addition to providing music for General Conference and other church services, the choir has concertized extensively throughout the United States and abroad. It has been featured at world's fairs and expositions, has sung in the White House for two presidents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Taft in 1909 and Eisenhower in 1958 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia's Academy of Music, and a score of other famous auditoriums and concert halls. In 1955 it made a triumphant six-weeks' tour of the musical capitals of Great Britain and northern Europe, and in the fall of 1958 it presented a series of concerts in principal cities of mideastern and eastern United States and Canada. During the course of this journey the choir added to its fast-growing record library in several recording sessions with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

On the southwest corner of Temple Square on the site of the Old Tabernacle, stands the beautiful Assembly Hall, a place of public worship to which visitors from all faiths are welcome. It was completed in 1882, partly from granite and other materials left over from the Temple construction. It too has a fine pipe organ. In addition to religious services, it is used for public gatherings, concerts and civic functions which do not require the seating capacity of the Tabernacle.

Many monuments and memorials of unusual interest are to be found about the grounds of Temple Square. Generally the first to meet the visitor's eye is the Sea Gull monument, located immediately east of the Assembly Hall, a granite shaft rising from a circular pool, and topped by two bronze birds in flight. Erected in 1913, it commemorates The occasion in 1848 when clouds of gulls from nearby Great Salt Lake swooped in, even as the settlers prayed for Divine assistance, and saved the valley's first crops from hordes of devouring crickets.

To the south of the Temple stand monuments to Joseph Smith, first Prophet and President of the Mormon Church, and his brother Hyrum, the Patriarch, who were slain by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844.

Nearby another monument records the testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. To the north of the Tabernacle and west of the Temple annex and greenhouse, is a memorial to the Handcart Pioneers, while nearby is a recently unveiled sculpture depicting restora-

The beautiful L.D.S. Assembly Hall stands on the southwest corner of the Temple Block- A place of public worship, it welcomes visitors of all faiths.

PHOTO, DESERET NEWS

TEMPLE

SQUARE

25T

tion of the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

In the southeast corner of the square, sheltered in a peristyle, stands an old log cabin, a typical pioneer home. Built in 1847 as part of the original pioneer fort, it was moved twice before being brought to its present location for permanent preservation. History records that this cabin was used by Captain Stansbury during 1849-50 while he was surveying this territory newly acquired from Mexico for the federal government.

The Bureau of Information, a long, two-story brick structure immediately inside the south gate, is tourist headquarters for the square. From this point the guided tours set forth; here are offered free literature, pamphlets, and tracts, and church books are sold at cost. In connection with the bureau is a museum containing thousands of relics and mementos of the early days of the church and the West. Murals on the walls tell the pioneer story, and on the upper floor are cases of utensils, weapons, costumes, tools, and artifacts of the American Indian and the peoples of distant lands â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a storehouse of historical and archeological treasures.

Rolling green lawns, trim shrubs and hedges, and a profusion of colorful blooms in formal beds adorn the square from early spring until winter's snows arrive to blanket the ground and deck the stately trees in white.

Year round it is an island of peace and quiet beauty in the heart of a thriving city, a place of dignity and spirituality, rich in culture, in tradition and in history, a magnet which has drawn and made welcome millions, the great and the small, from the four corners of the world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Temple Square: Crossroads of the West.

N â&#x20AC;¢ * * <

i\ M

"housands have viewed the Capitol rounda where Cyrus Dallin's plaster model f Massassoit occupied the center posiion for more than a quarter of a century.

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

By Everett L. Cooley*

Symbols play a significant role in human relationships. Just as national and state flags have symbolic meaning to those living under a specially designated ensign, so too have capitols their special symbolism.

Closely associated with the rise of nationalism and sovereignty is the adoption of symbols representing a nation's dreams and aspirations. Aside from any functional purpose it might serve, a capitol is a symbol of nationhood, of sovereignty. More frequently than not one of the first projects undertaken in a newly formed state is the selection of a capital and the erection therein of a suitable edifice designated the capitol. So it was with the newly-united states in 1790, and so it was in each of the individual states as settlers made their way across the American continent.

In this the pioneers of Utah were like others who preceded them to statehood and like those who followed. Utah had scarcely settled into territorial status when her citizenry determined that a capitol should be built. In fact, the very first legislative assembly of the territory of Utah, by joint resolution, designated Pauvan Valley in central Utah as the capital. On the same day, October 4,1851, Millard County was created by the legislature, and Fillmore City was named the county seat and the place * Everett L. Cooley is Director of the State Archives, a division of the Utah State Historical Society.

Old Council House, Old County house, Old City Hall, City and Building, and the Fillmore State

where the capitol was to be built. By the same resolution, the legislative assembly provided for the appointment of a committee to proceed to Fillmore to designate the exact location for the new capitol.

Subsequently, four men were chosen to perform this function. They were Orson Pratt, Albert Carrington, Jesse W. Fox, and William C. Staines, all prominent men in church and civic affairs. On October 28,1851, the site for the new building was selected. Plans for the capitol were drawn

by Truman O. Angel, later architect of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. Construction, however, progressed slowly. By 1854, almost three years after first selection of the site, the walls of the structure were not yet completed. Stones and timbers had to be hand hewn, and there was always a shortage of iron for nails. Skilled workmen were also scarce.

Many new chapels, homes, and other public buildings were demanding the attention of the men skilled in the use of construction tools. Then, too, a persistent shortage of funds hampered the progress of the building.

After an initial appropriation of $20,000 from Congress, additional funds were not forthcoming despite repeated pleas and petitions from Utah.

Finally by summer 1855, die roof was placed on the east wing of the capitol, and the interior was being rushed to completion in readiness for the legislature. On December 10, 1855, the Fifth Annual Session of the Utah Territorial Legislative Assembly convened in Utah's first capitol.

Tradition has it that the building was dedicated the following day (December 11) by Governor Brigham Young, who was also president of the Mormon Church.

The fifth session was the only complete session of the legislature held in Fillmore. On two other occasions, the legislators assembled there and then adjourned to Salt Lake City. The executive and judicial offices of the territory were located in Fillmore only briefly. Technically, Fillmore was the capital of Utah only until the winter of 1856, for on December 15 of that year, Salt Lake City was made Utah's capital by joint resolution of the legislature. The anticipated development of central Utah did not take place. The natural resources did not prove to be as rich and plentiful as the initial reports indicated. Fillmore did not develop into a populous metropolis to serve a prosperous agricultural and industrial area. Her facilities proved inadequate for a territorial seat of government.

Only one wing of Utah's first capitol was ever completed, and this soon suffered from neglect. Eventually, ownership of the building passed to Fillmore City. Meanwhile it served many uses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; school, jail, office

262

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

building, and church. Finally, interested persons in Fillmore became aware of the historic value of the old, red sandstone structure and persuaded the governor and legislature to reposses and restore die building.

In 1927, the old "Utah State House" again became the property of the people of Utah and today serves as a museum of pioneer relics. Fillmore's most famous building stands as a reminder of the plans of empire envisioned by Utah's early leaders. This was the capitol located about midway between Idaho and Arizona and near the center of Utah as it then existed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from the Sierras to the crest of the Colorado Rockies.

Prior to the construction of the capitol at Fillmore and after its abandonment, the "headquarters" for the territorial government shifted from place to place. At least five different buildings in Salt Lake City served as the meeting place for the legislative assembly, and many more served as offices for the executive and judicial branches of the government.

The legislature met at the Council House (Main and South Temple streets), the Social Hall (Social Hall Avenue), the old Salt Lake County Courthouse (Second South and Second West streets), the Salt Lake City Hall (First South near State Street), and the present Salt Lake City and County Building (Fourth South and State streets). Offices of the territorial officials were also located in these buildings at various times. In addition, just prior to Utah statehood, the territorial offices were moved into the abandoned Woman's Industrial Christian Home (present Ambassador Club) located on Fifth East near Second South.

Logic offers an explanation for the failure of Utah to provide a capitol for the governing officialdom. Since the first appropriation of $20,000 was "wasted on a capitol in a remote part of the Territory," Congress refused to grant further funds for government buildings in Utah. Reasons are also to be found in the Mormon-Gentile struggle which persisted from 1858 to 1896. The Mormon citizenry of Utah consistendy elected Mormons to the territorial legislature and to city and county offices. The territorial executive and judicial offices, on the other hand, were generally occupied by Gentiles appointed from Washington. Holding diverse views on both civil and religious matters, the two groups transmitted conflicting reports to Washington. Consequently, Congress proved unsympathetic to appeals for additional funds to construct government buildings.

Even after statehood came to Utah, there was no sudden rush to erect a capitol. The scars of forty years of strife were not sufficiently healed to permit unity to a degree that the people of Utah could work together toward the creation of their symbol of statehood, a state capitol. Although the Salt Lake City fathers, in 1888, donated approximately twenty acres

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

263

of land on the north bench overlooking the city, a building was not erected thereon until 1916. Almost thirty years elapsed from the beginning steps to the final completion of Utah's magnificent capitol. It was a trying period for those who worked valiantly for the building.

Positive action took place when the 1909 Utah Legislature provided for the creation of a seven man Capitol Commission with power to select the design and to expend not over $2,500,000 on a "suitable State Capitol."

In the same session of the legislature a bill was passed which permitted a special one mill levy if approved by vote of the people. The measure failed to win approval, and it appeared that another prolonged period of waiting would follow. But an unexpected windfall to Utah brightened the otherwise gloomy picture. On March 1,1911, the sum of $798,546 in inheritance taxes was paid into the state treasury by Mrs. E. H. Harriman for the settlement of the Harriman estate.1 The legislature responded with a $1,000,000 bond, and the capitol was an ensured reality.

Governor William Spry promptly exercised his powers by selecting the members of the Capitol Commission. They were: John Dern and John Henry Smith, Salt Lake City; M. S. Browning, Ogden; and C. E. Loose, Provo. Governor William Spry, Secretary of State C. S. Tingey, and Attorney General A. R. Barnes were the ex-officio members. Subsequently, David Mattson succeeded C. S.Tingey and Anthon H.Lund was appointed to the vacancy left by the death of John Henry Smith. Mr. Tingey was named secretary of the commission to replace John K. Hardy.

One of the first actions of the newly-organized commission was a tour of inspection to several eastern capitals. Plans of the capitols of Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Kentucky were procured and studied. These served as guides for the preparation of a program of competition to select an architect and design for Utah's capitol.

Numerous resident and several nonresident architectural firms participated in the capitol competition. In March 1912, the award for design was made to Mr. Richard K. A. Kletting, of Salt Lake City.

Nine months later plans for the building were sufficiently complete that excavation could begin. Mr. P. J. Moran, of Salt Lake City, was given the contract for excavating, filling, and making rough grades on the site.

With the equipment all in readiness, the commission broke ground on December 26,1912. Mayor Samuel C. Park, of Salt Lake City, in address1 Edward H. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad, died in 1909. A 5 per cent tax on the Utah portion of his property resulted in the payment of the $798,000 to the state.

264

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ing the crowd gathered to witness the ground-breaking ceremonies, voiced the feelings of frustration and hope of many. He said, in part: We are about to realize the hope of decades and die fruition of the efforts of patriotic citizens for a quarter of a century.

Here, today, we break ground for the material edifice that shall house the offices of our chief executive, our legislative and judicial bodies. The time has been long and we have waited and labored in patience, but the reward is now certain, for the means are available and the people have decreed that in this place a house shall be built which, for its purpose, shall be one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most modern of public buildings in the world.

Governor Spry followed Mayor Park and also spoke of the "many years of waiting" for the building. But he concluded with an expression of hope that the wait was not in vain, for "We expect diis building to be one which will be a joy as long as it might stand, and we propose to build it so that it shall stand through all time."

The contractor selected to erect the building was James Stewart & Company, of New York and Salt Lake City. The initial contract, exclusive of extra costs for marble, furnishings, and certain other items, amounted to $1,106,000. Other contracts for heating, lighting, decorating, and special purposes were subsequently awarded to other firms. But even before construction began, commercial clubs, labor unions, church organizations, and other pressure groups memorialized the Capitol Commission to choose Utah firms, Utah labor, and Utah materials in the construction. One of the most perplexing problems faced by the commission was whether to use Utah marble for the interior construction of the capitol or less-expensive Georgia marble.

While the commission favored the use of Utah products wherever the material was of good quality, the difference in price forced the use of non-Utah materials for some purposes. The commission decided to use mostly Georgia marble on the main floor with Utah marble in the legislative chambers and Supreme Court. However, plans were modified to increase the use of Utah stone. Birdseye marble or golden travis from Utah County was selected for the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the State Reception Room (Gold Room). The front vestibule was constructed of Utah onyx or travertine, and the stone was also generously used in the Senate Chamber. Sanpete oolite or white sandstone was chosen for the walls of the ground floor. The monolithic columns,

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

265

the walls and stairs of the main floor, and the railings were the only parts of the building constructed of the gray Georgia marble.

A lively contest ensued over the selection of materials for the exterior of the building. Quarries were uncovered in Sanpete County, in Beaver County, and in the canyons adjacent to Salt Lake City with the hope that stone from these areas would be used. However, the granite of the Consolidated Stone Company, in Little Cottonwood Canyon, was selected because the quarry had been successfully developed for past construction such as the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

Although the original plans for the capitol called for fifty-two, sectional, unpolished granite columns on the exterior of the front and sides, the commission was pressured to spend considerable time and study devoted to the possible use of polished, monolithic columns. At first, polished Indiana or Vermont granite was urged by Junius F. Wells, representative of the non-Utah firms. When the commission took a definite stand against the Vermont and Barre granites, various groups and individuals then urged the use of polished Utah columns â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even at an additional expense of $200,000.

Several commission members, especially Governor Spry, opposed the monolithic columns because of the extra cost and the developing shortage of funds. The Utah Association of Architects and the Utah State Board of Architects opposed their use on aesthetic groundsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;pointing out that the polished columns "would produce a discordant, rather than a harmonious note" to the exterior of the capitol. By a simple majority vote, the commission finally agreed to adhere to the original plans and retain the unpolished, sectional columns.

The saving on this item alone permitted the expenditure of considerably more funds on the finishing and furnishing of the building. Even so, the commission had to go to the legislature on two different occasions for an increase of funds to complete the building. Although a limitation of $2,500,000 had been set, this was exceeded by $239,000. The increases, notwithstanding, original plans for "extensive pieces of art work" were never fulfilled. Funds were just not available. The only art works commissioned were paintings for the House Chamber, the Senate Chamber, the State Reception Room, the lunettes, and a portrait of the Capitol Commissioners.

Murals in the House Chamber were painted by eastern artists A. E. Forringer (Jim Bridger and the Discovery of Great Salt Lake) and Vincent Aderente (Dream of Brigham Young or Brigham Young Laying Out Salt Lake City). The mural in the Senate Chamber was painted by

266

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

local artists A. B. Wright and Lee Greene Richards and shows a scene looking westward across Utah Lake. Lewis Schettle, of New York, purportedly executed the mural in the "Gold Room." A local artist, Girard Hale, and Gilbert White, of New York, teamed up to win the contract for the murals in the lunettes of the main corridor. These show the pioneers entering the valley and an irrigation scene. The portrait of the Capitol Commissioners was painted by J. W. Clawson, of Salt Lake City.

Although the original plans for the building called for statuary in the niches of the rotunda, the commission had no funds left for sculpture.

Three of the niches were eventually filled. In 1928 the women of the state contributed to the creation of a bust of Emmeline B. Wells, prominent Mormon pioneer leader. This bust was executed in marble by Cyrus E. Dallin. The second bust placed in a niche was of Simon Bamberger, governor of Utah, 1916-1920. This was presented to the state by the family of the governor in 1943, and was sculptured by Torlief Knaphus. The third niche was filled in 1956, when the National Society,_Sons of Utah Pioneers presented to the state a bust of Brigham Young, governor of Utah, 1851-1857. This art work was also the creation of Torlief Knaphus, local artist.

There was also a proposal for a piece of statuary for the center of the rotunda. But again, lack of money prevented the execution of this plan.2 Dallin's "Signal of Peace" which stood before the Hall of Relics during Utah's semicentennial celebration, then moved to the Salt Lake City and County Building, was moved to the rotunda of the capitol on orders of the Capitol Commission.3 At a later date it was transferred to the ground floor when a plaster model of Cyrus E. Dallin's "Chief Massassoit" was given the center position in the rotunda. Here it was admired for a quarter of a century by thousands of capitol visitors. In the summer of 1958, a bronze casting was made of Massassoit which was then mounted on a handsome pedestal in the rose garden in front of the capitol. Two other bronze statues to replace Massassoit are located in die main corridor beneath the east-west arches. These heroic statues were designed to commemorate the work of Daniel C. Jackling, prime mover behind the successful exploitation of Utah's low-grade copper ores, and Thomas L. Kane, pacifier and friend of the Mormons. The statuary is the creation of Avard 2 Cyrus E. Dallin is reported to have created a model of "Chief Washakie" which was placed under the dome of the capitol. A placard was supposedly attached thereto inviting contributions for the creation of a heroic bronze of the Shoshoni chief. The whereabouts of the model and the ultimate disposition of the contributions remain a mystery.

3 Cyrus Dallin, unhappy with the state's failure to commission some of his art work, on May 17, 1918, assaulted the plaster model and "willfully" broke off the right leg.

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

267

Fairbanks and Ortho Fairbanks, respectively. Both of these bronze pieces and the bronze Massassoit were presented to the state of Utah through the efforts of Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr. Two unexpected demands upon the funds for the capitol prevented the commission from carrying out all their plans to decorate and finish the building. Shortly after the beginning of the construction, it became quite apparent that the twenty acres deeded by Salt Lake City for the capitol would be insufficient land to adequately landscape a building of that size. Furthermore, the commission desired the capitol to be placed on the State Street and Seventh Avenue axis. Such a plan necessitated the acquisition of land to the east. Both the building architect and landscape architect recommended that the building be located so that it would offer an unobstructed view from the south, east, and west. To prevent obtrusive homes from being erected on the east of the capitol, along the rim of City Creek Canyon, the commission purchased the homes already standing along diis rim and also the remaining unimproved lots. The capitol grounds thereby included all the property along the canyon rim from Second North to Fourth North streets. The Salt Lake City Commission co-operated in the project by moving East Capitol Street eastward to permit the capitol grounds to be extended in that direction. The purchase of this land and moving of the street necessitated additional excavation to provide a site which would harmonize with the surrounding grades and approaches.

Although the commission desired additional land to the west, it had to forego this because of insufficient funds. (Subsequently, the legislature provided funds to the Loan Commission to acquire the needed land to the west.)

Despite the many problems, the work moved forward at a rapid pace.

By April 4, 1914, fifteen and one-half months after breaking ground, the capitol was sufficiently advanced that the cornerstone was laid in place with an elaborate ceremony. Representatives from state and city government participated along with men from church and industry. The program was as follows: Invocation: Reverend Elmer I. Goshen Address: Governor William Spry — "The State" Address: President Joseph F. Smith — "The Pioneers" Address: Mayor Samuel C. Park — "The Capital City" Address: Mr. John Dern — "Our Industries" Laying Cornerstone: Governor William Spry Benediction: Father W. K. Ryan Music: Utah State Industrial School Band

*% r •» -<*0

£« J

-

Capitol Commission members at the cornerstone laying. Left to right: A. R. Barnes, C. S. Tingey, David Mattson, William Spry, John Dern, C. E. Loose, M. S. Browning.

R.K.A.Kletting (1858-1943) Besides designing the Capitol,Kletting influenced greatly the face of the City, designing such landmarks as: the Mclntyre and Felt buildings, the Old Deseret News Building, Cullen Hotel, West High School, and Saltair Pavilion.

A metal box containing copies of newspapers of the state, photographs of the Capitol Commissioners, copies of church books, and various coins of the period was placed in the cornerstone and sealed in place by the governor.

The commission urged the contractor to double his efforts to finish the work on the third floor so that the Eleventh Session of the Utah State Legislature could meet in the new building. By November, it appeared that the legislative chamber would be sufficiently finished for the convening of the legislature. Unfortunately, delays occurred, thereby forcing the continued use of the Salt Lake City and County Building. One month after convening, however, on February 11, 1915, the legislature was able to move to the new capitol to hold the remainder of its session.

More than a year passed before all the executive and j udicial officers of the state could occupy their new quarters. And it was not until October 9, 1916, that the building was considered completed and could be opened for public inspection. On the afternoon of that day, at two o'clock, the Utah State Capitol was formally opened and presented to the people of Utah.

The afternoon program was: Invocation: Reverend J. E. Carver Instrumental Trio: Willard Flashman, Oge Jorgensen, Mrs. Edward T. McGurrin Patriotic Solo: "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," Professor A. C. Lund Address: Governor William Spry Soprano Solo: "Caro Nome" — Rigoletto, Miss Edna Anderson Reading: "Spirit of the Pioneer," written for the occasion by Herbert S. Auerbach — read by A.C. Lund Address: President Joseph F. Smith Tenor Solo: "Che Gelida Manina" — LaBoheme, Professor John T. Hand Solo: Selected, Mrs. Lucy Kirkman Unanimous vote of acceptance of the building by all present.

Benediction: Right Reverend Joseph S. Glass

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

271

The program was followed by a public reception â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the guests were received by the governor and the members of the Capitol Commission.

It was estimated that more than thirty thousand people viewed the capitol this day.'1 And what was their reaction to what they saw ? While we do not have written accounts of the many visitors, we do have the feelings of correspondents for newspapers and periodicals. With one accord, they proclaimed it certainly the most beautiful public building in the state if not in the nation. Paraphrasing the words of one writer (in The New West Magazine), Utah's capitol was declared to be the most magnificent building of its kind in the nation. The magnificence of the interior was attributed to the simple, uncluttered design of the main floor with its beautifully proportioned dome, marbled arches, and graceful stairways.

The general style of architecture of the capitol is Corinthian. It is 404 feet long, 240 feet wide, and 285 feet to the top of the dome. The inside measurement from the ground floor to the highest point inside the dome is 165 feet. Near the base of the dome, in the spandrels, are four murals depicting important scenes in Utah's history: Father Escalante entering Utah Valley, 1776; Peter Skene Ogden at Ogden River, 1828; John C. Fremont visits Great Salt Lake, 1843; and Brigham Young and the pioneers entering Salt Lake Valley, 1847. Other historical scenes are painted on the friezes of the dome. Designed by Lee Greene Richards, they were painted by local artists working under the WPA program in the 1930's. The giant chandelier hanging from the dome weighs three tons and is suspended on a chain which is ninety-five feet long and weighs in excess of three tons.

While these are the objects which are first noticed by an onlooker, other interesting sights await him who lingers to look around. One which is most impressive to some observers is the State Reception Room or what is commonly called the "Gold Room." The Gold Room gained its name from the general golden appearance in the color scheme of the room and from the extensive use of gold-leaf trim. All colors used in the room blend with the gold trim and the golden travis marble.

The original decorations for the Gold Room, including the marble but excluding the lighting fixtures and mirrors, cost approximately $20,000. In 1955-56 the repainting of the room alone cost $6,500, while the reupholstering of the furniture in the Queen of England's coronation velvet ' A newspaper account of the dedication ceremony, said that the onlookers overwhelmed the buildinjf and the scats reserved for the Tabernacle Choir. The choir was unable to perform.

272

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

cost $19,905. Of Circassian walnut, the furniture was provided by Newton & Hoit Company at a cost of $3,022. The rug is a Scotch chenille made especially for the room by Templeton Brothers, of Glasgow, Scotland. Its cost to the state was $3,000.

Still other items of interest are the numerous exhibits on the ground floor. Here are portrayed the economic and recreational opportunities to be found in Utah's twenty-nine counties. On the same floor are the displays of dinosaur footprints, a huge block of coal, and the famed "Mormon Meteor," the racing car of the late Ab Jenkins, former mayor of Salt Lake City.

While originally the top floor of the capitol was to serve as an art gallery, the art collection of the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts is now scattered throughout the building. H. L. A. Culmer, Edwin Evans, Alvin Gittins, John Hafen, B. F. Larson, Henri Moser, LeConte Stewart, Florence Ware, A. B. Wright, and Mahonri Young are a few of the artists whose work is on display.

Whether the visitor to Salt Lake approaches from east, south, or west, he gains a glimpse of the capitol as soon as he enters the valley â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even though the point of entry be twenty miles distant from Capitol Hill. The general impression gained from the first glimpse is one of grandeur. The feeling is not altered upon closer examination. The capitol grounds are gracefully sloped and appropriately landscaped. The plantings are arranged to offer color and beauty throughout the year. The green and blue of the evergreens are predominant in winter and early spring. These give way to the soft, warm pinks of the cherry blossoms, which are in turn replaced by the various shades of purple, and lavender of lilacs. Still later come the colorful hawthornes with their bold reds and finally the brilliant oranges and reds of the pyracantha. And all the while, the roses, the tulips, the zinnias and other annuals add their splashes of color for the enjoyment of the "camera bug." For surely the capitol is one of the most photographed objects in the state. The building, the grounds, and the Mormon Battalion monument offer studies in color and design which even the most sophisticated photographer cannot resist.5 Millions of spectators have thrilled to the sights of a visit to Utah's State Capitol.

Through the years the uncluttered interior of the capitol has undergone some changes. For a quarter of a century the beautiful edifice overlooking the Valley of the Great Salt Lake adequately filled the needs of ° The Mormon Battalion monument was erected by the state of Utah to commemorate the march of 500 Mormon volunteers from Kansas to California during the Mexican War. The sculptor for the monument was Gilbert Riswald, of Chicago.

UTAH'S

CAPITOLS

273

state office holders. Then gradually state government outgrew the building. Temporary partitions were added, new offices erected. The capitol lost some of its simple charm. Various proposals were made to relieve the over-crowding which worsened with the creation of each new agency of government and each expansion of the old ones.

Finally in 1957, the state legislature approved the construction of a new office building to eliminate the congestion in the capitol. By 1959 plans were approved, and the contract let for a new building designed to harmonize with the grandeur of the old. Additional funds have been requested of the legislature to remodel and restore the capitol to its original beauty. For it is generally agreed that the original plans were good, that the Capitol Commission built well and created a symbol befitting the dignity of the state of Utah.

Wain Street about 1870, looking north from Second South. The old Walker Bank >s on he corner at left. In the distance is the Arsetal on the hill on the site now occupied by he Daughters of Utah Pioneers Building.

MAIH

STREET:

SALT

LAKE

CITY

By A. R. Mortensen

Every village, town, and city in America has a main street, often appropriately named Main Street. Salt Lake City is no exception, though for many years its most important business street was called East Temple; and for a short period during the pioneer years, this thoroughfare had earned the unsavory sobriquet "Whiskey Street."

While the very first stores to be built in Salt Lake City were not located on Main Street, it was not long before this street became the chief commercial center of the City of the Saints. It was not until 1849, two years after the arrival of the first settlers, that the first regular stock of goods was brought to Utah. In that year, James M. Livingston and Charles A. Kinkead with goods valued at $20,000 established their store in the adobe house of John Pack in the Seventeenth Ward at the southwest corner of First North and West Temple. The location was convenient to Union Square (West High School) where many of the immigrants stopped temporarily upon their arrival in the valley. During the next year Livingston and Kinkead erected the first store building on Main Street, about a third of a block south of the Council House then being built on the southwest corner of Main and South Temple. In this same year, 1850, the second mercantile firm, Holliday and Warner, set up business in Salt Lake City.

They first opened up in a little adobe schoolhouse on Brigham Young's

276

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

block just east of the Eagle Gate. William H. Hooper, who later became one of Utah's leading businessmen, was in charge of their business. Later this firm moved to the corner of South Temple and Richards Street, where now stands the Beneficial Life Insurance Building.

The third store in the city, and the second to be built on Main Street, was opened by John and Enoch Reese at about 125 South Main, where later Wells Fargo and Company was located. The fourth mercantile institution in Utah was opened by J. M. Horner and Company, and for a brief time operated on land now the site of the Hotel Utah. This firm was succeeded by the company of William H. Hooper and Thomas S. Williams. They built the third store on Main Street, on land which Williams had received as his inheritance. It was located on the northeast corner of Main and First South, now occupied by the First Security Bank.

In 1857 Williams sold his interest and the firm was changed to Hooper and Eldredge.

The firm of Livingston and Bell, successors to Livingston and Kinkead, built the old Constitution Building, the first two-story commercial structure in Utah, on the ground where the latter firm had originally opened up in business on Main Street. The present Constitution Building, still standing, thus occupies the oldest commercial site on Salt Lake's oldest business thoroughfare.

For a number of years, except for the corner occupied by Hooper and Williams, the east side of Main between South Temple and First South was occupied by residences, including that of Bishop Edward Hunter, Jedediah M. Grant, and Ezra T. Benson. Daniel H. Wells soon purchased the Benson home, thereafter known as the "Wells Mansion," where he lived for many years. Later the Templeton Hotel was built on that corner, and still later the building was converted to offices; today it houses the Zions First National Bank. It was on the site of the Grant home that the present Z.C.M.I. building was erected in the middle 1870's. The Hunter home stood until 1881 when it too was torn down to make way for a business structure. The Uptown Theatre now occupies the site of the old Hunter property.

The west side of Main Street continued for many years to be the principal center of business activity. South of the old Constitution Building was the firm of Gilbert and Gerrish. Continuing on south was the store of William Nixon where many of the young merchants of the pio? neer period received their business trainingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including the Walker brothers, Henry W. Lawrence, John Chislett, and James Needham. In the early 1860's, on the corner where later was built the McCornick Bank, now

MAIN

STREET!

SALT

LAKE

CITY

277

known as the Pacific National Life Building, John Kimball and Henry W. Lawrence erected their commodious two-story commercial mart.

During most of the decade of the fifties businesses grew by ones and twos, but beginning in the later years of the period and continuing on into the early and middle sixties, business enterprises grew rapidly both in numbers and size. It was during these years that Utah's first millionaire, William Jennings, built his Eagle Emporium on the southwest corner of Main and First South. After the organization of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution in 1868-69, Jennings purchased stock in the new institution, and his Emporium became the first home of the Z.C.M.I. William S. Godbe opened a store on the southeast corner of Main and First South, and in the early seventies built his three-story Exchange Building, presently the site of Montgomery Ward.

Contemporaneous with merchants like Kimball and Lawrence, Jennings, Godbe, and others, the famous Walker brothers branched out for themselves and opened their establishment in the block to the south of Godbe's corner. In rapid succession other businesses, large and small, began to fill in both sides of the street, and Salt Lake City's Main Street Second South and Main streets as they appeared at the turn of the century, looking west. Telephone, power and trolley lines clutter the scene. The automobile, which changed the face of the city, was about to come forth.

7

bS«£SBK'--:

—r-j- fls-it til

L-JULJUJU .. ... >|» y

#--A«*>1

•i^Jr-

**•*

278

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

became assured of its destiny as the commercial center of the Intermountain West.

Over the years Salt Lake City and its main business thoroughfare grew as Utah and the West grew, but with each succeeding generation it changed its face and appearance. For the first several decades Main Street was definitely "small town." The unpaved roadway was dusty in summer and muddy in winter. The gutters, then as now, quite frequently carried water, which served a variety of uses including sanitary and culinary.

The placement of the telegraph poles down the east side of the street in late 1862 must have created an excitement, both for the news they carried and the appearance they made.

The late 1860's Were stirring and important years in the Great Basin, as they were for all of the West. The costly and bloody Civil War ground to a halt in the middle of the decade, and once again thousands of Americans as well as foreign emigrants looking for a new and brighter future turned their faces west. Construction of the long-desired and hoped-for Pacific Railroad was commenced and completed in the four years immediately following the war. May 10, 1869, was a great day for the nation, and particularly so for Utah. That day witnessed the "wedding of the rails" at Promontory Summit at the north end of the Great Salt Lake.

For the first time since the settlement of the Far West travel between the Atlantic and the Pacific was relatively easy. Symbolically, the event was also of significance, for now the nation so recently torn asunder was bound with bands of steel. Historically, the completion of the transcontinental railroad marked the end of the pioneer period.

In the more than twenty years since original settlement, the City of the Saints had grown into the capital city of the Mormon world. And yet, "a thousand miles from anywhere," it remained during those years a frontier town dependent upon its own resources except for what could be laboriously hauled by wagon across the vast distances of plains and mountains. Under the impetus of the railroad important changes took place.

Great mercantile houses grew up, replacing the subsistence economy of an earlier day. Large quantities of "store goods," which heretofore could be purchased only at horrendous prices, if at all, rapidly became available.

The railroad also made practicable the development of the mineral wealth of the region, previously only hoped for.

By the turn of the century Main Street was a maze of power and telephone wires and poles. The street was paved with bricks and cobblestones; the streetcar had long since made its debut, but the horse was still man's best beast of burden. A dozen years later the power and telephone

Main Street as it appeared in 1912, as seen looking north from between First and Second South streets. The newly finished Kearns Building can be found on the left, and the recently completed Hotel Utah looms in the distance. lines had gone underground or down the alleys; the surface of the roadway was smooth; the trolley poles had been moved to the curb and the automobile had made its appearance, but the horse still served a useful purpose as did the ubiquitous "whitecoat" with his low-wheeled cart and broom. Except for the changing modes of transportation the pattern of Salt Lake City's Main Street was set and still remains at mid-twentieth century.

If Salt Lake City is the center of the Mormon world, if it is also the "Center of Scenic America" and the "Crossroads of the West," certainly in more ways than one the intersection of Main and South Temple and the adjacent blocks are the very heart of all this attraction. This small area of a few dozen acres is the tourist and spiritual mecca for countless numbers of people every year.

On the northeast corner stands one of America's great hotels. To be sure it is not the largest nor the most luxurious, but for nearly a half century the Hotel Utah, a veritable white palace, has offered hospitality in the form of lodging, food, and entertainment. Thousands of travelers, drummers by the score, the distinguished people of the world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to say

This pioneer landmark stood for more than fifty years on the corner of Salt Lake City's famous intersection, at Main and South Temple streets.

It served as general store, newspaper establishment, and tithing office. nothing of the local folk at conference and convention times â&#x20AC;&#x201D; enjoy its lobby and numerous public rooms. For a generation now middle-aged, the hotel has stood on the corner, its gleaming white enamel bricks shining in the sun or rain. In 1909 construction was begun on the hotel building. On June 9,1911, it was opened for business. The structure is 176 X 200 feet in dimension. It is ten stories high, surmounted by a tower which rises four stories above the roof gardens and is capped with a mammoth beehive set on a pedestal framing, all of which is illuminated at night with thousands of lights.

To those of longer memory it was not always thus. For nearly two generations the corner was used for other, but not less important, functions. Many persons as well as countless old photographs recall for us the earlier structures that occupied the corner. On Saturday, April 6, 1850, it is recorded in the records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that: "The erection of a large storehouse was suggested in which to store provisions, etc., so that the needy might be supplied with necessities without delay. Such a storehouse was commenced and completed die same year." This was the beginning of the three-story building and its surrounding cobblestone wall which occupied the corner for more than fifty years. The building was referred to at various times as the Deseret Store, the General Tithing Office, and the home of one of Utah's pioneer

?*Âť&,

w * uij-E Across the street, to the east of Temple Square, stands the Hotel Utah. This establishment has served its visitors and guests for nearly half a century. The view from its glassed-in "Roof Garden" in any season is a memorable one. newspapers. In reality, the General Tithing House was a long singlestoried structure which ran north from the main building. The main structure with its double-decked porch faced south, and served the purpose of offices and a printing establishment. To the north and east were located other structures and facilities for the use of the Presiding Bishop and the Tithing Office. As all the world knows, tithing even from ancient days was a device in the form of money, goods, and property collected for the support of the church. For many years after the arrival of the pioneers in Utah, money was very scarce, and so almost all tithing receipts were paid "in kind." The collection, the processing, the distribution, and the accounting for produce, livestock, and handicraft of every variety required considerable facilities and much good management.

In addition to its services as a collection agency for church funds and goods, the old Tithing Office served as a general store for the community where surplus goods could be traded for other merchandise or tithing script which could later be traded at the store and oftentimes even changed hands as a medium of exchange. Those who are old enough recall the old Tithing Office and its adjacent yards as a wonderful place â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a storehouse full of commodities, livestock in the corral, and in the store itself quantities of meat, vegetables, hardware, and general merchandise of every kind. Ap-

MAIN

STREET:

SALT

LAKE C I T Y

283

parently even barber service was available for those who had the price and the inclination for a "store haircut."

Visitors to the city often made comment of the Tithing Office and its activity, no doubt because it was a unique institution, at least in their experience. The noted British traveler, Sir Richard Burton, who visited the home of the Saints and recorded his observations, noted that as he walked west from President Young's office toward the corner: "On the extreme west of the block, backed by a pound for estrays, which is no longer used, lies the Tithing House and Deseret Store, a long narrow, upper-storied building, with cellars, store-rooms, receiving rooms, pay rooms and writing offices. In this time of the year [August] it chiefly contains linseed and rags for paper making; after the harvest it is well stuffed with grains and cereals, which are taken instead of money payment."

In such fashion, for more than fifty years this corner and its pioneer buildings fulfilled a dual purpose. Time passed. The economy of the region changed. Tithing payments in money replaced payments in kind.

The old buildings lost their original use; besides, they were old! The great white structure which now occupies that corner indeed serves a different, but not less important, function as it approaches its first half century of hospitality to Salt Lake City and her visitors.

Yes, Main Street, Salt Lake City, has come a long way since 1850.

The passage of time has witnessed great changes. And now, more than a hundred years after, it still remains the business and financial center of a great inland empire.

Sh-W

7

i

-\4mi

. •.-^-'•*'**#

%>'h&$

rs

KSfe

'%

^asa i r»v

1 •

lis EiiH 1

i

iingham nestled in its canyon is a rugged ooking town reminiscent of the early West tsually seen only in movies. It seems to 'dead-end" against an impassable wall of heer rock, high as a fifty story building.

THE

SHINING

THE

MOUNTAINS

OQUIRRH

RANGE

By Jact\ Goodman*

Dominating the stark horizon a dozen miles west of Salt Lake City, the Oquirrh Range rises abruptly from the southern shallows of Utah's saline sea, rearing angular peaks fully 10,000 feet high across the setting sun.

Extending nearly thirty miles from north to south and buttressed to the west by the Onaqui, Stansbury, and Cedar mountains, the Oquirrhs forced California-bound emigrant wagons to seek an indirect passage toward the Great Salt Desert and the gold fields. Even now U.S. 40 and U.S. 6-50 swing around the flanks of the Oquirrhs, while the Union Pacific and Western Pacific railroads avoid piercing the range.

Except for sightseers who hasten to Bingham Canyon, glimpse Kennecott's operations, and speedily take their leave, the Oquirrh Range is little known to Utah visitors. In fact, random questioning of a few of the 200,000 Utahans who live within sight of these peaks will confirm that the Oquirrhs are terra incognita to most native sons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and this despite the fact that much of the state's wealth has come from this range the Paiutes named Oquirrh, or "Shining Mountains." * Jack Goodman is a "transplanted" westerner from New York. A writer with experience in radio, tv, and newspaper work, he is presendy active in one of the West's large advertising agencies. He is also regional correspondent for the New Yor\ Times and information research specialist for the Utah State Parks Commission.

â&#x20AC;˘-

'

"i

WW

The early days of "boom and bust'' in Mercur are recalled by these early day miners ready to go down in the bucket at the Cannon shaft. The town had its beginnings in 1869 when Colonel Connor's Volunteers prospected in all the mountains fringing the Salt Lake Valley.

THE SHINING

MOUNTAINS

287

In the days of the "Utah War" and of booming mining camps, much of the territory's significant history was written in the shadows of these peaks and canyons. Along with historical interest and mineral wealth, there is unusual beauty to be found in the Oquirrhs by those who will seek it out. There are unsuspected forest glens viewed against a background of harsh, glaring desert. There is Middle Canyon, where Tooele County officials recently carved a passable road to open spreading views across a vast countryside. Almost anywhere upon the slopes of these mountains the visitor can stumble across a deserted mine shaft, an abandoned railroad grade, or an empty miner's cabin recalling a vanished era. From that same cabin dooryard, overgrown with its mixture of weeds, sunflowers, and hollyhocks, you may look out toward a rippling field of winter wheat, or a contrasting Salt Lake suburb-in-the-making, or even aloft to a television transmitter perched high above abandoned diggings.

The sightseer even faintly versed in geology can readily find the bench marks of prehistoric Lake Bonneville etched upon the Oquirrh slopes.

Other students interested in more recent history can as easily read, in mountainsides denuded of timber, blackened by smelter gas, and littered with mine tailings, the record of a people who heedlessly squandered a visible heritage while seeking another underground.

Nowadays, in a half-day round trip from Salt Lake's downtown hotels and motels, tourists can drive or journey by bus to Bingham Canyon,peer into one of the largest and most spectacular gashes man has yet carved into the earth, and learn that these shining mountains continue to give forth profitable quantities of copper, gold, and molybdenum. Visitors with a bit more leisure can swing another twenty miles south and west, following the route of the Pony Express and Overland Stage past vanished Camp Floyd and crumbling Stagecoach Inn to old Mercur. Here, in a virtually vanished town which had its beginnings in 1869, the sightseer can absorb the story of boom-and-bust. In the Oquirrhs as elsewhere in the West, few hard-rock mining camps could outlive the era.

Nearby, at Ophir, a few tottering frame buildings in a shadowy, quiet, rock-rimmed canyon recall the days when Marcus Daly and Montana's Senator W. A. Clark struck it rich in the Oquirrhs, went on to bigger things at Butte, and left a town to die. In contrast, virtually across the road, storage facilities of the Deseret Chemical Depot and Tooele Ordinance Depot dot the valley country north and west of the Oquirrh's mineralized ridges. They recall the period of World War II when thousands of outlanders in khaki came here, worked and drilled, and journeyed to bigger things in Germany and the distant Pacific.

288

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Circling north along State Highway 36, forming the westerly side of a seventy-five mile long asphalt loop around the Oquirrhs, visitors glimpse the brush-covered Onaqui and Stansbury peaks to the west, looking much as they did when Pony Express riders spurred between them toward Johnson Pass. Today's pavement runs through St. John and Stockton, rangecountry towns bereft of part of their utility and color by the advent of the modern highway via which cowpokes and sheepmen of this rubber-tired era move livestock to the winter range or to market.

North again to Tooele and its smelters. Only one remains operative, but the citizens of this lively community find work at mills and refineries around the Oquirrh ridge at Magna, Arthur, and Garfield, and many commute to jobs in Salt Lake City. Others farm nearby fields and orchards — and the whole town is co-operating in alerting tourists to the potentialities of the area. Tooele County has carved out a scenic road up Middle Canyon to the 9,000 foot level of the Oquirrhs. From this dugway visitors can peer across the Great Salt Desert toward Pilot Peak, mentally tracing the route of the foundering Donner Party.

From the Middle Canyon Road, flanked by forests of oak brush, juniper, and pines, where a Utah State Park is in the planning stages, there is a striking view to the north across the Great Salt Lake and on to Idaho. To the east, the Salt Lake Valley, filled nearly to its fringes by the city and its suburbs, is sheltered by the snow-sprinkled Wasatch peaks.

Just over the divide and on down the eastern drainage of the Oquirrhs, Kennecott's mammoth open-pit copper mine resembles nothing so much as a child's effort to carve a hole in a shore line sand dune.

But—drive back down the Middle Canyon road to Tooele, continue north and east another twenty miles past the parade of smelters, mills, and refineries in the smoke-bleached borderland between die Oquirrhs and the green-blue waters of the Great Salt Lake. True, one can circumnavigate the Oquirrhs on well-paved roads in less than half-a-day's easy driving. However, in such a circuit, you will not have probed Bingham and its mine, or spent time puttering around somnolent Ophir or Mercur, you will not have tramped around Camp Floyd, viewed the century old Overland Stage and Pony Express station at Fairfield, or climbed the ridge via Middle Canyon. Allow yourself a day or two for such sightseeing.

Up Bingham Canyon, the "mountain that has become a hole in the ground" is one of the world's most amazing earth-moving operations — and one of the easiest to reach. Most mines and mining camps are uncomfortable spots for loungers. At Bingham, the sidewalk superintendent can

THE SHINING

MOUNTAINS

Robert C. Gemmell, believed in the practicability of large-scale open pit production plus the use of flotation methods.

289

Daniel C. ]ac\ling, major instigator behind the successful exploitation of the low-grade copper ores from Utah's mines.

take his ease while absorbing a lasting lesson in mining methodology, mining economics, and geology.

Just above the town of Bingham, the Kennecott Copper Company has, by diligent use of dynamite, gigantic power shovels, and one of the nation's strangest rail systems, sliced the top from an 8,000 foot high Oquirrh peak, dug down into its innards, and strewn the remains over miles of mountain landscape.

The resultant hole is deep enough to contain two Queen Mary's set on end, and wide enough, from rim to rim, to swallow up the lower portion of Manhattan Island, with room for a sizeable piece of downtown San Francisco as well. This hole in the Oquirrhs is the world's largest open-pit copper mine. From it comes one-third of the nation's annual total of copper production. Since Daniel C. Jackling first persuaded his backers that large-scale surface mining was feasible here despite the district's low-grade ore, more than a billion tons of earth have been removed.

Jackling, a mover of men as well as of earth and ore, turned Bingham's mine into an operation of unprecedented scope in 1907. Since 1954 his statue has graced the rotunda of Utah's state capitol in Salt Lake City; he died in 1956 in San Francisco, but his real monument is the Bingham open pit.

Most mines necessarily ban tourists, but this most spectacular of all western diggings welcomes them, and is readily reached by roads linking

290

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the Oquirrhs to Salt Lake City, just nineteen miles distant. Sightseeing buses carry trippers from the city's hotels, motels, and Temple grounds â&#x20AC;&#x201D;making the trip easier for flat-country natives who might hesitate about the up-canyon drive.

Indeed, tourists upset by high places, man-made earthquakes, and loud explosions might be advised to give Bingham a wide berth. The public observation platform thoughtfully provided by Kennecott (complete with a taped lecture on the mine, .benches, a shelter, and running water) is some 6,500 feet above sea level. Earth-shaking, ear-splitting blasts which tumble tons of ore-bearing rock to the working levels are fired each afternoon, with the general effect approximating that of a battlefield.

The highway trip to the pit is as full of interest as the mine itself.

The road, ascending some 2,000 feet as it climbs toward the Oquirrhs, offers sweeping views across the valley toward the Wasatch. Suddenly, after passing through the model mining community of Copperton, sightseers find themselves winding through a narrowing canyon where electric locomotives, seemingly the size of toys, crawl on a series of slate-gray and rust-colored shelves. Next, the traveler reaches Bingham, a ruggedlooking village reminiscent of the West usually seen only in movies.

It is a town once notorious for gunplay and stabbings, a metropolis scourged by fire and landslides. Unions, health officers, a bustling Chamber of Commerce, and changing times have cleaned things up considerably, but Bingham can still prove a bit shocking to effete Easterners.

Sightseers are further startled to find the town apparently dead-ending against an impassable wall of sheer rock, high as a fifty story building. A sharp left turn reveals the entry to a one lane vehicular tunnel, 6,988 feet long, through which tourists once traveled to view the mine.

Now used solely by employees and Bingham residents, the tunnel lost much of its utility when mine workings hacked into the company-built community of Copperfield with its boardinghouses, shops, school, and dwellings. The present-day highway to Kennecott's mine-rim "observatory" is reached by a sharp right turn up Carr Fork, past a group of structures which includes a recreation hall and the bottom landing of a "funicular" car used by Kennecott workers to reach the local copper company offices located on the side of the mountain.

After negotiating the Carr Fork access road, visitors reach a broad parking area near the observation shed overlooking the diggings. From this spot, Kennecott's workings resemble an overgrown amphitheater.

A series of giant steps descends some 1,000 feet below the spectator, while equally spectacular terraces rise another 1,000 feet overhead. Standard

THE SHINING

MOUNTAINS

291

gauge electric locomotives creep along precarious switchbacks on the terrace rims, hauling long strings of ore gondolas. The pit is so vast the locomotives, along with power shovels fully three stories high, are hard to keep in sight on the far edge of the mine rim.

Warning flags and shrill whistles signal each series of blasts, after which selected dust-gray rock and ore slide down a level, spectators are rocked by the concussion, and the crack-boom of the blasting reaches waiting eardrums. Clocking the elapsed time between sighting smoke puffs and the sound of each salvo is one favorite sport with tourists. Many of them can be seen dancing madly around the platform attempting to aim cameras at each blast. And, on windless days, the sight of hugh smokerings puffed hundreds of feet out from the canyon rim by the blasting powder is hard to believe. Equally hard to believe is the fact that mining men once ridiculed Colonel Enos A. Wall, who bought much of the land hereabouts back in 1896 for a few thousand dollars. The area had produced gold in quantity for claims owned by Samuel Newhouse and Thomas Weir, but experts felt Wall's notion of shipping a sufficiency of copper from Bingham to make a profit was extremely fanciful and termed his acreage "just rocks."

Newhouse and Weir had found their gold extraction hampered by an over-supply of copper sulphide in their ore. Even when explorations showed a vein of 18 per cent copper and Standard Oil of New York bought a principal interest in the Highland Boy mine, initial turn-ofcentury efforts to profitably mine, mill, and smelt the copper proved futile.

Wall and other mining experts failed to solve the problem until Jackling, with Robert C. Gemmell, issued a joint report setting forth the belief that large-scale open pit production of the low-grade ores, plus flotation methods, could make for large profits. After a series of option exchanges, stock deals and mergers, Utah Copper Company, organized in 1903, became a $100,000,000 concern in 1910, and then a major segment of the Kennecott empire in 1948. Since 1907 some 300,000,000 tons of ore have been mined — averaging about 1 per cent copper, or just twenty pounds to the ton!

A strike by the Western Federation of Miners closed Bingham tight in 1912, a fire in 1932 wiped out much of the town — including the stills of local bootleggers. The highway, plus a dozen houses, was thoroughly buried in a 1930 cloudburst and landslide — but Bingham carried on.

Steam locomotives vanished from its canyons, electric lights arrived, miners began living in comfortable valley homes and commuting to work.

Through good times and bad, through two full-scale wars and a police

292

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

action, the whistles blew, the blasts roared, shovels chewed into ore-bearing rock and waste, and trains trundled downgrade to mills and refineries.

Drive around to Arthur and Magna, to Garfield, perched between the Oquirrhs and the lake. The mill structures, the smelter stacks, the electrolytic refinery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these are perhaps unlovely, although they might interest such a painter as Sheeler, or some present-day El Greco seeking to view a very different Toledo. The buildings are utilitarian, the mountains behind them smoke-seared and barren. Yet, in typical prewar 1938 fully 212,098,500 pounds of copper funneled to the world from this section of the Oquirrh Range. In war years that production very nearly doubledâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which is one reason we today are able to enjoy a ramble 'round these copper-bearing peaks.

What of Mercur and Ophir? Their output was on a smaller scale, but sizeable enough for an era in which a man could remain solvent through his declining years with a stake of ten or twelve thousand dollars if he stayed away from "gambling hells" and kept reasonably sober.

Both Ophir and Mercur had their beginnings at Fairfield, in Cedar Valley, just south of the Oquirrhs on the State Highway 73 portion of the loop around the "shining mountains." Shaded by giant cottonwoods, the few remaining homes of Fairfield are reminders of a quiet time that followed the much debated "Utah War." The sole building left in its nearly original state dating back to that rowdy period is the two-story frame and adobe Carson Inn, the Overland Stage and Pony Express station given to Utah's State Park Commission by the Carson family in 1958.

Sadly in need of restoration and repair, the building's major unit is a century old, having been constructed some three years after the village was established in 1855.

Fairfield flourished mightily in 1858 and 1859 with the arrival of troops led by Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. Just a year previous, the United States government had declared "a state of substantial rebellion" existed in Utah and twenty-five hundred troops set up their encampment across the road from the Carson homestead to police the troubled territory. Teamsters, gamblers, tradesmen, saloon keepers, and ladies of extremely slight repute flocked to the no longer somnolent Cedar Valley, and by 1860 the population was estimated at seven thousand. When civil war threatened "back east," Johnston marched off to gain considerable fame as a general with the southern forces. A camp cook, William Quantrill, headed east to lead an infamous unit of guerilla raiders on the Kansas border. But the foodstuffs and clothing, hardware, and saddles and gear remaining when the army moved out provided a boon for Mormon

yyK!3*jâ&#x201E;˘Âť '***"'

An early photograph of General Johnston's camp in 1858 at Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley. All that remains today is a marker and a cemetery.

Part of the Fourth of July Parade in Mercur in 1901. Once a flourishing mining town, it survived a fire in 1896 but was later destroyed by fire in fune, 1902. In Mercur s heyday $20,000,000 in ore was produced there.

7/t>#,

7iT

,

^kj7m

294

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

merchants and Gentile bankers. Such institutions as the present-day Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution and the Walker Bank are reputed to owe part of their success to initial dealings in "army goods."

All that remains of Camp Floyd today is a simple stone and bronze marker, and a cemetery. The latter presents something of a mystery. Utah State Park officials are currently seeking clues in Washington archives to the identity of the soldiers buried within its drooping fence.

Johnston's troops, when withdrawn, were quickly followed by three hundred federal volunteers recruited in California and Nevada to guard the Utah Territory against rumored withdrawal from the Union. Commanded by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor, these volunteers helped guard the mail riders and stages clattering across the countryside between the Oquirrhs and Nevada. More important â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they went prospecting in every available canyon, and seemingly located some sort of underground treasure in the form of veins, reefs, lodes, and nuggets in virtually every declivity from Park City to Ophir.

Actually, the presence of ore in the Oquirrhs had been pretty much common knowledge among Mormon settlers, since local Indians had long been making crude gold and silver ornaments, plus very useful lead bullets, with ore brought from back-country canyons. Connor's troops, guarding Rush Valley, located what became the St. Louis lode. And one thoughtful bluecoat, his name now lost to history, apparently gave thought to Job 22:24 and the words "lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks." Ophir the canyon became, Ophir it remains, after the passing of a town which numbered its residents in the thousands back in 1870. Today a five mile stretch of good, hard-surfaced road leads to the remnants of the town in a shaded Oquirrh "hollow."

A quaint firehouse with a tall, slabsided wooden bell tower, a few frame homes, a small-town store, a school which was shuttered early in 1959 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these are the survivors of old Ophir, these and a crazily tip-tumbled wooden passenger car which once rolled sleek and proud on the now vanished railroad.

Here such mines as the Pocatello, Velocipede, and Miner's Delight sent heavy tonnages of ore to Utah's first sizeable smelter at Stockton as early as 1864. Here the Kearsage produced a million dollars from a single stope. In 1904 the now forgotten railroad was used to transport a wellguarded silver nugget, one of the largest ever mined in the United States, to the World's Fair at St. Louis. The Ophir field was kind to many miners including Marcus Daly. Fired from Alta over in the Wasatch, he staked

THE SHINING

MOUNTAINS

295

the Zella Mine at Ophir, struck it rich, used some of the $30,000 thus earned to buy a hole-in-the-ground at Butte, Montana, he named Anaconda!

Ophir mines produced $30,000,000 in ore in fifty years, including $8,000,000 in silver, $6,000,000 in copper, $13,000,000 in lead, $2,500,000 in zinc, and a few hundred thousand dollars in gold. Production slumped in the wake of the first World War, rose to the $500,000 per annum level just before World War II, then died. Today's Ophir is a pleasant enough spot, providing an easily visited midpoint on a trip around the Oquirrhs.

Mercur, a dozen miles up canyon from Highway 73 over a far bumpier road, also got its start when Colonel Connor's prospecting troopers found silver ore in the canyon-pierced Oquirrh foothills. One early miner, Mack Gibson, profited to the tune of $80,000 with his Carrie Steele lode. In a dozen years beginning in 1868 the canyon sheltered a typically thriving western boom-and-bust mining camp, complete with gambling houses, saloons, stagecoach office, and grandiose hotel. Called Lewiston, the town sagged in 1880 when ore yields declined and seemed about to vanish.

Onto the scene came one Arie Pinedo, fresh from Bavaria. This worthy staked the Mercur claim in 1882 and sought valiantly to find some means of extracting gold from the quicksilver or cinnabar with which the yellow Stuff was commingled.

When this effort proved futile, Pinedo left the Oquirrhs, and headed for Europe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; via South America. Nine years later one Joseph Smith, a profit-seeking exponent of the new science of metallurgy, currycombed Pinedo's claim, expressed belief the gold values could be extracted, and sent a partner, L. S. Manning, to track down the vanished prospector.

It took a year and $30,000 to find Pinedo and buy his claims. In 1893 mining engineers, partly upon the insistence of Smith, developed the cyanide process, putting Mercur's mines into production on a large scale.

Population climbed to 6,000 by 1896, a railroad was laid up the canyon and â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on January 6, 1896 Mercur burned down. Rebuilt, incorporated, and blessed at long last with a water supply, Mercur flourished again, until another fire in June of 1902 virtually ended its existence as a major community. The mines lasted another ten years, however, having produced an estimated $20,000,000 in their heyday.

Today's sightseeing tourist should conclude a junket in and around the shining mountains with a trip up Middle Canyon. Someday, the road up the canyon from the Tooele area will surely be linked with a road up the eastern slope; someday the range may be utilized for winter sports, and the denuded foothills may be replanted. Meantime, the Oquirrhs, so rich in history and scenery alike, are well worth a trip of rediscovery.

:

I

A breathtaking sight in almost every season are the sunsets on the Great Salt Lake. The flame-swept western skyline can be enjoyed for a prolonged length of time because the period of twilight is long in the Valley.

THE

GREAT

SALT

LAKE

By David E. Miller*

There has been an air of mystery and strange fascination about the Great Salt Lake from the time of its discovery and early exploration down to the present. In September, 1843, John C. Fremont approached it with wonder and anticipation. By that time the lake had already gained fame and mystery, although the first white man had beheld its glassy surface less than two decades earlier. Fremont expressed the hope that his party might escape the "whirlpool and other mysterious dangers . . . which Indian and hunters' stories attributed to this unexplored lake." He dreamed of islands covered with lush vegetation and sparkling mountain streams.

Perhaps he would find a super native tribe on the lake islands! Obviously, Fremont knew very little about the lakeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but he had heard a good deal and imagined a great deal more and had built up enough interest to justify the launching of an exploration to one of its islands.

Today there are countless "Fremonts" who approach the lake with wonderment and awe. In almost any group of people, anywhere in the United States, mere mention of the Great Salt Lake invariably leads to an interesting conversation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; provided anyone present knows enough about the lake to answer questions. Where does the salt come from?

How much is there in the lake? Do fish live in the lake? Is there any * David E. Miller is professor of history at the University of Utah.

298

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

plant life in its brine? Does it ever freeze? What could one expect to find on its islands? Do people live there? Is the lake drying up? Is it true that a person cannot sink in it? These are a few of the most common questions, many of which are answered on the following pages.

LAKE LEGENDS Things about which people know very little often hold a peculiar enchantment. And the very lack of understanding and information about an object occasionally opens the- door for numerous wild stories, speculations, and myths which seem completely ridiculous as soon as correct information is brought to light. So it has been with the Great Salt Lake.

Faulty or insufficient information has led to many rumors and mydis concerning it.

One of the most baffling problems to early lake visitors was this: How could the lake maintain its level year after year with no visible outlet and with numerous streams constantly pouring into it ? Certainly it must be connected to the ocean by a subterranean river. The salty nature of die water even suggested such a connection to some who failed to take into consideration the fact that the lake is more than three-quarters of a mile higher than the Pacific. Logic suggested that if there were a subterranean outlet, there must also be a huge whirlpool somewhere on the lake surface, for there would be a great rushing of water into it. We have noted that Fremont's men shared this superstition when they approached the lake in 1843. Many years later it was to be revived by men who should have known better. In 1870 boatmen from Corinne, making regular runs on die lake, reported a hole off Fremont Island into which the lake was rushing. "A schooner last Tuesday was almost drawn into it." Fears were expressed for the safety of the steamer, Kate Connor, then en route between Corinne and Lake Point. Although most newspaper men considered the report a hoax, hopes were expressed by some that the whirlpool would prove sufficiently large to keep the lake at its current level, for it was showing a rapid rise at the time. A few years ago I had occasion to examine the area where the whirlpool was reputed to have been, and found not more than six inches of water there.

Every lake of any character must have its monster, and Great Salt Lake qualifies in this respect. A few years after the whirlpool report, eyewitnesses testified to the existence of a monster in the northwest arm of the lake. According to the report a group of men were camped on the shore near the north end of the lake on the evening of July 8,1877, when suddenly they saw "a huge mass of hide and fin rapidly approaching and

THE GREAT SALT LAKE

299

when within a few yards of die shore it raised its enormous head and uttered a terrible bellow." The men fled in terror. The next morning tracks and overturned rocks showed where the monster had thrashed around on shore and destroyed camp equipment. What these men actually saw is still a mystery. Could it have been a buffalo?

Still another "eyewitness" account tells of a school of whales in the lake. This is such a naive story that it merits recounting in its original form. The account appears in an 1890 newspaper under the heading: "Whales in Great Salt Lake."

Intelligent newspaper readers have not forgotten the inauguration fifteen years ago by Mr. James Wickham . . . of the whale industry in the Great Salt Lake. As considerable time was required for the development of die experiment the subject has passed out of the public mind but it has by no means been forgotten by naturalists or capitalists interested in the whale fishery. The whale is the largest and probably the longest lived animal. They have been known to grow to 100 feet in length and live to the age of 400 years. It is a mammal, or, in other words suckles its young. The project of Mr. Wickham was greatly assisted by this fact, for the difficulty that would attend the obtaining of whale eggs in the deep seas is at once apparent.

It was only necessary to obtain a pair of whales in order to begin the propagation of the animals under domestication. The soutiiern or Australian whale was selected as the best suited to die Great Salt Lake. The greater part of two years were occupied off the coasts of Australia by a vessel sent especially for the purpose in continued efforts to capture the young whales without injury. The feat, however, was at last accomplished, and die beasts, each about thirty-five feet long were shipped to San Francisco in 1873 in tanks built expressly for them. Fifty tanks of sea water accompanied their overland shipment to insure plentiful supplies of the natural element.

Mr. Wickham came from London in person to superintend the "planting" of his leviathan pets. He selected a small bay near die mouth of Bear River connected with the main water by a shallow strait half a mile wide. Across this strait he built a wire fence, and inside the pen so formed he turned die whales loose.

After a few minutes inactivity they disported themselves in a lively manner, spouting water as in mid ocean, but as if taking in by instinct or intention the cramped character of their new home, they suddenly made a bee line for deep water and shot

300

UTAH HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

through die wire fence as if it had been made of direads. In twenty minutes they were out of sight Though die enterprising owner was of course, disappointed and doubtful of the results he left an agent behind him to look after his floating property.

Six months later Mr. Wickham's representative came upon the whales fifty miles from die bay where they had broken away, and from that time to die present they have been observed at intervals, by him and the watermen who ply the lake, spouting and playing.

Widiin the last few days, however, Mr. Wickham cabled directions to make careful inspection and report the developments, and die agent followed the whales for five successive days and nights. Discovering diat die original pair are now sixty feet in length, and followed about by a school of several hundred young, varying in length from three to fifteen feet.

The scheme is a surprising and complete success, and Mr. Wickham has earned the thanks of mankind.

Catching whales in Great Salt Lake and following diat business on the dangerous Greenland coast are two quite different tilings. The enormous value of the new industry can be better appreciated by remembering that a single whale produces twenty tons of pure oil.

Needless to say, this "whale of a tale" is a complete fabrication, but it serves as an excellent example of Great Salt Lake stories.

Early maps of western America which include the Great Salt Lake region bear witness to the general misunderstanding of it prior to 1850 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the year Howard Stansbury completed the first comprehensive lake survey. Several of these maps indicate a widespread belief in the existence of a lake in this region long before the first white men had visited its shores.

First to penetrate into the Salt Lake drainage basin were members of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition of 1776 who came down Spanish Fork Canyon to the east side of Utah Lake where they arrived in September.

From the Indians the Spanish missionary party learned that Utah Lake is connected with Great Salt Lake, but they did not get the notion that the connecting link was a river more than thirty miles long â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Jordan River. Instead they imagined the lake to the north to be an extension of the body of water on whose shores they were standing and named die whole mass Laguna de los Timpanagos (Lake Timpanogos) in honor of the local Indians. Miera, cartographer of the expedition, included this

THE GREAT

SALT LAKE

301

lake as a major feature of his "Bearded Indian" map. Miera's was not the earliest map to show what eventually became known as the Great Salt Lake, but it evidently had more influence on later map makers and explorers than any of the earlier maps.

Possibly of more importance than the lake itself are the rivers that are shown feeding and draining it. Miera's map shows a large river, the Tizon, running straight west from the lake and supposedly flowing into the Pacific, although the map does not extend that far to the west. Subsequent maps showed two large streams with varying names (Mongos, Timpanogos, Buenaventura) draining the lake into the ocean, one of them discharging its water into San Francisco Bay. In 1826 James Clyman and three companions circumnavigated the lake in bullboats and reported very definitely that there was no drainage from it. Three years later Joseph Redford Walker's expedition supplied additional proof of this as well as the material for Captain B. L. E. Bonneville's map of 1837 which properly placed the lake inside the Great Basin, with interior drainage only. But the notion of a western outlet persisted for another decade. So prevalent was the belief that John Bidwell, who helped guide the first wagons across Utah via the northern end of the lake in 1841, reported that: Some of the maps consulted, supposed of course to be correct, showed the lake in die vicinity of where Salt Lake now is; it was represented as a long lake, three or four hundred miles in extent, narrow with two outlets, bodi running into the Pacific Ocean, either apparently larger than the Mississippi river. An intelligent man . . . Elan Brown, who had recently lived in California . . . possessed a map that showed these rivers to be large, and he advised me to take tools along to make canoes, so that if we found die country so rough that we could not get along with our wagons, we could descend one of these rivers to the Pacific.

The Bartleson-Bidwell party did abandon their wagons at the Johnson Springs in Nevadaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a present source of water supply for Wendover City, and finished the trip to California with pack animals, not canoes.

John C. Fremont explored the east slopes of the Sierra Nevada in search of one of these mythical rivers (the Buenaventura) in 1844 and finally became convinced that no such stream existed. It is indeed difficult to replace faulty information with facts. Myths die hard.

302

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATION Having briefly examined some of the legendary and mythical stories about Great Salt Lake, let us now turn to some truths about that famous body of water. For in this case truth is even more fascinating than fiction.

As far as we know, James Bridger was the first white man to see Great Salt Lake, although Etienne Provost may very well have preceded him to its shores. The events associated with Bridger's discovery can be briefly told. During the summer of 1824 a brigade of westward bound Rocky Mountain trappers crossed South Pass and eventually followed Bear River downstream into Cache Valley where they arrived late in the fall. Winter camp was established at the present site of Franklin, Idaho.

During their travels along Bear River, speculation arose among the trappers regarding the course of the stream and especially its destination. A wager was made among members of the party, and Bridger, the youngest member of the crowd, was chosen to sail downstream in a bullboat to learn the answers. Whether this voyage of exploration was conducted before the end of the year, 1824, or later we do not know. At any rate, Bridger sailed down the stream and in due time reached Bear River Bay where, according to one account, he scooped a handfull of lake brine into his mouth, then spat it out with an oath: "Hell, we are on the shores of the Pacific."

The next decade saw die north, east, and south shores of the lake quite thoroughly explored by trappers who hoped to find numerous tributary streams teeming with beaver.

Fremont was first attracted to the lake in September, 1843, at which time he, Kit Carson, Charles Preuss, Baptiste Bernier, and Basil Lajeunesse paddled an eighteen-foot "India rubber" boat from the mouth of Weber River to Fremont Island â&#x20AC;&#x201D; called Disappointment Island by Fremont because of barren conditions found there. This is the earliest recorded visit of any white man to any of the lake islands, although Clyman and his companions probably visited some of them in 1826. When Fremont's party was about midway between the shore and the island a breeze came up, and the smooth lake surface was soon transformed into a mass of heaving swells. To make matters worse, the boat sprang a leak and two of the seams separated, allowing air to escape from the air pockets which kept the craft afloat. It was a tense moment for the occupants to have been thrown into the concentrated lake brine under the circumstances might have resulted in tragedy. However, by working the bellows to capacity, enough air was kept in the leaky cylinders to keep the boat above water, and the party reached the island without loss.

THE GREAT

SALT LAKE

303

Fremont's first lake visit is important for several reasons. He was the first to determine the elevation of the lake, 4200 feet above sea level; he made the first analysis of the water, finding that five gallons produced fourteen pints of salt; from the peak of Fremont Island he conducted a survey of the lake with a spyglass and drew a fairly accurate map of it.

After returning to the mainland, Fremont discovered that he had left the brass cover of his spyglass on the island peak. This has been the object of search by almost every island visitor since that time. However, the cover was found by Jacob Miller during the 1860's when the Miller brothers were using the island as a cattle and sheep ranch.

Also dating back to Fremont's first island visit is the famous Carson Cross, carved on the side of a peculiar rock formation near the island's crest by Kit Carson and his fellows while Fremont was busy completing his spyglass survey. The cross is a true crucifix slightly more than seven inches long. It has been of considerable interest to most island visitors.

In 1845, while camped on City Creek in Salt Lake Valley, Fremont rode horseback to Antelope Island to hunt antelope â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hence its name.

He then traveled westward to pioneer the route which was soon to become famous as Hastings Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake Desert.

Five years after Fremont's second lake visit, Howard Stansbury completed the first thorough lake survey in 1850. Stansbury examined all the islands, made extensive soundings, charted the shore line, produced an accurate map and a detailed report regarding various aspects of Great Salt Lake.

LAKE BONNEVILLE'S REMNANT The Great Salt Lake is "great" in the sense that it is the largest lake in the United States west of the Mississippi River and the largest salt lake in North America. However, it is only a small remnant of its predecessor, Lake Bonneville, which covered an area ten times as large as the present lake some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. At its highest level Lake Bonneville covered 19,750 square miles, was 346 miles long and 145 miles wide, and reached a depth of 1,050 feet. It was twice as large as Lake Erie and almost as large as Lake Michigan. Nearly a half million people now live in die area once washed by Bonneville waters. Great Salt Lake is 70 miles long, 50 miles wide, and 34 feet deep. Its area is approximately 1,500 square miles.

Ironical as it may seem, Lake Bonneville was named in honor of a man who never came within fifty miles of the Great Salt Lake. It was so named by G. Karl Gilbert, who conducted the most complete survey of

304

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the ancient shore lines during the 1870's. Gilbert was a better geologist than historian and was evidently misled into believing that Bonneville had conducted a rather complete exploration of Great Salt Lake and felt that he was thus entitled to have the ancient lake named in his honor.

The shore lines of ancient Lake Bonneville are so striking that even the most casual observer cannot help seeing them. Rather than obscure markers on the hills, these lines form distinct terraces on the mountain slopes surrounding the present lake. Howard Stansbury was the first to recognize them as shore lines of an ancient body of water when on October 25, 1849, he counted thirteen distinct benches on Terrace Mountain northwest of Great Salt Lake. Since that time more than fifty terraces have been counted at various places in the Great Salt Lake Basin. They represent lake levels maintained long enough to allow wind and wave action to form a definite shore line. Highest of the lines is the Bonneville Terrace (approximately 1000 feet above the present lake level) which may be clearly seen along the west slopes of the Wasatch Mountains and in numerous other places; it is especially prominent in the south end of Salt Lake County, opposite Utah State Penitentiary.

Lake Bonneville finally ran over the rim of the Great Basin at Red Rock Pass northwest of Preston, Idaho, drained off into Portneuf River and into the Pacific by way of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Rushing waters of the "Bonneville" river rapidly cut deeper and deeper until the downward cutting was halted by bedrock, 330 feet below the high water mark. At this elevation the Provo Terrace was formed and the lake seems to have maintained diis level for an extensive period of time.

From the Provo level the lake has decreased to its present size as a result of evaporationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not enough water has run into it to replace the amount evaporated. There is considerable evidence to show that there were several periods of rise and fall during the past several thousand years; at times the lake seems to have dried up completely, only to be revived again by a change in climate. One result of this evaporation process was the concentration of salt in the remnants of the lake. All the fresh-water streams which feed Great Salt Lake contain minute quantities of salt which is leeched from the rocks and soil over which the water passes. As long as the lake had an outlet, the minerals contained in it flowed out with the water and the lake remained fresh. However, as the waters have evaporated since the lake stood at the Provo level, the salt has become more and more concentrated, for it does not evaporate with the water.

After thousands of years of this process the present lake water is approximately 25 per cent salt â&#x20AC;&#x201D; containing an estimated 6,000,000,000 tons.

%:,A ;i

'

•

^

:

_

_

_

.

STNi V £ •-"'• ','• " " " ' N;*>-_,,«' - I .

/ <KM.J .1

w

flfi'Hf?'

Ilfel 7^C !

ai.i

^cu...

'_

. ' ? , te •f ' a

•

1 _^>j

if

1^7-m -

•

"

•

.-

••*:•.

s^c^* J8ATt)mc^ T (; A

Resplendent old Garfield Beach resort was built early in 1887. A magnificent pavilion was built over the water 400 feet from shore, and the whole was surmounted by an observation tower overlooking the lake on all sides.

Among the many boats cruising the lake at various times was the City of Corinne, later named the General Garfield in honor of the president. The vessel was destroyed when a fire swept the Garfield landing pier in 1904.

->••.••::*

<**}*, > l i : - > - ^ y f i U t e " « I

306

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Of course, no fish can live in the concentrated brine, but two dozen other forms df life are found in it. Most noticeable is a tiny brine shrimp.

This is a pinkish-orange colored creature with large black eyes and five pairs of flimsy, bristle-like legs. It sometimes reaches as much as half an inch in length, although most specimens are smaller. At times these creatures are so numerous that the water assumes a pinkish tint. In recent years these animals have been harvested for use as tropicalfishfood. Brine shrimp feed on a type of green algae which also flourishes in the lake. A type of seaweed-like plant is also found in the deeper water.

Needless to say, the concentrated brine of the lake does not freeze, even in the coldest winter weather. However, huge sheets of ice several inches thick and more than a mile in area are often found floating about in the lake. Such ice floes have done some damage to boats and rather extensive damage to the Lucin Cutoff railroad trestle where, driven by wind and waves, the ice has literally cut through some of the pilings, requiring their replacement. This ice is formed during extremely cold, calm weather when fresh water flowing into the lake fails to mix with the heavier brine and freezes on top of it. In 1944 such a sheet formed at the mouth of Weber River and extended all the way to Fremont Island thus providing easy access for coyotes to raid the sheep pastured there. At times these ice sheets are driven by the wind, broken up and deposited in huge piles which float about the lake somewhat like icebergs.

The saline content of the water has contributed considerably to the attractiveness of the lake as a bathing resort. During the past century several popular bathing beaches have made their appearance and enjoyed periods of prosperity and fame. Among these are Lake Side, Lake Point, Syracuse, Garfield, Black Rock, Sunset Beach, and Saltair. These resorts, where bathers enjoyed floating around on the surface of water in which they cannot sink, attracted thousands of people every summer. In recent years, with the lake at a very low level, owners have been hard pressed to keep facilities in operation near the ever receding water. With the acquisition of Saltair by the state of Utah, interested people are looking forward to the time when a state park will provide more attractive swimming facilities.

BOATING Since the first white men visited Great Salt Lake many boats of various types and sizes have been launched on its waters. The earliest of these were the bullboats used by James Bridger on his voyage of discovery and James Clyman who first circumnavigated the lake in 1825. Fremont's eighteen-foot India rubber boat supplied satisfactory transportation for

THE G R E A T SALT LAKE

307

his exploring party in 1843. The first Mormon boat was the Mud Hen used in 1848 for a visit to some of the islands. Howard Stansbury conducted his extensive 1850 lake survey in the Salicornia. Brigham Young launched the Timely Gull in 1864. Many other sailboats were used from time to time in the transporting of livestock to and from the lake islands.

Several steamboats have also plied Great Salt Lake waters at one time or another. The earliest of these was the Kate Connor built by General P. A. Connor in the 1860's and was used to transport railroad ties and telegraph poles. This craft was later bought by Christopher Layton and used as a sheep and cattle boat. Other steamers eventually made their appearance, the largest of which was the City of Corinne, a seventy foot, three hundred ton, Mississippi River type stern wheeler with two stacks and three decks. This craft was launched at Corinne, May 24, 1871, and saw some use in the transportation of ore, livestock, and timbers before being converted into a luxury excursion boat. As such it cruised the lake for many years stopping at various lake resorts. Before his election to the presidency of the United States, General James A. Garfield cruised the lake in the City of Corinne and it was subsequently renamed the General Garfield in his honor. In 1904 a fire swept the Garfield Landing pier and resort and destroyed the vessel.

Although boating on the lake is great sport it is enjoyed by relatively few people today. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, the lake level has dropped so much that satisfactory launching sites are few and far between. The Salt Lake County Boat Harbor is the most satisfactory of these sites. This harbor provides adequate shelter and dock facilities for privately owned boats, but is not open for commercial use.

Although some of the local beaches do maintain small boats for short lake trips, there are no commercial facilities for extensive lake cruises.

With so many fresh-water lakes readily available, most boat owners are reluctant to subject their crafts to the briny waters of the lake where metal parts soon corrode, requiring constant maintenance. Nevertheless, with the development of proper facilities the lake could become a very popular yachting attraction.

LAKE ISLANDS Antelope Island is the only one of the lake's islands which is inhabited at the present time. It has been continuously used as a stock range since 1849, at which time the Mormon Church decided to pasture part of its tithing herd there. An adobe house built under church direction during the early 1850's is still used as headquarters for the Island Ranching

Great Salt Lake does not boast islands of "paradise.'' The remains of the Wenner home, once a fine rock house on Fremont Island, are now desolate.

The lonely cairn marks the graves of fudge U.J. Wenner and his wife. The family lived on the island six years; the judge hoped to regain his health.

THE GREAT SALT LAKE

309

Company and houses the foreman and his family. A small herd of American bison also ranges on the island. Primarily because of the fire hazard, the island owners discourage visitors.

Fremont Island has been the scene of some interesting episodes during the past century. For more than twenty years, beginning in 1859, it was occupied by the Miller brothers of Farmington, Utah, who used it as a sheep and cattle ranch. It was, in fact, known as Miller Island for three decades.

It was during the Miller occupation period that John Baptiste, the grave robber, was banished there. Baptiste had been hired to dig graves in the Salt Lake City cemetery. But for some reason he seemed unable to leave the dead buried. Baptiste developed the habit of going out at night, digging into new graves and stealing clodiing and jewelry from the corpses. Only after some three hundred graves had been desecrated was suspicion directed toward the culprit, who confessed all when a search of his house produced undeniable evidence. As punishment, Baptiste was sentenced to banishment on Fremont Island. Henry W. Miller took the prisoner to the island and left him to his fate. Of course, there was no danger of starvation, for the Millers maintained a well-provisioned cabin.

Three weeks later Dan Miller visited the island to inspect the springs and found that Baptiste had made his escape. The banished man had ripped several planks from the cabin, bound them into a raft with thongs of cowhide taken from a cow which he had slaughtered, and made his escape. Needless to say, Baptiste was never seen in Utah again.

During the 1880's Judge U. J. Wenner and his family moved to Fremont Island, built a fine rock house, and lived there until 1891. Judge Wenner had contracted tuberculosis and hoped that the fresh lake air might effect a cure. However, after six years of island happiness he died rather suddenly and was buried a short distance from the house he had built. Blanche Wenner who lived there as a little girl still owns the island, and when her mother died in 1942 Miss Wenner had the cremated remains buried beside her father's grave. The old Wenner home and graves bear mute witness to one of the most interesting and romantic epics in the history of the West. For the past several years the island has been leased by Charles Stoddard who uses it as a livestock range.

Great Salt Lake islands have always been famous as bird rookeries.

Thousands of sea gulls and pelicans and a few cormorants nest there every year. Hat Island, commonly known as Bird Island, was formerly the chief nesting ground. But with the fall of the lake during the 1930's that island was connected with the mainland by sand bars, providing a route for coy-

310

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

otes and other predatory animals which havocked the nesting grounds.

As a result the birds moved away and now nest on Egg, White Rock, and Gunnison islands.

LUCIN CUTOFF During die great westward migration of the past century Great Salt Lake was a barrier which had to be by-passed. Most wagon traffic followed a northern course, although some took Hastings Cutoff to the south.

The builders of the transcontinental railroad chose to follow the northern shore line where construction was completed at Promontory on May 10, 1869. It soon became apparent, however, that the piece of road between Corinne and Lucin was the major bottleneck in the whole transcontinental line. The main obstacle was the Promontory Range where the grade was found to be as much as ninety feet to a mile, and there were enough curves to turn a train around eleven times.

By 1900 the lake was lower than it had been at any time since its discovery, the railroad engineers decided to build a cutoff from Ogden straight across the lake to Lucin. The result was a remarkable feat of railroad building, the Lucin Cutoff, which was brought to completion in 1903. This new line shortened the distance by almost forty-five miles, eliminated most of the curves and steep grades, and cut off more than seven hours of travel time for each train. A major part of the cutoff consists of a twelve-mile trestle across the west arm of the lake. Although the pilings remain solidâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;being literally pickled in the brine â&#x20AC;&#x201D; trains are required to travel slowly over it, and there is always the danger of fire.

Need for improvement became more and more apparent, especially during World War II. As a result the United States government supported the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in a project to replace the trestle part of the cutoff with a solid rock-fill across the lake. When finished this $50,000,000 project will effectively eliminate the century-old lake barrier.

RISE AND FALL OF T H E LAKE Gauging stations for measuring rise and fall of the lake have been in operation since 1850. A study of the readings shows that the highest level was reached in 1873 when the surface of the water was eighteen feet higher than in 1940, the lowest recorded level. The rise and decline have followed in cycles of ten to fifteen years and, as might be expected, are very closely correlated with annual precipitation inside the lake drainage area. After 1940 the lake level climbed gradually for ten years, but has been slowly declining since that time. The present level is approximately four feet

THE GREAT

SALT LAKE

311

lower than it was when the Mormon pioneers entered Utah more than a century ago.

Using the past record as a means of estimating the future, it seems likely that the lake will not dry up completely (as people have been predicting for more than half a century), at least in the foreseeable future.

Likewise, there is little chance that it will rise high enough to menace farmland or other property, unless large quantities of "outside" water are diverted into the Salt Lake Basin from the Colorado drainage area. Radical climatic changes could, of course, change this outlook completely, but such changes are not expected. So the lake will very likely continue in the future as it has been in the past â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Utah's Inland Dead Sea.

A

• r ^ • •*?!m

m

*%,jr

vW *j

• ' : ;

" PBT*"-.

d a H n ' •*'"''-

%

A

i

•

-. £* -

/#

<

*

;

.

BT'>

£***, 'J

.f9VL jL.lkm.. .

. At.

The beautiful Wasatch Mountains. "When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple and print their outlines on the clear evening sky which in the last rays of the setting sun will glow and light up like a crown of glory."

WANDERING

IN THE

WASATCH

By Jac\ Goodman

As lofty as the more widely renowned Sierra Nevada, as strikingly beautiful as the much visited Colorado Rockies, the canyon-cut Wasatch Mountains of Utah are finally being discovered by recreation seekers. "Rediscovered" might be a better word, since Brigham Young and his pioneer followers camped out at Brighton in 1857, holding a discreet jamboree to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Mormon entry into the nearby Great Salt Lake Valley.

Certainly the Wasatch Range was one of the first major western spurs of the parent Rockies visited by white man â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Father Francisco Antanasio Dominguez came this way in 1776. In September of that fateful year, moving up from Santa Fe in search of a passable route to Monterey, the padres swung round the southern end of the chill Uinta Mountains and crossed the Green River. Finding the drainage of the Duchesne and Strawberry, they caught a first glimpse of rugged, snow-tipped Timpanogos looming in the autumn haze, but seemingly missed the lush Heber Valley. Piercing Spanish Fork Canyon on a route now traversed by "California Zephyr" sightseers in the comfort of Vista Domes, these first travelers upon the Old Spanish Trail swung around what must have seemed a crazy jumble of towering peaks to find an entry to Utah Valley.

314

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Visiting briefly in a lakeside encampment of "Yuta" Indians, the Spaniards then departed, having given the countryside both a name and a legend. To a degree, Escalante and his companions reacted much like latter-day tourists, if not Latter-day Saints. They viewed the Wasatch, mused a bit about its potential, then sought the highroad to California!

Trappers, including such venturesome men as General William H. Ashley, Jedediah S. Smith, and Peter Skene Ogden next penetrated the Wasatch, but visitors became fewer when the bottom dropped out of the beaver market in 1840 after two decades of high-country prosperity. The travails of the Donner party in 1846 need no recounting here, while the 1847 entry of the Mormon pioneers and the banner years of silver mining at Park City and Alta are the proper subjects of full-scale books and monographs.

The oddity worth some consideration is literary and aesthetic. For the fact is, the Wasatch Range, rich in history and scenery alike, has never quite caught the nation's eye.

What boy's geography book did not carry a photograph of Mount Hood or Mount Rainier to entice a soon-to-be adult to the Pacific Northwest ? What prospective tourist has not had the phrase "mile high Denver" drummed into his consciousness so thoroughly that he somehow feels Colorado's capital must be just a mile or two from snowy peaks?

In recent years the sharp-spired Tetons have become the epitome of mountain peaks to travel conscious America, not solely because of their contours but also because of their omnipresence in travel folders and motion pictures.

Meantime, Lone Peak continues to rear a snowy symmetrical cone aloft for those comparatively few tourists who choose to give eye to beauty by gazing south and east from almost any point in the Salt Lake Valley.

The Wasatch Range continues to furnish a far more striking backdrop for Utah's capital than any setting the Denver Chamber of Commerce can command. As for the Tetons, or the ranges near Banff, Colorado's Maroon Bells, or Idaho's Sawtooth, those are mountains that have their moments, their undeniable qualities, their virtues â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but what of the Wasatch ?

It is an odd fact that hundreds of painters of varied skills have tried to catch the contrasting airiness and rock-ribbed solidity of this lengthy, lofty branch of the Rockies with indifferent success. Back at the turn of the century, John Hafen, an artist far less known than Thomas Moran, Winslow Homer, or George Inness, captured some of the charm and quiet of the peaks rising above his Springville homestead. But Utah's

WANDERING

IN THE WASATCH

315

Hafen had no eastern gallery outlets, and few cognoscente of either art or mountains have seen his oils or sketches.

The film expended by camera enthusiasts in the high country east of Utah's principal cities doubtless helps stockholders of Eastman and Ansco journey to the Alps and Aspen for mountain country vacations.

Still, notable Wasatch country photographs by such notables of the lens world as Josef Muench and Ansel Adams are hard to come by. Jack White, Hal Rumel, and other fine Utah photographers presently catch the Wasatch scene, but seem unable to interest folks back at Life, Holiday, or National Geographic who might transmit the look of the Wasatch to view-hungry city dwellers.

Perhaps the most successful job of showing the nation the Wasatch was done by William Henry Jackson, official photographer for the Hayden Survey of the Territories. His 1870 wet-plates caught the flavor and accurately limned the backbone of Utah. Widely reproduced on stereopticon slides, they were viewed from countless parlor rocking chairs in countless flat-country homes.

How best to describe the Wasatch in words? We are told by oldtimers that a series of lantern-slide lectures titled "Wonders of the Wasatch" was given locally in an era when Richard Halliburton had not yet given way to Lowell Thomas, Walt Disney, or television. We are further told the language of the lecturers was superlative indeed, rich in full-blown adjectives, and sufficient to make the unwary auditor wonder whether the Wasatch or the Himalayas were under discussion.

Failing to unearth the scripts which accompanied these early efforts at linking visual with verbal aides, it might be well to reprint, instead, the lines with which a truly notable American author began his pleasant tale concerning still another mountain range, one far less flamboyant than either the Wasatch or the Himalayas. For Washington Irving was a connoisseur of mountains as well as folklore. And certainly, "swelling up to a noble height and lording it over the surrounding country," the Wasatch Mountains dominate the everyday scene enjoyed by most Utahans in much the same manner the gentler Catskills encompassed the world of Hudson River townsfolk in the days of Rip Van Winkle.

Irving faithfully reported that "every change of season, every change of weather; indeed, every hour of the day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers." How like the Wasatch. True, no quaintly dressed Dutchmen roll thunderous bowling balls in the clefts and gorges of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The best we

316

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

can do for a legend hereabouts is to relate the tale of a lovelorn Indian maid now transformed into the crest of Mount Timpanogos. Certainly if Washington Irving, or even Mark Twain, had had some knowledge of Hansen's Cave (now a portion of Timpanogos Cave National Monument), we would have a more satisfying folktale to pass on to tourists.

Our lack, as always, lies not with our physical setting â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the problem would seem to be one of attracting high caliber, tale-spinning authors to die Wasatch.

Return to the Wasatch, or, as some would have it, the Catskills for just a moment more. Said Irving: "When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their outlines on the clear evening sky. Sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory."

What resident of Ogden ever set down a better description of the lowlying sun tipping Ben Lomond ? Has any Salt Laker done as well for the great expanse of peaks extending from Red Butte or Emigration Canyon down to Point of the Mountain ? Can a Utah Valley citizen match Irving's phrases in praise of Nebo, Mount Provo, "Timp" or even Loafer Mountain ? Obviously, it will take an outlander to "thump the tub" for the Wasatch, which is why the information which follows is directed to Utah's guests, or at least to the few noncomplacent natives these words will reach.

Physically, the Wasatch Mountains extend fully 150 miles from Collinston, near the Idaho border, on south to Nephi, beyond Utah Lake, where they merge into the Wasatch Plateau. The Wasatch fault fronting the western face of the range is responsible for its abrupt character â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one of the few in all the West in which major peaks reaching 11,000 and 12,000 feet in altitude rise so nearly sheer from a 4,500 foot high valley.

Fully 967,000 acres of this rough and mountainous country lie within the Wasatch National Forest. A few score acres are protected by the National Park Service at Timpanogos Cave, another few hundred thousand acres of the Wasatch Range fall within the boundaries of the Uinta National Forest.

While upwards of 2,000,000 people annually visit the Wasatch, there is a marked scarcity of summer resorts in the 150 mile long range, and thus fully 90 per cent of the visitors are merely eight-hour guests of the local rangers. Most recreation seekers drive to the picnic tables in the shadowy canyons nearest such cities as Ogden, Salt Lake, and Provo, but return home at sundown.

WANDERING

IN THE WASATCH

317

As a result, there is plenty of room to roam for visitors who will venture upcountry to aspen groves, evergreen forests, mountain meadows, and Alpine peaks which give the lie to Utah's reputation as a desert state.

In addition to peaks and forests, the Wasatch region is dotted with beautiful lakes of which Solitude, Twin Lakes, and Lake Catherine are typical readily reached examples. To drive into and through die range, arteries which should be sought on standard petroleum company maps must first include the roads circling from Salt Lake to Park City to Heber and back to Provo, thereby ringing much of the Wasatch. There is a wonderfully scenic Alpine Loop traversing the spine of the region (more on this a bit later). There is a fine road up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta and a jeep trail extending on to the Albion Basin; a parallel and well-paved route leads up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton, where a passable extension has just been graded across the high country to Park City and the Heber Valley. Still other roads penetrate the Wasatch â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and many of them open up chapters of history as well as extremely pleasant scenery. U.S. 6-50 from Colorado pierces the range by way of Spanish Fork Canyon â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Escalante's route.

Popular, U.S. 40, grown four lanes wide, swings through Parley's Canyon at an easy gradient partially following the road taken by latecoming Mormons and the Pony Express. The 1847 Saints traveled a route, now partially paved, which you can readily duplicate from Henefer to East Canyon and across Big Mountain, where they caught their initial glimpse of the Great Salt Lake Valley. The Weber Canyon enfilade through the Wasatch is now traversed by U.S. 30, as well as the Union Pacific Railroad. Markers along the modern highway relate the labors of the transcontinental railroad builders and of Mormon pioneers who fortified Echo Canyon to blockade advancing federal troops in the brief "Mormon War." Close by, a road from Utah's second largest city extends up Ogden Canyon to the hamlet of Huntsville with its Trappist Monastery, and on towards the elk country centering around the Hardware Ranch. A bit farther north the road twisting from Brigham City towards Logan and Bear Lake by way of Sardine Canyon skirts the Mantua area. Here a "dugway" road, notched into the mountainside in CCC days by lads who left their own legends far from city sidewalks, climbs painfully to the rim of Willard Peak. It ascends to one of the few spots in all the range where an automobile can reach the top of a mountain fronting the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Another such view, slightly less sweeping but reached by a rather less tortuous road, lies above Farmington in Davis County.

318

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

With highways, paved and otherwise, tapping much of the Wasatch, the Forest Service has now blazed fully 800 miles of hiking trails tailored to the needs of those willing to make do with bedrolls and tents in place of swank hotels. The region most rewarding to the casually equipped camper lies between the Weber River on the north and the Provo River on the south. These, incidentally, have been two of the finer trout streams in the entire West, although frequently overfished.

The best starting place for the average hiker or camper with a week or so at his disposal is Brighton, pavement's end on the twenty-mile-long highway leading east up Big Cottonwood Canyon from Salt Lake City.

Here, by riding the Mount Millicent or Mount Majestic ski lifts to a 10,000 foot high shoulder of the range, would-be explorers can get good over-all views of the terrain north, south, and east.

Members of the Wasatch Mountain Club, a local hiking unit with a tidy headquarters' cabin at Brighton, will gladly give expert advice to visitors concerning necessary duffel and favorite campsites. A Forest Service ranger at Brighton can assist with information concerning virtually Alta, Utah, in 1873. Nestled high in the Wasatch to the east of the Valley, her mines were once so rich in silver that initial profits from the Emma, the South Hecla, and the Prince of Wales mines ran as high as $180.00 per ton.

/-

'**ÂŁVaa^ '*

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

>*

wmsfs

WANDERING

IN THE WASATCH

319

the entire countryside. In addition, at the Alpine Rose Lodge, Majestic Manor, or Balsam Inn, solid, reasonably priced meals are available the year round; the Brighton store stocks foodstuffs for hikers, hunters and fishermen, and food and fodder are likewise available down the road a piece at the scenic Silver Fork community.

One favorite trail system leading out of Brighton extends to camping sites strung along a diirteen mile route to Sunset Peak, Mount Majestic, and Lake Solitude. Skirting Twin Lakes, Lake Mary, and Lake Martha, all near the 10,000 foot mark, this lakes trail offers tremendous views of the high country, side trips to good fishing spots, a jog to the Alta ski area, and ample material for geologists, naturalists, and camera addicts.

If the history of a once prosperous mining country appeals, and if you are feeling a bit footsore, backtrack a half-dozen miles from Brighton and veer south on the upcountry dirt road marked "Doughnut Falls and Cardiff Mines." After a cooling visit to the falls — a pleasant spot for picnicking — take the Cardiff road fork and putter around in the peakshadowed area. Here water trickles from old mine entries. Sagging mine dormitories, old mill gears, and rain-washed tailings recall an era when the silver-lead-zinc diggings of the Wasatch helped build major fortunes and even embroiled President Ulysses S. Grant in some international "shenanigans."

Just across the divide from the old Cardiff diggings and nearly one thousand feet straight down lies Alta, reachable by hiking trails, or by a paved, seventeen-mile route from downtown Salt Lake City. Once, shortly after the closing days of the Civil War, teamsters rawhided ore from Alta to the valley in green cowhides. Ox teams labored long and hard to move the tonnage on to Ogden, from which point, after completion of the Central Pacific, the stuff was sped to San Francisco. Next clipper ships transported the ore around the Horn to Wales for smelting. Despite the need to ship their product half way round the world, Alta's mines were so rich in silver, initial profits from the bounteous Emma, the South Hecla, and the Prince of Wales mines ran as high as $180.00 a ton.

As a result, English notables grew interested in purchasing control of the Emma Mine, especially when its owners, eager for a sale, somehow persuaded President Grant to introduce his sales representative to an ambassador or two. Before too long, the stock was being snapped up by titled Britishers, shares were selling at 30 pounds sterling on the London exchange — and suddenly the Emma "faulted out." All at once miners deep beneath the Wasatch at Alta, following rich silver lodes, found themselves hacking at rock which contained little or no "values."

Alta, once containing hundreds of buildings and called "home" by thousands of miners, is now a winter ski resort. Above is a view of Main Street in 1873.

In 1874 the outcry on both sides of the Atlantic became so loud an international team of geologists, led by Heidelberg savants, converged upon Alta and the Emma. Experts picked, pried, and studied, concluded that President Grant was not a fraud, that the promoters were not crooks, and that the Englishmen, along with many mining men before and since, were merely victims of a geologic fact of life. Veins do peter outâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as does the demand for such metals as lead, silver, and zinc.

Alta, once called home by five thousand miners, is now a spot in which winter visitors "ski on silver," and in which summertime tourists can climb and hike or pick Alpine wildflowers. Gone are the Bucket of Blood, the Gold Miner's Daughter, and other succinctly named saloons.

Alta had a hundred buildings, six breweries, twenty-six saloons and 110 killings by 1872. After demonetization of silver it literally slid downhill fast, assisted by fires and avalanches. Fortunately, Alpine scenery and

jjÂŁKU

A Miners' Union parade was held on June 13 each year in Park City. The smokestack of the Ontario Mine is in the background. The building on the right is the First National Bank Building which was destroyed in the big fire. ski-snow are assets which are not as easily depleted. Only a trickle of ore comes from Alta today, but Rustler, Peruvian, Alta and Snow Pine lodges can count on a flood of visitors when ski lifts operate.

East and a bit north of Brighton and Alta the Wasatch peaks shelter Park City, a sizeable mining community which has taken on the attributes of a ghost town in our own day. In 1940 fully 3,735 people resided on Park City's hillsides, ore trains rolled downgrade over the Rio Grande and Union Pacific spurs, church bells rang, schools were crowded, and men by the thousand went underground at the Silver King, Park Utah Consolidated, and N e w Park diggings.

N o w a d a y s , m o t o r i s t s can follow an easy, well-paved s p u r from U.S. 40 to Park City, or drive across the new Guardsman Pass road from Brighton. Hikers or skiers can enjoy superb scenery on the latter route

322

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

— and even stop to view a tiny monument erected by hard-rock miners to memorialize the efforts of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in their behalf.

But, arriving at Park City, wayfaring strangers find an increasing number of boarded shops and abandoned homes. Buses still bring youngsters to the high school, but hardly enough to fill the seats. The once crowded New Park Hotel is vacant, ore trams are silent, one rail line has vanished.

Obviously, with fine scenery, good skiing, better man average fishing and equally good hunting, Park City could be revived if a Walter Paepke or a Lucius Beebe turns up to transform it into another Aspen or Virginia City. Utah's State Park and Recreation Commission has hopefully suggested development of a metropolitan area park on the Park City drainage of the Wasatch and on the nearby Heber Valley slopes, which could stimulate a healthy revival of the countryside.1 Till such a project becomes a reality, Park City will dream of the past—and steadily decline.

That past, let it be said, was rough, tough, bawdy and gaudy. Park City and its populace could match reputations with those of any hardrock region. Soldiers from Colonel Patrick Connor's company, stationed in Utah Territory to keep the peace, went prospecting instead in 1869. A year later, word that their ore find assayed 96 ounces of silver, 54 per cent lead, and considerable zinc started a stampede. By 1872 a gentleman named Rector Steen had located ore running 400 ounces of silver to the ton—and had sold his Ontario Mine to George Hearst for $27,000. George sired a youngster yclept William Randolph, he in turn founded newspapers, shipped castles from Spain to California, and helped whip up a small war. Had Steen not found his mine, had Hearst neither purchased same nor had a son devoted to yellow journalism, Teddy Roosevelt might not have galloped up San Juan Hill, the Spanish flag might still fly over Cuba and the Philippines, and we might not be familiar with such names as Corregidor or even Castro....

Back in the days of Hearst ownership, dozens of small mines dotted the Park City slopes. But flooding was a major problem, pumping and tunneling were costly, so mergers resulted. Major mines built fortunes for Thomas Kearns, later publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune and onetime United States Senator. Mine wages helped support saloons, gambling joints, and "establishments." As late as 1889 "madams" were being fined $40.00 and "girls" $20.00 on a quarterly basis. The funds raised thereby, along with license fees from saloons, provided the city fathers with their chief municipal revenues! ' Report of the Utah State Park <""! Recreation Commission, 1959 (Salt Lake City, 1959).

A saloon in the town of Park City in *ts heyday. The patrons are unknown.

Most western mining towns burned with almost monotonous regularity, and Park City was no exception, with its most rousing blaze in 1898 very nearly expunging the community. Strikes by the Western Federation of Miners, troubles with the IWW, periodic efforts to restrict "soiled doves" to smaller districts and equally periodic drives on gambling were commonplace in this sector of the Wasatch.

Prohibition and the coming of the auto doomed the Park City folkways of yore. The swinging door and open gambling hall vanished simultaneously when the speak-easy appeared upon the scene. Henry's Ford enabled miners to drive to Salt Lake or other night life centers of a Saturday night. Things were never again the same.

Mine output totalled some $4,000,000 in 1939. The production of lead, zinc, and silver rose mightily during the war years, only to slump again when world markets and the output of offshore mines approached "normal." Since western producers cannot compete with low-wage, lowcost diggings abroad, Park City's population has been dwindling â&#x20AC;&#x201D; leaving the hill country back of town to hikers, sheepmen, hunters, skiers, girl scouts at Camp Cloud Rim, and sightseers on the Guardsman Pass road.

South and east of Park City, fewer than sixty highway miles from Salt Lake City, a very different sort of community nestles in a pocket of the Wasatch. At Midway, in the Heber Valley, white men and red men have come to the "hot pots" for more years than the oldest settler can re-

324

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

member to gape at bubbling pools of 98 degree water and bathe in the naturally heated tubs of aqua pura.

Now a tidy resort, "The Homestead," caters to summer and winter travelers. Operators have acquired a typical Heber Valley farmstead and transformed it into a pleasantly styled, somewhat southern appearing resort, complete with veranda tables, an ancient piano, a restaurant, and a small soda fountain.

In addition to hot-pot swimming, there is a more normal fresh-water pool. Horses are available, the trails are good, the atmosphere is pervaded with the sort of lazy quality that recalls the Virginia Blue Ridge or Irving's own Sleepy Hollow countryside. Heber Valley scenery is different, of course. In addition to carefully tended farm fields, Deer Creek Reservoir provides a sizeable mirroring basin for Mount Timpanogos, principal peak of the region.

At any season Timp is a considerable mountain, with a drive of some forty miles needed to skirt its serrated flanks. There are two "best ways" to view Utah's favorite mountain â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the drive along the Alpine Loop highway, or on foot, up its backside. For persons who have an urge to climb a man-sized mountain but who do not care to work too hard at it, Timpanogos, which rises a respectable 12,008 feet above sea level, has all the attributes of better known peaks plus one distinct advantageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a summit fairly readily reached. Blessed with spectacular cliffside waterfalls, a mile-long snow field, and the remnants of a glacier, Utah's Timp can be scaled by the average well-conditioned hiker in half a day. In contrast with peaks of equal altitude in the Colorado Rockies or the Tetons, no climbing gear, pack animals, or guides are required for an assault. One need only don comfortable shoes, serviceable trousers, pack a picnic lunch, and ascend trails prepared by nature and Uncle Sam's Forest Service.

The highway linking Heber with Provo (U.S. 189) intercepts State Highway 80, a sector of the Alpine Loop, a dozen miles above Provo.

Up this loop road Aspen Grove, a natural amphitheater, sits upon a 6,000 foot shoulder of the parent peak. At this spot, one of the most popular campsites in all the Wasatch, a neatly graveled footpath leads from the ranger station through aspens and fresh-smelling pines to the initial uptrail zigzag, at a cascade bearing the contradictory but official title of "Unnamed Cataract."

Beyond this easy climb the six-and-one-half-mile pathway to the summit steepens sharply. But it never becomes dangerous, and is never too tough for the sedentary climber who is willing to halt for a rest when

WANDERING

IN THE WASATCH

325

tuckered. In fact, in late July of each year, as many as 1,500 Utahans take part in an annual mass climb to Timpanogos Glacier and the summit.

Ordinarily, aspiring mountaineers have the Timpanogos trail pretty much to themselves. The ascent should be made in the cool morning hours, allowing some four hours of easy climbing to reach the summit, plus a luncheon stop at the glacier, and another three hours to descend.

Above Unnamed Cataract the eastern slope of Timpanogos is made colorful by a series of glens, with the trail crisscrossing through a procession of half-a-hundred waterfalls. Nearly everyone of these cascades terminates in a tree-shadowed pool flanked by meadows sprinkled with bright wildflowers. The water is pure and cold â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there is little need for a canteen on Timpanogos.

In addition to its multitude of mossy ledges and picnic spots where footsore climbers can take time out to rest, the mountain pathway abounds in sweeping views eastward across fertile, irrigated Utah valleys, mathematically patterned in hues ranging from dark green to bright yellow. Even if the hiker gives out well below the peak, a Timpanogos climb gives the outlander a firsthand view of the wonders worked by a half-century of irrigation projects in the Heber Valley region.

After an hour-long trek at an ordinary pace, the midsummer climber crosses the first of many snow patches lingering on the slopes throughout the year. Soon, in addition to the shade afforded by thinning foliage near the timberline, the high altitude air is cooled by increasingly sizeable deposits of snow, and it is possible to toss August snowballs at trailside rocks or trees.

Moss Falls, Baby Falls, Columbine Falls, and Amphitheater Falls thunder at the pathway's edge. Otherwise, only the sound of western songbirds breaks the Wasatch stillness. Near the 10,000 foot level climbers reach the first of a series of glacial cirques â&#x20AC;&#x201D; rocky hollows edging back into the steep mountainside where wildflowers and foot-deep snowbanks exist side by side.

Next the climber reaches Emerald Lake and the timberline, an Alpine setting easily a match for many more famous spots in Switzerland or the Banff-Lake Louise country. Emerald Lake is a sizeable pool fed

by Timpanogos Glacier which rises abruptly to the soudiwest. Here the ice breaks up in mid-July, but floating ice cakes abound even in midAugust.

This is a pleasant but chilly spot, ideal for devouring a midday meal.

In addition, Emerald Lake's frigid waters prove perfect for cooling weary feet. And climbers who despair of reaching the tip of the peak, here visi-

326

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ble as a seemingly sheer rock wall directly overhead, can always return to the valley floor to truthfully report on climbing to timberline and glimpsing a glacier.

At the foot of the glacier, hardier hikers will find a fork bearing right and leading directly from the 11,000 foot level to the summit. This last mile is the stiffest part of the climb, due to the gravelly shale underfoot and the thinning atmosphere.

Compensation comes moments later in the form of a magnificent view of the entire Wasatch Range to the north, south, and east. At the summit, where a metal-sheathed Forest Service hut provides shelter against mountain storms, there is an awesome view to the west as well.

Since Timp rises sheer from the flatlands left in the wake of prehistoric Lake Bonneville, towns on the valley floor to the west lie nearly 7,000 feet below, clearly outlined against the grey-green waters of Utah Lake. Off to the northwest, the seventy-five mile long Great Salt Lake seems of bathtub dimensions, ringed by the Wasatch, the distant Oquirrh Mountains, and the distant Nevada peaks. In every direction the views are superb â&#x20AC;&#x201D; north toward the American Fork Twins, the Alta Basin and Brighton's ski country, south to neighboring Mount Provo and Mount Nebo, and east toward the country traversed by the Spanish padres, the Mountain Men, and the Mormon pioneers.

Back at Aspen Grove, the Alpine Loop highway provides a well paved, tremendously photogenic route back to Salt Lake City and civilization. For eight miles across the Wasatch, from the Provo River to the American Fork, the highway follows the path of mountain goats that once inhabited the countryside. Climbing to 8,500 feet at one point, the route rises through hardwood forests which turn a livid scarlet in autumn months, and winds through acre upon acre of quaking aspen, their leaves and trunks all gold and silver. Its switchbacks and turnouts give mile after mile of views across timberline country, down into gorges, or up the flanks of snow-tipped peaks. For those who like to do their sightseeing from an upholstered seat, the Alpine Loop road offers the best available sampling of Wasatch scenery.

If, after climbing, driving, riding, and just plain rambling in the Wasatch, you want an insight into what these mountains are made of, conclude your explorations with a visit to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. The Alpine Loop road down American Fork Canyon leads to the parking area â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but a visit to the inside of Timpanogos means almost as much of a climb as a trip to the mountain's tip.

WANDERING

IN THE WASATCH

327

This is one cave entered by clambering up, not down. Visitors taking the mile-long trail zigzagging up twelve hundred feet of canyon wall will find, however, that benches are thoughtfully placed along the route — and most of the trail has been asphalt surfaced. Climbers reach the cave in a bit less than an hour, and on this hike are treated to some of the most startling views of steep-walled canyons, mountains and valley scenery in all the Wasatch.

The caverns are cool, a constant 40 degrees, so bring a sweater. Opened to the public a quarter of a century ago, this chain of small caverns is well lighted but unmarred by the commercialization so often found at caves located outside the public domain. Stalactites, stalagmites, under-ground pools—Timpanogos has its full quota, even to such formations as a Chocolate Forest and a Great Heart.

Outside, in the daylight of a Wasatch afternoon, look aloft to the peaks a last, lingering time, and drive on home — be it to some spot in Utah, or in some distant state. Someday, it is hoped, the routes leading to isolated Wasatch peaks and canyons can be linked up; someday, it is hoped, a system of State Parks will ease the strain on existing campgrounds and picnic areas; someday, it is hoped, resorts of national caliber, worthy of the mountain setting, can be developed for summer and winter guests.

Till then, despite the lag in developing creature comforts, the Wasatch slopes and streams, crags and canyons, remain an exciting and inviting region, as fine a slice of mountain country as can be found anywhere in these United States.

Ramble in and around those peaks, return, report on them to your neighbors — and perhaps write the book or paint the pictures needed to bring the Wasatch into clearer view.

UTAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ABOUT THE COVER

The Kirtland Temple

View of the Kirtland area

HISTORICAL SOCIETY FILES, IN. l i . MORGAN, SR., COLLECTION

CONTENTS The Mormon

Economy

Daniel S. Tuttle,

in Kirtland,

Missionary

Ohio, BY R. KENT FIELDING

331

Bishop of Utah,

BY JAMES W. BELESS, JR The

Robert

The

President's

Reviews

S. Bliss fournal, Report,

359 EDITED BY EVERETT L. COOLEY

BY LELAND H . CREER

and Recent

407

Publications

M I L L E R , Hole-in-the-Rock, ROBERTSON, A Ram BEAN, The

381

BY GUSTIVE O. LARSON

in the Thicket,

Fancher

Train,

413

BY ERNEST H . LINFORD

414

BY MAURINE W H I P P L E

416

DRURY, The Diaries and Letters of Henry H. Spalding and Asa Bowen Smith Relating to the Nez Perce Mission, 1838-1842,

BY PHILIP C STURGES

Other Historical

419

Publications

420

Notes

435

ILLUSTRATIONS Kirtland, Newell

Ohio, Countryside K. Whitney;

Original

Map of upper central portion

330 Whitney

store

of Kirtland

334

township

336

Map of Kirtland Facsimiles

337

of bills issued by Kirtland

Bishop Daniel Independence

Safety Society Bank

349

S. Tuttle

358

Hall and Groesbeck's

store

369

St. Paul's Chapel St. Mark's

37 I

grammar

school

Dr. John F. Hamilton Bishops

and Mrs. Hamilton;

of the Province

Facsimile

St. Mark's Hospital

operations,

Independence

Rock;

Board of Trustees, Young,

375

of the Pacific, 1917

of pages from Bliss journal

Early sawmill

Levi Edgar

372

377 '

380

Salt Lake City

Buffalo

hunt

Utah State Historical Governor

388 400 Society

George D. Clyde, Edward

406 M. Mabey

..

434

t JK 'jSm

?fl

â&#x20AC;¢>-.?- .

r-

Taken from near the site of the old Morley farm, this view shows the Kirtland area much as it appears today. The more than century-old temple is still in use and stands amid rolling hills of the Ohio countryside.

THE

MORMON

ECONOMY

KIRTLAND,

IN

OHIO

By R. Kent Fielding *

Kirtland, Ohio, as a gathering place for the Mormons was a choice of lingering expediency rather than of deliberate design, and for that reason its growth during its early years was halting and uncertain.

By the time Kirtland entered the consciousness of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, the church, anxious to build a millennial city of Zion in anticipation of the near advent of Christ, had already been alerted for an uprooting from its inhospitable New York environment and committed sight unseen to some vague location in the West, "on the borders by the Lamanites" which would be designated more precisely when the church made its move.1 That the New York Mormons came to Kirtland at all was a matter of coincidence and convenience. Parley P. Pratt furnished the first connection when, as a new Campbellite preacher, he left his Ohio home on a missionary tour and became instead a convert to Mormonism. By the time Pratt joined the church, orders for the move to the West had already been given, and Pratt was included in the group chosen to be the advance party sent to "spy out the land." Pratt undoubtedly influenced the group to use the route * Dr. Fielding is assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University. He obtained the Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1957. This article is part of his dissertation, "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio."

1 Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1921), Sec. 28: 32.

332

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

west that led along the Erie Canal and the lake shore road through the heart of Campbellite territory and to the home of his former colleague and teacher, Sidney Rigdon. His intuitions that the Campbellites would accept Mormonism were correct. The converts gained in northeast Ohio probably more than doubled the size of the new church and, by winning the adherence of Sidney Rigdon, greatly influenced its future course and growtii.

It was undoubtedly Sidney Rigdon who persuaded Joseph Smith to move his New York congregation to the more hospitable environment of Kirtland. Rigdon traveled to New York soon after his conversion to meet the Mormon Prophet. Learning of the hostility of New York and of the contemplated removal to the West, he could easily have painted a picture of the friendly reception and opportunities for preaching to unprejudiced multitudes that Ohio would afford.

Since Kirtland was on the logical route toward the contemplated homeland, Rigdon's arguments must have seemed alluring and his offer providential. Smith soon ordered his congregation to prepare immediately for removal, this time "to the Ohio" where they would await word from the advance party as to a more precise location for the proposed city of Zion.2 Kirtland was not visualized as a homeland for the Mormons, but as a wintering spot, a convenient delay en route leading to the ultimate goal somewhere in Missouri. The Prophet had promised his New York Saints that the Lord would lead them to a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey which they should possess as the land of their inheritance.3 Under his orders they had sold, rented, or abandoned their possessions and moved to do his bidding. It may be that the prospect of claiming for the church the magnificent estate of Leman Copley, a recent Ohio convert who owned more than seven hundred acres of land in the Thompson township, gave the Prophet new ideas suggesting the permanence of the Kirtland location, but the apostasy of Copley, evidently upon learning that he was expected to deed his property to the church, ended the prospect.* The New York Saints, who left sometime after their prophet, scarcely paused in Ohio.

Less than a month after their arrival and assignment to Copley's farm, they were instructed to "flee to the West," and steps were taken to â&#x20AC;˘Ibid., Sec. 37:1-3.

3 Ibid., Sec. 38:32-37. ' Geauga County Records, Chardon, Ohio, Tax Duplicates for 1831.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

333

liquidate the possessions of the Ohio Saints as well in preparation for a general removal.5 Like the members from New York, the Ohio Saints had few possessions to delay their departure. They lived principally upon an eighty-acre farm owned by Isaac Morley and evidently had little property of their own. Newell K. Whitney owned a store in partnership with Algernon Gilbert and had purchased a few additional acres of land; Edward Partridge owned a hat business in Painesville. The complete and well-preserved records of Geauga County, Ohio, give no evidence of any further real possessions of significance. Obedient to the call of their prophet, these property owners, following the example of the New York Saints, took steps to' dispose of their holdings and join the move to the West.

When the church left Kirtland for Missouri in June of 1831, there is no indication that they had any intention ever to return again except to complete liquidation of their holdings and to bring their families to Zion. The reason why these plans were not carried out cannot be discussed at length in this article, but it appears that the remoteness of the location, its undeveloped state as well as the unresponsiveness of the Indians and the hostility of the whites, convinced the Prophet that the entire fortune of the church could not be wagered on the possibilities of immediate success in Missouri. Although plans for building Zion were continued, the Prophet returned to Kirtland in the fall of 1831 and issued orders that stopped the liquidation of Kirtland holdings.6 The Morley farm and some of Newell K. Whitney's property were already gone.7 Fortunately, Whitney's store had not been sold when the new decision was made. This property was appropriated to the church through the Law of Consecration.

It was around the nucleus of Whitney's store and the Law of Consecration that the economic strength of Kirtland was husbanded.

The Law of Consecration was given to the church by Joseph Smith in a series of revelations beginning early in 1831.8 According to the law, a person upon becoming a member of the Mormon Church was to deed all of his property to the organization in fee simple. He would then receive from the church a conditional grant called an inheritance, s Geauga County Records, Deed Record Book 14, pp. 427, 583. Records power of attorney from Isaac Morley and Edward Partridge to Titus Billings, to sell their property.

Instruments are dated June 11 and July 16, 1831.

G Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 64:21.

7 Deed Record Book 15, pp. 492-93; Book 14, p. 532. s Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 42.

Newell K. Whitney. Around the nucleus of his store and the Law o\ Consecration the economic strength of Kirtland was husbanded.

The original Whitney store. Today it stands 100 feet in back of its former location and is used for storage.

THE

MORMONS

IN KIRTLAND

335

which he might operate during his lifetime or during his continuance in the church. If he should leave the church, he would lose his original property as well as his inheritance. Although this was the law, it was not formally followed in Kirtland. Evidently members merely pledged their property to the church with an "oath and covenant" and retained title in their own name." They received the advice and counsel of the Mormon bishop or his agent concerning the use of their property and were expected to make an accounting to him at the end of the year as to the results of their operation. It was expected that all amounts over and above what was necessary to provide for their "wants and needs" would be donated to the church. Evidently the contributions of the members were generous, for the church was able to undertake the construction of a spacious and imposing building, which ultimately cost $40,000, buy additional property both in Kirtland and in Missouri, buy printing presses, make extensive expenditures for support of missionaries, and care for their poor. There is no doubt but that these consecrations and donations were the chief revenue of the church throughout the Kirtland years.

It has been said that the operation of the Law of Consecration was informal in Kirtland. The single exception to that statement is perhaps the most noteworthy economic development during the early years of the church. The properties of Newell K. Whitney were formally appropriated to church use in March, 1832, through an organization called the United Firm or the United Order.10 The organization was known in the county records as Newell K. Whitney and Company.

It was created, according to the church account, to care for the poor, to manage the storehouse, and to regulate affairs of the church both in Zion and in Kirtland. Effectively it was the governing body of the church, and its members included the highest church leaders. It was also the only visible means of support for these leaders. There was an air of secrecy and mystery about it as its members were known by unique Boo/{ of Mormon sounding code names. Originally it consited of Newell K. Whitney, Sidney Rigdon, and Joseph Smith. In April, 1832, the United Order was expanded to include Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris.11 The only economic asset at first was Whitney's store, but as consecrations and donations flowed in, new business 11 Joseph Smith, History of the Chinch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (7 vols., Salt Lake City, 1 "1)2-1932), II, 23, 161.

"Ibid.. 1, 225. " Doctrine and Cot'cnants, Sec. 78.

Upper central portion of Kirtland township. The map shows the location of Isaac Morley s farm. The property known as the Williams farm is shown on the map in lots 29 and 30 as the property of Isaac Moore and Titus Street.

The French property later acquired by the church is in lots 17 and 20. Only Mormon names represented are Isaac Morley and John Boyden. enterprises were commenced and additional purchases of property were made. From time to time, as need arose, the group expanded to include some new figure vital to an emerging plan. Such an addition was made in 1833 when Smith saw that his Missouri Zion was not likely to be realized soon and expressed the need to build and grow by transferring projects originally intended for Zion to the Ohio city.

T h e church needed property upon which to lay the foundations for a city and a house of worship. Accordingly, Frederick G. Williams was admitted to the United F i r m and with him came his farm of 142 acres situated on the heights overlooking the valley of the East Chagrin River and the old village of Kirtland. 12 T h e Williams farm was an excellent beginning, but more was needed for the extensive building program. Land must be had for lumber, for millsites, for brick clay, and for stone. Several non-Mormon landholders were approached, but only one new property was purchased. 13 T h e farm of Peter French, oldest settler in the township, was desired for its brick clay and its 1!

Ibid., Sec. 92.

Joseph Smith, op. cit., I, 325; cf. Tax Duplicates, for years Mormons remained in Kirtland.

13

0 J, W- Hirt.ittut

This map represents Kirtland under a later stage of development and shows relative locations.

The old area, Kirtland fiats, is built in the proximity of the mills, and the Mormon Kirtland is in the vicinity of the temple. The Whitney store, the tavern, the ashery, and what remains of the Mormon subdivision plan for Kirtland are still visible.

1.1,1

l I * I. # 1 * l,K,.l *

tlSfMl S e a w t f , <!I#-l<ssrf, I 8 f 2 j

kiln. French had used the kiln successfully to build the first brick house in the area, and the Mormons wanted it to build a brick meetinghouse. French agreed to sell the 103 acres for five thousand dollars. T h e church could raise only two thousand dollars cash, but Joseph Coe, chairm a n of the building committee, signed a mortgage for the balance. 14 T h e next addition to the United F i r m was made in consequence of these arrangements. Frederick G. Williams, with a crew of men, sought to make bricks, but experienced insurmountable difficulties which made it advisable to abandon the project. 15 Although the land 14 Deed Record Book 17, p. 359 for the deed, p. 38 for the mortgage.

"Joel Hills Johnson, "Diary'' (MS Collection, Brigham Young University). Johnson says he worked at making brick for about three months, "but then it was decided to build it of stone."

338

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

was valuable for farming and joined the Williams farm on the north to make available a larger city site, the church evidently felt it could not afford to leave its money invested for such a purpose, and neidier could it afford to pay the balance due on the mortgage. At this critical juncture a conference was called to determine what should be done.

The decision was to admit John Johnson to the United Firm and have him "seek diligently to take away the encumberances that are upon the house."16 Johnson was accordingly admitted, paid the mortgage and the farm became the property of the United Firm under the name of Newell K. Whitney and Company.17 The decision to retain the French farm was a fortunate one, for although the Kirtland leaders evidently thought they were building their meetinghouse18 on die northeast corner of the Williams farm, property descriptions being what they were, they actually made their beginning on the French farm.19 The United Firm acquired some additional property, mostly for purposes connected with the needs of temple building during 1833; but early in 1834 it was decided to terminate the organization. According to the Law of Consecration, all of these properties belonged to the church and the only thing that could properly be done was to assign definite stewardships to each member of the firm. Since this was not done, the fiction of a Law of Consecration becomes evident. For an indicated value received, titles to each of the properties evidendy owned by the firm were made over to the private ownership of the individual partners. Sidney Rigdon received his place of residence and a tannery;20 Martin Harris was given the right to operate the French farm providing he allowed Joseph Smith to direct the use of the proceeds;21 John Johnson received his place of residence and the right to 10 Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 96.

"Deed Record Book 17, p. 360.

18 Property deeds frequently call this structure the "stone meeting house.'' The Mormons soon began to call it a temple. As the term was originally used it meant either a house of worship or a church administrative building. The present connotation of the word as a special nonpublic building devoted to religious ceremonials was a later development. The Kirtland Temple was used for worship, for school, and for meetings.

10 Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of the Prophet Joseph Smith and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool, 1853), 184, 203, says the temple was "in the northwest corner of a field of wheat which was sown by my sons the previous fall," which indicates that she thought it was on the Williams' property called the church farm. The dividing line was apparently just south of the Cowdery lot where the printing press was housed and just north of Joseph Smith's variety store. See Deed Record Book 18, pp.

478-79 and Book 21, p. 226. '"'Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 104. See also Deed Record Book 18, pp. 487-88.

21 Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 104:26.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

339

subdivide the farm which had been purchased with his money, tiiough for the present the title was retained by Newell K. Whitney and Company; 22 title to the Williams farm passed to Joseph Smith, Jr.,23 and its operation was left to the Smith family; Williams received the property on which he was living and shared the printing establishment with Oliver Cowdery;24 Newell K. Whitney got his store back and an ashery as well.25 By 1834, then, the church owned no property in Kirtland. Legally, even the temple, whose walls were now rearing upward, was located on property purchased by Johnson and was owned by the Newell K. Whitney Company.

Other than the holdings enumerated above, diere was very little property owned by Mormons in Kirtland township. The county land and tax records reveal the surprising fact that in 1833, with the Mormon population approximately one hundred and fifty persons, only slightly more than four hundred acres of land were owned by church members.26 More than half of this amount was owned or controlled

by Joseph Smith and John Johnson. Even in 1836, with the population totaling approximately three thousand persons, property ownership had advanced to only seventeen hundred acres.27 The figures indicate a fourfold increase in land against a twentyfold increase in population.

Furthermore there had been a tendency in the intervening years for those who had large holdings to divide them so that they could have furnished no more than subsistence plots to their owners. By 1836 there were only thirty parcels of land owned by Mormons in Kirtland township that were larger than twenty-five acres. It is not at all certain that even these were being operated as farms. A thorough search of the records for adjoining townships failed to reveal that there were Mormon holdings in those areas. It is quite evident that the Mormons failed to develop a sufficiently broad land ownership to provide them with an agricultural base for their economy. It is, of course, entirely possible that some of them worked for local farmers, rented land without acquiring title, or that they entered into purchase agreements which were never consumated. But the evidence seems conclusive that 32

Deed Record Book 22, p. 497.

Ibid., 18, pp. 477, 480.

24 Ibid., 19, p. 203.

25 Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 104.

20 Tax Duplicates, 1833-37.

27 Lucy Mack Smith, op. cit., 203, says there were thirty families in Kirtland in 1834.

The figure for June, 1836, is given as 1500, 2000 by Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland, Ohio), June, 1836. The figure 3000 is an estimate for late in 1836, early 1837.

13

340

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the early Mormons did not enter farming as a vocation. In view of their subsequent experience in Far West and Nauvoo as well as on the Iowa plains and in the Salt Lake Valley where their engagement in agriculture was substantial, the Kirtland situation seems anomalous.

It may be that they had to learn to farm in order to survive. It seems likely also that many of them lived in Kirtland in a state of anticipated motion, prepared to leave on call and living meantime either on capital liquidated when they joined the church and heeded the summons to gather to Kirtland, or subsisting on credit until their situation should improve. It is evident in any case that many of them were not selfsustaining. The records of the church are filled with testimony that the branches and missions sent their poor to Kirtland and to Zion where they ate up resources that were sorely needed for other purposes.

The Mormon weakness in agriculture was not compensated for by industrial strength. Kirtland's industrial capacity was well developed by 1836, but it was not under control of the Mormons. On at least one occasion, Smith and Cowdery had prayed that certain wealthy owners of land and industry in that area would yield to the gospel, but none of them had done so, and there had not been sufficient money to buy their property.28 The industrial facilities here, had they been owned by the church, would have furnished an excellent economic base from which to expand as population grew. The sawmills and gristmill, the carding, fulling, and clothing factories owned by the non-Mormons, together with the Mormon owned ashery, tannery, shoeshop, forge, and pottery, would have furnished employment for a number of their own people and supplied many of their basic needs. They could have added such export products as carriages, wheels, cabinets, window sashes, and leather goods, easily produced by their own craftsmen, and built a sound economy.29 Without some industrial potential they could not hope to support a large population. Duplicating the existing facilities by developing water-power potential was not possible in the Kirtland area. There was some possibility in the use of the more expensive power source of steam, and a beginning on a steam plant was actually made. But developing such a source would likely be as expensive as buying the existing operations, and production costs would be considerably higher than with water power.

28

Prayer for property owners. Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 24.

Such articles were being produced successfully at Chagrin Falls, even more distant from markets than Kirtland. See History of Geauga and Lake Counties (Philadelphia, 1878), 125-26.

20

THE

MORMONS

IN KIRTLAND

341

The chief economic activity in Kirtland from 1833 to 1836 appears to have been temple building. Working on die temple furnished jobs for Mormon mechanics and craftsmen; supplying materials for temple construction employed additional men in stone quarrying and lumbering. Money to meet the costs of these activities came partly from donated labor and partly from church expenditure. It seems likely that the entire economy in these years depended largely upon the church as a source of revenue. Persons employed on die temple or by its suppliers by their purchases furnished income for other craftsmen, laborers, and merchants. Unfortunately, this economy came to an end with the completion of the temple in 1836, and no substitute for it was projected by the church. In the absence of a sound agriculture and industry, this termination was disastrous.

A further weakness in the Mormon economy was to be found in the unusual proliferation of merchants which occurred in 1836. The firm of Newell K. Whitney and Company had originally supplied the needs of the church; but with the launching of the temple project, a temple committee consisting of Hyrum Smith, Jared Carter, and Reynolds Cahoon had set up a store especially to take care of the needs of the temple and of its builders. Others had followed. On the temple lot itself was located Whitmer, Rich and Company; while just south of the church buildings stood the long established store of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. John Boynton, Lyman Johnson, and Jonathan Hale had gone into business, as had Jacob Bump, Orson Hyde, and Edmund Bosley as well as Parley Pratt and John Goodson.30 Orson Hyde, looking to1 the needs of the future, had purchased two lots near the Whitney store in Kirtland Flats, and his wife, Marinda Johnson, soon chose a location midway up the hill to the temple.31 Besides these, there were a number of informal business arrangements affecting the leaders of the church in a variety of groupings. Now it was Rigdon, Smith, and Cowdery that signed a note for merchandise; now Smith, Whitney, and Rigdon; odiers were signed by Cahoon, Johnson, Smith, and Cowdery; by Smith, Whitney, and Rigdon; by Cahoon, Johnson, Hyde, and Whitney; or by Smith, Dayton, and Slitor, as opportunity arose.32 80 Geauga County Records, Court Records. For cases involving these men, see especially Book U, pp. 123, 230-31, 240, 332, 516, 541, and others.

"Deed Record Book 23, pp. 449-51. Hyde paid $1400 for one-quarter of an acre and $2500 for an additional acre.

32 There may have been others, but court records exist concerning each of these. For complete details, see R. Kent Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1957).

342

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The position of the Mormon merchant was, under existing arrangements, particularly vulnerable. Goods were, of necessity, purchased on credit. They were, also of necessity, sold on credit. An insecure economy had developed which kept die merchants in constant fear of failure for insufficient funds to meet their obligations when due.

If there should be a lapse in flow of money, such as was threatened by the limitation of church expenditures upon completion of the temple, they would inevitably be caught between creditor notes due and debtor bills unpaid. The arrangement thus far, however, had evidently been a profitable one even though precarious, for the merchant class was expanding, paying high prices for their building locations, and being accommodated by generous suppliers of credit. Through the summer and fall of 1836, as church expenditures slackened and sources of income declined and disappeared, these merchants resupplied tiieir diminishing stocks by new loans and continued dieir policies of liberal credit allowances to the members of the church.

If the church leaders saw the condition of their economy, there is no evidence that they moved effectively toward appropriate solutions. The situation seemed to call for continued church spending for a time to keep die economy alive. A movement at die same time to arrange a selective migration so as to build up the agricultural and industrial potential would seem to have been essential. Unfortunately the genius which Brigham Young exhibited years later in the setdement of Utah was not yet in evidence; perhaps it took the early failures to promote that genius. In any event, the leaders took steps which reflect either their lack of comprehension of the problems they faced or their lack of ability to control their members to achieve the desired ends.

What the leaders did do was to urge a gathering of the Saints and apply the full pressure of the church to accomplish it.33 They apparently believed that an increase of numbers would solve the existing problems and create additional economic opportunity. In a series of decisions, they arranged their credit problems, bought more lands and prepared them not for agriculture but for subdivision into housing lots, and committed their resources in a type of industrial development â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all of which had their rationale in the supposed virtues of the "gadiering." They organized a bank, bought lands for housing, and began the construction of a steam sawmill with the evident purpose of converting lands into a city and providing jobs for craftsmen and laborers "Messenger and Advocate, July, 1836.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

343

in building homes for the incoming Saints. Unfortunately this kind of economic activity merely created a city without providing a reason for its existence and dried up sources of capital by encouraging spending for lots and homes. It simply provided for an exchange of goods and services within the Mormon economy without establishing a basic productivity that would provide a surplus which could be exchanged for necessary imports from sources outside the church. Furthermore, it posed die double threat of an inundation of the poor such as had bled the Missouri city of Zion of her strength and led in part to her downfall in 1833 and the equally destructive unleashing of a spirit of speculation which would prevent legitimate economic activity.

The plan worked poorly from the beginning. Forewarned by the failure of Zion, church leaders sought to control migration more closely, but they used the same techniques that had failed before. Persons were ordered to send their monies ahead and were requested to stay where they were unless recommended by a competent church authority. But the impulse to gather was, once more, strongly felt by the poor and scarcely heeded by the independent. Kirtland was soon overrun with indigents.34 Furthermore, the impact of the migration upon Kirtland was heightened by developments in Missouri. Through 1835 and early 1836, there had been much talk of returning to Zion in Jackson County, Missouri, and the tentative date of September, 1836, had been set and was anticipated with much hope by some of Kirtland's leaders.35 Instead, the Missouri Mormons were again evicted, this time peacefully, by their temporary hosts in Clay County. The Mormons moved northward, but W. W. Phelps wrote that the lands in that part of Missouri were most certainly those spoken of in the Book, of Mormon as the "land of desolation." 36 The possibility of going to Wisconsin was discussed, but there was little endiusiasm for it.37 The Saints gathered to Kirtland in large numbers, some of them to buy a house lot and settle there permanently, others to bide their time until more favorable circumstances should suggest a removal farther west, but few of them, apparently, with resources or interests appropriate to the solution of Kirtland's problems.

34

Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 478-80. lbid., II, 282, 287, 291, 294. Note the correspondence of the date set with the term originally granted to Kirtland as a "stronghold." See Footnote 6.

M lbid., II, 445.

37 Ibid. m

344

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

In the meantime, as summer passed into fall and early winter, church expenditures on the temple ceased and no new employment projects were launched. The incoming Saints made plans to build houses and stores, and productive activity turned in the direction of supplying their needs, but they had little cash to match their demands and made their orders in anticipation of finding sources of income. The stocks of the merchants dwindled, and there was no cash to requisition new supplies. Accordingly, they signed notes payable in three months, six months, or a year, and businessmen in Painesville, Cleveland, New York, as well as local men of means, trusted the reputation for honesty which had been earned by the precarious but honest dealings of the Mormon community. The stock of credit goods, unless paid for in cash when due, threatened the reputation of die church in general and the solvency of certain church leaders in particular. It was necessary that something be done and very soon.

As the Mormon leaders became aware of the urgency of their economic situation, they moved to remedy it. They needed money immediately and in large quantities. The first effort to secure it was one of sheer romantic hopefulness. Late in July, in company with Rigdon, Cowdery, and his brother Hyrum, the Piophet went to Massachusetts in anticipation of finding a treasure said to have been buried beneadi an old house in Salem. No treasure was found, and the seekers returned to Kirtland in September with only the comfort of Smith's assurance that the Lord would give them power to pay dieir debts.38 Just slightly more than a month later a new plan, equally the child of desperation, had been devised. The complex problems of debts, credit, capital needs, employment, housing, land expansion, subdivision, and building up a Stake of Zion, all found dieir answer in a master project which, in November, assumed tangible form in die organization of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank Company.

Banks are usually organized to afford profitable returns for otherwise idle capital.39 The Mormon bank was organized in an effort to 3 "Ebenezer Robinson, The Return (Davis City, Iowa, 1889), 105. Compare Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 111.

3 ° Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Ohio), April 29, 1836, prints a story on the banking fever that seems appropriate at this point. Every town at the time, the paper affirms, thought itself as much entitled to a bank as representatives in the legislature.

Deacon Brown, the bank examiner, visited one town that had made application for a bank charter and reported the following: "How can you expect a bank when there isn't money enough in town to make half a bank?" The local organizer responded: "Bless you deacon, didn't you know that? To be sure we have got no capital, and that is the very reason we want a bank, because we want to make money to carry on our business."

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

345

make capital out of idle land dirough the process of housing subdivision. Smith had already experienced die relation between land and capital when he and Oliver Cowdery had signed a note in July, 1836, payable in September widi Missouri lands, and had received for it, $>621.32.40 The mediod suggested itself to the Kirtland situation. With land as a capital base, a bank could issue notes in the form of loans to individual land purchasers and secure the loan with a mortgage on the land. The mortgage could then be used as an asset on which to' issue more notes, or it could be discounted for specie or sound notes at another bank. Notes could also be issued on deposits received. Smith could not have been unaware that by such devices the original capital could be expanded several times over. The Bank of Canton, Ohio, before it failed, circulated twenty-three dollars in notes for every dollar of specie in its vaults.41 Even the conservative Bank of Geauga at Painesville, with a paid-in capital of just $67,000, had accumulated deposits and evidences of debt to justify a circulation of $196,000.42 The Bank of Geauga survived the depression of 1837. This was the age of "wildcat banking," and the Mormon enterprise compares well with some of the more extravagant enterprises. Some had started with only pledges for capital; some evidently widi even less. A contemporary Michigan bank that failed was discovered tt> have no assets and Ji38,000 worth of liabilities; another had only seven coppers when it ceased operations; while a third had only a table for assets.43 Getting a bank started would offer no difficulty for the Mormon leaders since notes issued would have unlimited circulation among the church members due to their confidence in their leaders. Establishing the currency outside of the community would be their greatest problem. If they were successful at it, Mormon merchants might convert their foreign debts into debts at the bank, giving their own people the benefit of the interest; mortgages could be converted into specie at other banks, and goods received for forwarding could be sold for valid bank notes; specie outside the Mormon area and all the gold and silver in Mormondom could be requisitioned in exchange for bank notes or received as savings deposits. Specie was critically short throughout the West and paper was freely circulated. If a reputation for honesty could be estab40

Court Records, Book U, p. 237.

Dayton Democratic Herald (Dayton, Ohio), March 3, 1838.

42 Journal of the Senate of the State of Ohio, 34th General Assembly (Columbus, 1835), 506-26.

43 Pelatiah W. Huntington, "History of Banking in Ohio," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XXIII, 313. Cf. A. B. Coover, "Banking in Ohio," ibid., XXI, 320.

41

346

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

lished, it was not likely that excessive demands for specie payment would be made.4"1 If plans had been carefully laid and modestly carried out there was room for hope that some kind of Mormon financial institution might succeed. The Mormons had a choice between establishing a regularly chartered bank or a joint stock association with limited monetary privileges. The latter type of institution might issue promissory notes of short duration and in limited number, but it depended wholly upon the reputation of its organizers for its success as its notes were not collectable by state authority.45 Among the Mormons themselves, and those with whom they habitually did business, their credit was good and their notes would have had full currency. Such an organization would have afforded a new form of credit where such arrangements were already in effect and would not have risked everything on general public acceptance of their notes. But apparently the need of money was too urgent and the envisioned project too vast to admit of such modest beginnings.

The decision was made to engage in banking as a regular institution with full power to issue notes and receive deposits. Such privileges were regulated by charter rights granted by die state legislature.

When the Mormon bank was planned, Orson Hyde was sent to Columbus for a charter, and at the same time Oliver Cowdery was directed to Philadelphia to secure plates and printed bank notes. Cowdery shortly returned with the plates and notes, but Hyde did not get the charter. "Because we were Mormons," Smith said, "the legislature raised some frivolous excuse on which they refused to grant us those banking privileges they so freely granted to odiers." 46 The reason the Mormons did not get their charter is by no means as simple as Smith indicated. As a matter of fact, the legislature did not refuse the charter; there is no evidence to sustain the idea that it was even asked to grant one. No bills to establish a Mormon bank " Cleveland Daily Herald (Cleveland, Ohio), January 3, 1837, said that those who made such demands were guilty of "officious intermedling" and that they made war upon their own best interests as well as the interests of the community. ''Messenger 40

and

Advocate,

July, 1837, quotes the authorizing Ohio statute.

Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 468. This is the only source that states that an application was made for a charter. Orson Hyde does not mention it in any of his writings or his journal. His biography, carefully compiled from many sources, passes over the period from autumn, 1836, to spring, 1837, without mentioning it. He was in Kirtland during that time and could have made the trip. See Marvin Hill, "An Historical Study of the Life of Orson Hyde, Early Mormon Missionary and Apostle, from 1805-1852" (Master's Thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1955), 34.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

347

were ever considered by die legislature.47 It is conceivable, as Smith suggests, that religious prejudice was a factor in the failure to receive a charter. It may have operated to prevent the introduction of a petition for a charter, but it is not likely; prejudice seems more like a ready excuse than a valid reason. The county delegates to the legislature were Senator Ralph Granger, of Fairport, and Representatives Seabury Ford, of Burton, and Timothy Rockwell, of Painesville.48 All were natives of Connecticut with residence in Ohio varying from ten to thirty years, and likely had some knowledge of Mormonism. Their attitude toward their Kirtland neighbors is unknown, but they were all prominent men and well-regarded. Ford later became governor of the state, Granger served as president of Willoughby College, and Rockwell was a director of the proposed railroad from Wellesville to Fairport. Political prejudice is another possible inference for refusal to ask for a charter. All of the delegates were Whigs, whereas the Mormons were Democrats. However, the legislature itself had a democrat majority in each house. It seems most likely that Hyde was persuaded of the uselessness of submitting a petition in view of the control of the legislature by the anti-bank democrats. In any case, no new banking privileges were granted to any petitioners by the state legislature in its 1836-37 session.

Even if the legislature had been willing to grant charters to any of the seventeen applicants or to the Mormons, it is unlikely that they could have acted in time to help the Mormon situation. Their sessions commenced on the fifth day of December, and ended the following April third. Under the best of circumstances it is not likely that a charter could have been obtained before late March when most bills were passed. The Mormons could not wait.

When news came that no charter was to be had, the Mormon situation became desperate. The old problems remained, and the expenses already undertaken in anticipation of forming a bank offered new ones. Quick action seemed necessary, and a decision was made to' put an end to the projected Kirtland Safety Society Bank Company and to form, in its place, a joint stock association for the management of the common concerns of the stockholders.49 The new company was obviously designed in an effort to meet the terms of the law granting lim47 Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, 35th General Assembly, First Session (Columbus, 1836), 850-71. Bank bills originating in the House are reported here, cf. Senate Journal, 791-92, for those originating in the Senate.

48 Western Hemisphere (Columbus, Ohio), February 15, 1837; November 2, 1836. m Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 470-73.

348

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ited money privileges to business organizations. A new name was necessary for the new institution, and a solution was devised to salvage the investment in the plates and printed notes and at the same time clearly indicate that banking was not its object. Thus was formed the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company. Some of die notes for the old organization were inked over on the local press with a prefix and a suffix to the word bank, and they were ready to commence operations.50 As it was projected, there was never the slightest chance that the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company could succeed. Even though the Mormon economy was in jeopardy, it could scarcely have suffered such a devastating blow as that which diey were themselves preparing to administer to it. There were many good reasons why banking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or antibanking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was not the solution to their problems early in the year 1837. Proper notice of any one of them should have directed their efforts in more hopeful directions.

The Safety Society proposed no modest project befitting its relative worth and ability to pay. Its organizers launched, instead, a gigantic company capitalized at four million dollars, when the entire capitalization of all the banks in the state of Ohio was only nine and one-third million.51 Such presumption could not have escaped the notice of bankers who would realize that such an amount of money could not be paid in, and would have been led to examine its capital structure more closely. They would have noted, upon examination, that according to the articles of incorporation capital stock was to be paid in by subscription but that the amount of the first subscription was not stated, and further payments were left to the discretion of the company managers. Furthermore, total issuance of notes was not prescribed, nor was the relation of notes to capital and assets. The members, to be sure, pledged themselves to redeem the notes and bound themselves individually by their agreement under the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars. But there was no transfer of property deeds, no power of attorney, no legal pains and penalties. To a banker, the articles fairly shouted: "This is a wildcat, beware!"

A further error was in the issuance of bills of small denominations.

Although there was a general circulation of ones and threes through"" This technique was evidently soon abandoned. Only the three dollar bill could readily be altered. Many sources indicate, however, that this was the practice. See Berrian Collection, New York Public Library, item 18, which is a one dollar bill without alterations. See also Sheridan L. McGarry, "Mormon Money," Numismatic Review, LXIII, 1950. " Senate Journal, 1836, p. 53.

-^7777777777

THE KUtTLAHD SAFETY SOCIETY BANK.

Cash: B*w s r . -..,. tj i«* s voA A> n>iuJ-

^ ^ 2 ^ / / /•/,//•//• T H R E E D O L L A R S

THEEl^BTJ&AND §AFETY SOCIETY

'//s/7/,,sy> jrtWJS 110!

f-Qfa

r//'?/s////////

Aft zrr:—.. .'. .:dSffitefa«M---———•*COURTESY, CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF UTTER-DAY SAINTS, HISTORIAN S OFFICE

Facsimiles of bills issued in small denominations by the Kirtland Safety Society Ban\.

Note the prefix and suffix in\ed over the original word "ban^C on the $3.00 bill.

350

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

out the state, there was widespread dissatisfaction widi them since they were, in many cases, counterfeit or issued by companies or institutions with insecure financial structures. There had been pressure exerted by both federal and state authority to discontinue the issuance of such bills; and the Ohio Legislature, in March, 1836, had passed a law laying a tax of 20 per cent on the dividends of all banks which would not give up die right, by July 4, 1836, to issue bills less than three dollars in value. By July, 1837, there were to be no bills issued for less than five dollars in value.52 This provided another ground for suspicion, for the Mormon issue was heavy in small bills.

Even under the most advantageous conditions, the year 1837 was no proper time to start a bank. Even a cursory reading of the newspapers of the time indicated die fact that the country was far extended on credit and that there was a desperate shortage of specie â&#x20AC;&#x201D; conditions portentous of depression. The vigor with which the public domain was being taken up and the rapidity of the westward movement led to many misgivings.53 Payments for land were frequently made in depreciated, and often worthless, paper currency; and the opinion arose that unless the country were returned to a specie basis, honest folk would be defrauded by speculators, and the West would be enthralled to die money lenders of the East. The opinion was evidently based on political rather than on economic considerations; but, ostensibly to check speculation in lands, to stop the flow of depreciated notes into the national treasury, and to remove the menace of economic bondage, the Specie Circular was issued in July, 1836, by President Jackson. It required that after August 5, following, nothing except gold and silver might be accepted by land agents for purchases of the public domain.

The circular failed to end speculation in lands, but it did cast more doubt upon the worth of paper currency and increase the pressure for the short supply of specie.54 With nothing but confidence in the future to sustain the paper issues, it was inevitable that these pressures would soon undermine that confidence and precipitate a panic. For an organization without liquid capital to anticipate success under such circumstances was to hope for a great stretch in the laws of probability.

Although any one of these errors could have wrecked the bank, they were all minor in comparison with the fatal one â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the vain hope 52 Charles W. Huntington, "Banking and Currency in Ohio before the Civil War," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XXIV, 382.

53 For a contemporary newspaper account, see Painesville Telegraph, March 18, 1836. " Ibid., July 29, 1836, reprints from the New York. Journal of Commerce an excellent Whig analysis of the nature and anticipated effects of the Specie Circular.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

351

that public opinion could be favorably disposed to a Mormon bank.

The church leaders were at least conscious of the need of cultivating public opinion and printed an extra edition of their paper for that particular purpose.55 But opinion was not persuaded. The repercussions were loud and violent. The first reaction came from Cleveland.

The Weekly Advertiser published an account of the forthcoming bank on December 29, and commented favorably on it. The following week, the extra was received together with the information that the bank had been changed into an "anti-bank." The Advertiser was still favorable, but the Weekly Gazette reacted indignantly at what it considered to be a base fraud, "a kind of radicalism that would flourish better in Michigan than Ohio," and cynically commented that the bills probably rested on a spiritual basis, for there were no responsible individuals whose honesty or honor was pledged for their redemption.56 The Advertiser charged the Gazette with religious prejudice and cited the Articles of Association and especially the redemption pledge as evidence of good faith. The Gazette, thereupon, also analyzed the articles, calling attention to their weaknesses and asserting that they guaranteed nothing at all. They noted that its president was Sidney Rigdon, "a notorious hypocrite and knave," and as for the pledge of honor, they added, did not these same people pledge their word to the existence of gold plates? A Gazette reader wrote the editor that politics prompted the attitude of the Advertiser and die Cleveland Herald as well. Their support of the Mormon money in defiance of law, he said, was an effort to break the bank monopoly by resort to mobocracy.57 In Painesville, the reaction was equally spirited and divided. The antagonistic Telegraph regarded the bank as an out-and-out fraud and suggestively warned the organizers that the statute prohibiting unauthorized banking was still in force and that a reward of one thousand dollars awaited any person who should apprehend violators. The Republican was sympathetic. It felt that restrictions on banking created unwarranted special privileges which a democracy ought not tolerate. It regarded die Mormon institution as an effort to break the monopoly and applauded it, but, at the same time, it advised its founders to make their effort a clear-cut issue by openly publishing their 55

Cleveland Liberalist (Cleveland, Ohio), January 21, 1837.

Cleveland Daily Gazette (Cleveland, Ohio), January 17, 18, 1837. No copies of the Advertiser for the period are preserved. References to them come from the Gazette.

"Ibid., January 24, 1837.

50

352

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

intent and by demonstrating their ability to redeem their notes when presented.58 Southeast of Kirtland, at Ravena, the editor of the Ohio Star, long opposed to the Mormons, emptied his quill of venom. "Rags, Mere Rags!" began his column. "The Mormons of Kirtland not content with exclusively monopolizing the Golden Bible, and the mortal remains of some old Patriarchs, are making themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." He doubted seriously that there was any specie behind the circulation and denied the rumor that the banks in Painesville and Cleveland received or paid out the bills.59 Meantime, the great experiment had been launched. From its place of business in the old Peter French brick home, at the crossroads near Johnson's tavern and Whitney's store in Kirtland Flats, the issuance of Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company notes commenced on January 6.60 Smith advised his church members to bring their silver and gold (not their bank notes) and take stock in the company; but with a commendable caution, he wisely went to Painesville the day prior to the opening of business, where he and Rigdon signed a note for three thousand dollars from the Bank of Geauga, payable in forty-five days.61 The bank was obviously begun on a shoestring, and a borrowed one at that, but no one knew how thin and worn the string was until it was revealed that even the plates from which the notes had been printed had been purchased on credit.62 In view of what has been presented heretofore, it could not be expected that the Mormon bank would succeed, but evidently, for a time, it was welcomed and accepted. Among the Mormons and those like them not disposed to ask for specie, the bills circulated at par and were a tremendous help to Kirtland's sagging economy. There was an especial briskness in partaking of the stocks of the merchandise houses, and for several months land transfers were facilitated widi unaccustomed dispatch. For a time, even suspicious persons who presented 58 Painesville Republican (Painesville, Ohio), January 19, 1837, quotes the Telegraph and adds its own comments. ""Ohio Star (Ravena, Ohio), January 19, 1837. The Star had taken the lead in Ohio's anti-Mormon crusade as early as 1831 by publishing apostate Mormon Ezra Booth's letters exposing the church. °° Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 473.

81 Court Records, Book U, 67.

Ibid., X, 34; cf. G, 676. Underwood, Bald, Spencer and Hufty, engravers, sued for recovery of $1450 and were awarded damages in April, 1839. The account was settled piecemeal by land sales under sheriff's condemnations. Almon W. Babbitt, as agent for Joseph Smith, filed a "paid in full" receipt with the court in April, 1841.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

353

their bills for payment were accommodated. Even when specie was exhausted, certain persons accumulated Kirtland notes and exchanged them in the Mormon community for land, so that there was an air of prosperity that deceived many into thinking that the bank was on the verge of establishing its credit and, thus, the credit of die church. When specie was no longer to be had, Kirtland bills became objects of speculation and were received and paid out at widely varying discount rates.63 Details concerning the operation of the bank are unknown. No records have been preserved, and all of the principle parties to it either say nothing or are very general in their accounts. The critical problem, obviously, was to obtain sufficient specie or acceptable bank notes to meet the demand for payments. As creditors brought their bills for redemption, and persuasion failed to keep them in circulation, the little available specie was paid out. The articles of the association required that the organizers make the notes good either by paying in subscriptions for capital stock or "under the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars"; but there is no evidence to indicate that the directors called for subscriptions or invoked the penalty. What they did do is not set forth with any conclusive authority. Smith, together with Cowdery and Rigdon, went to Michigan "on bank business," but what they did is unknown. 64 It is further said that they resorted to subterfuge in order to keep up public confidence by obtaining "one or two hundred boxes" each of which was marked "one thousand dollars" but which were actually filled with sand and shot. According to the report a few of them were open for the inspection of the doubters and were layered with gold and silver coins.65 This same type of story appears in descriptions of other wildcat banks and is of doubtful validity.66 A report later made by onetime Mormon, Cyrus Smalling, says that Smith sent out leaders of the church with quantities of Kirtland notes with a charge to exchange them for specie or valid notes at any available rate and that he allowed them to keep 50 per cent of the proceeds as their commission.67 Whether these steps were taken is open to' question.

03

Messenger and Advocate,

May, June, July, 1837.

"Ibid., April, 1837.

05 John A. Clark, Gleanings by the Way (New York, 1842), 331-36, quotes Cyrus Smalling, onetime secretary to Joseph Smith as authority for this story. s0 Peletiah W. Huntington, op. cit., tells a similar story involving a nail keg and another bank, indicating either that such stories may be spurious or that the practice was a common one. °7 Clark, op. cit., according to this account, Brigham Young had $40,000, Apostle John Boynton, $20,000, others, unknown quantities.

354

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Whatever measures desperation may have called for were unavailing, and after a lingering hopeless effort extending past midsummer the bank plunged widi the entire Mormon economy into a sea of insolvency.

The life the bank may have had among the non-Mormons in the community, died first. The signal for its demise was given when Samuel D. Rounds entered suit in February, 1837, for himself and for the state of Ohio, under the 1816 statute for illegal banking.68 In separate suits, he sought convictions against Sidney Rigdon, Warren Parrish, and Newell K. Whitney on die same charge. Unless that case could be won there was not a chance for survival of die bank. When Smidi's demurrer to the declaration of the plaintiff was overruled by the court in June, even diough the case was continued for j ury trial, he must have known that die bank was finished. Smidi does not mention the trial in his journal, but likely it loomed large in his estimate of the total situation. Sometime previous to July, possibly as early as May, he withdrew from the society, affirming that it was founded upon righteous principles, but that an age of "darkness, speculation and wickedness" would not allow it to continue operations.69 Even the faithful Saints refused to accept Kirtland notes at par after July, 1837.

So far in ruin was the Kirtland bank as early as May that it wasunable to benefit by die general suspension of specie payments which came at that time throughout the nation.

The causes for the failure of the Mormon bank are sufficiendy apparent in the errors incident to its founding, and were freely admitted in the official paper of die church at die time. Later, however, neither the Mormons nor their enemies were content to see the rise and fall of the bank in terms of these facts. There is little to support die claims of the opponents of the church that there was deception and fraud in the bank from beginning to end. On the other hand, die tendency of die church to find excuses for failure which do not reflect quite so strongly upon the judgment of its leaders lacks substantial factual foundation. It is alleged that the fall of the bank was caused by the poor business conditions and the nation-wide bank failures of 1837. It is evident from a study of the situation diat aldiough die causes are similar, they are not identical. And it seems most probable that, if there had been no panic of 1837, the Mormon bank, launched and operated as it was, could not have endured for long. The failure ' Court Records, Book U, 353, 356, 359, 362.

'Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 497.

THE

MORMONS

IN K I R T L A N D

355

to produce sufficient goods to support diemselves and the tendency to use up their energies in speculations were as true of the Mormons as of any of their contemporaries. The Saints were not the victims of die folly of others, but of their own folly. A further excuse for failure was evolved in the general bitterness and apostasy which followed in the wake of economic disaster. The story was told diat Warren Parrish, leader of the apostate faction, had stolen twenty-five thousand dollars of the bank's money, and that he had been guilty of private speculations and mismanagement.70 These notions were widely repeated and generally accepted among die faithful Saints as the reason for the bank's failure. It is most likely that the story is not true. No official record exists which charges Parrish with culpability, and he lived for several years, following the incident, as a religious leader in Kirtland.

Still later, he became a minister in the Baptist church.71 As an officer of the bank, he may have retained possession of money printed by the society after it had declined in value. If Cyrus Smalling's story is true, Parrish may have been a commission agent for the bank and by that means have come into legitimate possession of large numbers of bank notes. It is known that Brigham Young, who had no official position in the bank, had large quantities of Kirtland notes, and that they were the official currency among the Saints soon after their arrival in Salt Lake Valley. Yet he is not accused of fraud or theft.72 There has been a natural, although regrettable, tendency among the Mormons to try by any device to clear Joseph Smith of blame for the failure of die bank; but he cannot logically be freed from all responsibility. The decision to establish a bank and later an antibank had been partly his. The bank had failed during the period in which he was one of its chief directing officials. He did not protest, so far as preserved accounts record, nor withdraw, until the ruin of the bank became a part of the general national ruin and identified with it.

Even though his own revelations pronounce him as without competence in temporal matters,73 Smith learned much from his experience. In Far West, Missouri, where the next Mormon city was com70 Elders' Journal (Far West, Missouri), August, 1838. Sidney Rigdon seems to have been the source of the story which is widely repeated in Mormon accounts.

71 Journal of Discourses (26 vols., Liverpool, 1854-86), VII, 115. Address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, January 10, 1858, by George A. Smith.

12 Journal of George Albert Smith, January 1-6, 1849, recorded in the Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.

73 Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 24:9.

356

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

menced, he forbade debt for church building and prevented the formation of a church agency for building a new temple. In Nauvoo, he became an economic czar regulating land sales and industrial development. The Mormon church today has an unusual aversion to debt which may in part stem from the experiences of the Kirtland period.

The failure of the bank, although it destroyed their economy, did not immediately end the Mormon hope of retaining their city in Kirtland. Throughout 1837 a desperate and at times heroic effort was made to salvage their affairs from the ruin of bankruptcy. Outlying members were urged to contribute to the rescue of Kirtland. In September a drive involving more than one hundred elders, fully supported by church officials and under the personal leadership of Bishop Newell K. Whitney, set forth on the errand of rescue.74 These efforts were unavailing. The burden of debt was too heavy, and one Mormon firm after another found itself in county court for failure to pay overdue notes. The sheriff was a regular visitor in Kirtland seizing land and personal property and selling it for debts. All the accumulating evidence of failure undermined church confidence in Joseph Smith, and the organizations of the church proved inadequate to cope widi what might more properly be called rebellion than apostasy. In September Joseph Smidi and Sidney Rigdon went west again, the first time since their trip with the army to rescue Zion in 1834. While there they were caught up once more in the optimism of the West â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the cheap land, the vigor of elemental labor, and the lack of such complications as attended eastern life. Smith's published intention to return to Kirtland only long enough to arrange his affairs before moving west for a new start was the signal for the end of Kirtland as a Mormon center.75 New dissent broke out which flared into uncontained rebellion against the Prophet's leadership. In January, 1838, hard after the departure of his chief lieutenant, Brigham Young, and two days ahead of the process serving sheriff, Joseph Smith left Kirtland never to return. His affairs were left in the capable hands of William Marks.76 Many others simply abandoned their property, defaulted their debts, and fled in midwinter leaving behind a snarl of property questions, unsettled court claims, their homes and beloved temple.

Joseph was the heart of Zion. Without him and devoid of faithful Saints, Kirtland fast deteriorated into obscurity from which it never recovered. " Joseph Smith, op. cit., II, 515-18.

Elders' Journal, November, 1837.

70 Deed Record Book 23, pp. 537-38; Book 24, p. 189.

75

BISHOP DANIEL S. TUTTLE (1837-1923)

The picture of Daniel S. Tuttle, Episcopal Missionary Bishop of Utah, was taken when he was in his early thirties, during the period he commenced his duties and responsibilities in the Far West.

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E , MISSIONARY BISHOP OF UTAH

By James W. Beless, Jr.*

"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop must be vigilant, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. . . ." 1 The words of the epistler resounded in the ears of Daniel Sylvester Tuttle as he sat in Trinity Church in New York City on die first day of May, 1867. In a few minutes he would kneel at the altar and be consecrated the first Episcopal Missionary Bishop of Montana, with jurisdiction over Utah and Idaho.

Dan Tuttle thought of his wife and two-weeks-old son, of his parish in the green hills of Morris, New York, of the friends at Morris whom he, as an Episcopal priest, had baptized, counseled, married or buried, and he tried to project himself beyond Buffalo, beyond the Missouri, to his new responsibilities in the Far West. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations," the Gospel for the day read.

His election by die House of Bishops in October, 1866, had come as a surprise to Dan Tuttle. He had been four months short of age * Mr. Beless, a practicing attorney in Salt Lake City, expresses appreciation to the Rt. Rev. Richard S. Watson, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, for the privilege of reviewing Bishop Tuttle's original register, journals, and letters. Much of the material here printed is gleaned from a now rare book, Daniel S. Tuttle, Reminiscences of a Missionary Bishop (New York, 1906), which still remains the chief source for the history of Bishop Tuttle's activities in Utah.

1 1 Timothy 3:1. The Epistle as appointed in the Episcopal Order of Consecration of a Bishop, Book, of Common Prayer, p. 549.

360

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

thirty, the minimum age for consecration. But he had the maximum requirements for a missionary bishop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a strong physique, a winning personality, and a love of people, all sorts of people. He had a maturity of judgment beyond his years, the concern of a good shepherd, and the will and perseverance to take his Lord into the far places. In the four years since he had graduated from General Theological Seminary, he had established a corps of faidiful supporters in New York State who later aided his building programs and gave yeoman support to his missionary efforts in the West.

Bishop Tuttle was big enough, both literally and spiritually, to meet man-to-man the miners, ranchers, and camp followers of a rough and tumble post-Civil War Montana. He was prepared to meet the "Mormon problem" of Utah with no preconceived prejudices or zealous intentions of open opposition to the Mormon church or its practices. He determined to preach and practice his church's doctrines and to minister to his own people. His research determined diat his mission field covered 350,000 square miles, with 150,000 inhabitants. Of Utah Territory's 85,000 people, Salt Lake City had 15,000, even though in Salt Lake City he was to find but three confirmed Episcopalians.

The Bishop later discovered about 200 non-Mormons in the service of the stage company, 300 soldiers at Camp Douglas and Fort Bridger, 250 other Gentiles, mostly merchants, in Salt Lake City, and 250 more throughout Utah Territory, the majority being miners and traders.

Bishop Tuttle had received a letter from Warren Hussey, a banker in Salt Lake City, who encouraged the Bishop to travel first to Utah rather than to Montana by detailing the financial support that could be expected for a non-Mormon church in Salt Lake City and indicating that he had already solicited merchants and other Gentiles to support such a church. The first here would get that support. As to the Mormons he wrote: I am quite intimate with Prest. Young and have very frequently heard him express himself concerning other churches coming in here; and am very sure they will meet a hearty welcome from him, under certain circumstances. He is not at all prejudiced against other religions, but is most in favor of his own of course. . . . Prest. Young and the Mormon Church are, in my opinion, the worst lied about, if I may use this expression, of any people living. Parties here who are at enmity with them, and others who desire large government contracts, are exceedingly

BISHOP

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E

361

anxious to bring about if possible a collision between them and our government, in hopes of bringing on another Mormon War. . . .

Prest. Young said to me, he did not expect anything of this abuse and detraction from an Episcopal bishop. "They are men of education and better sense; they are gentlemen, and any gentleman is welcome here, no matter what his creed," were about his words.2 Thus encouraged, the Bishop decided to go first to Salt Lake City.

After an arduous journey, a great deal of it by stagecoach, the Bishop and his party consisting of his brother-in-law, Rev. G. D. B. Miller, Rev. E. N. Goddard, his sister Mrs. Nelly Foote and her fifteen-yearold sister-in-law, Sarah, arrived in Salt Lake City on the evening of July 2, 1867. The Rev. George W. Foote, Nelly's husband, and the Rev. T. W. Haskins, a young seminarian, had preceded the Bishop to Salt Lake City, arriving there on May 3, and on Sunday, May 8, these two had held an Episcopal service.

Before the arrival of the missionaries in Salt Lake City, a Sunday school of forty to sixty students had been meeting in Independence Hall under the guidance of Major Charles H. Hempstead, the United States Attorney who had succeeded the Rev. Norman McLeod, a Congregationalist chaplain at Camp Douglas.

Mr. McLeod had been associated in this work with Dr. J. King Robinson, an army surgeon married to an apostate Mormon. Dr. Robinson was an outspoken opponent of Mormonism, and he had become involved in a dispute with the city over the title to the Warm Springs in North Salt Lake. An unfortunate tragedy climaxed the doctor's career when he was beaten and shot by unknown assailants on October 22, 1866, shortly before midnight, and within a few rods of his home. Despite an offer of reward signed by Mayor Daniel H. Wells and another by local merchants joined by Brigham Young, suspicion was cast upon the Mormon authorities as efforts were charged lacking by the church-state to bring the murderers to justice.

The affair ended in a generally unsatisfactory and inconclusive, but highly inflammatory, inquest hearing.3 McLeod had been in the east at the time of the Robinson incident, and discretion dictated that he should not return to Utah. Thus, when George Foote and Thomas :

Daniel S. Tuttle, Reminiscences oi a Missionary Bishop (New York, 1906), 58-60.

'Orson F. Whitney, History of Uta\ (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1892-1904), II, 151 ff.

362

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Haskins arrived in May of 1867, Major Hempstead happily turned the Sunday school over to them.

McLeod and Robinson had been eager to attack the Mormon church and its practices, particularly polygamy. Foote and Haskins, on the contrary, immediately established a policy of friendly coexistence with the Mormons. Mr. Haskins wrote to Mrs. Fidelia B. Hamilton, one of the first three communicants in Utah,4 years later saying: This opening service gave the key-note to the position and policy of the Church, which, I believe, has ever since been uninterruptedly maintained by the Church in Salt Lake City. It was, not to antagonize evil by direct assault, but to plant and maintain a positive good. It sought to win the judgement, the conscience, the affection, the respect and allegiance of men, whether Gentiles, apostate Mormon, or Mormon, by putting into competition with Mormon doctrine and practices the faith and practice of the Church, saying not a single word against the Mormons.5 The day before the Bishop arrived, the two missionaries had opened a grammar school in a former bowling alley owned by the late Dr. Robinson. The two months' advance work of Foote and Haskins had borne fruit, and Bishop Tuttle was welcomed by a growing Sunday school, an operating day school of sixteen students, and eleven persons asking confirmation.

In the Bishop's Episcopal Register, which he had maintained from the date of his consecration and which was to be a daily record of his work in Utah, Montana, and Idaho for the next nineteen years, he recorded the services held during the next ten days. On July 7 the Bishop wrote: In the evening I preached at Independence Hall. The Rev. Messrs. Goddard, Miller, Foote, and Haskins were present.

Congregation of 125.

On July 14 he entered: At Independence Hall I preached, confirmed the following persons, viz: Warren Hussey, Loretta Hussey, William Miles, Mrs. Miles, Fanny Gerrisch, Sarah Savage, Theresa Fulton, Margaretta McClintock, Sarah Crosby, Lucinda Lovering and ' The other two were Mrs. Augusta Tracy and Mrs. Mary Durrant. s Tuttle, op. cit., 368.

BISHOP

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E

363

Nelly Wells, and addressed them and consecrated the Holy Eucbarist which was administered to 16 faithful laity. In the afternoon I preached at Camp Douglas.

On July 9, accompanied by Warren Hussey and George Foote, the Bishop called on Brigham Young at the latter's office. The visitors exchanged pleasantries with their host, and the Bishop found Young to be courteous and well versed in current events. In his letter written that evening to Harriet Tuttle the Bishop quoted items of the conversation. In response to a remark that the Fourth of July was a reminder of being in the United States, Young rejoined: . . . Perhaps so, but they rather seem to me to be the Disunited States, for I see by the morning telegrams that the most rigorous military despotism is to be enforced in the South.

Brigham Young questioned Mr. Foote about a rumor supposedly heard by Foote that Brigham had taken the property of Amasa Lyman.

Foote denied having heard the story, and as the visitors were leaving Young pursued the subject, saying: Mr. Foote, I want to say to you what I said to the Cadiolic priest when he came here; if you hear rumors flying about touching me or this people, come right here to me with them and I will always set things right. That's the best way.

The Bishop felt that he was civilly treated in this call, but he commented that he was not asked to call again. He concluded his letter, saying: . . . He (Young) is so powerful a man in everything here, and so unscrupulous a man, I fear, in most things, that my policy will be to have as little as possible to do with him.6 There is no record of other meetings between Bishop Tuttle and the Mormon leader, although the Bishop attended various assemblies addressed by Young and had official communications through channels of the Mormon church.

The Mormon reaction to the presence of the Episcopal clergy as permanent residents was expressed in a conversation between Bishop Tuttle and T. B. H. Stenhouse, editor of the Telegraph, the Mormon newspaper. Tuttle reported this conversation, Stenhouse saying: 'Ibid., 114.

364

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

. . . You will find a great field for work in Montana, sir, a hard field. . . . Mr. Foote's will be harder too on account of us Mormons. He'll find us fixed and hard to be moved. I haven't had the pleasure of attending your services, yet; you have them at the same time as ours.

Stenhouse then commented that he was building a fine house, hoping to sell it to some Gentile, and he added: . . . I want you Gentiles to have fine sites and comfortable houses for we think you are cut off from many of the sources of happiness that we enjoy.7 Having acquainted himself with church affairs in Salt Lake City, Bishop Tuttle felt that he should now proceed to Montana, which was virgin territory to the church. Spreading thin his missionary forces, he decided that Foote and Haskins should stay in Utah with the prime purpose of expanding the church school. Mr. Miller left on July 9 for Boise, Idaho, and Mr. Goddard and the Bishop left Salt Lake City for Montana on July 15.

The Bishop spent the remainder of the summer and fall of 1867 visiting the new towns of Montana and Idaho, organizing Sunday schools and holding services wherever churchmen were found. The following winter was a dreary one spent in a log cabin at Virginia City. Many sermons were rehearsed there before the Bishop's faithful companion, Dick, the white cat. But the Montana early days were productive in developing in Tuttle a tolerance and love for the vagaries of human nature as expressed in the gamblers, stage drivers, and cowboys of the mountains. On April 28 the great fire at Helena swept through the gulch. A bucket line was formed to keep wet blankets on the roofs of houses in the path of the consuming flames. In the turmoil three men gravitated to each other and led the volunteers to meet the fire and save the lower town â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Bill Bunkerly, an Indian fighter, Joe Floweree, a leading gambler, and Bishop Daniel Tuttle.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat reported the fire incident and the comments of Bunkerly in saying of Tuttle: . . . he's the biggest and best bishop that ever wore a black gown, and the whitest man in these mountains. He's a fire fighter from away back, and whenever he chooses to go a brim7

ibid., 111.

BISHOP

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E

365

stone raid among the sinners in this gulch he can do it, and I'll back him with my pile.8 Bishop Tuttle was a builder, inspired and without doubt as to the plan laid for him or the approach. By the summer of 1869 he had established congregations at Helena, Virginia City, Deer Lodge, Gallatin, and Boise. His family joined him at Helena, and during the months when travel was feasible he began visitations by stage throughout his district. He was proud to record in his register on May 24, 1868, the opening of St. Paul's Church at Virginia City with the following entry: In great thankfulness to God, I stated to the congregation that the church had cost $3,409.08 and that all this sum had been paid or covered by subscriptions so that not one cent of debt was against the building. The church was without pews, unpainted and with muslin to supply the place of windows.

The day was rainy, the streets muddy, yet good congregations were present morning and evening. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomine Tuo laus est.

On June 1, 1868, the Bishop received a telegram from the diocesan convention meeting at St. Louis announcing his election on the first ballot as Bishop of Missouri. Alone in Bozeman, Bishop Tuttle faced the future, and weighing the advantages of life as a secure diocesan in St. Louis as against the mud, cold, and dust of the mountains plus the disappointments and physical dangers of a missionary bishop, he chose the latter and declined the election. He wrote to Bishop Horatio Potter, of New York, that he had prayed for guidance in his decision and he felt he should not leave the missionary field as he was now familiar with the problems and could plan wisely to meet them. A successor could not be as fit at once, he rationalized, and "Mormonism should not be dealt with by new men, and a succession of new men." 9 The Bishop had visited Salt Lake City in the fall of 1867 and the summer of 1868, and had received constant encouragement from his missionaries there to make his headquarters in the largest city in the Mountain West â&#x20AC;&#x201D; amid the problems most perplexing and challenging to a church-builder. Finally in November, 1869, the Tuttles, by now the parents of two small boys, embarked upon the stage trip to Utah.

8 Ibid., 236-37. For experiences of Bishop Tuttle in Montana, see John Linton Struble, "The People's Bishop," Montana, VI (Winter, 1956), 20-28.

0 Tuttle, op. cit., 187.

366

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Corinne was a tent town four months old when the Tuttle party arrived there. With the expectation of Corinne being the railroad-stageriver and lake junction of Utah, the Salt Lake merchants were now rushing stocks of goods and bidding for sites on the town's main street.

This was to be the Gentile stronghold of Utah. Already the Rev. Mr. Foote had secured a lot and was in the process of building the first Episcopal church in Utah, an adobe structure to be called the Church of the Good Samaritan. One thousand dollars had been raised on the spot, and the fifteen hundred more needed to complete the building was donated by Mrs. Robert Minturn, one of the Bishop's loyal supporters in New York State. The Bishop was aware that changes had taken place in Utah with the union of the railroads at Promontory Summit. He did not fully realize the significance of these changes, however, until he arrived in Ogden. Here he learned that already Brigham Young had countered the move of the transcontinental road and the plans for Corinne by building the Utah Central Railroad, and track was already laid half way to Salt Lake from Ogden. The last spike driven by Young himself on January 10,1870, spelled the death of the commercial hopes of Corinne and ultimately the end for the Episcopal church's mission there.

Bishop Tuttle made his episcopal residence in Salt Lake City during a period of momentous change on the Utah scene. He was to play a part for the next seventeen years in a drama enacted against a background of intrigue and power politics in a cold war atmosphere where strategy with religious overtones was carried out or countered by tactics secular, purely political or economic in nature, and where a hot Mormon war threatened continually.

Two years before Brigham Young had been able, in his conversation with Tuttle, to assume a position of isolation. He could view the problems of the United States with amused distraction and devote himself to directing the agrarian interests of his people, discouraging mining influences, and wielding tight controls. Now, in the fall of 1869, the isolation of Utah was history; Young himself was a large stockholder of the Union Pacific; the Emma Mine in Little Cottonwood Canyon was operating; ore was being shipped to San Francisco; and foreign capital poured into other Gentile operated mines. At the October, 1868, conference of the L.D.S. Church, President Young declared the self-sustaining policy of his people and the boycott of nonMormon merchants by enunciating that "a Latter-day Saint should

BISHOP

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E

367

not trade with an outsider." 10 At the same time the Mormon church entered upon its own co-operative venture in the formation of Z.C.M.I. The church owned the Utah Central Railroad, and Brigham Young was personally, and as titular head of his church, amassing a fortune.

Secularization was having some internal effect in the Mormon community, and die Godbeite "New Movement" had its beginning. A schism developed when polygamist merchants William S. Godbe and Henry W. Lawrence joined with editors E. L. T. Harrison of the antiMormon Utah Magazine and T. B. H. Stenhouse of the Telegraph and others in publicly criticizing the Mormons for equating their religion with secular enterprises and for the temporal domination of the Mormon priesthood. The Utah Magazine had sought a public quarrel with Brigham Young, and as a latter-day Socrates it had corrupted the youth by encouraging them to enter the mines.

Vice-President Schuyler Colfax first visited Utah in October, 1869, conferred with the Godbeites and headed east determined to report the Utah situation in no uncertain or favorable terms to President Grant.

Thus the stage was set for the federal contest of the next twenty years over polygamy, while statehood for Utah was denied. The Liberal party entered the political arena in 1870 to oppose the People's party, which made a clear division of non-Mormons and Mormons respectively in Utah politics for the next two decades, and die lines were drawn. The uninitiated and naive had no place in this scene into which Daniel Tuttle entered determined to coexist in peace and to build his church without asking economic favors or giving doctrinal ground.

Bishop Tuttle had already made a careful study of Mormon theology, practice, and place in the community. He had positive ideas on the subject, which he set forth in his Reminiscences in later years.

He was frankly critical of the anthropomorphic nature of Mormon theology, and he looked upon polygamy as an anachronism saved from expected corruption by the religious duty attached to it. He felt that by the 1880's the abrogation of the practice was due to the enlightenment of the Mormon youth. He admired the missionary force and zeal of the Mormons and approved of their ready indulgence in prayer and their practice of tithing. In fact the Bishop's opposition to Mormonism was in the union of the church and the state and the power of the Mormon priesthood in temporal matters. In Reminiscences he wrote: 10

Whitney, op. cit., II, 279.

368

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

. . . A priesthood, not only commissioned from heaven but receiving constantly thence messages of guidance and direction and commandment, touching all human affairs, must be acknowledged to be a power with tremendous and terrible possibilities enwrapped in it. The infallibility of the priesthood and the domination of the priesthood cause the state to die of inanity, or of absorption into the church. . . . Whenever an ecclesiastical organization sets itself up as supreme, swallowing either or both of the other coordinant powers [the family and the state], then it becomes a despotism to be resisted and a danger to be resolutely fought.

Mormon priestly domination is un-American and antiAmerican. . . . it should be firmly opposed. But let the instruments and weapons of opposition be reason, argument, education, enlightenment, influence, persuasive truth.11 Perhaps the above quoted remark prompted Orson F. Whitney, a contemporary of Tuttle's, to describe his manner as brusque, being die "blunt candor of a fearless and honest nature." Whitney reported that the Bishop gained the esteem of the Utah people through fair treatment and frankness. . . .Though stating plainly his points of difference widi the Saints, either to them or to others, here and elsewhere, he never condescended to abuse or misrepresent them, but on the contrary took pleasure in testifying of their good traits, their honesty, industry, and morality, even while deploring what he considered the errors of their religious faith.12 On his return to Salt Lake City, the Bishop was confronted by the physical needs for permanent quarters for the church, the school, and the rectory. Church services had been continuously held in Independence Hall. St. Mark's School for boys and girls was housed in Groesbeck's store on Main Street at a monthly rental of forty dollars with the overflow of students going into two adjoining old storerooms.

Mr. Haskins had married and had been appointed army chaplain at Camp Douglas. The church had purchased a full lot with ten rod front on First South Street. A house was built thereon, and the Haskins and Foote families occupied this dwelling known at St. Mark's Rectory. The Tuttles lived in an adobe house rented from the Walker "Tuttle, op cit., 354-55.

"Whitney, op. cit., II, 314.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION

Center, Independence Hall, located between State and Main in mid-block °f what is now Third South was built by the Walker Brothers and was the scene of early school sessions. Around the corner on Main Street the building in front left is Groesbeck's store where early students of St. Mark's met.

Brothers on a ten by twenty rod lot on the southwest corner of Main and T h i r d South, rent sixty dollars a month, until they moved into the rectory in 1871.

F r o m the beginning in 1867 the Episcopal church in Salt Lake City had been self-supporting, paying the salaries of its priests. Growth of the church had gone on without any preconceived plan, but by bent of nature Mr. Foote had taken over the pastoral work, Mr. Haskins had directed the school, and Warren Hussey had led the laity in securing local supplies and in contacting the business community.

George Foote had traveled east in the fall of 1869, visiting parishes and soliciting funds for a church building. In May, 1870, he returned to Salt Lake City with $18,000 as the nucleus for a building fund and with a set of plans drawn by R. Upjohn, the noted designer and architect for Trinity Church in N e w York City. Bishop Tuttle had secured an 80 by 165 foot lot on First South Street for $2,200, raising funds locally; and on July 30, 1870, the cornerstone of St. Mark's

370

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Cathedral was laid. A loan was obtained from local bankers to finish the building, and on May 21, 1871, the first services were held in the basement of the church. On the following September 3 services were held in the church proper. The local congregation and generous supporters of the Bishop in the East paid off all debts on the building, and consecration took place May 14, 1874. St. Mark's congregation continued to grow, and soon a mission was organized under the direction and sponsorship of St. Mark's parish, which became known as St. Paul's. St. Paul's Chapel, the second Episcopal church to be built in Salt Lake City, was located at Main and Fourth South and constructed in 1880 as a memorial to Jane Mount, of New York City.13 On his eastern trip George Foote had interested a young seminarian, the Rev. James L. Gillogly, in the Utah work. Accordingly, after his graduation Gillogly proceeded to Ogden to begin missionary work among the railroad workers who were dien making Ogden their home.

A freight car, the Union Pacific passenger waiting room, and an old saloon were the sites for his first services. In March, 1871, the Bishop purchased for $1,500 an old tannery located on the site of the present Post Office, where services were held until the stone structure of the Church of the Good Shepherd was completed and consecrated in February, 1875. Again the Bishop's eastern contacts proved the genuineness of their interest in the church and its missionary outpost when John W. Hammersley, of New York City, donated $11,000 to complete the building as a memorial to his deceased daughter, Catherine Livingstone. Mr. Gillogly subsequently built a brick schoolhouse adjoining the church. He personally had saved a little money, bought some town lots in Ogden and realized a $2,000 profit on a quick sale, which he donated to the school building project.

Meanwhile, the Episcopalians in Salt Lake City had met on November 15, 1870, and organized St. Mark's parish. Wardens elected were Warren Hussey and J. P. Taggart. The other vestrymen chosen were T. F. Tracy, A. W. White, E. R. Humphreys, W. Nowele, and G. B. Moulton. Bishop Tuttle was chosen rector, but before accepting this call he defined the responsibilities of this cathedral parish and his relationship to it. He would belong to the mission field primarily, and he would personally nominate his assistant who would be pastor of the parish. This organization continued during the Bishop's remaining sixteen years in Salt Lake City. George Foote served as pastor until 13

Wain Sutton, Utah, A Centennial History (3 vols., New York, 1940), II, 663.

BISHOP

DANIEL

S.

TUTTLE

371

February, 1871, when he accepted the rectorship of a parish in San Jose, California, being succeeded at St. Mark's by the Rev. R. M. Kirby.

Bishop Tuttle had an almost Jesuit-like feeling for education and its place in the community. This attitude he so instilled in his clergy that Thomas Haskins later wrote, "The Episcopal Church considers education as the chief handmaid of religion." 14 The Bishop had taught Latin, Greek, and mathematics in a preparatory school associated with Columbia University. He was a great defender of the public school system in an age when the schools were subjected to the criticism of secularization and godlessness. His defense lay in his belief that the living example of the well-trained Christian teacher was far more efficacious than any book learning.

Utah was without a free public school system until 1890. Such grammar schools as existed met in Mormon meetinghouses, payment of tuition was exacted, and Mormon doctrine was taught. Brigham "Tuttle, op. cit., 369-70.

The first St. Paul's chapel, built in 1880, was located at Main and Fourth South streets.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY FILES, N . G. MORGAN, SR., COLLECTION

HISTORICAL SOCIETY FILES, N . G. MORGAN, SR., COLLECTION

St. Mark's grammar school, a day school for boys and girls, was erected in 1873 opposite the old City Hall (present fire station) on First South Street.

Young in his last Circular of the First Presidency in 1877 announced that hereafter education should be free to Mormon children and that "the teachers should be Latter-day Saints, so that the children might learn only what they ought to know." 13 As noted earlier, the first act of the Episcopal missionaries in 1867 had been to open a day school in Salt Lake City. St. Mark's grammar school, for boys and girls, met in the rented storerooms, bowling alley, and Independence Hall until 1873 when a school building erected opposite the City Hall on First South east of State Street was first occupied. St. Mark's girls' school was housed in die basement of St. Mark's Cathedral after 1871 until it merged as the primary department of Rowland Hall, a boarding and day school for girls. Charlotte E. Hayden was the teacher and manager of the girls school. T h e lot and building for Rowland Hall on " A " Street and First Avenue were purchased with beneficences of the Benjamin Rowland family, of Philadelphia, and the boarding school opened in 1881. Bishop Tuttle taught 'Morris Robert Werner, Brigham Young (New York, 1925), 451-52.

BISHOP

DANIEL

S. T U T T L E

373

in the schools. Mr. Haskins served as headmaster to 1873, Rev. J. M. Turner to 1875, and Rev. George Miller until 1889.

The Bishop found the need for schools a pressing one. Students came not only from Gentile but also from Mormon families. The Ogden School of the Good Shepherd was opened in 1870. In 1873 St. John's School, Logan, and a school at Plain City were opened. In Logan and Plain City all scholars came from Mormon homes. Tuition was charged where feasible, and a system of forty dollars a year per student scholarships was devised for poor children. Five hundred such scholarships were provided up to 1886, some extending for a period of many years. As other grants and memorials many of these aids to students came from eastern benefactors. The Bishop reported that Episcopal Sunday schools furnished 221; churches, 87; individual women, 145; and men, 47.16 The Bishop was satisfied as to the lasting effect of the schools. Eight pupils and three teachers became Episcopal clergymen, including Mahlon N. Gilbert, later to be Bishop Coadjutor of Minnesota. In St. Mark's School and Rowland Hall, 3,186 boys and girls had been taught by 1886. The Episcopal schools had become a real part of the Utah scene, and as early as 1869 Secretary of State William H. Seward had signaled the importance of the work, when he said: . . . the schools undertaken by the Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City would do more to solve the Mormon problem than the army and Congress of the United States combined.17 In his annual address to the convocation of the missionary district in 1877 the Bishop wrote: . . . In Utah three new schoolhouses are being built, Ogden, Logan and Plain city â&#x20AC;&#x201D; emphasizing the truth that our great work in this Territory is with the young.

The Episcopal schools continued in operation until a free public school system was inaugurated, at which time they had fulfilled their purpose, and, with the exception of Rowland Hall, the schools were closed.18 Salt Lake City in 1869 was a community with three doctors, including the army surgeon at Camp Douglas, to minister to over 10

Tuttle, op. cit., 374.

Ibid., 365.

1S J. H. Melish, Franklin Spencer Spaulding (New York, 1917), 152.

17

374

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

15,000 people in the immediate vicinity, and no hospital. The Mormon plan of bishops' aid to the poor and the sick had sufficed until the advent of mining and die railroad brought about the industrial accident.

By 1872 the need for a hospital was acute. Bishop Tuttle found a committee of diree waiting on him for advice and the support of his office.

These three, two of them vestrymen at St. Mark's Cathedral, Dr. John F. Hamilton, a former post surgeon, and Major Edmund Wilkes, a mine manager, and the Rev. Mr. R. M. Kirby, presented a plan for the mining companies and other businessmen to subsidize the hospital, which would operate under the auspices of St. Mark's with Mr. Kirby superintendent.

Thus began St. Mark's Hospital on April 30, 1872, in a rented adobe house located at Fourth South and Fifth East streets. Twentyone patients were admitted during May, and by the first of November 116 had received treatment.19 The hospital was from the beginning a self-supporting institution. The Bishop, as a trustee for fourteen years, was proud of its operation and its unique position as die only haven of mercy for a number of years between Denver and die Pacific Coast.

The Bishop continued to guide die missionary work of the direeterritory district until 1880 when the Episcopal General Convention set apart Montana as a separate missionary district and assigned and styled Daniel S. Tuttle as Bishop of Utah with jurisdiction in Idaho.

The Bishop had made annual visitations to the growing mining towns of Montana, and every mile traveled by him in that territory (estimated over 40,000) had been made by stage or horseback. The people of die territory were among his dearest friends, and in 1904 at die St. Louis Exposition, as first citizen of Montana, he had the distinction of opening die state's building at the centennial fair.20 His love for his mountain flock was fully reciprocated.

As today's commercial travelers ponder the newest in airline and streamliner equipment as sort of an occupational hobby, so Dan Tuttle had become familiar with the stage lines and their drivers, who were among his closest and most respected friends. He was one of the best known and most sought after passengers in the West. His reputation for good fellowship spread among the drivers, and he always found a welcome on the top of the stage next to the driver. His aversion was the "jerker," or five passenger stage, as contrasted to the relatively comfortable fourteen passenger Concord, nine within and five on top. '" Tuttle, op. cit., 397.

Contributions to Montana Historical Society, V (Helena, Montana, 1904), 93.

20

PHOTO COURTESY BISHOP WATSON

Dr. John F. Hamilton, front, a member of the committee which met with Bishop Tuttle to organize St. Mark's Hospital. Mrs. Hamilton, rear, one of the first three Episcopal communicants in Salt Lake when Bishop Tuttle arrived. Child is unidentified.

Early picture of St. Mark's Hospital located in north Salt Lake. First organized by Bishop Tuttle in 1872, it was the only such institution between Denver and the Pacific Coast for a number of years.

PHOTO COURTESY BISHOP WATSON

376

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Twice he was in stage upsets, once in Echo Canyon and again in Port Neuf Canyon in Idaho. Never was he in a stage holdup, but he traveled equipped, often carrying a revolver; he knew diat the road agents seldom attacked passengers, but his kinship with the drivers gave him an interest in the stage and its cargo. In later years the days on the stage were a source of pleasant memories. The only truly unpleasant experience he could recount was a three day trip in a "jerker" from Salt Lake to Boise, where he arrived completely exhausted and physically ill after the constant pounding of the springless stage. The Concord coach manufacturers had his full blessing.

The Bishop felt a high sense of responsibility for the members of his flock who were isolated by distance and weadier from the church.

His Episcopal Register is a running record of the birth and growdi of new communities in the mountains, of services held wherever "two or three are gathered together" in Masonic halls, miners' cabins, and saloons, and of baptisms in ranch houses, and burials in new cemeteries on open hillsides.

The Bishop's first convocation of the clergy and laity of his district was held in 1873 at St. Mark's Cathedral in Salt Lake City. Annually thereafter convocation was held at different churches of the district.

The Bishop's addresses at convocation each year set forth guides to his clergy and their congregations which established a continuing policy for the district. He admonished his people to seek self-sufficiency and self-reliance. He expressed his thankfulness for aid received from eastern benefactors, but he suggested that his churches take outside aid only when honestly needed. He urged that children be exposed to the church's services early, even in preference to Sunday schools, and he strongly advocated the family type service and family prayer. He believed that a priest should be ambidextrous as a preacher and a pastor, with the entire community, not just Episcopalians, as the charge of the pastor. Available means of public notice should be utilized in publicizing church services and functions. The Episcopal church stresses Christ in ascension, and the Bishop directed diat his churches should observe Ascension Day as having equal importance with Good Friday, Easter, and Christmas.21 He had reason to report satisfaction in the accomplishments of the district. By August, 1886, in Utah alone since his arrival in Salt Lake Valley there had been 1,274 baptisms, 411 confirmations, and the three 21 Journals of Convocations of the Missionary District of Utah 1873-1886, in office of the Episcopal Bishop of Utah.

PHOTO COURTESY BISHOP WATSON

A meeting of Bishops of the Province of the Pacific at St. Mark's Cathedral in 1917 to honor Bishop Tuttle at the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of his work 'n Utah.

Bishop Tuttle, left foreground; back >'ow, left, Bishop Paul Jones, Bishop of Utah in 1917; and the Rev. W. F. Bulkley, third from left, back roworiginal communicants had multiplied to 324. St. Mark's Hospital had cared for 4,776 patients, and St. Mark's School and Rowland Hall had taught 3,186 boys and girls. 22 There were 763 pupils in the Episcopal schools in Utah in attendance in 1886.23 May 27, 1886, found the Bishop on a visitation to southern Utah.

T h e lumbering stage with D a n Tuttle atop, covered thick with dust, stopped at the Wells Fargo office at Silver Reef. A telegram was handed up, and the Bishop read the advice of die convention of the diocese of Missouri of his election as Bishop of Missouri. T h e diocesan convention called for his deliberate reflection, recalling his rejection of the call in 1868. T h e Bishop conducted services at Silver Reef and returned to Salt Lake City to consult with his family, his district clergy, and the vestry of St. Mark's. W i t h nineteen years of episcopal experience behind him he could no longer plead youth and inexperience to cope with the responsibilities of a diocesan bishop. H e was now forty-nine years old, and felt that die demands of a mountain "Tuttle, op cit,, 487.

13

Whitney, op. cit., II, 316.

378

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

missionary bishop were for a man at least no older. He had conducted services in forty-four places in the past year. Even limited to Utah and Idaho, his visitations covered the entire period from April to November. He felt that the call to Missouri must be considered as a demand for his services, and his personal conveniences and desires must be subordinated to a call to duty in new fields. On June 16 he accepted the call to Missouri, subject to the consent of the bishops of the church.

August 9 found die Bishop at Soda Springs, Idaho, where he received notice of the certification of his election and the consent of the bishops and standing committees of the church. He was now Bishop of Missouri, and his work in the mountains was at an end.

The years from 1886 to 1923 tell a whole new story for Bishop Tuttle. Beloved by his Missourians and a civic leader in St. Louis, his last twenty years were spent as Presiding Bishop, the highest administrative position of the church. There he directed his church through a period of growth and changes in organization. His was the responsibility for the chaplaincies of World War I and the participation of the church in the Anglican Communion at Lambeth in England.

Bishop Tuttle's love for the Mountain West never waned. He was on a trip through Idaho visiting friends of the early days on August 18, 1899, when he received word from St. Louis of die sudden death of his wife and helpmate, Harriet Tuttle. In 1903 he served once more for a year acting as Bishop of Salt Lake, a newly created missionary district, after the death of Bishop Abiel Leonard, who had been his immediate successor in Utah. He remained vigorous in health and an active preacher and pastor to the end. At the time of his death at eighty-six he had been planning one more trip west. But the Bishop wrote his own finale to the mountain people when on August 9, 1886, he added the final entry in his Episcopal Register, reporting his receipt of certification of his election to Missouri, and as was his habit in quoting the psalmist, concluding, "This my record is closed. Miserere mei, Deus.

Dan'l S. Tuttle"

Facsimile of the two pages of the Bliss lournal which were torn apart. Photostat copies of the complete journal are now on file in the library of the Historical Society.

THE

ROBERT

S. B L I S S

JOURNAL

Edited by Everett L. Cooley *

INTRODUCTION In December, 1958, the records of the Mormon Battalion Monument Commission and the records of the State Society Daughters of the Mormon Battalion were transferred to the Utah State Archives. Found in these records were thirty-three pages of a handwritten journal. They were written in both brown and blue ink on ruled sheets, four by six inches in size.

The journal itself offers no positive clue to the identity of its writer. It does reveal the fact that he had served with the Mormon Battalion. He had now returned to Salt Lake City and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of good weather so that he with other Battalion members could journey eastward to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to meet the families they had left in July, 1846, at the beginning of the famous Battalion march.

Although the journal fails to identify the author, correspondence among the records of the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion reveals that the author was Robert S. Bliss, private in Company "B," Mormon Battalion. The - correspondence also throws considerable light on the * Dr. Cooley is Director of the Utah State Archives, a Division of the Historical Society. Changes in spelling or punctuation in the journal have not been made unless necessary for clarity.

382

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

circumstances surrounding the whereabouts and publication of the larger portion of the Bliss journal which appeared in this magazine in 1931.1 This previously published portion gives an excellent account of the march of the Battalion from Kansas via Santa Fe to San Diego, It contains interesting details of garrison duty in San Diego, the march northward through central California, the climb over Donner's Summit, and the discovery of the unburied remains of the ill-fated Donner party. A description of the route Bliss's party followed eastward along the Marys River (the Humboldt) to Fort Hall, then southward into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in October, 1847, is of real interest.

However, the journal ends abruptly in the middle of an entry, January 13, 1848, in the middle of a sentence and the middle of a word, "the people are making extensive prepa" . . . .

At the time of its appearance in 1931, Editor J. Cecil Alter wrote an introduction, which says in part: Here is presented another valuable day-by-day journal written by a member of the Mormon Battalion,...

But little is known concerning the previous or subsequent history of this journalist. Through the Latter-day Saints temple archives it is learned that Robert S. Bliss, in taking his endowments at Nauvoo on January 29, 1846, gave his birth date as August 1, 1805; and that he was a member of die Seventies organization of the Church. Mary Ann Bliss, presumably his wife, took her endowments on the same date and at the same place, giving her birth date as March 23,1811.

The original of this journal is now in the files of the Historical Society at San Diego, California, presented by Mrs. Mary J. Clawson, 124 Second Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah, who also furnished for publication in this Quarterly, the journal of her father, Nathaniel V. Jones. Mrs. Clawson relates that the Bliss manuscript journal came to her in a rather mysterious manner, the sender still unidentified, while she was publishing a weekly story in the Deseret News several years ago of the week-by-week movements of the Battalion.

At that time Mrs. Clawson had organized and was promoting the interests of the State Society, Daughters of the Mormon Battalion (and of which she is still the historian), which organization after ten years of labor, finally turned over to the state of Utah the project which resulted in the magnificent Mormon Battalion Monument on the Utah State Capitol grounds in Salt Lake City.

1

See Utah Historical Quarterly, IV (July, October, 1931). Copies are still available.

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

383

The Bliss journal, as it came to Mrs. Clawson having been carried throughout the Battalion's long march to California, back again to the Missouri River, and thence again to Utah, was of course pretty badly dilapidated, dirty and dog-eared, though still perfectly legible, and complete as originally written down each day. The journal begins abruptly as shown herewith, on August 18, 1846, as if the storekeeper's leatherbound, rough-paper daybook had not been obtained until the Battalion had been on the march four weeks, and had just crossed the Kaw or Kansas River and reached Spring Creek, where the first journal entry indicates some of the Bliss laundering was done. Possibly the previous diary was on other paper, lost long ago.

Some of the original entries were made in blue ink, though most of them were in black ink, indicating variable sources of writing materials. One section of die journal, consisting of several pages, was written in a mysterious red ink, being a portion in the midst of the work, at a time when and a place where ordinary inks were doubtless unobtainable.

Mrs. Clawson mentioned the Bliss journal in a general way to Mrs. Oliver G. Workman, on one occasion, and Mrs. Workman replied with some enthusiasm: "Why that is the journal that was written in blood. The writer ran out of ink, and pricked his arm widi a pin to obtain his writing fluid."

Questioned as to the origin of the information, Mrs. Workman explained that her husband, a mess mate in Company B with Mr. Bliss, had seen the ink so produced and used, and had often spoken of the circumstances to Mrs. Workman.

(J.C.A.) Following the last entry of the journal, the editor then added a terminal statement: Here the journal ends as unceremoniously as it began, in the midst of interesting entries. . . .

Unfortunately no more of the Bliss Journal has been found; and the only intimation of his future movements is contained in the following brief entry in die Documentary History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for 1848, page 35, in the Church Historian's Office in Salt Lake City.

"Wednesday, May 3, 1848. Capt. Gardner, accompanied

by Samuel Lewis, Alva C. Calkins, William Garner, Ami Jackman, David Stewart, Robert S. Bliss, and Abner Black-

384

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

man, arrived at Winter Quarters from the Valley, bringing many letters." Winter Quarters were at the Omaha-Council Bluffs frontier settlements; "The Valley" refers of course to the Salt Lake Valley.

The discovery of this last portion of the Robert S. Bliss journal contradicts the final statement of the editor, for the entry of January 13, 1848, is completed, and the journal continues through May 2, 1848, with Bliss within one day's travel of Winter Quarters.

Of interest to this writer is, how did the journal become separated? Why is the original of the first portion located in the San Diego Historical Society? Why was the original of the last portion found among the records of the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion?

And why was Editor Alter not shown the last portion of the journal in 1931?

The apparent answers are these. Some time prior to 1915, Mrs. Mary J. Clawson came into possession of the complete Bliss journal.

Being of a generous nature, Mrs. Clawson removed that portion of the journal concerning Bliss's service in San Diego and his journey from that point to Salt Lake City. This she sent to Margaret V. Allen in San Diego. The journal was there placed on display as part of the "Old San Diego exhibit" in the Gallery of California History at the Panama-California Exposition.2 At the close of the exposition, the portion of the Bliss journal in San Diego became the property of the San Diego Pioneer Society.

Here it reposed, as far as we know,! unmolested and unnoticed, until 1927 when George I. Putnam became interested in it. "A note affixed to the corner of the journal" directed Mr. Putnam's attention to the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion.3 Mrs. Mary J. Clawson, historian of the Daughters, replied to Mr. Putnam's inquiry in the following words: Your letter of Oct 11 referring to the Robert Bliss diary or the portion in the Historical Society at San Diego was interesting. We have never had a typed copy made. Realizing the important contribution it has made to western history, it must be made complete. We gave to San Diego the portion refer1

Letter of Margaret V. Allen (no date) in the Utah State Archives.

Letter from Mr. George I. Putnam to the Secretary's Office Daughters Mormon Battalion, dated October 11, 1927, in Utah State Archives. The note affixed to the journal read, "This is a part of the journal kept by Robert Bliss, Private Co B. Mormon Battalion.

The portion referring to his march before and after arriving in Utah has been retained by the Daughters of Battalion."

3

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

385

ring to that Town, from sheer sympathy on finding how little history they possessed of that period, and we possessed so much that was vital. The journal never should have been separated. However, you might have a copy made of die part in San Diego. I will have one made of the part we have. In that way it will be complete, and we can make the exchange. If the historical society will permit you to do this, let us hear later.4 There then followed an exchange of correspondence between Mr. Putnam and Mrs. Clawson which apparently resulted in Mrs. Clawson's sending another portion of the original Bliss journal to Mr. Putnam.5 Mr. Putnam then turned the journal over to the San Diego Pioneer Society.

A letter from the "head" of the Society, Miss Louise Verlaque to Mrs. Clawson, gives still further information on the later gift of a portion of the Bliss journal: I have just received from Mr. George I. Putnam of San Diego the portion of the Robert S. Bliss Diary which he informed us you have presented to the Pioneer Society of San Diego. We had the other portion of the Diary which I believe was presented to us also by the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion. We do indeed feel very grateful to you for the completion of the Diary.

Mr. Putnam has been very interested in it and has also presented us his copy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; so we are fortunate in being able to keep the original and circulate his copy.

Thanking you and yours â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the name of the Pioneer Society of San Diego.6 4

Letter in Utah State Archives.

Mr. Putnam's letter of January 26, 1928, now in the Utah State Archives, to Mrs. Clawson reads: As you must know by this time, your package was received in good order, and I have been deeply interested in the study of its contents. Your letter was also received. I feel deeply indebted to you for all your kindness in placing at my command first-hand documents of such great historical interest.

This morning I have succeeded in communicating with Miss Louise Verlaque, who heads the Pioneer Society, and told her of your generosity in sending the balance of the original Bliss Diary. She was very appreciative and said she would call for it very soon, as the Society is to hold a meeting on Monday, the 30th, and she wished to have it in hand before then. So I do not doubt but you will shortly receive genuine thanks from the Society. For myself, I am surprised and deeply gratified by your gift. It had not occurred to me that you would willingly part with it, and the diary, as a whole, more intimately concerns Mormon history than it does San Diego. But it is a record that I am sure the Pioneer Society will cherish as one of its choice possessions. . . .

0 Letter in the Utah State Archives.

5

386

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

From this it appears that in 1928 Mrs. Clawson presented, through Mr. Putnam, the remainder of the Bliss journal to the San Diego Pioneer Society. If this is so, when and how did it get back into the files of the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion and finally into the Utah State Archives in 1958?

One possible answer is that there were two portions of the Bliss journal which were not given to the San Diego Pioneer Society in 1915, but were retained by the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion.

The first gift was die middle portion which was displayed at the Panama-California Exposition. A later gift to the San Diego Pioneer Society in 1928 was the first portion (August 18, 1846, to March 15, 1847) of the Bliss journal. The original of the last portion (January 13, 1848, to May 2, 1848) was possibly never sent to California. Mr. Putnam probably had access to a copy of this portion only.

If this is the answer to the question of how the Bliss journal was found in the records of the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion, it still does not answer the question why it was not made available to Mr. Alter when he edited and published the Robert Bliss journal in the Utah Historical Quarterly in 1931.7 Certainly Mrs. Clawson and Mr. Putnam were familiar with the complete journal.

Whatever die answer, here is presented die final chapter of the Bliss journal.

JOURNAL January 13, 1848 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;May 2, 1848 [Jan 13th yesterday removed my lodgings to Bro Drakes last night had some rain the People are making extensive prepa] rations for Gardens Plowing &c &c the Weather is warm like Spring & the grass is growing fine so that cattle & horses have plenty of green grass; the atmosphere is pure & there has been no sickness as yet among us to speak of 7 A letter from Mr. Alter to the author dated April 25, 1959, has this to say about the newly discovered Bliss journal: Your letter is the first and only intimation I have ever had of the existence of the missing parts of the Bliss journal. It is therefore quite surprising, to put it mildly, to learn from your letter that "both Mrs. Clawson and Mr. Putnam had knowledge of this later section" of the journal, while the other part was in our hands. I was not so informed! There must be some extenuating circumstance: Mrs. Clawson's sudden, untimely, and prolonged illness?

It was never brought to my attention that the part of the journal at San Diego had a note affixed stating that the rest of it was in Salt Lake City. . . .

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

387

From 13 to 16th fine weather like summer days; some Frost nights; we are in hopes of starting for the States in about four weeks if the weather continues as it is now there is some 4 or 5 sawmills building one Grist Mill in operation & one or 2 more building besides other machinery in progress; the streams in this valley are good for all kinds of machinery as I ever saw in any country Jan 19th for the last few days have been in the mts cutting timber I find more timber than I expected [to] find among the mts. the snow is melting fast & I hope soon to be on the road for my family; I learn Onions Lettuce & Tomatoes are comeing up here the weather is like summer in the valley although we have some frost nights All are pleased with Climate &c &c Sun 23 d I am to day at the ringing of the Bell assembled to meeting Eld Taylor Preached to us & gave us good instrution; the Weather is fine & uniform Pleasant days & cool nights; to day a company starts for Fort Bridger & soon a company starts for the Pacific Ocean to explore a new rout for the Saints to come to this valley; the longer I stay in this place the more I am pleased with the Location climate &c Jan 27th 1848 two weeks from to day we expect to start for the states; the weather continues warm as usual Jan 28th Warm & Pleasant like summer I am reminded of the words of Sister Webb "Where the sky is serene & the Pure Waters flow; where the Climate is healthy, O there let me go" this is truly the finest climate I ever was in with the exception of the Pacific Coast, there is but little sickness here & those that complain their diseases were brought on by other Climates. There are some disadvantages we labour under here our Timber & wood has to be brought from the mts & there are many deep springs in this valley which are dangerous at present for cattle an[d] also the wolves kill some cattle; but the springs will be drained & the wolves will be killed in a few years indeed we have cought & killed more than 300 wolves this winter already the People are busy & doing all they can for the general good of the Settlement with a verry few exceptions & they appear to be self willed &c I am pleased with the Officers who are left to Preside here in the absence of the 12 Apostles; no man will do wrong if he will adhere to there Counsil for they are good men; & men of God & I feel to Bless them in my heart all the day long & I want to be blessed of my Heavenly Father under the hands of such men & hope I may live &

HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION

Artist's drawing of early sawmill operations. Whipsaws were used in the early mills.

A saw pit was built, and an upright saw was operated by two men, one standing above the log and the other below it. The log was anchored over the pit and the men drew a large saw with handles on each end up and down to cut the desired widths.

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

389

assist such men in their work for the Last time though it be through much tribulation8 Sun Jan 30th 1848 Yesterday & to day some snow fell the Wind is in the North & it is some cooler than usual; one more sabbath is all I expect to spend in this valley untill I go for my beloved Family whose anxiety & concern for my wellfare must be Great after more than 18 months absence through an Enemys Land of Deserts & mountains. Suffering more than Death by hunger thirst & fatigue While I think of the trials Privations & exposures my family must have endured in my absence being left on the naked Prairie with only a covered wagon for their shelter from the elements destitute of many of the comforts of Life[,] I can hardly wait with Patience for the time to arrive which is set for our departure Mon 3 I t Jan snowed some & appears some cooler than usual Tues Feb It to day some snow on the mts & in the valley some fill at night Wed Feb 2d 1848 Warm & Pleasant through the day From 2d Feb to the 6th Warm & pleasant days with Frost nights to day Sun 6th attended Publick meeting in the Old Fort & listened to a good discourse from Eld P. P. Pratt on the subject of the Gospel which immediately concerned us as a People; the People are well & enjoy the best health here that they ever enjoyed before & we conclude this is as healdiy as any part of the World for there are some from different parts of the World, the longer I live here the more I am Pleased with the Location & Wisdom of the 12 in leading this People to this little World of Blessings; here is the Great Salt Lake answering to the Ocean with all the Rivers & Streams of the Great Bacin flowing into it & having no communication with any Part of the World; & surrounded by a chain of Everlasting mountains to enclose us we hope from mobs & the heavy hand of Percicution that has hithto followed us Feb 9th the weather continues warm & pleasant I have seen Grasshoppers & butterflies & outher insects to day Sporting in the sunbeams & the Geese are coming back to Salt lake from the South s Those "left to Preside" were: John Smith, president; Charles C. Rich and John Young, counselors; and Henry G. Sherwood, Thomas Grover, Levi Jackman, John Murdock, Daniel Spencer, Stephen Abbott, Ira Eldredge, Edison Whipple, Shadrach Roundy, John Vance, Willard Snow, and Abraham O. Smoot, high councilmen.

390

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Sat. Feb 12th 1848 the weather continues warm; a company has just returned from Fort Bridger with Beef cattle tiiey report the mts passable for Pack Animals but the snow is in places 8 or 10 ft deep we expect to start the fore part of next week for Winter Quarters with letters &c for the Church; we learn that the company that started the 12th of Jan are at Bridger waiting for us to come up before they go any farther Last night about 9 O'Clock Bishop [Jacob] Fouts died of a Fit of Apoplexy but few Deaths have occurred here & those of Diseases of other climates Sun 13th Feb assembled for meeting & partook of the Sacrement &c we can see to day die snow falling on the mts & die Council thinks we had better wait another week before we go to Winter Quarters as some of the men were frozen badly who came from Fort Bridger. My anxiety is so great to see my family I would freely endure almost any privation or hardship to get to them Mon 14th we can see some snow fell on the mts last night & we are under the direction of die Council to go as soon as they diink we can go in safety as they have important letters to send; which must be carryed in safety & they think we should not start for winter [Quarters] untill there is a prospect of our Animals as well as ourselves subsisting among the cold mts we are to pass over the company that returned from fort Bridger some of them were badly frozen & the snow & cold winds was verry severe on them; although here in the valley it is warm & pleasant & no snow; horses and Cattle are doing well for Grass is fine on the benches of the mts and wheat is coming up in short this is one of the most beautiful locations I ever saw as to health pure water & mill Privileges excelent. Soil Salt &c the atmosphere is so pure we can see 20 or 25 miles as plain as we can see 5 or 6 miles in Illinois or the eastern States; & I have seen cattle pla[i]n feeding near Salt lake at least 18 or 20 miles of[f] when the sun was nearly setting I could not believe such storys myself if I had not traveled so much in the valley & [k]new the distance. I have often seen mts ahead in my travels which seemed to be only 18 or 20 miles off which has taken 3 day hard travel to reach Tues 15th 1848 Visited a canion of the mts & saw some fine trout in the stream that run from the mt there is also flowers in bloom in the canions I also saw Green Grass 3 in high my horses are doing well &c

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

391

Wed 16tb fine day Thur 17th last night we had a fine shower which will probably cause the Wheat to come up & the Grass to grow finely; the inhabitants were just agoing to water their wheat ground but die shower was in time; so it saves much work; although the rain fell here in the valley it snowed on the mts so as to cover many mts that were bare before Frid Feb 18th 1848 Last night about 4 In snow fell in the valley & about one foot deep on the mts & to day it snows some though it thaws as fast as it falls & the weather is warm Sat 19th warm but cloudy & some snow storms around us on the mts; some cattle have been killed by the wolves lately; how soon we shall be able to start for Winter Quarters I know not for there has much snow fell lately on die mts which will put us back for some time yet Last night Mrs Allen died in this place of consumption Sun 20th 1848 Last night froze some but to day it is warm & pleasant & the snow is dsappearing fast & from every appearane I hope we shall be able to start for our families soon; I have been about 17 months from my family & have not heard from them for more than 8 months no one knows my anxiety to see them unless they have been in like circumstances & possessed of like refined feelings of home & the joys of domestic life But I am thankful to my Heavenly Fadier diat I am with kind Brothring & Friends who administer to my necessities & am not under Tyranical U S Officers suffering hunger thirst sickness & fatigue on trackless deserts & mountains crowned with snow as formely & hope I may never [see] such times again Mon 2 I t & Tues 22d good weather the snow that fell a few days ago is nearly off in the valley; Yesterday two Gentfiles ?] arived from Fort Bridger on their way to California they report the road passable over the mts which makes me hope we shass [shall] start soon on our Journey to winter Quarters to day there was a Wolf Hunt which proved fatal to 1 man by the mane [sic] of Shade he dug & eat a Root which proved to be musquass & only lived a few minutes after he returned home9 Wed 23 d Last night the wind was in the North East & it froze as hard as any night this winter but to day it is more moderate & thaws some ' For another account of this see "Diary of Lorenzo Dow Young," Utah Historical Quarterly, XIV (1946), 165.

392

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Thurs 24th to day the weather is fine as usual Frid 25th four months to day since I arrived in this valley; die time seems long since I parted with my Family & friends at Council Bliffs [sic] but I hope the Council will let us go soon to our families I am sure if they had been as long from their Familes they would feel different but it is all right they do not want us to go untill we can go safe & not endanger our lives & those of our Animals among the cold bleak mts we have to cross over; to day the weather has been warm although we can see the snow falling on the mts around us Sat 26th Feb 1848. Last night Prest Levi Hancock visitet us & sung some of his Excelent songs composed while on our Journey to California accompanyed by die violin;10 the description of our Sufferings and Hardships brought vividly to my mind scenes I hope never to see again; Prest Hancock is one of our best men; his counsel on all occasions was good I have been with him in many trying circumstances & always found him faidiful & True; I hope I may so live that I may never forfeit the friendship of such men; I have Just returned from a visit to die warm Springs the Ensign Peak & a bed of Red paint on the side of the mt 11 the Springs are a curiosity & have effected cures & probably will yet be a resort of Thousands; my ^eart is full of Gratitude to my Heavenly Father when I think of His Mercy & Goodness to this People; our situation in this valley is delightful here I breath a pure & free Air not contaminated with foul Spirit of Mobocracy & misrule & trust here we can sit under our own vine & fig tree Sun Feb 27th 1848. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; T h i s morning is pleasant & beautiful & appears like Spring weather; last night we had some frost but the Grass in places is 5 or 6 inches high especially on the benches of the mts at 12 O Clock to day Prest L. Hancock called the 70's together on some business concerning the erecting some houses for Prest Joseph Young &c while we were assembled a boy of Mr. Oakee was killed in a moment by the rooling of a sawlog from the top of a saw pit to see the sorrow & anguish of the Parents was Lamentable some men for the lack of Cautiousness involve many in Sorow & Destruction this axident has involved us all with a feeling of simpathy & sorrow Mon 28th the weather is still warm & the appearance is we shall soon start for winter Quarters 10 Levi W. Hancock was a musician in Company "E" of the Mormon Battalion. " The "red paint" is iron oxide, a precipitate from the sulphurous waters of the springs. The Indians used this for their war paint.

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

393

Tues 29th Is the Last day of Winter; to day Prest L Hancock called us together who are going to Winter Quarters to fix on a day to start; the Council decided last night we might go when Prest L. Hancock thought best & it was agreed unanimously we start next Monday; which is a great relief to my mind after an abscene of nearly one year & eight months from my Family; Last night it rained all night & to day is a lowry misty day if the weather should clear off pleasant Grass & wheat would grow finely; the Indians around us in this valley are Singular beings; they took some Indian Prisenors from another tribe soon after our People came here & killed them after trying to sell them to us with the exception of one a female & soon as our People saw they killed their Prisenors they bought the Squaw & clothed her & she is now living in town & learning our Language fast a few days ago the Indians agreed to go on a hunting Expedition they had one lame Indian among them who was unable to go with them or get a living they therefore for fear he would fall into the hands of their Enemies decided he should die he was accordingly killed; we frequently saw the poor fellow in Town & did not know they had killed him untill a few days ago March 1 * 1848 commences another Spring which is the seccond Spring I have seen since I parted with my Family & friends at Council Bluffs to day is one of the Pleasantest & warmest days we have had since last fall and from every appearance we shall have a tolable good time to cross the mts Thurs 2d March To day 40 men started against a tribe of Utah Indians who have killed some of our Cattle & drove others away; fine day warm as usual &c Frid 3d March 1848 Yesterday I saw wild Geese returning from the South which indicates Spring I also see the Salmon are coming from their Winter Quarters to the stream in the valley I saw some fine ones in Mill Creek the other day they are an excelent Fish their flesh is yellow & sweet eating;12 this is the warmest day we have had this spring & I trust we shall have a good time in crossing the mts the time has come for spring crops some are plowing some sowing & others are making Gardens fencing &c the Wheat is coming up & Grass is now fine for stock &c 12 According to Lee Kay, of the State Fish and Game Department, these "salmon" were what are now called "native trout."

394

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Sat 4th March 1848 The boy that was killed last Sun I have since learned the particulars of an Iindian was die cause of the log rooling on the boy I saw a number of Indians at the time running for home when the axident took place; he reported the affair to his Chief; the Chief told him to take one of his children a little boy & go & deliver him to the man who lost the Child to kill or adopt in his family as he saw fit & to the astonishment of the Parent the Indian came with his boy & offered him in sacrifice to atone for his supposed Crime Mr Oakee gave him to> understan we had no> such customs among us he therefore could take his boy home This morning has ushered in fine as usual I think Spring Weather is farely commenced; at all events the People mean to have it so by their diligence & Industry in Gardening fencing plowing &c Sun 5 th March This morning the troops came in to Town that went out the 2d March; they found the Indians had stolen 17 head of cattle & one horse they took one Gun from them & caused some to be Whiped & they promised not to do the like again So they left them;13 To day is a beautiful day warm like summer; while the People assembled for meeting at the Stand Prest L. W. Hancock myself & others met at Father John Smith [']s to receive his Benediction & Blessing we found him in Excelent Spirits and were Blessed with a Blessing indeed He said we should be prosperd on our Journey our Animals also we should enjoy Health be preserved from our enemies & go safely through & find our families Well &c &c. & I felt truly it would be so inasmuch as we were faithful to our God & Each other; it is truly gratifying to me & I rejoice we have men in this Church whose Words are the Word of the Lord & whose faith Prayers & Blessings Prevail with the mighty God of Jacob in our behalf & I know the Lord has sustained us in time past as the Prophet told us & verily he will again Mon 6th March 1848 The long wished for day has at last come when we were to start for our famileys & friends at winter Quarters we were supplyed by the Liverality of the Saints with Provisions for our Journey; came 6 miles from town to the mouth of the canion & encamped to wait for for some to find their horses at night we were 13

A report of the event, made to Brigham Young in an epistle from Salt Lake, reads: The Marshall with forty four men has just returned from visiting the Indians on the east side of Utah Lake, and reports that they had driven off and killed seventeen of our cattle and one horse; the only compensation obtained was one gun; the chief whipped several of the band and they all promised to do better. (See Manuscript History of Brigham Young, March 2nd, 1848, pp.

14-15, L.D.S. Historian's Library.)

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

395

exposed to a severe shower of rain which ended with a snow storm towards morning Tues 7th March lay by for the boys to come up Wed 8th March our boys came this morning & reported that Prest L. W. Hancock had concluded to stay So we chose Bro Wm Garner for our Capt & R S Bliss Historian & forth with packed up & started for the mts soon after we started it commenced snowing & continued snowing severe untill we camped which was after passing over one mt. about 19 miles from the valley near Willow Springs Thurs 9 passed up the mt we soon found the snow to increase in depth after taking the waggon some 3 miles we was obliged to leave it; we continued to progress slowly untill we came within a mile of the top we laboured hard ttÂť brake down the snow untill night & were obliged to camp in the snow & our horses had nothing to eat all night Snowed all day Frid 10th 1848 March this morning some went back to the waggon to get letters &c while others went to brak roads & examine the mt we soon assertained it was impossible to go over the mt in this pass So we had to go back came as far as willow Springs & encamped on our old camping Ground; the snow was from 2 to' 10 ft deep & perhaps more our animals as well as ourselves have had a hart time we assended a mt with our animals untill we were enveloped in the cloud that had rained and snowed all day on us & it was so thick & dark we coud not see each other only a few rods apart Sat 11th to day came down die Canion to the Valley & encamped on Red Butfte] Creek to wait for some to arrange their baggag for packing as we shall leave the Waggon & go up the Weaver [Weber] River some 30 or 40 miles North of here Sun 12th March this morning some of our animals strayed away & it took us untill late to find them started however earley enough to reach the City Plot about noon where some of our friends met us from town & bid us good-By again came this afternoon about 10 m & encamped hoping some more will Join us here there being but 7 now in company 4 having left us on account of the waggon being left behind.14 Their Baggage could not be carried 14

Appearing on the torn last page of the journal are seven names, apparently of the men who accompanied Bliss. The names as they appear are: Wm Garner, Capt.; R. S. Bliss Historian; Alvah C. Calkins; Abner L. Blackburn; Ami R. Jackman; Saml Lewis; David Stuart.

396

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Mon 13 th 1848 This morning started in good season & traveled to the mouth of the Weaver & encamped we observed a variety to entertain us to day[,] Wild Geese Sand bill Cranes Spring Birds Butterflies & a variety of insects Flowers of various hues & was cheered by the Peeping of the frogs in many places just as we camped we saw 13 mt Sheep Tues 14th Last night was a cool Windy night but to day is again fine weather passed up the weaver through a difficult pass through among the Rocks & Sides of the mt which opened into a fine valley some 2 miles wide with considerable timber on the streams came to the upper end of the valley & encamped near Some Indian lodges lately deserted this valey would afford great advantages for a settlement15 Wed 15th March continued our Journey up the weaver & crossed it some 16 times within ten miles; we came to' the waggon road about 2 O'Clock P.M. & traveled some 5 miles farther & encamped by some mts of rocks resembling Ancient Castles making about 20 miles to day we are now 45 miles from Salt Lake16 Thur 16th Last night it rained nearly all night soon after we started it commenced raining again & continued to rain by Squalls untill about noon then snowed untill we camped which made it verry disagreeable traveling we made 26 or 28 miles to day Frid 17th Snowed all night but we started for Bear River that our Animals might find some grass to sustain them for they found none last night to day is cold & Windy we found some difficulty in going through snow banks & fording the streams reached Bear River about 10 or 12 miles & forded it & camped on the East Bank found plenty of wood which we were destitute of last night Excepting a few willows Sat 18th March Last night it snowed & this morning the mts & valleys were covered with a mantle of snow the weather is cold we had frequent snow squalls through the day & some difficulty in getting With variations in spelling, these same names appear in the Manuscript History of Brigham Young,.p. 35.

William A. Garner was a private in Company B of the Mormon Battalion, while Alva C. Calkins was a private in Company A and Abner L. Blackburn and Samuel Lewis were privates in Company C. The names of Jackman and Stuart do not appear on the Battalion rolls.

15 The "difficult pass" was undoubtedly Devils Gate, and the "fine valley" was probably Morgan Valley. '"For earlier accounts of traveling this route, see: "The Journal of Heinrich Lienhard," Utah Historical Quarterly, XIX (1951), 130.

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

397

our Animals through the snow drifts for the last few days our Animals were frequently down & it was by much exercion they could extricate themselves from the drifts of snow came some 18 miles to day and encamped on a stream called Muddy Sun 19th March 1848 Last night was cold with some snow traveled 14 miles & reached Fort Bridger here we encamped to buy meat &c for our journey here Bro Armstrong left us who had accompaned us from the valley here we were joined by a Gentleman who wished to go with us to the states to day is a cold raw day with snow squalls Mon 20th March 1848 Left Fort Bridger this morning & crossed a number of streams on the Ice which were verry difficult to cross to day is also cold & snows some occasionaly; had some sport to day with a herd of Antelope they were hemed in between two creeks & they had to run by us before they could get out of our reach we fired one shot at them but they were to far of[f] to take effect we came about 18 miles & camped on Blacks Fork Tues 21t March Last night was the coldest night we have had but today has been pleasant there is no snow on the ground here & has been none since we left Fort Bridger saw many Antelope today & some Sage hens they are a fine fowl much larger than the Prairie hen of Illinoiss; came 19 miles to day & camped on Hams-Fork a fine stream this is comparatively a level country though upon the height of the mts we have been some 5 or 6 days traveling on verry elevated ground & expect it will take some four or five days more to' pass to the other side of the mt Wed 22d This morning left Hams Fork & traveled 18 miles to Green River a tributary to the Old Colerado which we crossed near the Gulf of California we crossed after comeing up the West Bank 5 mil by fording it this is a fine River & plenty of Cotton Wood growing on either side continued our Journey 6 miles farther to Big Sandy which runs into Green River below the ford making 29 miles to day saw many herds of Antelope to day there is no snow here but we can see the Wind River mts white with snow far to the North east of us Thur 23d to day came about 28 miles & camped on little Sandy from Big Sandy to the ford of the same is about 18 miles & from the crossing to little Sandy 10 miles making 28 miles to day saw many fresh signs of Buffalo this afternoon also saw many Antelope to day but they are verry Wild having been hunted so much by the Indians

398

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Frid 24th Came 30 miles over the Pass or divide & camped on to Sweet Water; Last night had some snow & to day frequent snow squalls & verry cold colder than we have seen this winter this afternoon the snow difficult to pass & injurous to our Animals feet on account of the crust Sat. 25th March 1848 to day came 12 or 14 miles down sweet water & camped on camp creek verry cold & disagreeable found considerable snow in drifts which was hard enought to bear our animals in some places; saw some herds of Antelope on our way to day & signs of Buffalo Sun 26th this morning was to cold to think of traveling & as we were in a good place & plenty of grass we called it Camp creek & concluded to lay by & rest ourselves & animals over Sabbath Mon 27th March came about 16 miles & camped on Sweet water through a snow storm all the way; we are now probably one hundred feet lower than our last camp & it is much warmer soon after we camped we found two of our boys who' left the 15 Jan last they were in a deplorable condition one had froze his feet so he was unable to travel & they had killed their only horse to subsist upon & had eaten the most of it the day before we found them they killed an Antelope & 2 Geese which was better than horse Beef we took them & their effects with us the next day Tues 28th March the snow fell several inches deep last night we came 25 miles to day after leaving camp crossed some high hills17 over to Sweet Water 10 miles crossed then struck across die Plains 15 miles & camped snowed all day made a most disagreeable camp in the snow & storm Wed 29th Last night it continued to snow nearly all night the snow loaded down the tent so that it fell upon us in the night had a most disagreeable time in making a fire of Buffalo Chips to cook our breakfast; came some 20 miles & encamped; snowed occasionaly through the day; had to make our beds on the snow again to night Thur 30th Snowed again last night continued our journey but made only about 16 miles to day on account of the depth of snow saw many antelope to day & where 2 Bear had crossed our Road " This was probably the crossing of the divide at South Pass.

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

399

Frid 3 It Cold night & clear cold day made only 16 miles to day passed a place called Hell Gate where Sweet water river cuts its way through a mt of Rocks & camped at Independence Rock named by Mr Sublet many years ago who celebrated the 4th of July on the top of it April It 1848 Cold night & to day is cool & fair after we had come this morning some 4 or 5 miles we discovered a number of herds of Buffalo & concluded to lay by & kill some meat as we were nearly out of meat; came about 12 miles to Sage creek & camped about one hour after we had encamped one of our boys came in & reported he had killed a Buffalo we immediately took 6 Animals & dressed & packed it into Camp Sun April 2d 1848 this morning packed our meat & started for Willow Springs 12 miles from our last camp here we dried our meat ready to start on the morrow to day was one of the most Windy days I ever saw we could hardly keep our feet saw many Buffalo to day; they have eat all the Grass in this country or left but little for our Animals Mon 3d Last night the snow fell on us about 2 Inches came 28 miles to Plattfe] River on our way passed Poison Springs & a good spring for emgrants to water at also saw thousands of Buffalo' & killed 1 sage hen for supper Tues 4th April crossed the River & continued down the same 16 or 17 miles & camped on account of one of our Animals giving out the Grass is so poor our horses & mules can barely subsist the Spring Grass is just beginning to start out of the Ground & there is but little dry feed; last night verry Windy Wed 5th April After we camped yesterday a herd of fine Buffalo came near our Camp & we shot one & took the tallow & some of the best meat the Grass is so poor we came only 12 miles to deer creek & camped Deer Creek is a fine clear stream With much timber for this country saw some fine herds of Buffalo to day they are verry tame any number could be killed with ease here & on Sweet Water is a fine place for Emigrants to lay in for meat for Journying West this is one of the finest days we have seen sine we left the valley while walking about I discovered a fine bed of stone coal near our camp Thur 6th April 1848. Came 5 miles then struck over the Blk hills passed a number of clear streams of water & camped on a creek near to Arch Bridge we killed one Antelope to day; about sun down

Independence Rock, famous landmark of the Western trail, has been called the "Register of the Desert." It is near Wyoming State Highway 220 approximately seventy miles north and east of Rawlins. The print here reproduced is from a sketch by Frederick Piercy printed in Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley, fames Linforth, ed. (Liverpool, 1855).

This print of a buffalo hunt on the plains is reproduced from a sketch by Frederick Piercy and first printed as a steel-engraving in Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley, fames Linforth, ed. (Liverpool, 1855).

mtT.J4smf

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

401

our boys killed a Buffalo & brought some of the choicest meat & tallow into camp came 18 miles to day Frid 7th 1848 came 19 miles to day; saw many Buffalo Elk & Antelope our Animals are failing the Grass is so poor they cannot find enough to eat Sat 8th April came 18 miles over the most rough road among the Blk Hills we found no water the whole distance only from melted snow passed some Pine to day the buffalo are not so plenty here & the Grass is better camped at Kimball Spring Sun 9th April 1848 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Last night soon after commenced blowing & soon it commenced snowing untill Sunday night the wind blew & the snow came west without cessasion one of the most severe storms encd; conciquently we had to Lay by all day

dark the wind from this time from the North we have experi-

Mon 10th April 1848 came about 15 miles to Bitter Wood creek & encamped to let our animals feed as they were kept tied all day Sunday Tues 11th April came 15 miles to Warm Springs & drank of its waters & continued our Journey 15 miles farther to Fort John18 & encamped the weather appears to be settled yet we have cool nights with Frost with the wind in the North Wed 12th left Fort John this morning & continued down the Piatt about 12 miles & came [to] a traders Lodge where through the acquaintane of Mr Wheatley who accompanied us from fort Bridger; we obtained 50 or 60 lb of fine dried Buffalo meat which was generously given us by the Gentleman of the Post this afternoon continued our Journey some 10 miles farther making about 22 miles Thur 13 th traveled about 28 miles to day & camped in sight of Scotts Bluffs Frid 14th Started without Breakfast & traveled 10 miles for Breakfast opposite Scotts Bluffs continued on Journey 12 miles farther making 22 miles to day 18 Originally called Fort William, the post was built in 1834 by Robert Campbell and William Sublette. Fort John was the name given to the post after it was acquired by the American Fur Company. About 1846, the fur company built a new post a mile upstream on the Platte and called it Fort Laramie. See Edgar M. Ledyard, "American Posts," Utah Historical Quarterly, III (April, 1930), 61-63.

402

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Sat 15th the weather has been fine since last Sundays storm & Grass is growing & the elements seems to rest from their War we experienced among the mts Started soon after sun rise & came 14 miles before we took breakfast past chimney rock to day it resembles a light house some 300 ft high from the bed of the River saw herds of Buffalo this afternoon we have now entered the Buffalo country again came 25 miles to day Sun 16th April 1848 Started at Sun Rise & came about 12 miles to Breakfast then continued our Journey about 13 miles making 25 miles Mon 17th April came 22 miles to day Buffalo crossed the River almost into our camp

Last night a herd of

Tues 18th came 4 or 5 miles to ash hollow here we left one of our animals which gave out supplied ourselves with some flour & Buffalo meat for a few days & continued our journey Some 10 miles & encamped [There follows three (3) pages of illegible writing. However, some of the entries have been recopied on the following four (4) pages.]

Wed 19th April continued down the platte about 10 miles and encamped saw a herd of Buffalo feeding not far off we soon killed one took about 100 lb of the best of the meat & dryed it for packing for our use on the road here we also kill a goose & Prairie Chicking Thursday 20th Started early saw many herds of Buffalo feeding killed one that was laying in our road he was to poor for our use came 25 miles Fri 2 I t came about 16 miles & camped on an Island to obtain wood to dry our Buffalo meat for our Journey the remainder of the way fo[r] we expect soon to be beyond game of any kind crossed Buffalo creek to day a fine stream saw a herd of Buffalo feeding sent one of our men to kill one he soon gave us a signal that he had killed one went to him & found he had killed one two years old we got him in camp about sundown & set up nearly all night to Jerk it in order to start early the next morning 22 Sat Started about noon to day we was delayed in conciquence of our meat not being dry enough came 14 miles to day & camped

THE

BLISS

JOURNAL

403

Sun 23d came about 28 m & encamped in a grove of timber one of our men did not come into camp as soon as we expected him we sent back after him but could not find him we made signals by fire & Guns but he did not come up we spent an anxious night for him while the wolves growled & snapped there teeth around us all night we was fearful he had fell in with Indians & killed 24th after looking some time this morning for the lost man started on our way came a few miles & found one of the horses our lost man had left & soon found him he had missed our camp & gone some 5 miles below our [camp] camped alone he said he did not sleep much on account of the wolves [The entries for April 25 through 29 are illegible.]

Started again & made 30 miles & camped without fire to elude the Indians Mon May It 1848 Started before sun Rise & came 18 miles before breakfast continued our Journey 12 miles farther making 30 miles & camped on the Piatt below the Forks Tues 2d May started Early & traveled 10 miles for Breakfast to the liberty pole when we came in sight of it we gave a Shout for Joy knowing we were only 16 miles from the Horn & 42 from Winter Quarters where we hope our Family & friends are we have not seen for nearly 2 years after breakfast continued our Journey crossed the Horn by Swimming ourselves & animals over; then traveled 8 miles & camped to avoid a band of Pawnees who were verry saucy and impident to us stoping our Pack animals & holding our horses by the bits till they had took whatever they fancied

Here the journal ends, but we know that Bliss and his companions reached Winter Quarters. The Manuscript History of Brigham Young (p. 35) and the Hosea Stout Journal both give the account of the arrival of the party from Utah.19 What we do not know is when and under what circumstances Robert Bliss met his family. A search of the records in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library and the files of the Daughters of die Utah Pioneers has pro10 Stout's entry for May 3, 1848, reads: "Eight men arrived from the Valley. News Good." (The Hosea Stout Journal is in the manuscript collection of the Utah State Historical Society).

404

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

duced no additional information about the Bliss family coming to Utah. However, a Bliss genealogy published in 1881 has this to say of the journalist.

Robert Stanton [Bliss], of Cold Springs, Cal., (son of Capt.

John Bliss and Lucretia Bishop, of Avon, NY.,) was born in Montville, Conn., Aug. 1, 1805, and married in 1833, to Mary Payne. He was in the Mexican War in 1846-7, after which he went to California as a pilot or guide, with the first company of golddiggers, and died at Cold Springs, in 1851.20

20 Genealogy of the Bliss Family in America, From About the Year 1550 to If (Privately printed, 1881).

t. - ' Tr*R •a- • «

1

J ''

Board of Trustees, Utah State Historical Society. Left to right: Joel E. Ricks, Russel B. Swensen, Everett L. Cooley, Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., Juanita Brooks, Leland H. Creer, A. R. Mortensen, J. Grant Iverson, Richard E. Gillies, L. Glen Snarr, J. Sterling Anderson. Inset: Lamont F. Toronto and Mrs. A. C. Jensen. Date, May 9, 1959.

THE

PRESIDENT'S

REPORT

By Leland H. Creer *

Organized for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and disseminating the materials of history, particularly those pertinent to the Intermountain West, die Utah State Historical Society was created during the Jubilee Year, 1897, which occasion marked die fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. With great seriousness and steadfastness of purpose, the seventy-four charter members on December 28, 1897, defined and adopted as their objectives the following: The encouragement of historical research and inquiry by the exploration and investigation of aboriginal monuments and remains; the collection of such material as may serve to illustrate the growth of Utah and the Intermountain region; the preservation in a permanent depository of manuscripts, documents, papers and tracts of value; the establishment of a library of books and publications, and a cabinet of antiquities * Dr. Creer is head of the department of history at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society since 1949 and has served as its president since April, 1957. His Report was delivered at the seventh annual dinner meeting of the Society on May 9, 1959.

408

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

and relics; the dissemination of information and the holding of meetings at stated intervals for the interchange of news and criticisms.

Under the capable leadership of Dr. A. Russell Mortensen, who is now serving his ninth year as Director and Editor of its publications, the Utah State Historical Society has made steady progress toward the realization of the above aims. The former governors' mansion, a gift to the state by the widow of Senator Thomas Kearns, its original builder and owner, has been the headquarters of the Society since 1957.

This spacious edifice, exquisitely furnished throughout, provides ample space for the many activities featured â&#x20AC;&#x201D; editorial, library, archival depository, military records, reading rooms, microfilm operations, and reception facilities. Since its occupancy by the Society it has always been "open house" at the Mansion, for be it understood the Historical Society is a public institution, housed in a public building, and designed to render at all times a public service. During the two years of occupancy, hundreds of writers, historians, graduate students, genealogical workers, public officials, and foreign visitors have frequented its many rooms and utilized its splendid facilities in quest of further knowledge. Under careful regulation by die Building and Grounds Committee, the building also has been made available for organized lectures, chapter meetings, programs, etc., which are compatible with the aims of the Society. During the past year four major art exhibits and four lectures, sponsored by the Committee on Public Relations, have been offered to the public. In August, 1958, the Society served as major sponsor for a most successful joint convention of the American Associatoin for State and Local History and the Society of American Archivists.

The Society is deeply indebted to Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., through whose generosity the Nicholas G. Morgan Collection, containing more than two thousand volumes in Western Americana, and several pieces of sculpture have been acquired. Mr. Morgan's latest gift to the Society is the assignment to it of potentially valuable royalties from oil, gas, and mineral leases on some seven thousand acres in the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah. In consideration of the above philanthropies, the library of the Society has been officially named die John Morgan Memorial Library and from the anticipated income accruing from the above leases, the Morgan Endowment Fund has been created.

This fund is to be used at the discretion of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society in pursuit of the following purposes:'

THE

PRESIDENT'S

REPORT

409

(1) the general development of the Morgan Library over and above the normal state support, emphasizing particularly Utah, Mormon, and Western history; (2) the purchasing of necessary real property for a suitable Archives building; (3) a program of research fellowships which shall include the publishing of articles, monographs, and books; and (4) for the purchase, support, and operation of historic sites and museums and for the purchase or erection of monuments to individuals, institutions, and significant historical events.

Since 1957, six important standing committees have been created in an effort to promote and revitalize committee action. These are the committees on Archives; Public Relations; Library; Publications; Expansion and Membership; and Finance, Buildings and Grounds.

Bimonthly meetings of the Board of Trustees have been scheduled at which time written reports are made by committee chairmen.

ARCHIVES. In 1951 the legislature created the Division of State Archives and made the Utah State Historical Society responsible for the examination and preservation of all noncurrent public records. The function of the Archives Division was declared to be "to serve as custodian of all records, documents, relics, and other materials of historic value which are now or hereafter may be in charge of any state, county or other public official." In this relationship, the Archives Division, of necessity, is involved in other activities. These, according to Dr. Everett L. Cooley, our State Archivist, include "the management of the creation, filing, storage, and disposal of records." This involves the employment of skilled personnel. There is immediate need for at least two additional staff members in the Archives Division â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a trained assistant in record management to insure the creation, filing, indexing, and preservation of current records before they reach the archival stage, and a field representative whose chief concern should be expert advice tendered to city and county agents relative to the proper disposition of documents.

Most of the archival material thus far collected is filed in basement vaults of the Mansion. This storage space is hopelessly inadequate. All of the valuable state documents should be housed in fireproof air-conditioned vaults, specially constructed under archival specifications.

Until this is done, many valuable historical records will have to remain in the agencies of their origin, many of them unclassified and therefore quite useless for research purposes. Any long-range program should anticipate the construction of an archives building to meet this emergency.

410

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Special commendation should be accorded Dr. Cooley, who, although working under financial and personnel handicaps, has accomplished a great deal during the past year to further the archives work of the state of Utah. He lists the following accomplishments: (1) the accessioning with the Archives records of the now defunct State Planning Board and the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development, including important studies in the state's mineral, industrial, and recreational resources, and the accretion of more than one thousand maps of inestimable value; (2) the critical examination of over one thousand transcripts of testimony on file with the Clerk of the Third District Court; (3) the compilation of a check list of more than three hundred microfilms completed by the Archives Division; (4) the preparation of a "Microfilm Guide" as a means of insuring uniformity in this important work throughout the state, county and city agencies; (5) the completion of plans, in conjunction with the Latter-day Saints Genealogical Society, to microfilm the records of Weber and Box Elder counties; (6) and the sound recording of die proceedings of die House of Representatives of the state legislature.

More funds are needed for salaries, archival space, fireproof vaults and microfilming. Thirty-five thousand dollars, an increase of ten thousand dollars, was appropriated by the legislature for the coming biennium. This is fifteen thousand dollars less than the request made by the department.

Concluding his 1959 report, Dr. Cooley appends diis pertinent comment: The chief monument of the history of a state is its archives . . . it is unquestionably as much a function of our government to provide for the preservation and use of its archives as it is to make laws and levy taxes. This is recognized in all civilized countries, and to neglect properly to perform this function is not only unbefitting the dignity of a great state, but it endangers an inheritance which future generations have a right to demand shall pass to them unimpaired.

LIBRARY. The library is the heart of the Society's activities and functions. Catalogues, indices, newspaper files, and microfilm facilities are readily available. A microfilm reader today services two hundred sixty rolls of films as compared with fifty a few years ago. In this regard the library has acquired thirty reels of the Weekly Deseret News (1850-1900), sixteen reels which record the entire manuscript collection of the Bancroft Library, and others which contain the records of price-

THE

PRESIDENT'S

REPORT

411

less diaries and journals gleaned from such depositories as the Library of Congress and the Huntington, Yale, Harvard, and New York Public libraries.

The number of books accessioned and catalogued is not large, some 5800 volumes, but the list, largely Western Americana, is well chosen.

There are 2400 pamphlets, 400 unpublished manuscripts, and 630 periodicals, of which 160 represent current subscriptions. In addition, the library has added some 3100 invaluable photographs and 100 maps, descriptive largely of the Great Basin area. Awaiting publication when funds become available is a comprehensive Union Catalogue of published materials on Utah and Mormon history. This project, begun several years ago by Dale L. Morgan, lists by author, title, and date all published materials of this kind found in every library in the United States. So far more than nine thousand separate items have been listed on some thirty thousand typed cards. Another less ambitious but equally worthy project has been the listing of some fifteen hundred graduate theses on Utah and Mormon history, registered in American college libraries. Mr. John James, librarian, estimates that the library served more than nine hundred students and writers interested in research during the past year.

Another interesting project closely affiliated with die Archives Division of the Society is the Military Records Section under the direction of Mr. Robert Inscore. Mr. Inscore reports that more than 250,000 separate records have been filed. These deal with die vital statistics of every Utahan who has served in the military forces of the United States since the organization of the territory in 1850. Of these, 72,000 deal with World War II alone.

PUBLICATIONS. The Board of Trustees is proud of the splendid work of Dr. A. R. Mortensen and the Publications Committee in the editing and publication of its Quarterly. When Dr. Mortensen first assumed the role of Director-Editor in 1950, only seventeen volumes had appeared, and these had been published annually. Since that time the magazine has appeared regularly on a quarterly basis and the issues have been made more salable by improving the type, adding timely illustrations and by providing a more attractive cover. The sale of the summer issue of July, 1958, dedicated to the theme: "Utah's Parks and Scenic Wonders," and enlivened by the inclusion of twenty-two illustrations, some of them in color, exceeded all expectations. More than twenty-five thousand copies were sold. This montii the second summer issue dedicated to the theme: "The Valley of the Great Salt Lake,"

412

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

will appear. Such timely articles as "The Changing Face of Salt Lake City," "Crossroads of the West: Temple Square," "Utah's Capitols," "The Great Salt Lake," "Wandering in the Wasatch," "The Shining Mountains: the Oquirrhs," and "Main Street: Salt Lake City," all beautifully illustrated and carefully annotated, are included. In addition to the regular issues of the Quarterly, it is hoped that special numbers containing the completed research of scholars will appear occasionally as special monographs.

EXPANSION AND MEMBERSHIP. Under the capable chairmanship of Dr. Joel E. Ricks, immediate past president, a comprehensive program of expansion is being planned. Excellent chapters have been organized in Cache, Utah, and Salt Lake counties, and it is expected that others will be established in those of Weber, Iron, Sanpete, and Sevier. The Salt Lake Valley Chapter, organized in January, 1959, already has an enrollment of more than ninety members and is holding regular monthly meetings in the Mansion. The growth of the Society during the past nine years has been phenomenal. Our membership, during that time, has increased from approximately three hundred fifty to more than eleven hundred members, and our biennial budget has increased from $40,000 to more than $200,000. However, with this increased growth, new and greater responsibilities to serve the state are ours. And we are ever mindful that our greatest objective is the preservation of our wonderful pioneer heritage. In this we must not fail. With a loyal and devoted Board of Trustees, a sympathetic governor and legislature, and the enthusiastic support of our many friends, the future of the Utah State Historical Society seems assured.

REVIEWS

AND

RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

Hole-in-the-Roc\. By DAVID E. MILLER. (Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1959, 222 pp., $5.50) Mormon colonization of San Juan County via a short-cut across the Colorado River has long been a subject for romantic writing and confusion of facts. Hole-in-the-Roc\ by David E. Miller represents years of patient research among written and oral sources as well as several trips by foot, horseback, and jeep over the entire course involved in the study. The book is well written to hold reader interest and inspire confidence in reliability of subject matter. It will undoubtedly remain as the definitive work in the field. To ten chapters delineating interesting details of the historic pioneer ventures are added eighty pages of revealing appendixes, six helpful maps (plus end sheets), and a dozen pages of selected illustrative photographs. The author deals at length with problems of responsibility in choice of route and of leadership in an expedition which was undertaken with a sense of mission and brought to a conclusion through disillusionment, struggle, and heroism. The reader emerges from the work with a feeling of satisfying familiarity with a subject heretofore left hanging at loose ends. He is fully converted to the courage and tenacity of the pioneer band, if not wholly reconciled to claims for divine guidance in the choice of route.

The historian might raise a question as to the author's leniency in interpreting the episode. What happened is fully explained, but one is

414

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

left to wonder why it should have been allowed to happen as it did.

Agreed that there is "no better example of indomitable pioneer spirit" it might be questioned if it presents "an excellent case study of highest type of pioneer endeavor." For here is a case of departure from die usual Mormon way of doing things. The preliminary scouting by way of Lee's Ferry and Monument Valley and return by way of the Old Spanish Trail represented the typical caution involved in Mormon expansion, but the decision of the leaders of the main company of men, women, and children to ignore known routes in favor of an unknown short cut did not. Like the Donners they blundered into the unknown at terrific cost. Like the ill-fated handcarters of 1856 they learned the bitter consequences of moving against negative reports. In view of the preliminary scouting by way of southern and northern routes one can hardly join with the author in excusing an error by asking "who shall say that another route would have proven better?"

However, having taken the chance and having heroically conquered the unnecessary obstacles of the short cut the pioneers did introduce a worthy stock into San Juan County which came to play a significant role in its development. The reader of Hole-in-the-Rock arrives with the exhausted expedition at Bluff with a wish that another chapter might appear on how the valiant pioneers expanded their mission from the pitifully few acres to which they anchored themselves on the banks of the San Juan. _ _ T GUSTIVE O. LARSON

Brigham Young University A Ram in the Thicket. By FRANK C. ings House, 1959, 312 pp., $4.95)

ROBERTSON.

(New York, Hast-

"My parents were strong people. They lived in a period of the frontier that has been generally overlooked by the historians of the West. This is largely their story...."

Thus does Frank C. Robertson introduce his cantankerous, neerdo-well father, his long-suffering but strong-willed mother, his two older brothers and himself, the subjects of this disturbingly candid biography. Much of the story is about the parents and their hardships grubbing a poor living out of the timbered mountains of the Idaho panhandle and later on dry farms in southern Idaho. In the ultimate it, however, is most revealing about Frank Chester Robertson, the sage of Mapleton, Utah, "Chopping Block" columnist in the Provo Herald,

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

415

rebel extraordinary, the author of more than one hundred hardback books and an uncounted number of articles of Western fiction.

Just as historians have neglected the period of history and the little people about which Robertson writes, Utahans for a time neglected this state's best-known Western fiction writer. It is something of a commentary that some of his novels had a better sale in England than in Utah. Maybe this is just more proof that this state, settled to a New England blueprint, never has cottoned to the romantic Old West and its traditions.

While the Robertsons suffered their raw and almost incredible hardships in Idaho, their adventures included journeys into Utah.

These were occasioned by hard necessity and by the elder Robertson's restless search for "poor land for a poor man."

In the spring of 1906, Frank Robertson and his middle-aged parents quit Chesterfield, Idaho, and set out for the "promised land" of Utah's Wayne County in a covered wagon, some household goods and $116.00.

"When we drove up South Temple Street in Salt Lake City . . . I was unable to withstand the stares and the jocular comments of the people whose ancestors had come to the city in just such a rig as ours," says Mr. Robertson. "I crawled back under the wagon cover and did my sight-seeing through a slit in the canvas.

"We were, I am sure, among the very last of the covered wagon pioneers. The difference between us and our predecessors was diat they were called sterling pioneers while we were called wagon tramps.

In later years those same streets would see many a jalopy filled with transients even seedier than we were. But that would be in a new era, and we were hangovers from the old."

The Robertsons got as far as Loa, when disenchantment and the truth about the country they had thought they could help colonize, plus a flash flood, caught up with them and "we turned back without laying eyes on the poor man's paradise we had traveled so far to' see."

The father hired out on a wheat farm on the Levan Ridge, and Frank, at sixteen, went to work for $35.00 and board in Dog Valley, eight miles west of Nephi. There a group of professors from Brigham Young University, headed by the late Dr. John A. Widtsoe, were "reclaiming" a large tract of sagebrush land and growing wheat.

At Dog Valley (named for the coyotes so numerous there) young Robertson had some disappointing experiences which supported his conviction that some of the finest people are rough in manner and

416

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

appearance, and some of the most pious lack the milk of human kindness.

"That summer at Dog Valley ended my hopes of ever getting an education . . . It was an interlude, a lost portion of our lives. . . . I don't think Mother was surprised when one day Father came back from the ridge and, as in days of old, said, 'Start Packin', Ma. We're going back to Chesterfield.' " Frank herded sheep, went on the road, joined the army of unemployed, gravitated toward Salt Lake City's notorious Commercial Street, where he found the "red light district" girls kinder than most of the men with whom he sought employment and the landladies from whom he sought room and board.

The story of Robertson's writing career should be required reading for all who aspire to' become authors. The current president of the Western Writers of America and the founder of the Utah Writers League had modest beginnings in his profession, and several ups and downs occurred before he finally hit his stride, ran his earnings up into five figures, and baled out the family.

"Ram in the Thicket," to which his mother figuratively turned in adversity, was published first by a little-known firm nine years ago.

Characteristically, the printing plant burned down, destroying most of the volumes and the plates. The new edition is not a reissue in the ordinary sense. It has been completely rewritten, smoothed out, and vastly improved. It is excellent history. â&#x20AC;&#x17E; ,T T '

r

'

ERNEST H. LINFORD

Salt Lake Tribune The Fancher Train. By AMELIA BEAN. (New York, Doubleday and Company, 1958, 356 pp., $3.95) I believe it was Wallace Stegner who said that it was almost impossible to "fictionize" the Mormons because the facts were so preposterous. Certainly even a seasoned writer might balk at trying to create romance out of the grisly massacre at Mountain Meadows. Yet in this, her first novel, Amelia Bean manages not only to hold the reader's interest, but to create the illusion of actuality. And this is the more remarkable for the fact that her characters are all out of stock Western: the golden-haired heroine who becomes more and more the pioneering wife; the brave buckskin-clad hero; the villains mean as sin. In fact, Mrs. Bean's horses come more alive than her people! And it is also true that her incident are not overly original; her wagon train might

REVIEWS

AND

RECENT

P U B L I U A I IUI.O

417

be any wagon train going west. For instance, The Fancher Train never evokes the buffalo dung and trail dust of Guthrie's Way West, and Mrs. Bean's Indians are never the flesh-and-blood creations of La Farge's Laughing Boy. Moreover, Mrs. Bean's literary style not only gushes with purple passages occasionally, but positively reeks with such constructions as "pleasedly anticipated," "itchingly jumpy," and "plannedly."

Still, in the field of narration Mrs. Bean has unusual gifts, and I would like to see more of her writing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but I do hope her next book is all fiction. For while as a story The Fancher Train is entertaining, as history it comes near to being cause for libel.

Mrs. Bean is unpardonably careless with the facts. She remarks in her preface that the "bones (of the Fanchers) still lie about one hundred miles from where I write this." It is too bad that she never crossed that hundred miles. It is obvious that Mrs. Bean used Juanita Brooks's scholarly Mountain Meadow Massacre as source material, since the latter is the only existing definitive history of the subject, yet it is equally obvious that Mrs. Bean did not take the trouble either to visit the site or to study Mrs. Brooks's footnotes. For certainly all her "years of study of history" failed to teach her anything of the character of Brigham Young, or of such men as William Leany and Isaac Haight.

And finally her book ends where it should begin, since even if her hero manages to escape peritonitis, there is only one way he can get out of the trap she leaves him in, and that is by helicopter!

To mention some of the book's historical blunders: 1. The episode of Haun's Mill is not detailed enough or sufficiently explicit. See the Journal of David Lewis, an eyewitness.

2. Jim Bridger was never "driven out of his fort" by the Mormons. In fact, on page 107 of Mrs. Brooks's book there is a note to the effect that Fort Bridger was "recently purchased" for $8,000.00 by the Mormon Church.

3. Mrs. Bean has her hero, Jed Smith, simultaneously born the bastard son of both Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, the Mountain Man. Indubitably a feat! Still, it is doubtful that Jedediah Smith could claim the honor. On page 132 of Dale Morgan's fine biography, Jedediah Smith, there appears this statement: "So far as the record shows, Jedediah had no interest in women, and there is no suggestion that he ever admitted a squaw . . . to his bed."

4. It seems to me a shade dishonest to use the names of people who once lived and whose descendants still live and to manufacture

418

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

personalities out of whole cloth to fit such names. For instance, Brigham Young would never under any circumstances have prefaced his remarks with "By God." Used as a byword, that expression meant "taking the Lord's name in vain" to the early Mormons, and even today is considered by most of them as an "unforgivable sin." Nor would Brigham have referred to "John Doyle Lee" or "Isaac Haight" as such; instead, he would have said "Brother John D. Lee," and "Brother Isaac Haight." And never would he have been guilty of the term "Injuns!" While it is true that Brigham Young could be earthy, he was always a leader; Mrs. Bean fails to make him this. Repeatedly she has him groaning over his "paper work." Apparently she has not taken the trouble to learn that Brigham Young, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator was never without at least three full-time secretaries! Mrs. Bean also mentions "ambitious" John Higbee, and "slovenly" Phillip Klingensmith. As for William Leany: far from aggressively bedeviling the Fanchers, William Leany forsook "counsel" to the extent of trading them grain and "greens," and was actually beaten with a fence railing by an irate fellow Mormon for his pains! Isaac Haight was never the cold-blooded and wily schemer Mrs. Bean depicts; it is a fact that when he received Brigham Young's message to protect the Fanchers, he burst into tears and cried, "Too late, too late!"

5. At the end of Mrs. Bean's novel, three people escaped the massacre. According to Mrs. Brooks's history, three people tried to' escape but were killed. Mrs. Bean insists she is right. How then does she explain the personal effects of the fleeing three men that Piute Chief Jackson brought to Jacob Hamblin ?

6. As I have said, the final indignity occurs at the end of the book.

Mrs. Bean has two people on horseback pull a wounded man on a travois from the massacre site to the Virgin River. Even on today's good roads it would take a horse at least fourteen hours at a fast gallop to make such a journey. Yet she has her people not only outwit three hundred determined Indians but, forced to a slow walk, reach the river bed overnight and find a cave high on its banks! Then she has Jed, the wounded man, plan to reach Wyoming's Powder River.

The banks of the Powder River and the cool retreats of the Canadian Rockies sound like the delirium of a fevered brain. How a wounded man, an Indian boy, and a girl â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without supplies, bedding, or tools â&#x20AC;&#x201D; could travel north toward Powder River would make a sequel far more exciting than the original book. Over this terrain, at this time of year, the struggle for survival would be keen indeed. To

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

419

leave the three stranded at the confluence of the Santa Clara Creek and the Virgin River with only dreams of so distant a paradise is to leave the reader skeptical and dissatisfied. â&#x20AC;&#x17E; , T7 MAURINE WHIPPLE

St. George, Utah The Diaries and Letters of Henry H. Spalding and Asa Bowen Smith Relating to the Nez Perce Mission, 1838-1842. With Introductions and Editorial Notes by Clifford Merrill Drury. (Glendale, California, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958, 379 pp., $12.50) Presented here are hitherto unpublished documents which help materially to round out the story of the Oregon Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Henry Harmon Spalding, missionary to the Nez Perce Indians at Lapwai (near the present town of Lewiston, Idaho) for a dozen troubled years, gains more and more height as an impressive figure in die early history of the Pacific Northwest as his story becomes better known. Although he could even descend to methods like the whip to keep his converts on the path of righteousness, Spalding obviously achieved virtual miracles with the gentle Nez Perces and showed them, as well as the white men who were to follow, the way to make their land fruitful. His usually bright optimism and unswerving faith in the worth of his labors to make industrious Christians of this famous tribe color all his extant writings.

Oddly enough, these very qualities drew down upon him the wrath of the disgruntled missionary at Kamiah, Idaho, Asa Bowen Smith. It is hard to like the Reverend Mr. Smith. His pen he employed solely for the advancement of his views with the American Board's home officials. In letters as long as novelettes he spilled out his hopeless discouragement at trying to achieve anything worthwhile with a small and dwindling tribe like the Nez Perces. Since Spalding's optimism about the work had found its way into print back east, he became Smith's target. Smith objected to the teaching of agriculture to redskinned savages: better to keep them savage, indeed better to forget the whole thing. Eventually all this backbiting played a large role in the Board's order for Spalding's discharge and for the closing of the Lapwai and Waiilatpu Missions, which in turn led to Whitman's eastern ride of 1842.

Spalding sums up the basic issue in a passage in his diary under date of September 1, 1839: "Sabbath. Rev. Mr. Smith preaches against

420

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

all efforts to settle the poor Indians, thinks they should be kept upon the chase to' prevent dieir becoming worldly minded."

These documents contain much more, however, than the record of petty differences among the laborers in the Oregon Mission. For the first time a picture of the shortlived Kamiah Mission emerges. The unbelievable hardships under which all these people lived and worked are once more described. There is the woman, for instance, so ill with spinal disease that she could not sit or stand and several months gone in pregnancy, traveling by canoe from Fort Walla Walla to Lapwai so that her husband could set up a printing press to publish Spalding's Nez Perce translations of the Scriptures. Much additional data accumulates on Whitman and his Waiilatpu; Drury even prints the complete inventory of property lost as a result of the 1847 massacre.

Indeed, historians are fortunate that Drury is the presenter of these papers. His introductions bear the stamp, of course, of years of significant labor in the field. For the editing this reviewer has only awed praise.

One final note: Spalding's diary offers nearly incontrovertible evidence that he it was, appropriately enough, who baptized Chief Joseph, the appealing leader of the tragic Nez Perce revolt a generation later.

PHILIP C. STURGES

University of Utah Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska. By MERRILL J. MATTES. National Park Service Historical Handbook Series No. 28. (Washington, D.C, 1958, 60 pp., 30<0 This little booklet, highly illustrated with original sketches and informative maps, tells the history of the country along the great North Platte Valley trunkline of the Oregon Trail. Early exploration, the fur traders and the rediscovery of the Central Overland Route, the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, traders, missionaries and adventurers, the migration to Oregon, Scotts Bluff and the Forty-Niners, trail geography at Scotts Bluff, gold rush trading posts at Scotts Bluff, and even the prehistory are discussed in some detail. Scotts Bluff National Monument was created to keep alive the epic story of our ancestors who dared cross the wilderness of plains and mountains to plant the western stars in the American flag.

REVIEWS

Centennial

AND

RECENT

Colorado:

PUBLICAiiuna

Its Exciting

Story.

421

By ROBERT G. ATHEARN and

CARL UBBELOHDE. (Denver, Colorado, 1959,95 pp.)

This colorful hard-cover booklet published commemorating Colorado's centennial year is "excitingly" written. A sampling of the chapter headings indicates the range of subject matter covered and the colorful manner of presentation: " T h e Mesa Verde: Fairyland of Cliffdwelling"; "Explorers' Frontier: Spanish and American"; " F u r Trading: Early Trails a n d Forts"; "Gold in '59: Wealth in the Wilderness"; " T h e R e d Barrier: Peace Pipes and Blood-Baths"; "Railroads: Race to the Mountain Treasure Chest"; "A N e w Monarch: Queen Silver"; " T h e Cow K i n g d o m : A n Empire of Grass"; and so on down to the last chapter, " D u d e Wranglers Frontier: A Rare Inheritance."

Extensive use of black and white along with four-colored photographs beautifully illustrate Colorado's past as well as her present in diis interesting little book.

Our Strip of Land: A History of Daggett County, Utah. By D I C K and VIVIAN D U N H A M . (Manila, U t a h , 1947,106 pp., $2.00)

Attention is called to this little booklet which was first published several years ago. Although Daggett County is politically one of the youngest in the West, it was the first to be settled in the Great Basin.

T h e rugged beauty of the Uinta Mountains, the canyons of the Green River â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Flaming Gorge, Horseshoe, Hideout, and Red Canyons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the geological formations make this land unique. Daggett is primarily devoted to stock-raising, but the rich phosphate deposits, the natural gas produced from Clay Basin in the eastern end of the county, and the undeveloped deposits of manganese, oil, coal, copper and oil-bearing shales, as well as gilsonite, sooner or later are bound to stimulate the economic development of this sparsely settled region. T h e material presented is lightly written but very readable.

Long John Dunn of Taos. By MAX EVANS. (LOS Angeles, California, Westernlore Press, 1959,174 pp., $5.75) Volume X V , Great West and Indian Series, Long John Dunn of Taos, is the incredible life story of John D u n n , gunman, professional gambler, stage driver, saloon keeper and general opportunist, whose name and existence are so well k n o w n to natives of northern N e w Mexico that he has become almost legendary. H i s story is one of the strangest to come out of the West. T h e hard cruel facts of building

422

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the West â&#x20AC;&#x201D; cattle drives, gun-slinging, gambling, homesteading, mining, and the building of communities in an arid land is told by Max Evans who spent many months as close confidant of D u n n . It is a book for every person w h o loves the West in all its truth, humor and pulse-stirring pageantry.

Prairie Schooner

Lady.

The Journal of Harriet Sherrill

Ward, 1853.

Edited by WARD G. D E W I T T and FLORENCE STARK D E W I T T .

(Los

Angeles, California, Westernlore Press, 1959, 180 pp., $5.75) Volume X V I , Great West and Indian Series, Prairie Schooner Lady, is the first-hand account of the W a r d family's journey across the plains in 1853 from Wisconsin to Indian Valley, California, written by the wife and mother of the family, Harriet Sherrill Ward. Mrs. Ward was sensitive to the things she observed daily about h e r â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the people she met, the Indians, die oddity and industry of the Mormons, the beauty of the days and nights on die prairie, the savagery of the storms and the beauty of the landscape through which they toiled. H e r journal proves her to be an educated and lucid writer, and through publication of it one more classic is added to our knowledge of die great Western migration to California during die Gold Rush.

American Murder Ballads and Their Stories. ( N e w York, Oxford University Press, 1958) Beyond a Big Mountain.

House, 1959)

By OLIVE W . BURT.

By PETER DECKER. ( N e w York, Hastings

Bill Sublette: Mountain Man. By JOHN E. SUNDER. (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1959) Clarence King: A Biography.

Macmillan Co., 1958)

By THURMAN WILKINS. ( N e w York,

Financial and Economic Analysis: Colorado River Storage Project and Participating Projects. A Study Prepared by the United States Department of the Interior. (Washington, D . C , G.P.O., 1958) From Wilderness

to Empire.

By ROBERT GLASS CLELAND. A Combined

and Revised Edition of From Wilderness to Empire (1542-1900) and California in Our Time (1900-1940). Edited by GLENN S. D U M K E . ( N e w York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959)

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

423

Grand Canyon: Today and All its Yesterdays.

By JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH. ( N e w York, William Sloane Associates, 1958) The

Great West, A Panorama.

Coward-McCann, 1958)

By CHARLES NEIDER.

( N e w York,

Journal of Travels from St. Josephs [sic] to Oregon. By RILEY ROOT. (Reprint of Galesburg, Illinois, 1850 ed., Oakland, Biobooks, 1955) Journey Through the Rocky Mountains and the Humboldt Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. By JACOB H . SCHIEL. Translated and edited

by T h o m a s N . Bonner. ( N o r m a n , University of Oklahoma Press, 1959) Massacres of the Mountains. A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West, 1815-1875. By J. P. D U N N . ( N e w York, Archer House, 1958) Montana, An Uncommon Land. versity of Oklahoma Press, 1959)

By K. Ross TOOLE. (Norman, Uni-

The Outlaw Trail. A History of Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch.

By CHARLES KELLY. (Revised and enlarged, 1938 ed., N e w York, Devin-Adair Co., 1959) The Pictorial History of Southern Oregon and Northern California.

By JACK SUTTON. (Jacksonville, Oregon, T h e Southern Oregon Historical Society, 1959) Portrait of America. Letters of HENRY SIENKIEWICZ. Translated and edited by Charles Morley. ( N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1959) Present Relations of the Federal Government (Washington, D . C , G.P.O., 1959)

to the American

Indian.

Relations with the Indians of the Plains, 1857-1861. A Documentary Account of the Military Campaigns, and Negotiations of Indian Agents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with Reports and Journals of P. G. LOWE, R. M. PECK, J. E. B. STUART, S. D . STURGIS, and other Official Papers. Edited by LeRoy R. and A n n W . Hafen. Volume IX The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series 1820-1875. (Glendale, T h e Arthur H .

Clark Co., 1959)

424

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The Spanish Entrada to the Louisiana Purchase 1540-1804. By CARL I. WHEAT. Volume I, Mapping the Transmississippi West 15401861. (San Francisco, Institute of Historical Cartography, 1957) From Lewis and Clark to Fremont 1804-1845. By CARL I. WHEAT. Volume II, Mapping the Transmississippi West 1540-1861. (San Francisco, Institute of Historical Cartography, 1958)

GENE M. GRESSLEY, " T h e Turner Thesis â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A Problem in Historiography," Agricultural History, October, 1958.

MARION CLAWSON, "Reminiscences of the Bureau of Land Management, 1947-1948," ibid., January, 1959.

FITZHUGH TURNER, "Railroad in a Barn" [Central Pacific in the Sierra Nevadas], American Heritage, December, 1958.

AUGUST C. BOLINO, "Brigham Young as Entrepreneur," Journal of Economics and Sociology, January, 1959.

American

"Sketches which Went to Congress to Prove a Myth and Preserve a Park" [Yellowstone] (Thomas Moran, painter), American Scene, Spring, 1958.

MAURINE CARLEY, "Oregon Trail Trek N o . Six," Annals of April, 1958.

Wyoming,

, "Oregon Trail Trek N o . Seven," ibid., October, 1958.

MRS. A. R. BOYACK, "Oregon Trail Trek N o . Eight," ibid., April, 1959.

THELMA GATCHELL CONDIT, " T h e Hole-In-The-Wall," Part V, Sections

2, 3, and 4, ibid., April, October, 1958, April, 1959.

DALE L. MORGAN, "Washakie and the Shoshoni" (conclusion), ibid., April, 1958. , " T h e Ferries of the Forty-Niners," ibid., April, 1959.

HENRY C. PARRY, "Letters from the Frontier, 1867," ibid., October, 1958.

JOHN W . CAUGHEY, " T h e American West: Frontier and Region," Arizona and the West, Spring, 1959.

REVIEWS

AND

RECENT

PUBLICAiiuno

425

WALTER RUNDELL, JR., "Concepts of the 'Frontier' and the West," ibid.

N I L S - E R I C BRODIN, " T h e Swedes and the Swedish L a n g u a g e in Utah,"

Augustana

Bulletin,

February, 1958.

LEONARD J. ARRINGTON, " A n Economic Interpretation of the ' W o r d of

W i s d o m , ' " Brigham

Young

University

Studies, Winter, 1959.

W I L L I A M W I L K E S , "John Tullidge: Utah's First Music Critic," ibid.

STEPHEN R. WILSON, "Gold Hill, U t a h " (Clifton District, Tooele C o u n t y ) , Bulletin of the Mineralogical Society of Utah, March, 1959.

AMELIA EVERETT, " T h e Ship Brooklyn," California Historical Quarterly, September, 1958.

Society

DELLO G. DAYTON, "Polished Boot and Bran N e w Suit" ( T h e California Militia in Community Affairs), ibid., March, 1959.

ROBERT G. ATHEARN, " T h e Denver and Rio' G r a n d e and the Panic of

1873," Colorado Magazine,

April, 1958.

, "Origins of the Royal Gorge Railroad War," ibid., January, 1959.

JANET LECOMPTE, "Charles Autobees," ibid., April, 1958.

"Rush to the Rockies Centennial Edition," ibid., April, 1959.

L. G L E N SNARR, "Mormon Angels of Mercy," Coronet, April, 1959.

NOLIE M U M E Y , "Writers of Western History" (James Watson Webb, 1802-1884), Denver Westerners Monthly Roundup, June, 1958. , "Writers of Western History" (Zebulon Montgomery Pike, 1779-1815), iWJ., July, 1958. , "Writers of Western History" (Warren Angus Ferris), ibid., August, 1958. , "Writers of Western History" (Benjamin L . E. Bonneville and Francis P a r k m a n ) , ibid., November, 1958. " F r o m Nauvoo to Kirtland," Church News [Deseret News], 1959.

N E L L MURBARGER, "Trail-Blazer of Grand Canyon," Desert October, 1958.

July 4, Magazine,

426

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

, "Ghost T o w n Dwellers," ibid., February, 1959. , "Discovering Fable Valley," ibid., March, 1959.

RANDALL HENDERSON, "Canyon Boat Ride in Utah," ibid., December, 1958.

MARY BECKWITH, "Life from the Earth" (Southwest Basketmakers 300 to 700 A.D.), ibid., January, 1959.

THELMA BONNEY HALL, "Progress at Glen Canyon D a m , " ibid., February, 1959.

CECIL M . OUELLETTE, "Exploring the Fiery Furnace" [Arches National M o n u m e n t ] , ibid., June, 1959.

FRANK A. TINKER, "Utah Creates State Parks," ibid.

CHRISTIAN JENSEN, " T h e Canal on the Canyon Wall" [Virgin River], Ford Times, December, 1958.

GENE AHRENS, "Farewell to Glen Canyon," ibid., April, 1959.

ROCKWELL D . H U N T , "Fifteen Decisive Events of California History," Part II, Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, June, 1958.

"The Mormon Tabernacle" [in the series, "Landmarks of the World"], Holiday, December, 1958.

EARL H . SWANSON, "Problems in Shoshone Chronology," Idaho Yesterdays, Winter, 1957-58.

R. J. NEWELL, "Water for the West," ibid., Spring, 1958.

SVEN LILJEBLAD, " T h e Bannock of Idaho, A n Essay Review," ibid.

"Presidents of the Church" [with colored portraits], Improvement November, 1958.

Era,

VIRGINIA BAKER, "Brigham Young, Leader of the Mormons," The Instructor, April, 1959.

CARL J. CI-IRISTENSEN, " T h e Iron Mission of Pioneer Utah," ibid.

MARIE F . FELT, "Jefferson H u n t of the Mormon Battalion," ibid.

"With the Mormon Battalion," ibid.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

427

G. ROBERT R U F F , "Racing Rails that United a Nation in Utah," ibid., May, 1959.

"Sheldon Jackson Invades the Rocky Mountains, 1869-76," Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, June, 1959. " H o w the West Was W o n " (Exploring the Wild N e w L a n d ) , Part I — Part VII, Life, April 6 — May 18,1959. " T h e Glories of the Mountain West" (A Life Region), ibid., June 8, 1959.

trip to the Rockies

BERNICE EASTMAN JOHNSTON, " N a v a h o Education — T h e First Thirty

Years," The Master\ey,

January-March, 1959.

RICHARD A. BARTLETT, "Freedom and the Frontier: A Pertinent Reexamination," Mid-America, An Historical Review, July, 1958.

DONALD H . WELSH, " T h e Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858-1861, and Its Centennial Observance in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, April, 1958.

"Copper and Communications," Monitor, November, 1958.

GERALD P . PETERS, "Recent Economic Development of T h e MountainPlains States," Mountain-Plains Library Quarterly, Winter, 1959.

BARTLETT BODER, " T h e Pony Express," Museum

Graphic, Spring, 1959.

CONRAD L. W I R T H , "Heritage of Beauty and History: T h e National Parks," National Geographic Magazine, May, 1958.

"Guide to Scenic Playgrounds and Historic Shrines of the United States and Canada," ibid.

WILLIAM BELKNAP, JR., "Nature Carves Fantasies in Bryce Canyon," ibid., October, 1959.

SALLY A. JOHNSON, "Fort Atkinson on the Council Bluffs," History, March, 1959. " T h e Colorado River in Nevada," Nevada 2, 1958.

Highways

Nebraska

and Par\s,

No.

GEORGE E. PERKINS, "On the Trail of a Renegade Pahute," Historical Society Quarterly, March, 1958.

Nevada

FRANK D . REEVE, "Navaho-Spanish Wars 1680-1720," New Historical Review, July, 1958.

Mexico

428

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

, " T h e Navaho-Spanish Peace: 1720's-1770's," ibid., January, 1959.

S. LYMAN TYLER AND H . DARREL TAYLOR, " T h e Report of Fray Alonso

de Posada in Relation to Quivira and Teguayo," ibid., October, 1958.

"Roundup T i m e on the Western Range" (Beyond the Frontier, Writers have found the Myths and Symbols Americans Live By), New York. Times Book Review, August 17,1958.

E. C. BLACKORBY, "Theodore Roosevelt's Conservation Policies and Their Impact upon America and the American West," North Dakota History, October, 1958.

WILLIAM H . ELLISON, "San Juan to Cahuenga: T h e Experiences of Fremont's Battalion," Pacific Historical Review, August, 1958.

HERMAN J. DEUTSCH, "Geographic Setting for the Recent History of the Inland Empire," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, October, 1958.

MAURICE E. COOLEY, "Physiography of the Glen-San Juan Canyon Area," Part I — Part III, Plateau, October, 1958, January, April, 1959.

ALEXANDER MAJORS, "Pony Express and Brave Riders," Pony August, 1958.

Express,

"Alexander Majors, 1814-1900," ibid. " 'Cross the Plains goes the Harlan Party — California Bound," ibid., November, 1958.

"History in Glen Canyon," Reclamation

Era, May, 1959.

PEARL WILCOX, "Reminiscing in Kirtland," Part I — Part V, Saints' Herald, August 25 — September 22,1958.

"Nauvoo in Perspective," ibid., September 15, 1958.

FRANK J. TAYLOR, " T h e Saints Roll up Their Sleeves," Saturday ing Post, October 11,1958.

Even-

ARTHUR W . BAUM, "Battle Against the Lake" (the Southern Pacific Railroad building the Causeway across the Great Salt Lake), ibid., December 13, 1958.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLlbA i l u n o

429

CHARLES EGGERT, "Forbidden Passage" (a vignette about the most beautiful stretch of the Colorado River), Sierra Club Bulletin, November, 1958.

"Rambling D o w n Western River Trails," ibid., March, 1959.

N O N A SHIBLEY, " O p h i r — W h e r e a F o r t u n e was W o n and a Life was

Lost on a 'Pair of Fours,' " SUP News, March, 1958. , " T h u m b - N a i l History, Tooele County," ibid. , "Mercur, Tooele County's Fabulous Ghost Town," ibid., April, 1958.

LOWELL M . D U R H A M , "Utah's Pioneer Music," ibid.

JAMES P . SHARP, " T h e Old Spanish Trail Through Utah," ibid.

"Amasa M . L y m a n and Charles C. Rich Honored as Colonizers of Southern California Centers," ibid.

DAVID E. MILLER, "Strategy in Echo Canyon —100 years ago," ibid. , "Chinaman's Arch" [east of Promontory S u m m i t ] , ibid., April-May, 1959.

WALTER L . WEBB, "Notes on Fairfield, Once Roistering Army Camp," ibid., August, 1958.

CLARENCE A . REEDER, JR., " T h e Crossing of the Fathers," ibid., Septem-

ber-October, 1958.

HAROLD H . JENSON, " T h e First Christmas in the Valley," ibid., De-

cember, 1958.

N E W E L L K N I G H T , " A H o u s e of Government," ibid., February, 1959.

GUSTIVE O . LARSON AND CLAIR KILTS, " F i n d i n g a H o m e for Utah's

Legislature," ibid.

Dix LARSON, "Tumbleweed T o w n s " (Overland Express Route — Fairfield to Gold H i l l ) , Part I, ibid. , "Tumbleweed T o w n s " ( T h e Desert Trail from Callao to Gold H i l l ) , Part II, ibid., March, 1959. /'Tumbleweed T o w n s " ( T h e Mighty Tintic Area), Part III, ibid., June, 1959.

430

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

-, "Tumbleweed T o w n s " (National, Consumers, and Sweets — Pioneers of the Coal E r a ) , Part IV, ibid., July, 1959.

BERNICE GIBBS ANDERSON, " T h e Corinne Opera House," ibid., AprilMay, 1959.

BERNICE GIBBS ANDERSON AND JESSE H . JAMESON, " T h e Saga of the

Good Ship City of Corinne," ibid.

JESSE H . JAMESON, " T h e Last Fourteen Miles" [Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads], ibid. , "Corinne, Utah — 'The Burg on the Bear,' " ibid.

HAROLD H . JENSON AND JESSE H . JAMESON, " A Railroad to the Pacific,"

ibid.

ADOLF REEDER, "Before the Railroads," ibid.

"One Surprise After Another" [Utah's Pine Valley Mountains], Sunset, September, 1958.

"Into the Needles Country by Jeep Tour," ibid., October, 1958.

"Old Virginia City," ibid.

DOUGLAS ALLEN, "Drama A m o n g the Mormons," Theatre Arts, December, 1958.

BURR JERGER, "Medicine Men to the Navajo," Think,

January, 1959.

RICHARD L. NEUBERGER, " T h e Legacy of Lewis and Clark," ibid., June, 1959.

ERIC ENNIS, " T h e Platte Bridge Battle, July 26, 1865," Tradition, April, 1959.

LAUREN C. BRAY, "Louis Vasquez, Mountain Man," Trail Guide, December, 1958.

GENE CAESAR, "King of the Mountain M e n " [Jim Bridger], May, 1958.

True,

SAM WELLER AND K E N REID, " T h e Deseret Alphabet," True October, 1958.

West,

FREEMAN H . HUBBARD, "Wife of the Chief," ibid., December, 1958.

LESLIE G. KENNON, "Pony Express," ibid.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

431

N E L L MURBARGER, "Ghostly Belmont" [Nevada], ibid., January-February, 1959. , "Murder on the Trail," ibid., March-April, 1959.

KATHRYN D . GROESBECK, " T h e Mountain Meadows Massacre," ibid. , "Utes at the Whiterocks Dance Grounds," ibid., May-June, 1959.

KAY MCDEARMON, "Silver Queen" [Baby Doe Tabor], ibid., M a r c h April, 1959.

EVAN A. IVERSON, "History and Organization of Utah Counties," Utah Counties, 1958. " T h e Counties of Utah," ibid.

OSMOND L. HARLINE, " W h a t a N e w Resource Development Means to' an Area" ( U r a n i u m and Petroleum in Grand and San Juan Counties), Utah Economic and Business Review, October, 1958.

JAY M.

BAGLEY, W A Y N E D . CRIDDLE AND R. K E I T H HIGGINSON, "Water

Going to Waste in Southwest Utah," The Utah Farmer, September 18, 1958.

W A Y N E D . CRIDDLE, " H O W can our Water Resources Best Be Used?" ibid., April 2, 1959.

D A N DUFPHEY, "Glen Canyon . . . Boom or Bust," Utah Fish and Game, April, 1959.

LEE KAY, "Bird Day in Utah," ibid.

"Historic Alta," USS Westerners, February, 1959.

"Pinkerton's and die Hole-in-the-Wall G a n g " [Butch Cassidy], Westerners Brand Boot\ [Chicago], November, 1958.

THERON H . L U K E , "Utah's 40 Years of Historical Amnesia," ibid., April, 1959.

K. Ross TOOLE, " T h e W a r of the Copper Kings," Westerners York Posse Brand Book, N ° - h 1 9 5 9 .

New

[Entire issue devoted to Utah Folklore], Western Folklore, April, 1959.

S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH, " 'Dear Ellen': A Utah-California Correspondence, 1856-1857," Western Humanities Review, Spring, 1959.

432

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

RALPH FRIEDMAN, "Cottonwood Wash Road" (short cut road to Glen Canyon d a m ) , Westways, September, 1958.

D A N L. THRAPP, "South Pass â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gateway to Empire," ibid., October, 1958.

JUANITA BROOKS, "There's a Dixieland in Utah," ibid., December, 1958.

RUSSELL Q U I N N , " H e Made His Mark H e r e " [Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke], ibid., March, 1959.

JOSEF MUENCH, "Interlude on the Colorado" (photographs), ibid., May, 1959.

VIOLA LOCKHART WARREN, "History in Paper Bags" [Hubert Howe Bancroft], ibid., June, 1959.

CHARLES O. BURGESS, "Green Bay and Mormons of Beaver Island," Wisconsin Magazine of History, A u t u m n , 1958.

. f

Special certificates of recognition and honorary membership on the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society were presented to Levi Edgar Young, left, by Governor George D. Clyde, center, and to Edward M. Mabey, right, accepting the honor for his father, the late Charles R. Mabey. The two men so honored devoted long years of service to the cause of history generally and served untiringly on the Board of Trustees of the Society for many years.

HISTORICAL

NOTES

The seventh annual dinner meeting of the Utah State Historical Society was held Saturday evening, May 9, 1959, in the Panorama Room of the University of Utah Union. Dr. Milton R. Merrill, Vice-President, Utah State University, delivered the address, "Reed Smoot, Apostle and Politician." President Creer delivered the annual "President's Report" on the affairs of the Society, and Governor George D. Clyde appointed Professor Levi Edgar Young to honorary life membership on the Board of Trustees for his long years of service to the Society and membership on the Board. Edward M. Mabey accepted honors for his father, the late Charles R. Mabey, for his years of dedicated service to the Society. One hundred and fifty members and friends attended this most successful annual meeting.

The Fifty-Second Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch American Historical Association was held September 10, 11, 12, 1959, at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. C. Bickford O'Brien of the University of California, at Davis, was general program chairman. The Local Arrangements Committee consisted of David E. Miller, chairman, Leland H. Creer, and Philip C. Sturges. A. R. Mortensen served on the general program committee.

A comprehensive program of general historical subjects was covered with several sessions directed toward Western history topics.

436

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

On Thursday, September 10, a Council meeting of the PCB was held at the Mansion of the Historical Society. That same evening Society President Leland H. Creer was chairman of a meeting at which John D. Hicks, professor of American History, University of California, Berkeley, gave an address "Two Post-War Decades, the 1920's and 1950's." At the conclusion of Dr. Hicks's remarks a buffet dinner was served.

On the morning of Friday, September 11, a major session was devoted to "The West." Russell Elliot, University of Nevada, was chairman. Papers presented were: "Edward Kern and Topographic Art in Western America, 1845-1851," by Robert V. Hine, University of California, Riverside; "Origins and Ends of the Federal Subsidy for the Southern Overland Route in the 1850's, a Revisionist View," by Edward H. Howes, Sacramento State College; "The Engineer and the Canyon," by Dwight L. Smith, Miami University, Ohio. Richard J. Morrisey, U.S. Air Force Academy, served as commentator.

At the luncheon meeting on Friday, John W. Caughey served as chairman; greetings were extended by University of Utah President A. Ray Olpin; and Boyd C. Shafer, Executive Secretary, American Historical Association, was the speaker: "History, Not Art, Not Science, But History."

On Saturday, morning, September 12, a session of particular significance to the Intermountain West was held: "The Conservation of Historic Sites in the Expanding West." C. Gregory Crampton, Director, Historical Research Program, Upper Colorado River Project, University of Utah, was chairman and commentator. Topics were: "Federal Responsibility and Policy," John O. Littleton, Chief, National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, National Parks Service, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, D . C ; "State Action," C. J. Olsen, Director, Utah State Parks and Recreation Commission; "The Role of the Professional Historical Agency," Clifford L. Lord, Dean, School of General Studies, Columbia University, President, American Association for State and Local History.

Another session held concurrently Saturday morning was of special interest because of the participants: "Legal History â&#x20AC;&#x201D; New Opportunities for Historians and Lawyers." Reed A. Stout, of the California State Bar and former resident of Salt Lake City, served as chairman. Papers presented were: "Legal History and the Historian," by Lawrence A. Harper, University of California, Berkeley; "Legal History and the Lawyer," by Moffatt Hancock, Stanford University Law School. Com-

HISTORICAL

NOTES

437

mentators were: J. Allan Crockett, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Utah; Dello G. Dayton, Weber College, Ogden; and Francis D. Wormuth, University of Utah.

On Saturday afternoon excursions to various historic sites in the Salt Lake City area were sponsored by the Local Arrangements Committee.

One of the most beautiful, valuable, useful, and important gifts to the library in recent years is the remarkable series, "Mapping the Transmississippi West," by Carl I. Wheat (see the listings in the Reviews and Recent Publications section). The two volumes already published and presented to the Society by Mr. Wheat have attracted a great deal of attention and interest and have been used by several scholars in the library recently. The third volume in the projected series of five is to be printed this autumn. The Society expresses thanks and appreciation to Mr. Wheat for the generous gift of this valuable series to the holdings of the Society.

The Editor wishes to thank Dr. Howard R. Driggs of the American Pioneer Trails Association, Inc., New York, New York, for his generosity in loaning his colored plates of William Henry Jackson's "The Pony Express Rider" to the Desert News press for use in printing die beautiful colored cover which appeared on the April issue of the Quarterly.

In recent years the Brigham Young University library has published several excellent indexes to Mormon Church periodicals and publications. The latest is "Index to A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by B. H. Roberts," and this is to be followed shortly by an index to the Journal of Discourses (twenty-six volumes, Liverpool, 1954-86). Further information on these and other indexes available may be obtained by writing directly to Brigham Young University Student Supply, Provo, Utah.

439

INDEX

INDEX Adams, Ansel, 315 Adams Express Company, 108; issued franks, 118 Aderente, Vincent, 265 Adobe yard, designated, 214 Alpine Loop road, 317, 324, 326; picture of autumn scene, 241 Alta, Utah, described, 320; picture of, 318, 320, of ski lift, 240 Alter, J. Cecil, quoted, 382-84 Amalgamated Sugar Company, took control of U.I.C., 152 American Express Company, 105 American West, map of, 8 Anaconda, Montana, 295 Anderson, Robert, 147 Anderson Dam, 47 Anderson's Tower, 227 Angel Moroni, description of on temple, 253 Angel, Truman O., architect for temple and capitol, 260 Antelope Island, 303, 307 Apperson, A. B., 150 Archives, report on, 409â&#x20AC;&#x201D;10 Arthur, Utah, 288, 292 Arrington, Leonard J., 23 Ashley, General William H., 314; figure represented on monument, 204 Aspinwall, William, 104 Assembly Hall, 221, 248; built, 227; described, 255; picture of, 256 Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, reaches Pueblo, 130 Athearn, Robert G., "Utah and the Coming of the D & RG," 129-42 Austin, Moses, 9 Austin, Stephen F., 19 B

Bamberger, Simon, 266 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 10 Bank of Canton, Ohio, 345 Bank of Geauga, 345 Baptiste, John, 309 Barnes, A. R., 263 Bartleson-Bidwell party, 301 Bear River, 396 Beehive House, 222 Beggs, James G., 119 Beless, James W., Jr., "Daniel S. Tuttle, Missionary Bishop of Utah," 359-78 Bell, Dr. William A., 133 Beneficial Life Insurance Building, 276 Benning, H. A., 152

Benson, Ezra T., 276 Bernier, Baptiste, 302 Bidwell, John, 301 Big Sandy River, 397 Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Railway, 133 Bingham, Utah, 291; picture of, 284; picture of copper pit at, 244 Bitter Wood Creek, 401 Blackburn, Abner L., 395n, 396n Black Hills, 401 Blacks Fork, 397 Bliss, Robert S., 395n; facsimile of journal pages, 380; journal of, 381-404 Bolton, Herbert Eugene, 10 Bonneville, Captain B. L. E., 301 Bonneville Terrace, 304 Book of Mormon, 69, 70; appeared, 65; literature of America, 70 Bosley, Edmund, 34 Bosque Redondo Reservation, 52 Boston Building, built, 231 Bowery, 226, 251 Box Elder tabernacle, picture of, 68 Boyd's City Express, isssued franks, 118 Boynton, John, 341 Brannan, Samuel, disfellowshiped, 167; joined Mormon church, 157; led Saints of Brooklyn, 158-61; letters to Brigham Young, 162-64; meeting with Brigham Young, 162; organized church branch in San Francisco, 163; picture of, 156; picture of his home, 166 Bridger, James, views Great Salt Lake, 302 Brigham Young monument, 229; picture of, 202 Brooklyn (ship), 63, 157, 158; arrival in San Francisco, 160 Brooks, Juanita, 23 Browning, Matthew S., member Capitol Commission, 263; picture of, 144 Buchanan, President James, 110 Buffalo hunting, pictured, 400 Bullock, Thomas, signature on plat map, 212-13 Bump, Jacob, 341 Bureau of Information and Museum, 248, 257; picture of, 252 Burton, Sir Richard F., 212, 226; quoted, 283 Butterfield, John, 105, 108

Cahoon, Reynolds, Kirtland temple committee member, 341 "Calico Line," see Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway

440

UTAH

California (ship), 104 California-Nevada volunteers, 226, 294; prospecting of, 322 California Star, first appeared, 162 Calkins, Alvah C , 395n, 396n Campbell, Eugene E., "The Apostasy of Samuel Brannan," 157-67 Campbellites, 331, 332 Camp Floyd, 288 Canon City, D & RG branch line toward, 130, 131 Cannon, George Q., describes apportionment of Great Salt Lake City, 215, fencing of lots in, 216, old fort in, 214 Cannon, Theodore L., "Temple Square: The Crossroads of the West," 247-57 Cannon shaft, picture of, 286 Capitol, building of, 2 5 9 - 7 3 ; architect for, 263; art works in, 265, 266, 2 7 1 , 272; building materials used, 264, 265; commission members, 263, picture of, 268; contractors for, 263, 264; cornerstone laying of, 267 ff; picture of, 239, of rotunda, 258 Cardiff mines, 319 Carey Act, 32 Carr Fork, 290 Carrie Steele lode, 295 Carrington, Albert, locates capitol site, 260 Carson, Kit, 302; cross of, 303 Carson Inn, 292 Carter, Jared, Kirtland temple committee member, 341 Carthage, Illinois, martyrdom at, 65 Castaneda, 23 The Cattlemen from the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias, by Sandoz, reviewed, 197-99 Cattle raising, in California, 14 Caughey, John W., picture of, 6; "Toward an Understanding of the West," 7-24 Centennial Colorado, by Athearn and Ubbelohde, reviewed, 421 Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, 103, 108, 109, 115, 116, 119; awarded mail contract, 107; loans made to by Holladay, 124; promissory note of, 122 Central Pacific Railroad, 137, 138 Central Route, 105, 107, 115; controversy over, 108, 109; divided into two sections, 111-14; mail service started on, 110 Chaffey, George, 19 "Chief Massassoit," 259, 266 Childs, E. Sâ&#x20AC;&#x17E; 110 Chimney Rock, 402 Chislett, John, 276 Chinese massacres, 16

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Chivington, Colonel, 18 Chorpenning, George, 107 Church of the Good Shepherd, 370 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, choir of, 248; conferences of, 248; offices completed, 2 3 1 ; organized, 65; other offices of, 222 City and County Building, completed, 229; picture of, 261 City Creek, first camp upon, 210; Fremont camped on, 303 City Dispatch Post, issued franks, 118 City of Corinne, see General Garfield Civil War, 64, 76; effect on mail service, 109, 115, 123 Clark, Senator W . A., 287 Clawson, J. W., 266 Clawson, Mary J., 382, 384, 386 Cleveland Herald, 351 Clear Creek, Utah, boom town, 135, 136 Clyde, George D., "History of Irrigation in Utah," 27-36; picture of, 26, 434 Clyman, James, 301, 302 Colfax, Vice-President Schuyler, visited Utah, 367 Collinston hill, picture of grade over, 149 Coloma, California, 164 Colorado River Reservation, 52, 53 Colorado River Storage Project, 33 Columbia Basin, Inter-Agency Committee, survey of recreational resources, 46 Compromise of 1850, 73 Confederate forces mobilized, 109 The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona, by Kerby, reviewed, 200 Connor, Colonel Patrick Edward, 226, 294; prospecting of soldiers, 322 Constitution Building, 276 Continental Bank Building, built, 231 Cook, Fred K., 119 Cooley, Everett L., "The Robert S. Bliss Journal," 381-404; "Utah's Capitols," 259-73 Copley, Leman, 332 Coray, Sergeant William, 158 Corinne, Utah, 366 Corwin, Fanny, 167 Council House, description of, 217, 221, 275; picture of, 261 Cowdery, Oliver, 335, 340, 341, 345; secures bank notes, 346 Creer, Leland H., "The President's Report," 407-12 Creighton, Edward, built telegraph line, 120 Crosby, Sarah, 362 "Crossing at Council Bluffs," picture, 2 Culmer, H. L. A., 272 Custom House, in San Francisco, picture of, 161

INDEX

Dallin, Cyrus E., 266 Daly, Marcus, 287, 294 Dana, Marshall N., "Reclamation, Its Influence and Impact on the History of the West," 39-49; picture of, 38 Dana, Richard Henry, 9 Daughters of the Mormon Battalion, 382 Death Valley, 11 Deer Crek, water project, 232 Democrats, curry Mormon favor, 72 Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, bids for joint rates with Union Pacific, 142; buys out Atchison Company, 131; ground purchased for depot, 134; has control of Royal Gorge route, 131; incorporated, 130; last spike driven at Colorado line, 136; organized, 133; pictures of, 132, 133, 134; nears Ogden, 138 Dern, John, 263 Deseret, 73; alphabet, 67 Deseret Chemical Depot, 287 Deseret Evening News, quoted on D & RG, 136 Deseret News, quoted, 141 Deseret Telegraph line, 224 The Diaries and Letters of Henry H. Spalding . . . , edited by Drury, reviewed, 419-20 Dinsmore, William B., 108, 110, 114 Doctrine and Covenants, 69 Dodge, D. C , 133 Dominguez-Escalante expedition, 300, 313 Donner party, 206, 288 Dotsero Cutoff, completed, 141 Douglas, Donald, 19 Duncan, Sherman and Company, 130 Durrant, Mrs. Mary, 362n

Eagle Emporium, 277 Eagle Gate, 222; elevated, 229; picture of, 225, 230 East Chagrin River, 336 Eccles, David, 146-48; picture of, 144 Eccles, George S., 151 Eccles interurban, reached Hyde Park, 147 Edmunds Act, 76 Edmunds-Tucker Act, 76 Electric lights, in Salt Lake City, 228, 231 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 62; quoted on Mormonism, 66 Emigration Square, 229 Emma Mine, 319 Endowment House, 221, 251; picture of, 252 "Entering the Valley," by Harwood, 235

441 Episcopal church, attitude toward Mormons, 360-62; early vestrymen of, 370; first communicants of, 362; hospital organized, 374; numbers of in Utah Territory, 360; organized schools in Salt Lake City, 362, 372, 373; picture of Bishops of, 377 Evans, Edwin, 272 Expositor, press destroyed, 72

Facts About Utah, reviewed, 200 Fairbanks, Avard, 266 Fairbanks, Ortho, 267 Fairfield, Utah, 288, 292 The Fancher Train, by Bean, reviewed, 416-19 Farming: early beginnings in Utah, 29 Federal Building, 231 Federal Reserve Building, 231 Fenn, Lucius, letter of quoted, 64 Fiction writers, of the West, 9 Fielding, R. Kent, "The Mormon Economy in Kirtland," 331-56 Fillmore City, named capitol site, 260 Fillmore State Capitol, architect for, 260; picture of, 261; restored, 162 First Security Bank, 276; Building, 232 Foote, Mrs. Nelly, 361 Foote, Rev. George W., 361, 362, 369, 370; built church, 366 Foote, Sarah, 361 Ford, Seabury, 347 Forringer, A. E., artist, 265 Fort Bridger, 397 Fort Douglas, 231 Fort John, see Fort Laramie Fort Laramie, 401n Fort Sumner, 52, 53 Fourier, Charles, 70 Fox, Jesse W., locates capitol site, 260 Franks, first issued, 118 French, Peter, sold farm to Mormons, 336, 337 Freemasonry, 64 Fremont, John C , explorations of, 9, 13, 205, 297, 301, 303 Fremont Island, 302, 309 Fulton, Theresa, 362

"Gathering," 67, 71; in Kirtland, 342, 343 Gamble, James, built telegraph lines, 120 Garden of Eden, in America, 69 Gardner, Hamilton, review by, 193-94 Garfield Beach, picture of, 305 Garfield, Utah, 288, 292 Garner, William, 395n, 396n Garrison, William Lloyd, 63

442

UTAH

Gemmell, Robert C , 2 9 1 ; picture of, 289 General Garfield (City of Corinne), picture of, 305 Gerrisch, Fanny, 362 Giannini, A. P., 19 Gibson, Mack, 295 Gilbert, Algernon, 333 Gilbert, G. Karl, 303 Gilbert and Gerrish, 276 Gillogly, Rev. James L., does missionary work in Ogden, 370 Gittins, Alvin, 272 Gist, Governor, 108 Godbe, William S., 277, 367 Godbeite movement, 367 Goddard, Rev. E. N., 361, 364 Gold Room, described, 271, 272; picture of, 238 Golightly, M. J., 146-48 Goodman, Jack, "The Shining Mountains â&#x20AC;&#x201D; T h e Oquirrh Range," 2 8 5 - 9 5 ; "Wandering in the Wasatch," 313-27 Goodson, John, 341 Grand Coulee Reservoir, picture of, 48 Granger, Ralph, 347 Grant, Jedediah M., 276 Great Basin Kingdom,

by Arrington, reviewed, 191-93 Great Salt Desert, 288 Great Salt Lake, bathing resorts on, 306; boating on, 306, 309; discovery and early exploration, 3 0 2 - 3 ; islands of, 309; legends of, 2 9 8 - 3 0 1 ; levels of, 310; Lucin Cutoff, 310; picture of, 296; salt content of, 304 Great Salt Lake City, County Courthouse of, 222; described by early traveler, 217-18; early buildings in, 221-22; farming lands in, 216; first merchants in, 275ff; Jones's picture of, 208; Piercy's picture of, 220; plat of, 2 1 1 - 1 3 ; street planning of, 216; wall around, 222; water supply for, 216; see also Salt Lake City Great Salt Lake Valley, description of, 205 Greeley, Horace, 9 Green River, 397 Gregg, Josiah, 9, 23 Grist, F. R., artist wtih Stansbury expedition, 219 Groesbeck's store, 368 Guardsman's Pass road, 321, 323 Gunnison, Lt. John W., his impression of Great Salt Lake City, 218 Gwin, Senator William Mâ&#x20AC;&#x17E; 108

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Hale, Jonathan, 341 Hamilton, Mrs. Fidelia B., 362 Hamilton, Dr. John F., 374 Hams Fork, 397 Hancock, Levi W., 392-95 Handcart pioneers, monument of, 255 Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, 104 Hardy, John K., 263 Harriman, Mrs. E. H., inheritance tax paid to Utah, 263 Harris, Arnold, 104 Harris, Martin, stewardship of, 338 Harrison, E. L. T., 367 Haskins, Rev. Thomas W., 361, 369, 371, 373; appointed army chaplain at Fort Douglas, 368; letter of quoted, 362 Hastings, Lansford W., Cutoff across desert, 206, 303 Hat Island, 309 Hayden, Charlotte E., 372 Hearst, George, 322 Hearst, Randolph, 322 Heber Valley, 323 Hell Gate, 399 Hempstead, Major Charles H., 361 Hermitage, in Ogden Canyon, 145 Highland Boy Mine, 291 Historians, of the West, 9, 23 Historical Notes, 435-37 Hockaday, J. M. & Company, 107 Hogback Project, 55, 56 Hole-in-The-Rock, hy Miller, reviewed, 413-14 Holladay, Benjamin, 124 Holliday and Warner, 275 "Homestead," 324 Honolulu Friend, quoted, 159 Honolulu Polynesian, quoted, 160 Hooper, William H., 276 Hooper and Eldredge, 276 Hoover Dam, 46 Horner, J. M., 276 "Horseshoe" or "Oxbow Route," 105 Hotel Utah, 279; built, 2 3 1 ; picture of, 281 Humphreys, E. R., 370 Hungry Horse Dam, 47 Hunter, Bishop Edward, 276 Huntsville, Utah, 317 Hussey, Loretta, 362 Hussey, Warren, 362, 369, 370; quoted, 360 Hutchings, James M., 9 Hyde, Orson, 3 4 1 ; sent to apply for bank charter, 346 Hyman-Michaels Company, scrapped the U.I.C., 154

H Hafen, John, 272, 314 Hafen, LeRoy R., 10 Hale, Girard, 266

Independence Hall, 361, 368, 372; picture of, 369 Independence Rock, 399; picture of, 400

INDEX

443

Indians: in Salt Lake City, 393; irrigation projects of, 28, 51-56; Pawnee, 403; Utah, 393 Inheritances, apportioned in Great Salt Lake City, 215-16 Irrigation: ancient practices, 28, 42; cooperative development of, 29; Deer Creek project, 232; Indian uses of, 52; in Utah, 27-36, 210; modern period of, 33, 34; pictures of, 30, 31, 45, 48; private capital in development of, 32; problems of, 35, 36 Island Ranching Company, 309

J Jackling, Daniel C , 291; picture of, 289; statue of, 266 Jackman, Ami R., 395n Jackson, President Andrew, 350 Jackson, William Henry, 315 Jackson, W. Turrentine, review by, 197-99 Jacob, Norton, description of Valley of Great Salt Lake, 210 Jennings, William, 227, 277 Johnson, Hiram, 19 Johnson, John, admitted to United Order, 338, 339; stewardship of, 338, 341 Johnson, Lyman, 341 Johnson, Marinda, 341 Johnson Pass, 288 Johnston, Col. Albert Sidney, 18, 292; army of, 75; picture of camp of, 293 Jones, John S., 105 Jones, J. Wesley, picture of Great Salt Lake City by, 219 Jones, Paul, picture of, 50; "Reclamation and the Indian," 51-56 Jordan, David Starr, 19 judah, Theodore, 19

Kaiser, Henry J., 19 Kane, Thomas L., 266 Kate Connor (boat), 307 Kearns, Thomas, 322, 408 Kemble, Edwin, 159 Kennecott Copper Company, 288, 289, 291 Kimball, Heber C , figure of on monument, 205 Kimball and Lawrence, 277 Kimball Spring, 401 Kinkead, Charles A., 275 Kirby, Rev. R. M., 371; superintendent of St. Mark's hospital, 374 Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, 348-50; bills of, 349; failure of, 354; notes issued, 352, 353 Kirtland Safety Society Bank Company, 344, 347

Kirtland Temple, building of, 341 Kletting, Richard K. A., 263; picture of, 268 Knaphus, Torlief, 266

Lake Bonneville, 303, 304 Lake Martha, 319 Lake Mary, 319 Lake Mead, capacity of, 35 Lake Solitude, 319 Lake Timpanogos, 300 Lamanites, 70 Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest, by Lavender, reviewed, 194-95 Larson, B. F., 272 Larson, Gustive O., review by, 413-14 La Veta Pass, 130 Law of Consecration, 333, 335 Law, George, 104 Lawrence, Henry W., 276, 367 Leadville, Colorado, 131, 134 Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company, organized, 105, 107 Lewis and Clark, 9, 13 Lewiston, Utah, 295 Liberal party, 76, 367 Liberty Park, open to public, 228 Library, report on, 410-11 Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard, edited by Stewart, reviewed, 199 Lincoln, Abraham, 108 Lincoln-Roosevelt League, 19 Linford, Ernest H., review by, 414â&#x20AC;&#x201D;16 Lion House, picture of, 223 Litde Sandy River, 397 Livingston, James M., 275 Livingston and Bell, 276 Logan, Ida-Marie Clark, "Selections from a Bibliography of Theses and Dissertations Concerning Utah or the Mormons Written Outside the State of Utah," 85100, 169-90 Logan City, picture of early freight train in, 149 Logan-Hyde Park-Smithfield canal, picture of, 30 Logan Journal, quoted on interurban line in Cache Valley, 146, 147 Logan Rapid Transit Company, 146 Lone Peak, 314 Long John Dunn of Taos, by Evans, reviewed, 421 Loose, C. E., 263 Lovejoy, Elijah, 63 Lovering, Lucinda, 362 Lucin Cutoff, 310 Lund, Anthon H., 263

444

UTAH

Lyman, Amasa M., 157, 164; visits Brannan, 166 Lyon, T. Edgar, "This is the Place," 203-7 M Mabey, Edward M., picture of, 434 McCornick Bank, 276 McClintock, Margaretta, 362 McLeod, Rev. Norman, 361 Magna, Utah, 288, 292 Mahler, Mr., 146 Mail service to Pacific, bill for, 104 Main Street, Salt Lake City, 2 7 5 - 8 3 ; pictures of, 233, 274, 277, 279 Majors, Alexander, picture of, 102 Malin, James C , 10 Manifest Destiny, 14 Manifesto of 1890, 76 Manning, L. S., 295 Marshall, James, 14; discovered gold, 164 Mattson, David, 263 Medical Arts Building, built, 231 Mercur, Utah, 287, 292; picture of, 293 Middle Canyon, 287 Miles, Mrs. William, 362 Miles, William, 362 Millard County, created, 259 Miller, David E., "The Great Salt Lake," 297-311 Miller, Rev. George D. B., 361, 364, 373 Miller, Henry W., 309 Miller, Jacob, 303 Miller brothers, 309 Minturn, Mrs. Robert, 366 Montfort, H., agent for Pioneer Stage Line, 119 Moran, P. J., 263 Morgan, Dale L., 20, 23; "The Changing Face of Salt Lake City," 209-32; review by, 191-93 Morgan, Nicholas G., Sr., 267, 408 Morley, Isaac, 333 Mormon Battalion, 63; built Bowery, 248; monument of, 270; Sick Detachment arrives, 211 Mormon Hill, 66 Mormon Island, 66, 164 Mormonism: conflicts in Missouri, 72; differences with Missourians, 6 3 ; doctrine of inheritance, 72; early theology, 60; establishing Zion, 65, 66; political nonconformity, 72, 73; social experiments of, 6 1 , 62; social reforms, 67; theology, 62 Mormon Question, 76 "Mormon Meteor," 272 Mormons: arrival represented on monument, 204f; economy in Kirtland, 3 3 1 56; fail to get bank charter, 347; first winter in the Valley, 215; irrigation

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

practices of, 28; ownership of property in Kirtland, 339; population of in Kirtland, 339; relations with the D & RG 140; village ideal of, 74, 75 "Mormon War," 18 Mortensen, A. R., 2 3 ; "In This Issue," 3-4; "Main Street: Salt Lake City," 275-83 Moser, Henri, 272 Moulton, G. B., 370 Mountain Men, 14; figures represented on monument, 204 Mount McKinley, 11 Mount Majestic, 319 Mount Timpanogos, 324-27 Mount Whitney, 11 Muddy River, 397 Muench, Josef, 315 Mulcahy, P. H., 152 Mulder, William, 2 3 ; "The Mormons in American History," 59-77; picture of, 58; review by, 196-97 Mud Hen (boat), 307 Murray, Governor Eli, 76

National Express Company, 105 National Reclamation Association, 44 Navajo Tribal Council, 53; farm training school of, 54, 55; picture of, 54 Needham, James, 276 Newell K. Whitney and Company, 335, 338, 339, 341 Newhouse, Samuel, 291 Newhouse Building, built, 231 Newman, Rev. John P., 64 New Mexico, setdement of, 13 New Park Mine, 321 New York Herald, describes Great Salt Lake City in 1858, 224 Nixon, William, 276 Norris, George, 19 Nowele, W., 370 Noyes, Charles Humphrey, 61

Ogden, Peter Skene, 314 Ogden Electric Railroad, 145 Ogden Gateway suit, 142 Ogden, Lewiston and Northern Railway, 147 Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway Company, 148 Ogden and Northwestern Railroad, 146 Ogden Rapid Transit Company, 145, 146, 150 Ohio Star, 352 Old City Hall, picture of, 261 Old County Courthouse, picture of, 261 Old Fort, building of, 214-15

INDEX Onaqui Peak, 288 Oneida Community, 61 Ontario Mine, 322 Ophir, Utah, 287, 292, 294 Order of Enoch, 61 Oregon missions, 14 Our Strip of Land, by Dunham, reviewed, 421 Overland Mail Company, 105, 107, 108, 114, 115, 119; appoints Wells Fargo agent in San Francisco, 118; line destroyed, 109; mail to California stopped, 109, 110; removal to Central Route, 110, 117, 118; service discontinued on Southern Route, 110; terminus of, 116 Overland Telegraph Company, 120; lines joined, 120 Owyhee Dam, 47

Pacific Coast Branch American Historical Association, meeting of, 435-37 Pacific National Life Building, 277 Pacific Railroad Bill, 19 Pacific Steamship Company, 104 Pacific Telegraph Company, 120 Pack, John, 275 Packard, Milan, 133 Paine, Thomas, 69 Painesville Telegraph, 351 Palmer, William Jackson, picture of, 128, 131 Palmyra, New York, 65 Panic of 1873, 130 Park City, Utah, described, 321, 322; picture in, 321, 323 Park, Samuel C , quoted on Capitol building, 263 Park Utah Consolidated, 321 Parrish, Warren, 355 Partridge, Edward, 333 Pauvan Valley, designated capital, 259 Pawnee Indians, 403 Penitentiary, 221 People's party, 76, 367 Perpetual Emigrating Fund, 76 Piercy, Frederick, 219; picture of Great Salt Lake City, 220; view described, 219-22 Pilot Peak, 288 Pinedo, Arie, 295 Pioneer day celebrations, beginning of, 218 Pioneer Park, 214 Pioneers, first band, 62; preparations for entering the Valley, 67 Pioneer Stage Line, 116 Platte River, 401, 403 Poison Springs, 399 Polygamy, 61, 62 Pony Express, fees charged, 116; letters, illustrated, 106; notice of, 121; officially

445 terminated, 120; reduction in postal rates, 116-19; salute to, 121; starting of, 103, 109, 110; total runs and mail carried, 123 Population, dependent upon land and water resources, 43 Portneuf River, 304 Post Office appropriation bill, 110 Post Route Bill, 108, 109 Potter, Bishop Horatio, 365 Prairie Schooner Lady, by DeWitt, reviewed, 422 Pratt, Addison, president of church branch in California, 163 Pratt, Orson, 158; locates capitol site, 260; represented on monument, 205 Pratt, Parley P., 158,331,341 Preuss, Charles, 302 Promontory Range, 310 Provo Terrace, 304 Provost, Etienne, 302 Public Works, 221, 251 Publications, report on, 411-12 Pueblo, Colorado, D & RG into, 130 Pueblo Indians, irrigation works of, 51, 52

Quantrill, William, 292

Railroads, influence on the West, 15; transcontinental completed, 278 Ralston, William, 19 Ram in the Thicket, by Robertson, reviewed, 414-16 Reclamation, act of 1902, 32, 40; and civilization, 42; and recreation, 46; contention regarding, 41; federal control of, 44; federal investment in, 41; great dams of, 46; impact upon history of the West, 46, 47 Recreation, survey of resources, 46 Red Rock Pass, 304 Reese, John and Enoch, 276 Religion, in American life, 60 Reviews and Recent Publications, 191-200; 413-32 Rich, Charles C , 157; visits Brannan, 166 Richards, Lee Greene, 266 Richards, Willard, quoted, 210 Ridges, Joseph, built tabernacle organ, 254 Rigdon, Sidney, 335, 341; Influence on settling in Kirtland, 332; stewardship of, 338; suit against, 354 Robidoux, Antoine, 9 Robinson, Dr. J. King, 361 Rockwell, Timothy, 347 Roosevelt, Theodore, and reclamation, 40, 41, 42

446

UTAH

Roseport and Palmetto line, 104 Rounds, Samuel D., 354 Rowland Hall, started, 372, 373 Royal Gorge, 130, 131 Rumel, Hal, 315 Rumfield, Hiram S., 114; agent for Overland Mail Company, 119 Russell, W m . H., 105, 108, 110, 111, 114; picture of, 102 Russell, Majors and Waddell Company, 103, 107-10, 119; Bible of, 115; Kansas Valley Bank check of, 122; reduction in postal rates, 117

Sage Creek, 399 St. John, Utah, 288 St. Louis Globe Democrat, quoted on Helena fire, 364, 365 St. Mark's Cathedral, consecrated, 370 St. Mark's grammar school, picture of, 372 St. Mark's Hospital, organized, 374; picture of, 375 St. Mark's Rectory, 368 St. Paul's Chapel, constructed, 370; picture of, 371 Salicornia (boat), 307 Saline Pass, 134 Salt harvest, picture of, 242 Saltair, picture of, 243 Salt Lake City, electricity in, 228, 2 3 1 ; gas lighting in, 224, 228; house numbering in, 228; major buildings built, 232; mail delivery in, 228; Main Street, 275-83, pictures of, 233, 274, 277, 279; naming of, 209; street numbering in, 214; street railways in, 224, 227, 232; telegraph lines joined in, 120; view from Capitol, 228; view of subdivisions, 229 Salt Lake and Park City Railway, 133 Salt Lake Daily Tribune, quoted, on D 6c RG, 136, 138, 139; on Union Pacific, 139, 140 Salt Lake Herald, quoted on D & RG, 135 Salt Lake Theatre, constructed, 224-26; picture of, 225 San Francisco (Yerba Buena), 63; early picture of, 161 San Juan Valley, 130 San Luis Valley, 130 Santa Fe, New Mexico, 131 Santa Fe Trail, 14 Savage, Charles R., picture collection destroyed, 217 Savage, Sarah, 362 Sawmills, early picture of, 388 School of the Prophets, 62 Scotts Bluff, 401 Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska,

by Mattes, reviewed, 420

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Sea Gull Monument, 255 Semicentennial Celebration, 229 Settle, Raymond W., "The Pony Express Heroic Effortâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Tragic End," 103-26 Seventies Council Hall, location of, 221 Sevier Valley Railway Company, organized, 133 Shakers, 61 Shasta Dam, 46 Sibley, General, 18 "Signal of Peace," 266 Silver King Mine, 321 Singleton, A. B., 150 Sloo, A. G., 104 Smalling, Cyrus, 353 Smith, Adam, 21 Smith, Azariah, 164 Smith, Henry Nash, 10 Smith, Hyrum, 341, 344; monument of, 255 Smith, Jedediah S., 314 Smith, John, 394 Smith, John Henry, 263 Smith, Joseph, 295 Smith, Joseph, Jr., 62, 68-72; 335, 341; and Law of Consecration, 333; confidence in undermined, 356; deatir of, 72; monument of, 255; organized Church of Christ, 65; responsibility for bank, 355; seeks treasure in Massachusetts, 344; stewardship of, 338, 339; store of, 341; suggestion on slavery, 63; withdrew from bank, 354 Smith, William, 158 Snow, Erastus, figure of represented on monument, 205 Social Hall, 221 Sorensen, Philip E., "The Utah Idaho Central Railroad," 145-55 Southern Route, destroyed, 109 Specie Circular, issued, 350 Spry, Governor William, 263 Staines, William C , locates capitol site, 260 Stansbury, Captain Howard, cabin used by, 257; survey of, 218, 303 Stansbury Peak, 288 State historical societies, preserve historic sites and monuments, 79-84 Steen, Rector, 322 Stenhouse, T. B. H., quoted, 363-64 Stevens, S. K., "The States Act to Conserve their Heritage," 79-84 Stewart, James and Company, contractors for Capitol, 264 Stewart, LeConte, 272 Stockton, Utah, 288 Stoddard, Charles, 309 Strawberry Valley Project, 33 Streetcar, picture of Birney model, 153

INDEX

447

Sturges, Philip C , review by, 194-95, 419-20 Sugarloaf Peak, 219 Sunset Peak, 319 Sutter, John A., 164 Sutter's mill, gold discovered, 104 Sweet Water River, 398, 399

Tabernacle ( n e w ) , 226, 248, 2 5 1 ; construction of, 2 5 3 ; organ of, 254; picture of, 236, 249; ( o l d ) , 2 2 1 , 226, 227, 251 Tabernacle Choir, 64, 255; broadcasts of, 248; picture of, 245 Taggart, J. P., 370 Taylor, Bayard, 9 Telegraph, completed, 224, 228 Telegraph, 363, 367 Telephone, in Salt Lake City, 224 Temple Square, construction of wall, 222, 250; cultural activities in, 248; described, 221, 2 4 7 - 5 7 ; picture of gate, 246; site designated, 210, 2 1 1 , 247; view of, 225 Temple, in Salt Lake, architect for, 260; building of, 226, 247, 250; foundation of, 2 2 1 ; picture of, 237, 249; others in Utah and elsewhere, 226, 250, 341 Templeton Hotel, 276 Terrace Mountain, 304 Territorial arsenal, 221 Territorial Enterprise, quoted on D & RG, 137 "This is the Place" Monument, picture of, 234; unveiling of, 204, 206-7 Thompson, Major M. Jeff, 103, 104 Timely Gull (boat), 307 Timpanogos Cave National Monument, 326-27, 316 Tingey, C. S., 263 Tithing Office, described, 2 8 0 - 8 3 ; picture of, 280, 282 Titus, R. E., 152 Tooele Ordinance Depot, 287 Tracy, T. F., 370 Tracy, Mrs. Augusta, 362n Trinidad, Colorado, D & RG branch, 130 Turner, Frederick Jackson, 4, 10 Turner, Rev. J. M., 373 Tuttle, Bishop Daniel S., consecrated, 359; elected Bishop of Missouri, 377; in Montana, 364, 365; on Mormonism, 368; picture of, 358; Presiding Bishop, 378 Tuttle, Harriet, 363, 378 TVA, 19 Twin Lakes, 319 U United Firm, see United Order United Order, 67; organized, 335; first members of, 335-39

Uinta National Forest, 316 Union Pacific Railroad, 136-38,142; branch line to Salt Lake City, 253; monopoly

of, 137 Union Square, 275 University of Utah, site of, 231 Uptown Theatre, 276 Utah, acquires statehood, 76, present boundaries of, 73 Utah and Pleasant Valley Railway, 133, 134 Utah Central Railroad, 366; Union Pacific subsidiary, 137 Utah Copper Company, see Kennecott Copper Company The Utah Expedition, by Hafen and Hafen, reviewed, 193-94 Utah Idaho Central Railroad, 145, 148, 150, 151; choice of route to Logan, 148; corporation named, 149, 151; demise of, 152-55; first receivership of, 150 Utah Magazine, 367 Utah Rapid Transit, took over Ogden system, 150 Utah State Historical Society, annual meeting reported, 435; Board of Trustees picture, 406; "President's Report" of, 407-12 Utah Territory, 73; changes on the Utah scene, 366-67; legislature of, 262

Van Buren, President Martin, quoted, 64 Vigilance Committee, 167; in San Francisco, 157 Villagra, 23 Villard, Henry, 9 Virginia City, Montana, Episcopal church in, 364, 365 Virgin River, picture of, 31 W Waddell, William B., picture of, 102 Walker Brothers, 276 Walker Bank, 294; Building, 231 Walker, Joseph Redford, 301 Wall, Col. Enos A., 291 Walls, building of in Great Salt Lake City, 222-24; around Temple Square, 250 Ware, Florence, 272 Warm Springs, 401 Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railway, 133 Wasatch Mountain Club, 318 Wasatch Mountains, hiking trails of, 318, 319; picture of, 312; roads into, 317 Wasatch National Forest, 316 Water, estimated use of, 4 3 ; policy, 43, 44 "The Water Hole," picture of, 56 Webb, Walter Prescott, 10 Weber River, 395, 396 Weekly Advertiser, 351

448

UTAH

Weekly Gazette, 351 Weir, Thomas, 291 Wells, Daniel H., 276, 361 Wells, Emmeline B., 266 Wells, Nelly, 363 Wells Fargo Express Company, 105, 276; claims for reduction in postal rates, 116; issued franks, 118; not responsible for Pony Express, 120 Wenner, Judge U. J., resided on Fremont Island, 309 West of the Great Divide, Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, by Bjork, reviewed, 196-97 West, after 1890, 15; and the Civil War, 18, 19; becomes part of United States, 14; beginning of irrigation in, 28; cultural history of, 20; dependence upon federal government, 16; early settlement of, 13; "easternized," 17; economic and political discrimination against, 21, 22; economy of, 20, 21; English in, 13; environment of, 11; fiction writers of, 9; French in, 13; great dams of, 46; historians of, 9, 23; military operations in, 18; official explorers of, 13; population of, 9; regional approach to problems,23, 24; settlement of, 9; space devoted to history of, 22, 23; Spaniards in, 13; wealth of, 12 West, Ray B., 23 Whigs, curry Mormon favor, 72 Whipple, Maurine, review by, 416â&#x20AC;&#x201D;19 White, A. W., 370 White, Gilbert, 266 White, Jack, 315 Whitman, Marcus, 9 Whitmer, Rich and Company, 341 Whitney, Newell K., 335, 341, 356; picture

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

of, 334; property of, 333; stewardship of, 339; suit against, 354 Wilkes, Major Edmund, 374 Willard Peak, 317 Williams, Frederick G., 337; joins United Order, 336 Williams, Thomas S., 276 Willow Springs, 399 Wobblies, 16 Woman's Industrial Christian Home, 262 Woodruff, Wilford, figure on monument, 205 Word of Wisdom, 61 Wright, A. B., 266, 272

Yerba Buena, see San Francisco Young, Brigham, 19, 342, 361; colonizing Zion, 73, 74; figure on monument, 205; letter to Sam Brannan, 165; possessed Kirtland notes, 355; quoted in interview with Tutde, 363; reaches Salt Lake Valley, 310; returns to Missouri, 214; visited by Emerson, 66; by Tutde, 363 Young, Joseph, 392 Young, Levi Edgar, picture of, 434 Young, Lorenzo D., built first house outside the fort, 215 Young, Mahonri, 272

Zion, 68, 71; city of, 70; in Jackson County, Missouri, 343; Joseph Smith's vision of, 69 Zion Canyon, picture of, 12 Z.C.M.I., 276, 294; first home of, 277; organized, 227; picture of, 223 Zella Mine, 295

UTAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

fill

SOCIETY

^%

» _

. ^ -