USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 25
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Some of the Mormons had early crossed to the west side of the river, constructing a ferry-boat for that purpose, and settled, by permission of the Indians-Omahas-upon the lands set apart for
* The original project was devised by Joseph Smith, in conjunction with Brigham Young and Newel K. Whitney, at Nauvoo, early in 1842.
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their use by the Federal Government. These lands, which are now included in the State of Nebraska, were a portion of the vast tract once known as the Province of Louisiana, ceded by France to the United States in 1803. A very friendly feeling existed between the Pottawatomie and Omaha Indians and their Mormon "brothers" *- probably from the fact that both felt aggrieved at the treatment they had received from their white neighbors farther east. The Indians complained bitterly of being removed from their pleasant lands beyond the Mississippi to the damp and unhealthy bottoms of the Missouri. In return for permission from the Omahas-who were west, while the Pottawatomies were east of the river-to temporarily settle upon their lands and use what timber they required, the Mormons assisted the Indians to harvest and build, besides trading with them to mutual advantage. Major Harvey, the Indian Superintendent, did not approve of this arrangement, and tried to have the Mormons ejected; but President Polk, being appealed to through Colonel Kane, gave full permission for them to remain. Out of gratitude to Colonel Kane, the Saints afterwards named a settlement which they estab- lished on the east side of the river, Kanesville.
As the season advanced the settlers on the west side were instructed to congregate in one place, and a site being chosen for that purpose they there founded their celebrated Winter Quarters. This place is now Florence, Nebraska, five miles above the city of Omaha. It then consisted of seven hundred houses of log, turf, and other primitive materials, neatly arranged and laid out with streets and byways, with workshops, mills, etc., and a tabernacle of worship in the midst; the whole arising from a pretty plateau overlooking the river, and well fortified with breast-work, stockade and block-houses, after the fashion of the frontier. Such was Winter Quarters. The settlement was divided into twenty-two wards, with a Bishop over each. There was also a High Council. The population of the place was about four thousand. A ward east of the river contained a little
* Several Pottawatomie chiefs, and delegations from the Sacs and Foxes had visited Joseph Smith at Nauvoo.
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over two hundred souls. Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah were also still inhabited; their numbers now swelled by the refugees from Nauvoo. Here in these humble prairie settlements, surrounded by Indians, hopeful and even happy, though enduring much sickness and privation, which resulted in many deaths, the pilgrim Mormons passed the winter of 1846-7.
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CHAPTER XVI. 1540-1847.
THE BEGINNING OF UTAH HISTORY-WHY THE MORMONS DID NOT COLONIZE THE PACIFIC COAST-THE GREAT BASIN-UTAH'S PHYSICAL FEATURES-DANIEL WEBSTER ON THE "WORTHLESS WEST"-EARLY SPANISH EXPLORATIONS-ESCALANTE IN UTAH VALLEY-LA HONTAN'S HEARSAYS-AMERICAN TRAPPERS ON THE SHORES OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE- COLONEL BRIDGER-CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE-COLONEL FREMONT-EARLY EMIGRATIONS FROM THE MISSOURI TO THE PACIFIC-THE DONNER DISASTER.
E HAVE now traced the history of the Mormon people from the birth of their Prophet and the inception of their religious organization down to that point where their record as founders of Utah is about to begin. These preliminary chapters, dealing with early Mormonism, have been deemed indispensable to the proper under- standing of a subject at once so unique and complex, so interesting and important as the history of our Territory. As premised at the opening, one cannot completely describe a lake or large body of water without giving some account of the origin, course and character of the streams flowing into and forming it; nor fully and faithfully nar- rate the history of a country and its inhabitants, if ignoring utterly their antecedents.
This is the author's explanation,-and he feels assured that the thoughtful reader will appreciate his motive and labors in this connection,-for entering more or less into detail with early Mormon annals. From this point begins the history of Utah proper; the narrative of early explorations in this region, and the settle- ment and formation of the Territory.
The opening of the year 1847 at the camps of the Saints east and west of the Missouri, saw preparations in progress for the con- templated pioneer journey to the mountains. And not only for this, 19-VOL. 1.
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but for the continued exodus of the entire Church, so soon as a place of refuge suitable for their reception could be found.
It was pretty well decided in the minds of the Mormon leaders, by this time, that the Pacific coast,-to which it was generally sup- posed they were migrating,-in spite of its many natural advantages, was no place for the main body of their people to settle. It might do for a colony, such as that of the ship Brooklyn, to make its way to California and there found a settlement,-as Elder Brannan and his company were now doing,-and other Mormon towns might spring up on the Pacific slope. But for the headquarters of the Church, and a permanent abiding place for the majority of the Saints, Califor- nia proper or any part of the coast was exceedingly undesirable.
The reasons were these: that toward that favored land, that El Dorado,-though gold in California had not yet been discovered,- large numbers of emigrants, from Missouri and other border states, were now wending their way. Many had gone and were still going to Oregon, which Great Britain had finally relinquished, while others, as early as 1841, had bent their course to the future land of gold. Colonel Fremont, as seen, at the out-break of the Mexican war, had found enough American settlers in the Sacramento Valley to form, with his exploring party, a small army. And now that California, like Oregon and Texas, was a part of the American domain,-only await- ing the formality of its cession to the great Republic,-emigration thither was bound to increase manifold.
For the Mormons to have mingled with or settled any where near their old enemies, the Missourians, or people holding similar prejudices against their religious views and social customs, would simply have been to invite a repetition, sooner or later, of the very evils which had caused them so much suffering, and from which they were then fleeing. So thought Brigham Young. So thought his fellow chiefs of the migrating Church. Who, from their stand- point, can question the wisdom of their decision ?- a decision to halt midway, if possible, between the Missouri and the Pacific, in some spot undesired, uncoveted by others, where they might be free to
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worship God in their own way, and work out their religious and social problems unmolested.
It was not for gold and silver, broad acres and teeming fields that these Latter-day Saints had left their homes, in this or in foreign lands. "After such things do the Gentiles seek," and the Saints, according to their faith, were no longer Gentiles, but of Israel. The children of Japheth perhaps had a mission in temporal things. If so, let them work it out, as best they might, before Him to whom all men are accountable. But as for Israel-for Ephraim-his mission was in spiritual things; comprehending indeed the temporal, but not to be absorbed and swallowed up by it. Religious liberty, freedom to worship God and prepare themselves for their future work of building up Zion,-these were the prime objects the migrating Mor- mons had in view. Gold and silver, houses and lands, flocks, herds, orchards, vineyards-though to all mortals more or less desirable- were but as dust beneath their feet by comparison.
Nor is this an exaggeration. The Mormons were essentially a religious people, deeply, earnestly religious, as much so as were the Albegois of France, the Covenanters of Scotland or the Pilgrims of New England. Unquestionably such were the motives and feelings of the vast majority of the Saints in their exodus. They had proved it by that exodus, in which many had forsaken, not for the first, but for the fourth and fifth times, for conscience' sake, their earthly possessions.
Zion, not Babylon, was in their thoughts. They had not relinquished their hopes concerning Jackson County. Many, perhaps most of those who had lived upon that land had sacredly kept the deeds to the homes from which they had been driven; while the few who had disposed of their possessions "in Zion," were believed by the others to have practically denied the faith .*
They were but going into the wilderness for a season, where. free from contact with those who understood them not, or persisted
* See remarks of Lyman Wight at a conference in Far West, February 5th, 1838, in relation to selling lands in Jackson County.
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in misinterpreting their motives, they might peaceably prepare them- selves for the time when, unless Joseph Smith was a false prophet and Brigham Young a blind leader of the blind, they or their children must needs return and build up Zion. Isolation, therefore, was what they sought, was what they must have, if they were to have peace, and fit and prepare themselves for what they believed was in their destiny.
True, there was the alternative, ever open, of relinquishing their religious faith, and becoming in every respect homogeneous with the Gentiles. But this was utterly out of the question. Friendly with the Gentiles they would gladly have been, mingling with them, so far as need be, in society, in business and in politics. But to relinquish their religion for the sake of peace,-the very thought were treason. It would have made of their high professions a mockery, of their past experience, written in blood and tears, a farce. The life-stream of their martyred Prophet would have smoked to heaven in vain. No; come what would, they must cling to their principles, however unpopular, and stand or fall with them.
Such were their thoughts and feelings. Such were the motives that impelled them westward. Such were their reasons for not settling, as a people, on the Pacific coast, and for isolating them- selves, instead, in the tops of the Rocky Mountains, a thousand miles from civilization.
While the Saints are preparing to prosecute their journey, and their vanguard is making ready for its memorable march across the vast prairies and desolate plains lying west of the Missouri River, will be an appropriate time to pioneer the way before them into the region they are about to enter.
Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the so-called "back-bone of the American continent,"-the great water-shed dividing the streams flowing toward the Pacific from those which seek the Atlantic through the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico,-lies the region known in topographical parlance as the "Great Basin." It is a vast inter- mountain plateau, extending four or five hundred miles from east to west, and about the same distance from north to south. Ifs eastern
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edge does not touch the Rocky Mountains proper, but is rimmed by a smaller and almost parallel range called the Wasatch, between which and the great spinal column-the Rockies-is the region through which flow the Green and Grand Rivers. These, uniting with other streams, form the Colorado. The western rim of the Basin is the Sierra Nevada range, nearly parallel with, but much longer than the Wasatch, and separating the great plateau from the Pacific coast.
The Basin on the north converges toward the Blue Mountains of Oregon, and on the south in the direction of the Colorado plateau. It is traversed north and south by numerous mountain ranges, some of which are as high as those composing the rim. For this reason the term "Basin," bestowed by the famous explorer, Colonel Fre- mont, on a partial acquaintance with the region, is now deemed a misnomer. Instead of being one basin it is many, a group of basins, each containing a "sink," or lake, whose waters have no visible out- let to the sea. The more prominent of these are the basin of the Great Salt Lake, whose lowest point of altitude is 4,170 feet above the sea level; Sevier Lake basin, with an altitude of 4,690 feet ; Humboldt River basin, 4,147 feet; Carson River basin, at Carson Lake, 3,840 feet; and the Walker River basin, the lowest point of which is 4,072 feet above the ocean.
It is supposed by many, and the supposition is confirmed by geological signs, such as ripple-marks on the mountain sides, shells on the slopes and summits, etc., that this great elevated plateau was once a broad inland sea communicating with the Pacific. At that time these mountain tops were so many islands, laved or lashed by its briny waves. These sinks, or some of them, are believed to be the remains of that pre-historic sea, which for some reason disap- peared centuries before the foot of the European pressed the soil of the new world.
The great drawbacks to this otherwise rich and valuable region are scarcity of timber and fresh water. The former is only to be found in the mountains or along the water courses, and these, in this arid region, are few and far between. Though artesian wells and
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irrigation have done much of late years to redeem the desert land, vast tracts of country still remain in statu quo, bare and unproduc- tive. But the mountains are full of minerals, from the precious metals down, and the term " treasure house of the nation" has not been inaptly bestowed upon this portion of the public domain.
Among the remarkable features of the Great Basin, which com- prises the western part of what is now Utah Territory, and nearly the entire State of Nevada, are the Great Salt Lake and its neighbor- ing desert. The lake is wholly in Utah, and the desert lies along its western shore, stretching away to the south and west a hundred miles or more. This lake-the famous "Dead Sea of America"-is one of the most wonderful natural objects in all the West. Laving the base of the Wasatch range in northern Utah, it extends north and south for seventy-five miles, having a mean breadth of about thirty. Its extreme depth is sixty or seventy feet. Jutting up from its briny bosom are no less than eight mountain islands, lifting their craggy crests almost level with the rugged ranges surrounding them. Though constantly augmented by fresh rivers and streams, the waters of the lake remain ever intensely salt. As said, it has no outlet-at least none visible-its waters, far brinier than those of the ocean, and wonderfully buoyant withal, either evaporating to the clouds, sinking mysteriously in subterranean depths, or solidifying under the sun's rays and banking up in bright crystals and glittering incrustations along its shores. These waters were once supposed to be absolutely lifeless, but of late years some species of animalcula have been discovered therein. Fish cannot live in the Great Salt Lake, but several varieties abound in the fresh lakes and streams of this region. One of the main affluents of the Salt Lake is the river Jordan, the outlet of Lake Utah, forty miles southward.
As stated, the Wasatch Mountains are the eastern rim of the Great Basin,"-at least they form the main portion of that rim.
* Specifically the Coal Range, a portion of the Wasatch system twenty or thirty miles east of Salt Lake Valley, is the eastern rim.
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Traversing Utah from north-east to south-west, they divide the Ter- ritory into two unequal parts. Through the eastern section, which is not included in the Great Basin, run the Green and Grand Rivers and their tributaries. Eastward from and forming a spur of the Wasatch, near the Wyoming line, extends the Uintah range. West of the Wasatch, and running parallel therewith, are the Oquirrh hills, and west of them the Onaquis. To the south-east and through southern Utah generally are other ranges and broken ridges, diversi- fied with valleys and plateaus.
Utah's lakes are mostly in the north, the principal one being the Great Salt Lake, previously mentioned. Of the fresh water lakes the Utah and the Bear-the last-named partly in Idaho-are the more notable. Sevier Lake is a shallow, brackish body fifty or sixty miles south of Lake Utah. Parowan Lake, formerly known as Little Salt Lake, is a small salt water sheet still farther south. The rivers feeding these lakes are formed principally of smaller streams, owing their origin to the snows of winter packed in the mountain tops and gradually melted by the rays of summer.
Along the bases of the mountains, wherever these streams descend,-often spilling from the brims of little lakes among the summits, tumbling over high cliffs, forming beautiful cascades, and emerging into the valleys through deep gorges called canyons,- the soil as a rule is fertile, and if irrigated, susceptible of high culti- vation. In other parts, where not pure desert, hopelessly barren, it is so devoid of moisture and so strongly impregnated with salt and alkali, as to be all but irredeemable. Hot and warm sulphur springs, the waters of which are highly curative, also gush forth from the bases of these mighty hills.
The rainfall of Utah averages twenty inches for the year, four- tenths coming in the spring, one-tenth in summer, three-tenths in autumn, and the rest during the winter. Owing to its scarcity in summer, irrigation is resorted to for crop-raising. The ground, dur- ing the heated term, is fairly parched and blistered by the sun, and the climate, though ordinarily temperate and delightful-the atmos-
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pheric rarity counteracting to a great extent the heat-is at times almost tropical. The climate of south-western Utah-the Santa Clara region-is well nigh tropical the whole year round.
In the canyons along the water-courses spring groves of quak- ing-asp, maple and pine, and in spring and early summer rich grasses and wild flowers cover the sides of the ravines. But the valleys, when Utah was first settled, save for the slight symptoms of verdure following the trail of winding streams in their weary pilgrimage across barren plains, had neither groves nor grass to hide their nakedness. Like the brown and sun-burnt hill-sides above them, they were either utterly bare, or clothed with sagebrush, sun-flowers and other wild and worthless growths springing prolifically on every hand.
Such is or was Utah, in the year 1847, a land of mountains, val- leys, lakes, rivers and sandy wastes; directly in the path of early overland emigration from the Missouri to the Pacific, but shunned by all passers because of its sterile and forbidding aspect. The "Great American Desert,"-such was its name upon the maps and in the school books of that period.
Its only human dwellers at that time,-save here and there a few trappers or mountaineers, exiles of civilization, consorting with savages, and dwelling in some isolated fort or cave or hut among the hills, - were roving bands of Indians, some of them the most degraded of their race. These savages, who subsisted by fishing, hunting, root-digging and insect-eating, shared with wild beasts and venomous reptiles the then barren and desolate, but now fruitful and lovely land of Utah.
The popular estimate of this whole western region, including the Pacific Coast, at that early day, is expressed in the following words of a speech by Daniel Webster on the floor of the United States Senate. He was denouncing a proposition to establish a mail route from Independence, Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia River. Says the great orator and statesman: "What do we want with this vast, worthless area? This region of savages and wild beasts, of
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deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable, and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbor on it? Mr. President, I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer to Boston than it now is."
Yet it was to the very heart of this inhospitable region, "a thou- sand miles from anywhere," that Brigham Young, America's greatest colonizer, led his exiled people; and by his genius and energy, and their united industry, under the blessing of divine providence, sub- dued the desert, made the wilderness to blossom, and became the founder of a hundred cities.
So far as known, the first white men, moderns, to approach and partly penetrate the Utah region, were a small band of Spaniards, a detachment of the army of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, the famous explorer of New Mexico. Being at Zuni-then Cibola-in 1540, and having heard of a great river to the north-west, Coronado despatched Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas with twelve men to explore it. This party is supposed to have proceeded by way of the Moquis villages-previously captured by the Spaniards-to the banks of the Colorado, just within Utah's southern boundary. They did not cross the river, but returned soon to report to Coronado at Cibola.
In July, 1776,-that immortal month of an immortal year,-two Franciscan friars, Francisco Antanasio Dominguez and Silvester Velez de Escalante, Spanish officials of New Mexico, with seven men set out from Santa Fe in quest of a direct route to Monterey on the Californian sea-coast. Pursuing a devious, north-westerly course, Esca- lante and his comrades traversed what is now western Colorado and crossed White River, flowing west, near the Utah line. White River was called by them San Clemente. They then passed Green River- San Buenaventura -- and following up the Uintah and crossing the
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mountains came to a stream which they at first named Purisima, probably from the purity of its waters. This was no other than the Timpanogos or Provo River, which they followed down to Utah Lake.
The Spaniards were kindly received by the native Utahs- dwelling in willow huts in the valley-from whom they derived considerable information regarding that and adjacent parts. But they could learn nothing of a route to the sea, nor of Spanish settlers in all that region. Among other things they were told of a valley to the northward, in which there was a large salt lake, covering many leagues, with which their own fresh lake-Timpanogos -communicated. The waters of the larger lake were described as extremely salt and injurious,-a fact many times since proven by the hapless bather unfortunate enough to swallow much of the saline liquid. The Utahs, or, as Escalante styles them, "Timpanois" further said that he who wet any part of his body with this water immediately felt an itching in the wet part. Near this lake dwelt the Puaguampe, or Sorcerers, "a numerous and quiet nation," speaking the language of, but not otherwise emulating the hostile Comanches, whom the Utahs greatly dreaded. The Puaguampe dwelt in "little houses of grass and earth" and drank from "various fountains or springs of good water" which were "about the lake."
Escalante describes Utah Valley-north of which his party did not go-as extending from north-east to south-west sixteen Spanish leagues, and having a width of ten or twelve leagues. It was quite level, and, excepting the marshes on the lake-shore, arable. Provo River they renamed San Antonio. To the Jordan they gave the name of Santa Ana, and christened other streams in the vicinity. The Indians subsisted then, as later, by fishing and hunting. Bear, deer and buffalo ranged the region freely, and the bounding jack- rabbit, still so plentiful, was not lacking. The streams were filled with fish, and the marshes with wild fowl.
Late in September the Spaniards, accompanied by two native guides, resumed their journey, turning now to the south-west in the
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direction of Monterey. Passing down the Sevier, which river they named Santa Isabel, they skirted the eastern shore of the lake and crossed Beaver River. They then visited the valley now bearing the name of Escalante. There, owing to the exhaustion of their food supplies, and the prospect of a long and arduous journey to the sea- coast-for still they could learn of no open route to the Pacific-they reluctantly abandoned the expedition. Turning eastward they traveled toward the Colorado, purchasing from the natives, as they went, seeds with which to make bread. Reaching the river, they found, after much difficulty, a ford in latitude 37°,-near where Utah and Arizona now divide. Passing thence by way of the Moquis villages they reached Zuni and in due time Santa Fe. They arrived there January 2nd, 1777.
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