;> ^^^'"^^. -.^ ►^ ••::.'.% "^^ .< 7.-* ^0 v.©^ -^5°^ • A^' *^<*. c'^" V^ ^^ ... "^^ • -% <^ *t^ . » • o- O ^^-^^^ . 'oK :. '-^^0^ f. r. '^^ ^' *>V/h:<- \ c'i^'*' ^'ifaje^'. "^^ ^^ ' /.^ ^^-^^^ '^'^ ** v'*' >*^°* V Popular History of Utah v^ BY ORSON F. WHITNEY Complete in One Volume ILLUSTRATED SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH THE DESERET NEWS 1916 ■CVsfZ Copyright, 1916 By The Deseret News h\ I Lf /^ Preface It has fallen to my lot to prepare for publication three his- tories of Utah. The earliest and largest, consisting of four volumes, published in elegant and expensive style, had of necessity but a limited circulation. Nevertheless it may be found in many homes throughout the State, and upon the shelves of leading libraries in various parts of the land. The second history w^as written at the request of local educators, for use in the grammar grades of the public schools. Prepared in haste to meet an urgent demand, "The Making of a State" did not aim to give a complete presentation of the sub- ject, though all salient points, social, political and industrial, were touched upon in its pages. Controversial matters were purposely omitted, for the sake of good feeling between "Mor- mon" and "Gentile" children attending those schools. The work now issued represents the realization of a desire to produce a history of Utah complete in a single volume, one that could be sold at such a figure as to place it within the reach of all. Moreover, it was my wish to make clearer certain points imperfectly presented in my first production. The period during which it was compiled — that of the anti-polygamy cru- sade — was one of strife and turmoil ; books and documents had been confiscated or were scattered; and sources of information were not accessible nor so plentiful as they are at the pres- ent time. Consequently I labored at a great disadvantage. The difficulty of writing contemporaneous history, amid the heat and stress of happenings involved in the narrative, is one recognized by all intelligent minds. That I have exper- ienced this difficulty, I admit. Never at any time, however, have I purposely misrepresented anybody or anything. I write from the "Mormon" viewpoint, but not as an Anti-"Gentile." I have none but friendly feelings toward all the people of Utah, regardless of sect, party, color, or creed. This is the story of my native State — a record of the facts as I behold them; and "with malice toward none," and "with charity for all," I send it forth upon its mission. ORSON F. WHITNEY. Salt Lake Citv. October. 1916. Contents PAGE. I. The Heart of the Desert (1540-1847) 1 II. The First Inhabitants 8 III. Nineteenth Century Pilgrims ( 1846) 18 IV. The Pioneers ( 1847) 27 V. The Shores of the Inland Sea ( 1847) 37 VI. Early Events in the Valley ( 1847-1849) 45 VII. The Provisional State of Deseret (1849-1851) . . . 53 VIII. The Territory of Utah (1850-1853) 71 IX. Growth of the Commonwealth (1852-1854) 87 X. An Indian Uprising ( 1853-1854) 97 XL Brigham Young Again Governor (1854-1857) . . 106 XII. The Coming of Johnston's Army (1857) ....... 118 XIII. The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857) 129 XIV. The Echo Canyon War (1857-1858) 142 XV. Mediation, Peace and Pardon (1858) 151 XVI. Camp Floyd Times (1858-1861) 161 XVII. The Civil War Period ( 1861-1865 ) 178 XVIII. Later in the Sixties (1865-1867) 199 XIX. The Railroad and What Came with It ( 1868-1871 ) 216 XX. Modern Guelph and Ghibelline (1867-1870) .... 234 XXL Attempts at Reconstruction (1870-1871) 247 XXII. ludge McKean and His "Mission" (1870-1872). 263 XXIII. Sundry Events in the Seventies (1872-1877) .... 290 XXIV. Dead and Living Issues (1878-1881) 315 XXV. The Anti-Polvgamy Movement (1878-1882) .... 332 XXVI. The Utah Commission (1882-1883) 347 XXVII. An Approaching Storm (1882-1885) 366 XXVIII. Under the Harrow (1885) 388 XXIX. Sejisational Episodes (1885-1886) 412 XXX. The Dark Before the Dawn (1886-1887) 435 XXXI. Rifts in the Cloud ( 1887-1889) 454 XXXII. The End of a Cycle (1889-1891) ■. . . 474 XXXIII. Preparing for Sovereignty (1890-1895) 491 XXXIV. The Forty-Fifth State ( 1896-1897) 506 XXXV. War and Politics ( 1898-1916) 517 XXXVI. Resources and Development (1916) 547 Malad CityV, ; / A \n \f o ^ ^ ^^l j\P.-t n^ \ V. D >.E R "'n W,' fs.,uu,A I Z- \ UTAH Stale! 58 Miles = 1 ineh. Copjrighl by Rand MiN'ally it Co. J015, WHITNEY'S Popular History of Utah. THE HEART OF THE DESERT. 1540-1847. The Great Basin. — West of the Rocky Mountains, that mighty continental barrier, divider of streams flowing toward the Pacific from waters that seek the Atlantic through the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, there is a broad stretch of arid country called "The Great Basin;" a name given to it by Fremont the explorer. It was the driest and most desolate part of a region once known as "The Great American Desert," extending from what is now Western Colorado to Southeast- ern California, and from British America to Mexico. Character of the Country. — The Great Basin is an elevated intermountain plain, spreading five or six hundred miles east and west, and eight or nine hundred miles north and south. Its eastern rim is in the Wasatch Mountains, twenty to thirty miles east of Salt Lake Valley; its western limit is the Sierra Nevada system. It narrows on the north toward the Blue Mountains of Oregon, and converges on the south into Lower California. Though described as a plain or plateau, the country is far from level. Much of it is broken and irregular, being crossed, mostly north and south, by numerous smaller moun- tain ranges, and containing a number of sinks or lakes, the waters of which have no visible outlet. It comprises about 210,000 square miles — the largest closed drainage area in North America. The altitude of much the larger part of the Basin is about four thousand feet above the level of the ocean.* *The Great Basin, as a descriptive term, is deemed by some a mis- nomer. Hubert Howe Bancroft, the Pacific States historian, thought the term "Great Gridiron" would have better described this mountain- walled, rock-ribbed wilderness. It is not a single depression, but a number of depressions considered as one because it sends no stream beyond its borders. Dean W. R. Harris, in his scholarly work, "The Catholic Church in 2 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. A Prehistoric Sea. — It is believed, and the belief is con- firmed by geological signs, such as the remains of ancient beaches and river deltas, that the whole of this wide, dry area was once the bed of an inland sea, communicating with the Pacific. Many of the mountain tops were then submerged, while others were islands, laved or lashed by the billows. The canyons were connecting waterways between various parts of that prehistoric sea, the main body of which disap- peared before the foot of the European pressed the soil of the New World. The remnants of it are found in several smaller basins, parts of the Great Basin, holding the sinks or lakes men- tioned. The most important one is the basin or valley of the Great Salt Lake. Concerning the ancient shore lines found in this region, Dr. James E. Talmage, the Utah geologist, says : "The deltas of the Logan River form a series of sloping terraces extending downward from the mountain face. Each delta indicates the partial destruction of earlier depositions above. In Salt Lake Valley the delta formed by City Creek * * * reveals itself as high benches through which the stream has kept for itself a passage. Wave-action appears to have been unusually strong at this place, and consequently the typical delta form is considerably modified. The delta constructed by the Provo River in Utah Valley covers over twenty thousand acres, and another occurs a few miles to the south — the work of the Spanish Fork stream — with an area of eight thousand acres." Lake Bonneville. — The great body of water that once ex- Utah," thus describes the Great Basin: "This colossal inland depres- sion takes in the western half of Utah, including Sanpete, Sevier, Sum- mit, and Utah counties, and includes almost the entire State of Mevada. In southeastern Oregon the Basin absorbs a large territory and steals a portion of land from southeastern Idaho an4 southwestern Wyoming. It passes into California, extending along its eastern border, and, leap- ing to the southern end of the State, collects Imperial Valley, San Diego County, and portions of Lower California into its tremendous maw. Towards the east it touches the drainage basin of the Colorado River, and on the west it is bounded by the basins of the San Joaquin the Sacramento, and many lesser streams. The crest of the huge Sierra Nevada forms the great divide for the falling and flowing waters, and further south towering mountains hold its drainage within this terri- tory. Within the Basin are pleasant valleys, whose alluvial slopes and floors were raised by the detritus accumulating for uncounted ages from the surrounding mountains. Here, too, deserts of repellant aspect were formed, and among them are the Great Salt Lake and Carson desolations of sand and alkali, the Colorado and the burning Mojave of the southwest. The Sevier, the Ralston, the Amagosa and the Escalante wastes of sand occupy their own places in this marvelous formation, but are of subordinate importance. Enclosed within the Basin are the dreaded Death Valley, the Salton Sink and Coahuila desert, all of them lying below the face of the Pacific." THE HEART OF THE DESERT. 3 isted here, or the bed that it once occupied, is known as a fossil sea, and bears the name "Lake Bonneville," in honor of an early explorer. This name, given by Washington Irving to the existing Lake, was subsequently bestowed upon its dead ancestor by Grover Karl Gilbert, an American scientist, whose report to the United States Government (1877-1878) is the accepted standard work on the geological history of the Great Salt Lake. According to Gilbert, Lake Bonneville did not cover the whole of the Great Basin, but only the Utah part of it. In Nevada there was a similar lake, La Hontan.* General Features and Divisions. — Only the western half of Utah is in the Great Basin. The State is divided, from northeast to southwest, by the Wasatch Mountains and their southern extension of hills and plateaus. East of that natural wall lies the region drained by Green and Grand rivers, afflu- ents of the Colorado. To the west spreads the Great Salt Lake, with its neighboring desert; the former wholly within Utah, the latter reaching into Nevada. Eastward from and forming a spur of the Wasatch, are the Uintah Mountains; while west of the Wasatch and parallel with that range, are *Dr. Talmage, whose interesting work, "The Great Salt Lake — Past and Present," is drawn upon for accompanying data, names as the principal divisions of Lake Bonneville: (1) The main body, com- prising the area of the existing Lake and that of the Salt Lake Desert; (2) Cache Bay to the north; (3) Sevier Bay, and (4) Escalante Bay, to the south. The ancient channel of the Bonneville outlet was discovered on the northern rim of Cache Valley, at Red Rock Pass, near Oxford, Idaho. "The honor of this discovery," says Talmage, "is accorded to Gilbert, though Peale has disputed Gilbert's rights of priority on the basis of Bradley's suggestion, made in 1872. Bonneville River flowed through Marsh Valley, being joined in this part of its course by the Portneuf. The combined streams then followed Portneuf Pass to Snake river, then to the Columbia. Above its junction with the Port- neuf the Bonneville River must have equalled and possibly exceeded in size the Niagara." The same authority states that Lake Bonneville, when at its highest level, had an extreme north and south length of three hundred miles, and a greatest east and west extent of one hun- dred eighty miles, presenting an area of 19,750 square miles. Major John W. Powell, the intrepid explorer of the Colorado River, in his report to the Federal Government (1880-1881), gives the follow- ing historical outline of Lake Bonneville: "First the waters were low, occupying, as Great Salt Lake now does, only a limited portion of the bottom of the basin. Then they gradually rose and spread, forming an inland sea, nearly equal to Lake Huron in extent, with a maximum depth of 1,000 feet. Then the waters fell, and the Lake not merely ("v/indled in size, but absolutely disappeared, leaving a plain even more desolate than the Great Salt Lake Desert of today. Then they again rose, surpassing even their former height, and eventually over- flowing the basin at its northern edge, sending a tributary stream to the Columbia River; and. last, there was a second recession and the waters shrunk away, until now only Great Salt Lake and two smaller lakes remain." 4 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. the Oquirrhs and other lines of hills. Southern Utah gener- ally is diversified with rocky ranges, broken ridges, valleys and plateaus. Great Salt Lake. — The Great Salt Lake is one of the most interesting natural objects in all the West. Extending along the base of the Wasatch Mountains north and south, a dis- tance of about seventy-five miles, it has a width of nearly fifty miles, and in places a depth of forty or fifty feet. Jutting up from the surface is a group or chain of mountain islands, partly submerged peaks, a continuation of neighboring ranges. These islands are nine in number, and are named as follows : Antelope, Stansbury, Carrington, Fremont, Gunnison, Dolphin, Mud, Strong's Knob, and Hat or Egg Isl- and. The Lake, as stated, has no visible outlet ; its waters, which are eight times brinier and consequently far more buoyant than those of the ocean, evaporate to the clouds or sink into subterranean depths. Owing to the intense saltness of these waters, fish cannot live in them. They were once supposed to have no life, but a small brine shrimp and three kinds of insects have been found therein. Other Water Bodies. — Into the Great Salt Lake flows the Jordan River, a narrow, winding stream, the outlet of Utah Lake, forty miles southward. The connection of these two lakes, one salt and the other fresh, by a river, added to the general contour of the country, suggests a comparison between Utah and the Land of Palestine. The Great Salt Lake has been called "The Dead Sea of America." Utah's lakes are mainly in the north. Of the fresh water bodies, Utah Lake and Bear Lake are the most notable. Bear Lake is partly in Idaho. Sevier Lake is a shallow brackish sink in Central Utah, and Little Salt Lake, a smaller sheet far- ther south. The rivers that feed these natural reservoirs are formed mainly by melted snows from the mountains. Away up near the snow-capped summits are still smaller fresh lakes, from which flow clear, ice-cold waters, tuml^ling over high THE BRINE SHRIMP. THE HEART OF THE DESERT. 5 cliffs, forming- beautiful cascades, falling into deep ravines, into deeper gorges called canyons, and finally flowing out upon the thirsty, sun-parched plains. Hot and warm mineral springs, with healing waters, gush forth in places at the foot of the snow-crowned ranges. Still a Desert — Wild Growths — Fertile Spots. — The term "desert," formerly applied to this now promising and produc- tive region, was not a misnomer. Desert it was, uncultivated, uninhabited; and desert it is, in many parts, despite the won- drous changes that time and toil have wrought. Tillage, aided by irrigation, has done much to redeem the waste and render it fruitful, but much more remains to be done before the ancient desert shall finally disappear, and the phrase "Arid America" become obsolete. Trees are found among the mountains and along the water courses, but these are few and far between. In the canyons are groves of cottonwood, quaking asp, maple, cedar, and pine. and during spring and early summer rich grasses and wild flowers cover the sides of the ravines. But the valleys, when first settled, save for light fringes of verdure timidly following the trail of winding streams across sterile plains, had neither groves nor grass to hide their nakedness. Like the rocky hill- sides, they were utterly bare, or clothed only with sagebrush, sunflowers, and other wild growths, withering in the heat of the sun. Along the bases of the hills, where deposits from crumlj- ling rocks mingle with the debris of the plains, the soil is naturally productive, and when irrigated brings forth abund- antly. In other parts it is either pure desert, hopelessly bar- ren, or so devoid of moisture and so strongly impregnated with salt and alkali, that cultivation is almost impossible. Climate. Scenery, and Resources. — Utah is in the North Temperate Zone, between parallels 7i7 and 42 north latitude, and 109 and 114 west longitude. The climate is healthful and delightful. The mountains around the valleys ward off the keen wintry winds, and the rarity of the high atmosphere modifies the summer heat. The average annual rainfall is about twelve inches. In southwestern Utah — the Valley of the Rio Virgen — the climate is semi-tropical. The Utah scenery will compare with any in the w^rld. Here are mountains as grand as the Alps of Switzerland, and sunsets more gorgeous than those of Italy and Greece. In the south are marvelous canyons, mammoth stone bridges, and giant monoliths, master-works of nature, worthy to be classed with the wonders f)f all time. The lakes and mountain gorges will always be a source of delight to poets, painters, and lovers of the beautiful. 6 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. The land, in spite of its dryness, is one of rich and varied resources. Where agriculture has succeeded, vast quantities of cereals are raised, with all varieties of fruits and vegetables common to the North Temperate Zone. The mountains are nature's treasure vaults, containing inexhaustible deposits of precious and useful metals. Gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, coal, and a hundred other minerals are found. The mountains and lakes could furnish salt and soda to supply a continent. From the quarries come marble, onyx, granite, and all kinds SUNSET ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE. of building stones, for the construction of temples, churches, school-houses, stately public edifices and handsome private homes, which now adorn and beautify the land. Previous Conditions, — When the Pioneers entered this region, however, it was a wilderness, a desolation, scorched by the sun and trodden by the roving red man, sharing with wild beasts and venomous reptiles these all but silent solitudes. Of the hunters and trappers of earlier times, there remained but a few straggling mountaineers, living in lonely log forts with their Indian wives and half-breed children, baiting the bear, trapping the beaver, and guiding the occasional emigrant train or chance traveler to or from the western ocean. Prior to 1847 — the first year of pioneer occupancy — a few thousand Americans had settled among Indians and Spaniards on the Pacific Coast ; but none had settled here. Salt Lake Valley, with its surroundings, was a region coveted by none, shunned by all. "A Vast, Worthless Area." — What was thought at that time of the West by the people of the East, is told in a speech THE HEART OF THE DESERT. . 7 said to have been delivered by Daniel Webster on the floor of the United States Senate. Someone had proposed the estab- lishment 1)y the United States Government, of a mail route from Independence. Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia River; and Webster opposed the movement in these words: "What do we want with this vast, worthless area — this region of savages and wild beasts, of 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?"* Yet it was to the very heart of this "vast, worthless area, this region of savages and wild beasts," that the Pioneers of Utah made their way. Here, upon Mexican soil, in the tops of the Rocky Mountains, in the midst of the Great American Desert, they lifted the Stars and Stripes, and laid the founda- tions of an American State. *In much the same vein Senator McDufiRe, of South Carolina, rifliculing, in 1843, the idea of a railroad to the Great West, exclaimed: "What is the nature of this country? * * * Qf what use will it be for agricultural purposes? Why. I would not for that purpose give a pinch of snufif for the whole territory. I thank God for his mercy in placing the Rocky Mountains there." 11. THE FIRST INHABITANTS. Native Tribes. — Who were the first dwellers in the desert — the earliest human beings to inhabit this once lonely and des- olate land? A question for the archaeologist, rather than for the historian. So far as known, the original occupants of the region now embraced within the State of Utah were roving Indian tribes, the aborigines of America. Opinions are divided as to whether these included the Cliff Dwellers, a strange and interesting people the remains of whose work may be seen in recesses of the rocks in Southern Utah and other parts. Some authorities identify them with the Moquis and Hopis of Ari- zona, while others give them a much greater antiquity than any existing red race can boast. This much may be said: The Cliff Dwellers were here long before the savage tribes that were found by the Pioneers. Utah was named after one of those tribes. It has been supposed that that wonderful Indian race, the /\ztecs, who founded in Mexico the empire of the Montezu- nias, on their way thither from Azatlan, an unknown country in the north, halted for a long period upon the shores of the Great Salt Lake. If the supposition be correct, their presence here was prior to 1195 A. D., about which time the Aztecs reached the Valley of Mexico.* Utes and Shoshones. — Unlike the Aztecs, the Utahs or Utes were a degraded people. They neither built cities nor founded empires, but dwelt in caves and wigwams, and lived mainly by fishing and hunting. Part of their food was wild roots dug from the ground, and nuts and berries picked from bushes growing by the mountain streams. They also ate crickets and grasshoppers (locusts). f The Utes were a warlike race, and often fought fiercely among themselves. Their most hated foes were the Shoshones or Snake Indians, who roamed over a region east and north of the Great Salt Lake, while the Utes inhabited the country south. They ranged over an area extending from California to New Mex- ico. The Utes were divided into several bands under different chieftains, "united by a common language and affinities." They cherished many traditions pointing to prominent events in the *James D. McCabe. "History of the World," p. 1234. tThe crickets were driven by swarms into fires, and thus roasted. The grasshoppers were dried in the sun, and then pounded into meal, from which cakes were made, said to be tasteful and not at all nnwhole some, even to white men who were at times feasted upon them, not knowing of what they were composed. THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 9 world's history, such as the Creation, the Flood, and the Res- urrection of Christ."* Spanish Explorers — Coronado — Cardenas. — The first white men who are known to have entered the Utah region, were a small party of Spaniards, soldiers in the army of Francisco Vaz- quez de Coronado, the explorer of New Mexico. This was in the year 1540. What is now Utah was then a part of Mexico, and Mexico belonged to Spain. Coronado, having been ap- pointed governor of NuevaCialicia. headed an expedition north- ward in search of Cibola and the Seven Cities, concerning which a Spanish priest, Marcos de Nizza, had reported to the Mexi- can authorities. While in New Mexico, Coronado heard of a great river to the northwest, and sent Captain (jarcia Lopez de Cardenas, with twelve men, to explore it. By way of the Mo- quis villages, Cardenas and his comrades came as far as the south bank of the Colorado, but did not cross the river. The}- soon returned to report to their commander at Cibola (Zuni). PURBI.O IIOMK.S. Escalante and Dominguez. — In July, 1776, two Spanish friars of the Franciscan order. Father Sylvestre Velez de Esca- lante and Father Francisco Atanasio de Dominguez, set out with seven men from Santa Fe, in quest of a direct route to *See James Liiifurth"'^ " Liverpool Route," puhli.-Iicd in 1S55; al^o a pamplilct issued by Dimick B. Huntington, Indi.-m interpreter, in 1872, and rejiroduced in the "Improvement Era" for October, 1914. 10 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. Monterey, on the California sea-coast. Monterey had then been founded about six years, while Santa Fe had entered upon the latter half of its second century. The California town having- become a port of entry for goods shipped from Spain and southern Mexico, it was desirable that a road should be opened for the transmission of troops and supplies from that point to the New Mexican capital. Escalante, who had seen missionary service among the Indians, believed that such a road "could be discovered by passing west by north- west through the land of the Yutas." He convinced the Gov- ernor of New Mexico that the project was feasible, and he and his brother priest were placed at the head of an expedition hav- ing that discovery in view. The route they were looking for was an old Spanish trail leading westward from Taos. From Santa Fe to Utah Lake. — Pursuing a devious north- westerly course, the two Franciscans, with their party, trav- ersed what is now Western Colorado, and crossed White River, flowing west, near the Utah line. After passing Green River, ascending the Uintah, and reaching the Wasatch Moun- tains, they came upon the headwaters of Provo River, or one of the neighboring streams, and followed it down to Utah Lake. The Spaniards were kindly received by the native "Yutas" ("Timpanois") living in willow huts in the valley, but could learn nothing of a route to the sea, nor of white settlers in all the surrounding region. They were told of a valley to the northward, in which was a wonderful lake of salt water, upon whose shores dwelt "a numerous and quiet nation" — the Puaguanipe or Sorcerers, speaking the language of, but not otherwise emulating the hostile Comanches, whom the Yutas greatly dreaded. The Puaguampe were also called Snake-eaters, and were prob- ably identical with the Snakes or Shoshones of later times. Escalante described Utah Valley — north of which he did not go^ — as level, and, except- ing the marshes on the lake A DANCING UTE. shorc, arable. The Spaniards THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 11 named the Jordan River Santa Ana. Bear, deer, and buffalo ranged the region freely, and the bounding jack-rabbit was also plentiful. The streams were filled with fish, and the marshes with wild fowl. Expedition Abandoned. — Late in September the explor- ing party, with two native guides, resumed their journey. Passing down the Sevier River, which they christened Santa Isabel, they skirted the eastern shore of Sevier Lake, and cross- ing Beaver River and the adjacent mountains, visited the valley now bearing the name of Escalante. There, owing to the exhaustion of their food supplies, and discouraged by their failure to learn anything of an open route to the Pacific, they reluctantly abandoned the expedition. Traveling east- ward toward the Colorado, purchasing as they went seeds from the natives with which to make bread, they came to the bank of the great river, and found, after much difficulty, a ford near where Utah and Arizona now divide. Crossing the Grand Canyon, and passing thence by way of the Moquis villages, they reached Zuni, and in due time Santa Fe.* La Hontan,^ — The first white man to hear of the Great Salt Lake — if credence may be given to his rather fanciful narrative — was Baron La Hontan, Lord-Lieutenant of the French colony at Placentia, Newfoundland. His story, published in English in 1735. tells how, in 1689, he sailed up "Long River," described as an afifluent of the Mississippi, for a period of six weeks, passing through various savage tribes until he came near the nation of the "Gnacsitares." There he met four captive slaves, "Mozeemleks," who gave him an account of the country from which they came. Their villages, they said, stood upon a stream springing out of a ridge of mountains where Long River took its rise. The Mozeemleks were "numerous and powerful." La Hontan was told that, a hundred and fifty leagues from where he stood, their principal river flowed into a salt lake, three hundred leagues in circumference, by thirty in breadth, the mouth of the river being two leagues wide. Along the lower part of the stream were "six noble cities," and more than a hundred towns, great and small, surrounded "that sort of sea." The lake was navigable for boats. The despotic government of the land was "lodged in the hands of one great head," to whom the rest paid "trembling submission." Fremont, the Pathfinder. — Captain John C. Fremont, sur- *The Journal or Diario of Fatlier Escalante. kept during his jour- ney to and from Utah Lake, is preserved in the National Library of the City of Mexico. H. H. Bancroft draws upon it in part for his History of Utah, and Dean Harris, in his work, presents what is claimed to be the first English translation of the entire document. 12 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. named "The Pathfinder," came to the shores of the Great Salt Lake in the autumn of 1843, after crossing the Rocky Moun- tains on his second explor- ing expedition to the West. The year before he had ven- tured only as far as South Pass. Accompanied by "Kit" Carson and others, he now- entered "The Great Basin," and on the sixth of Septem- ber, from the crest of an ele- vated peninsula (Low Moun- tain), a little north of We- ber River, caught his first glimpse of America's "Dead Sea." Launching his rubber boat he explored Fremont Island, named by him Dis- appointment Island, because he failed to find there the fertile fields and abundant game he had anticipated.* Fremont seems to have CAPTAIN FREMONT. thought it probable that he w'as the first white man, if not to see, at least to use a boat upon, this remarkable body of water. The Lake, however, had been discovered and boats launched upon it many years before the Pathfinder appeared upon the scene. The Fur Hunters — James Bridger, — Early in the nine- teenth century this region had been overrun by British and American fur hunters, one of whom, James Bridger, commonly known as Colonel Bridger, claimed to have discovered the Lake in 1825.t Bridger w^as then trapping on Bear River. In order to *Disappointment Island was renamed Fremont Island by Captain Howard Stansbury, U. S. A., in 1849. tjohn Jacob Astor, of New York City, was the patriarch of the fnr trade in the United States. As told by Washington Irving, in his enter- taining volnme "Astoria." Astor founded the American Fur Company, in 1808-1809, and later established Astoria, an Indian trading post, at the mouth of the Columbia River. His plan was to have a line of such posts along the Missouri and the Columbia, with Astoria as the em- porium or base of supplies. This was the first attempt by an American citizen to break the monopoly of the fur trade inherited by the British from the French at the conquest of Canada. Astor desired New York, instead of London, to be the main market for the lucrative trade in American peltries. He proposed to dispute the supremacy of the Brit- ish fur companies among the Indian tribes of the Great West, and at the same time form a friendly alliance with the Russian Fur Company, which supplied St. Petersburg and the Chinese Empire with the prod- THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 13 decide a wager among his men, as to the probable course of that stream, he followed it through the mountains to the lake shore. In 1827 four men explored the Lake with skin boats, and reported that it had no outlet. Many supposed it to be an arm of the Pacific Ocean. Colonel Bridger established, on Black's Fork of Green River, a trading post known as Fort Bridger, the site of which is now in southwestern Wyoming Trappers and Traders. — Other names borne by various objects in this region were those of scouts, trappers and traders in early times. Among them may be mentioned Peter Skeen Ogden, of the Hudson Bay Company, and Etienne Provot, for whom Provo River was named. Weber River was christened for a trapper on that stream. General Ashley's name still clings to Ashley's Fork, and Major Henry's, to the Henry Mountains. Carson River, now in Nevada, took its name from Christopher ("Kit") Carson. nets of this industry on American shores. Astoria, captured by the ISritish during the war of 1812, became a trading post of the Northwest Fur Company, which retained possession of it after the war. The Northwest Company, after a ruinous competition with the Hudson Bay Company, another British concern, was merged into the latter organization, which thenceforth controlled most of the fur trade from Alaska to California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. They removed their emporium from Astoria (Fort George) to Fort Vancouver, sixty miles up the Columbia River, and from that point continued to furnish their interior posts and send forth their brigades of trappers. The American fur traders were at first content to follow up the liead branches of the Missouri, the Yellowstone, and other rivers and streams on the Atlantic side of the Rocky Mountains. In 1822 General William X. Ashley, of St. Louis, with Major Andrew Henry, the first American to trap on the headwaters of the Columbia, founded a trad- ing Dost on the Yellowstone, and during the following year pushed a resolute band of trappers into the Green River country. This attempt was succeeded by others, until in 1825 a footing was secured and a complete sj-stem of trapping organized west of the Rockies. In 1830 Ashley, with William Sublette, Robert Campbell, James Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Jedediah S. Smith and others, formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which had at one time a fort on Utah Lake, then Lake Ashley. Ashley named Green River after one of his com- panions, and is said to have embarked upon that stream with a fleet of rafts loaded with peltries, thinking he could drift down to St. Louis. COLONEL BRIDGER. 14 WHITNEY'S POPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. Captain Bonneville. — In November, 1833, came Captain Benjaniin Bonneville, U. S. A., whose adventures in the West were immortalized by Washington Irving. Of French par- entage, but of American rearing, Bonneville was a graduate of West Point, and had been stationed at various military posts on the frontier, prior to undertaking his renowned ex- pedition. Having obtained leave of absence, he enlisted over one hundred men, most of whom had had experience in the Indian country, and in May, 1832, set out from Fort Osage, on the Missouri River. Crossing the Rocky Mountains, he made a tour through the Northwest, and coming south, camped on Bear River. He wrote a description of the Great Salt Lake, and direct- ed some of his men to ex- plore it; but they wandered from their course, and at Monterey wasted their means in riotous living, much to the disgust of their com- mander. Bonneville had come west not merely for adventure, but to trade with the Indians on his own ac- count, and to study their customs and the character of the country for the benefit of the Federal Government. He brought twenty wagons, loaded with Indian goods, provisions, and ammunition, and is believed to have been the first to use ox teams upon this line of travel. Bonneville's hope was to revive the American fur trade on the Columbia River, but he was hampered by the powerful influence of the Hudson Bay Company, which held almost absolute sway over the Indian tribes; a condition deemed perilous to the United States. The Company's representa- tives refused to sell supplies to Bonneville so long as he was conducting a rival enterprise, and it was this circumstance that compelled him to move southward.* CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE. *Back from his expedition in 1835, the explorer, while at the coun- try home of John Jacob Astor, met Washington Irving, and placed at the disposal of the great narrator his journals descriptive of his inter- esting experiences. The result was the publication, in 1837, of "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville." In honor of the captain, Irving named the Great Salt Lake, "Lake Bonneville." but history would not have it so, preferring that the ancient fossil sea should bear that name. THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 15 Missionaries and Emigrants — The Mirage. — In 1832 par- ties of missionaries, men and women, crossed the country to the Pacific Coast, and about that time a few American emi- grants settled in Oregon. Not until 1841, liowever, did reg- ular emigration to California begin. Among the earliest to reach the future land of gold by way of the Utah region, were James Bidwell and Josiah Bel- den, both prominent in Western history of a later period. They recorded their impressions of the overland journey in a series of articles published in leading American magazines. They were wonder-struck by the phenomenon of the mirage, in the vicinity of the Salt Lake Desert, regarding which Cap- tain Stansbur}' afterwards said: "The mirage, which fre- quently occurs, is greater here than I ever witnessed else- where, distorting objects in the most grotesque manner, de- fying all calculation as to their size, shape, or distance, and giving rise to optical illusions almost beyond belief." International Dispute Over Oregon. — When the first Americans settled on the Pacific Coast. California, including Utah and Nevada, was a province of Mexico; while Oregon, embracing Washington. Idaho and other parts, was claimed by Great Britain and the United States. The dispute over the northwest boundary came very near bringing on a war between the two nations.* The Overland Route. — Westward travel over the plains *The United States laid claim to the country west of the Rockj' Mountains from the northern line of California to the southern bound- ary of Alaska, or the parallel of 54° 40'. Hence the phrase, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight," a Democratic political slogan of that period. The British claim extended as far south as the Columbia River. Says Dr. Wilbur F. Gordy, an American historian: "We had sev- eral reasons for claiming Orego:!. In 1792 Captain Gray, of Boston, discovered the Columbia River, which he named in honor of his ship; in 1805 Lewis and Clark explored this river, and in 1811 an American company established at its mouth the trading post Astoria. But we made a yet stronger claim by reason of the actual settlements which Americans planted there before 1845. These settlements began in a small way as early as 1832. * * * In this matter of planting settle- ments we had the advantage of England, because we were nearer the disputed territory. For a long time, to be sure, the English Hudson Bay Compan}' had been out there making money in fur trading, but this comjiany had planted no settlement. * * * The English Hud- son Bay Company held onlj' a small number of military posts and trading stations. The United State? could therefore claim the country bv right of actual possession." — "Historv of the United States," pp. 269, 270. The controversy became serious, but a clash of arms was happily averted. In 1846, after a joint occupancy, each country, by treaty, gave up a part of its claim, and the boundary line was then fixed at 49°, where it sti'l remains. 16 VVHITNEY'S I'Ul'ULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. usually started from Independence, Missouri, which was then on the frontier of the United States. Most of the emii^rants traveled in companies, for society, aid and protection. Those not already ])rovided with outfits procured them on the fron- tier, each family requiring one or more covered wagons ("prairie schooners") loaded with provisions and supplies. .Vs a rule the wagons were drawn by oxen, and four or hve months were consumed in journeying over plains and moun- tains to the sea. The usual route of travel was up the Platte River, past Forts Kearney and Laramie, and thence along the Sweetwater and through South Pass. \Vest of the Pass — now in Wyoming— those going to Oregon turned northward to Fort Hall: while those bound for California followed Bear River to within a few miles of the Great Salt Lake, and then, turning westward to Humboldt River, crossed the country to the Sierra Nevada.* The Donner Party. — One of those early emigrant com- panies was extremely unfortunate. The Donner Party, as it was called, comprised eighty-seven fnen, women and children, led by George Donner and James F. Reed. They left Inde- pendence late in April or early in May, 1846, and in July reached Fort Bridger. There they tarried several days before setting out for California. The usual route from Fort Bridger was by way of Bear River, Fort Hall, and the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake; but another route, just beginning to be traveled, passed through Echo and Weber Canyons and around the south side of the Lake. This was called "The irlast- ings Cut-off," its projector being Lansford W. Hastings, a mountaineer and guide. Friends of Mr. Reed, who had pre- ceded him to California, had written, warning him not to take the cut-off, but to travel by way of Fort Hall. That letter he never received. At Fort Bridger he and his companions were persuaded to follow the new trail as far as the foot of Echo Canyon, and there take another cut-oft', up East Canyon, over the Wasatch Mountains, and down the gorge now known as Emigration Canyon. The journey was exceedingly difficult. They were sixteen days in cutting a road through the mountains. Then came the crossing of the desert, where many of their cattle died for want of grass and water, while others wandered away or were stolen bv Indians. Some of the wagons had to be left *Fort Kearnej' (Xt;braska) was a (jovernincnt post, and Fort Laramie (Wyoming) also became one, though formerly a station of the .American Fur Company. Fort Hall (Idaho), an establishment of the Hudson Bay Company, though it was in the same region, is not to be confounded with the post now bearing that name. THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 17 behind. Delayed by these and other misfortunes, the ill-fated emigrants did not strike the main trail on the Humboldt until late in September, after the last companies of the season had gone by. Another month brought them to Truckee Pass, where early snows blocked the way. Some killed their cattle and went into winter quarters, while others delayed building cabins until heavier snows fell. A Tragic Fate. — It was now December; their provisions were almost gone, and starvation stared the unfortunate trav- elers in the face. A number of them, putting on snow shoes, crossed the stormy mountains to New Helvetia (Sacra- mento) ; but before reaching there several died from cold, hun- ger, and exhaustion, and the others, in order to save them- selves, ate the flesh of the dead. Relief parties were sent back to the main company, and most of them were saved ; but thirty- nine of the original eighty-seven perished. The survivors, when found, had been living for weeks like cannibals. The last one was picked up in April, 1847, the same month that the Pioneers of Utah set out for the West. 111. NINETEENTH CENTURY PILGRIMS. 1846. The Latter-day Saints. — Utah owes her existence as a common weahh to a movement similar in some of its phases to that which peopled New England with representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race. No history of the United States could be written without reference to the Pilgrims and Purkans; and no histpr'y75t~ijtah would l)e ])ossi^ile without allusion to the Pafter-day Saints, or "Mor- mons." This religious commu- nity sent f(irth the Pioneers who founded Utah, and it also furnished much the greater part i)f the immigration that subsequently built up the State. The principal achievements of the "Gentile," or non-Mormon portion of our people, though liighl}' important, are of a later ])eriod than the work done by the Pioneers and those who followed immediately after them.* Civilization Amidst Sav- agery. — Those early settlers were the vanguard of progress, the builders of empire in the barren heart of the West. They planted ci\ilization in the midst of savagery, and to them, more than to any other i)eople. owing to their unity, communal TO.^EPII SMITH. *The Latter-day Saints are called "^[ornions," because of their 1)elief in tlie Book of Mormon, a record of prehistoric America, trans- lated into English by Joseph Smith, who declared that it had been divinely revealed to him. The Book of Mormon refers to the people of Europe and America as "Gentiles." It is not an opprobrious term. Springing from "Gentilis," signifying "of a nation," it was used anciently to indicate those who were not of Israel, but who were de- scended from Japheth, son of Noah, whose son Shem was ancestor to the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The word "Mor- mon," like the word "Christian," was originally intended as a term of reproach, but no such intent is in the use, by Latter-day Saints, of the word "Gentile." NINF/rKl':\"l"ll Ci-lXTUkV I'lLCklMS. V) spirit, and systematic methods, is due the redemption of "Arid America." Their industry and that nf their successors made the desert Basin habitahle. 'I'lic foundini;- of Utah greatlv fa- cilitated the settlement of the .States now clusterini^- around her. The "Mormon" Exodus. — "Mormonism's" westward movement — referring" now to the exodus of its adherents from the United States — began almost simultaneously with the out- i)reak of the Mexican War. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da}' Saints — commonly known as the "Mormon Church" — was then about completing its sixteenth year. It had mi- grated successively from three States in the Union — New York, wdiere it had its origin; Ohio, and Missouri. The re- moval from Missouri w^as compulsory ; it was the result of re- ligious and political differences between the "Mormon" peo])le and other inhabitants of that State. j()sei)h Smith, the founder of the Church, who was born near Sharon, \'ermont, Decem- ber 23, 1805. fell a victim to mob violence at Carthai^e. Illinois, June 27. 1844. The next chapter in the checkered history of his followers was their exodus from Illinois — their enforced departure into the western wilderness. That exodus began in February, 1846, and in April the Mexican \\^ar broke out. By that time the main body of the homeless people, with their heavily loaded wagons, after leav- ing Nauvoo, their main city. and passing the frozen Mississippi, were well on their way across Iowa, approaching the threshold of the wilderness. The purpose of the moving community was to find a new home in the West. About the middle of June their vanguard reached the Missouri River, and encamped tem- porarily at Council Bluff's, on the Pottawattamie Indian lands. There was no city — only the Bluffs, where Indian chiefs some- times sat in council. On the Threshold of the Wilderness. — The exiles were now upon the frontier, the extreme western fringe of civiliza- tion. Beyond lav the broad plains where the savage red man roamed, an immense tract of unoccupied country, out of wdiich Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and other populous States or parts of States have since been formed. It was a portion of the Province of Louisiana, once held by Spain. l)ut ])urchased, in 1803, from France bv the Federal Government.* *This was the greatest event in the administration of President Thomas Jefferson. Prior to that time the area of the United State^^ was 837,844 square miles: the Louisiana Purchase added to it 1,171.931 square miles. After tlie purchase, wliich was for fifteen million dollars, and pursuant to a recommendation bj' the Pres- ident to Congress, an exploring partj' of thirty men, under Lewis and Clark, started from St. Louis on a northwesterly journey to the Pacific Ocean. This was in 1804. 'I'lie Lewis and Clark expedition acquainted 20 WHITNEY'S rOPULAR HISTORY OF UTAH. Farther west were the snow-capped summits of the Rocky Mountains, and farther still, the sunburnt valleys and dry plateaus of the Great Basin, separated from the Pacific Coast by the Sierra Nevada range. West of that rocky barrier the land was fertile, sloping down to the sea; but eastward, for many a weary league, it was a waste, almost treeless and waterless. Mexican Possessions. — This arid, desolate region belonged to Mexico, which country had thrown ofif foreign rule (1812-21) and become an independent nation, inheriting the earh^ Spanish dominions in North America. The present States of California, Nevada, and Utah were parts of the Mexican province of Cal- ifornia, east of which was another province, New Mexico, in- cluding all or most of Arizona. Oregon, as already shown, was claimed both by Great Britain and the United States. The British also coveted California. Such was the posture of af- fairs in the West at the beginning of the war with Mexico. The Mexican War. — The original cause of this conflict was the annexation of Texas, an act resented by Mexico, who suspected the United States of predatory designs upon her pos- sessions. Hostilities began on the Texan frontier, where the victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, won by General Zachary Taylor early in May, drove the Mexicans across the Rio Grande. There, in the opinion of many Americans, the war should have ended ; but the majority of the Nation, and especially the South, bent upon extending slavery, had set its heart upon more. To acquire additional territory for future States, and to checkmate Great Britain in her ambitious de- signs upon California, the strife was permitted to continue. President Polk was authorized by Congress to call for fifty thousand volunteers, and the sum of ten million dollars was voted for war purposes.* the American people with the extent and riclmess of the Louisiana Purchase. "Four nations — France. Spain, Great Britain, and the United States, were concerned in determining the boundaries of this territorj'. It was finally agreed that American Louisiana should extend from the Mississippi along the tliirti'-first parallel to the Gulf of Mexico, thence along the Red River up to the Arkansas, and thence north with the mountain chain to the forty-second parallel of latitude. The region practically included the present States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Alis- souri, Iowa. Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, the Dakotas,. Montana, Wyoming, and Indian Territory." — Edwin Emerson, Jr., "History of the Nineteenth Century," Vol. I. pp. 100, 101. *General Grant, in his "Personal Memoirs," declares the Mexican War "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." Grant and his great antagonist, Lee, both served with distinction during the strife. James Russell Lowell, in the "Biglow Papers," reflects the New England sentiment against the war. NINETEENTH CENTURY PILGRIMS. 21 Government Aid Solicited.— Shortly before these events, and immediately prior to the beginning of the exodus from Illinois, an agent of the Latter-day Saints, acting under in- structions from Brigham Young, who had succeeded Joseph Smith at the head of the "Mormon" community, went "to the City of Washington to solicit government aid for his people. No gift of money or of other means was asked^only employ- ment in freighting provisions and naval stores to Oregon or other points on the Pacific. That agent, Jesse C. Little, repre- sented in his petition — presented after the exodus began — that many of his co-religionists had already left Illinois for Cali- fornia, and that thousands of others, in the United States and in the British Isles, would go there as soon as they were able.* President Polk — Military Plans. — President Polk received Mr. Little kindly, and promised to do what he could for the homeless people. He referred to them as "loyal Americans," against whom he had no prejudice. Just at this juncture the news reached ^^^ashington that General Taylor had fought two battles with the Mexicans, and these tidings determined the President upon taking immediate possession of California, and using, some of the migrating "Mormons" as part of the force necessary for that purpose. It was decided to strike Mexico at three points ; General Taylor to continue operations along the Rio Grande ; General Winfield Scott, the commander-in-chief, to invade Mexico from the Gulf Coast; while General Stephen Kearney, with a third army, marched overland to capture the Mexican provinces in the West. A portion of Kearney's force was to be recruited from the "Mormon" camps on the frontier. The Call for the Mormon Battalion. — The first intimation had by the "Mormon" leaders res]:)ecting this purpose of the Government was the appearance at Mt. Pisgah. one of their temporary settlements in Iowa, of an army recruiting officer. Captain James Allen, who issued a circular, stating the author- ity under which he acted, and making known the wishes of General Kearney regarding the troops to be raised. Having been referred to headquarters at Council Blufifs, he at once pro- ceeded to that point, to confer with President Brigham Young and his associates. Captain Allen's "Circular to the Mormons" read as fol- lows : "I have come anioiifi: you, instructed by Col. S. F. Kearney, of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to visit the ""'Upper California" was the specific name of the region to which the Latter-day Saints were migrating. By that title it bcoame the theme of a well known ".Mormon" hymn, sung on both sides of tlic Atlantic during the peri