Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

Outposts, forts, and settlements were scattered throughout the vast area they hoped to dominate. Western Colorado, southwestern Wyoming, southern Idaho, Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona and southern California were all included in their colonization plans. Strategic points throughout this whole vast empire were to be occupied and controlled. The intervening territory would be filled in later with the great number of converts to the faith pouring in from Europe. The transfer of this entire territory to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo exercised a restraining influence upon their ambitions and brought them once more under the hand of the Federal government.

During the first few years of settlement, there was little change in governmental organization and the people were for the most part guided and controlled by their religious leaders. In March, 1849, they set up a provisional government for their proposed State of Deseret.[18] In 1851, however, Congress carved this western empire into territories, paying no attention to the proposed State and designating its heart as the Territory of Utah (named for the dominant Indian nation of the region, the Utes or Utahs). The Mormon dreams were thus dimmed, but they did not finally die until 1858, when Albert Sydney Johnston’s army marched to Utah and completely ended all hopes of an independent political unit. Thereafter, the Mormon attitude gradually changed from one of open opposition to one of conditioned loyalty and the long struggle for statehood began.[19]

It was during the period of expansion and occupation that southwestern Utah was generally explored with a view toward settlement. Late in the fall of 1847, a small party under the leadership of Captain Jefferson Hunt pushed to the Pacific coast to secure provisions and livestock, carrying instructions to the Mormon Battalion members mustered out in California to remain there that winter and not to attempt to come to Salt Lake until Spring.[20] The party followed approximately the route of U. S. Highway 91 from Great Salt Lake to Little Salt Lake, Iron County, where it picked up the Old Spanish Trail and followed it to the coast. Hunt’s men were the first Mormons to travel the route later known as the Mormon Trail. Where they obtained information to guide them is a question, but it is known that the Mormons were acquainted with Fremont’s report of his trip along that route in 1844. There was an important deviation from Fremont’s path, however; they went through Scipio Valley and the pass to the east of the Canyon range of mountains, whereas Fremont had gone on the west side. Further details of this trip are lacking.[21]

The party wintered in California, where negotiations were entered into between Hunt and United States Army officers for raising another battalion of Mormons to garrison posts in California. When Hunt returned to Salt Lake in the spring of 1848, he carried the details with him, but no report of his trip is extant.

On September 17, 1848, while Brigham Young was visiting at Fort Provo, a group of leaders gathered at Hunt’s house in the evening to “converse about the southern country and the prospects of settling it.... Many questions were asked in regard to routes, traveling, locations, incidents, etc., and the prospects before the Saints caused quite a good feeling.”[22]

During the late summer and fall of 1849, hundreds of emigrants on their way to seek gold in California poured into the Salt Lake Valley too late to make the trip westward across the Sierra Nevada Mountains before snow blocked the way. There was little food and the Mormons were not eager to have these people winter with them. The difficulty was solved by the offer of Captain Hunt to pilot them across the southern route.

Altogether there were about 125 wagons and 1,000 head of cattle. The Argonauts were a nondescript lot, everyone intent upon his own personal problems and not actuated by a common ideal as were the Mormons. They caused Hunt a great deal of trouble and even threatened his life over certain details of the trip. Dissensions arose which split the party several times. At last, near the rim of the Great Basin not far from the Mountain Meadows, most of them left him for a supposed cutoff via Walker’s Pass in the Sierras. Hunt, in peace, safely piloted the remaining six or seven wagons to the coast. The party taking the cutoff ended in disaster in Death Valley.[23] Captain Hunt stayed in California more than a year and returned to Utah early in 1851.

In December, 1849, the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret commissioned a company already organized under the leadership of Parley P. Pratt, to explore the south and ascertain its possibilities for sustaining settlements.[24] The expedition of nearly fifty men had left on November 25. They pushed south during the cold weather via the new settlement of Manti. Following the Sevier River to Circleville Canyon, they turned up a defile to the southwest and followed it about twelve miles north of the Spanish Trail over the mountains into the Little Salt Lake Valley, December 21. Two days later they camped on Red Creek (now Paragonah) where they paused to recuperate among the excellent meadows, willows and bunch grass abounding there at that time.

Here it was decided to divide the party, some to guard the recuperating cattle, while twenty of the men with horses and mules were to push the exploration southward. Those who remained moved their camp to Birch Creek (now Parowan) and while waiting explored the surrounding region. Some went up Parowan Canyon where they discovered accessible timber, plaster of paris (gypsum), water lime (limestone) and iron ore.

Between Jan. 2 and 6, 1850, a company of ten men explored west of Little Salt Lake, where they found many Indian pictographs on the rocks. A few miles west of the present site of Cedar City they came upon a “range of hills filled with iron ore of the richest quality—probably 75 per cent.” Four Indians visited them and when told that the explorers were Mormons, they said ... “Captain Walker had told them about us, that we were his friends. They said they were our friends and would not kill our cattle or horses. Walker told them the Mormons raised Shaunt Tickup [lots of food] and they wanted us to come and raise it among them. They said they loved the Mormons. They are very poor and have no horses or skins. They live upon rabbits which are plenty in their valley (now Cedar Valley) and clothe themselves with their skins.”[25] This party of ten rejoined the camp on January 6.

An exploring party of twenty went south on December 26, reached the rim of the Great Basin at the present site of Kanarra two days later, and then descended Ash Creek, as had Escalante in 1776 and Jedediah Smith in 1826 and 1827. They crossed the black volcanic ridge, probably camping in the vicinity of Pintura. On December 31, 1849, Pratt summarized his impressions:

From the Basin Rim 13 miles of rapid descent brought us to milder
climate and first cultivation [Indian]. A mile or so farther brought
us to the banks of the Virgin.

The great Wasatch range along which we had traveled our whole journey
here terminates in several abrupt promontories [Kolob, La Verkin and
Zion]. The country southward for 80 miles showing so signs of water or
fertility; ... a wide expanse of chaotic matter presented itself, huge
hills, sandy deserts, cheerless, grassless plains, perpendicular
rocks, loose barren clay, dissolving beds of sandstone ... lying in
inconceivable confusion—....

January 1, 1850, they continued down the fertile valleys of the Virgin River as far the Santa Clara Creek. Pratt says:

The bottoms now expanded about one mile in width and several miles in
length, loose sandy soil, very pleasant for farming, extremely fertile
and easily watered and sometimes subject to overflow. No timber in the
country except large cottonwoods along the stream, sufficient for
temporary building and fuel....

The country below [to the southwest, where the river cuts through a
range of mountains] being of the most unpromising character ... and
our animals almost unable to travel, ... it was thought imprudent to
venture farther. We therefore turned to the north up the Santa
Clara.... The Indians were ... well armed with bows and poison arrows
and nearly equalling us in numbers. We fed them, sung for them.... The
chief made us a speech, bidding us welcome to his country.... He
strongly urged our people to settle with them and raise “tickup”
[food]. They returned again next morning, piloted us all day. We saw
no appearance of women or children among them. They cultivate small
patches only, raise good crops by irrigation. We gave them peas for
seed, presents of dried meat....

Following up the Santa Clara, they reached the new wagon road made by Captain Jefferson Hunt and followed it over the divide into the Great Basin, via the Mountain Meadows. Continuing on the Old Spanish Trail eastward, they also discovered the iron ore in the range of hills that the smaller party of ten had found a day or two previously.

Back at the base camp after they arrived, preparations were made for a big celebration on January 8, 1850. Pratt further reported that a liberty pole was erected, and a flag marked with “one star and a great basin was hoisted together with a free soil banner.” A dinner was prepared and “all sat down to a most substantial public dinner, being the first celebration of the Peopling of Little Salt Lake Valley, which we hope will be celebrated annually around that Spot, ’till a hundred thousand merry hearts can join in the festival.”

The trip home was a hard one. They followed the west base of the mountains, crossing Beaver Creek (Smith’s Lost River), where they camped on the night of January 12. It continued to snow so hard that by the time they reached Rock Creek (now Fillmore), they decided (January 20) to winter there. Several, however, pushed on home, arriving about the end of the month.

The information thus brought to Mormon headquarters was encouraging and the early settlement of southern Utah was decided upon. The report of finding large quantities of iron ore west of the present site of Cedar City aroused considerable interest. During the summer of 1850 plans were laid for colonizing the newly created Iron County, the seat to be located at Center Creek, later called Parowan. After harvest in 1850, colonists were called by the Mormon leaders to settle that region. The “call”[26] in this case was published in the _Deseret News_ of November 16, 1850, and was a request for those listed to meet at Fort Provo as soon as possible to organize the expedition.

The group formed in mid-December under the leadership of George A. Smith and traveled south for nearly a month during the cold of late December and early January over a wretched road, in many places covered with snow. The leaders arrived at Center Creek on January 13, 1851, and immediately set out to explore the surrounding country. The next day one party explored Parowan Canyon, another party went up Summit Creek Canyon, a third re-explored the Little Salt Lake, a fourth went up Red Creek, while George A. Smith and more than twenty others went on southwestward to the region around Cedar Valley and Iron Springs.

On the way they met Captain Jefferson Hunt returning from California, and invited him to remain with them while his party went on to Center Creek. Around the camp fire on the night of January 15, they discussed the organization of a local government, appointed a committee to nominate the officers needed and decided to hold an election on January 17. Convinced that Center Creek was the proper place to establish their settlement, they held the election there as scheduled, and a pioneer celebration was staged.

John D. Lee describes this event as follows:

At 10 oclock [a.m.], Thomas S. Smith, one of the judges of election
cried three times in an audible voice, declaring that the polls were
open and ready to receive votes.... At 3 o’clock [p.m.], at the sound
of the trumpet, the people assembled around the public dinner, each
man and his lady (that is those who had any) in their respective
places as follows: The judge was placed at the head, then the
gentlemen were seated on his left according to their rank and the
ladies on his right facing their partners. Previous to sitting down,
President George A. Smith, delivered an oration suitable to the
circumstances of the citizens of Iron County in celebrating the day on
which law and order was first established in that part of Utah. All
the citizens of Iron County then sat down upon the ground around the
public dinner spread upon buffalo robes; these were placed next to the
ground with clean and white table cloths on top upon which were spread
a variety of the refreshments of life.... At 6 o’clock the polls were
closed.[27]

Jefferson Hunt was elected representative. On January 18, after four days “residence” in Iron County, he went on with his party toward Great Salt Lake with his credentials in his pocket.

The settlers immediately set to work building a combined town and fort, making roads to the mountains for timber, clearing land for cultivation, digging irrigation ditches, setting up workshops and mills. On April 10-12, 1851, Parley P. Pratt, on his way to the Pacific Coast, passed through the settlement and found it in a flourishing condition.

By May, coal had been discovered in Cedar Canyon and its value in blacksmithing demonstrated. In the fall, after crops were harvested, a group of settlers moved from Parowan to the present site of Cedar City. The discovery of good coal deposits within a few miles of the iron ore aroused much interest among the Mormon leaders. The prospects for the development of an iron industry invited steps looking toward this. The word was dispatched to their representatives in Europe. Apostles Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards, then on missions in England, who organized the Deseret Iron Company in Liverpool in the spring of 1852, for the development of the Utah deposits.[28] Steel and iron workers as well as coal miners among the English converts were encouraged to migrate to Utah to help in the iron industry. Snow and Richards returned to Salt Lake City in August, and in November, Snow went south to arrange matters on the spot. By the spring of 1852, two foundries were in operation.

E. H. Beale and G. H. Heap, California bound, passed through the settlements, August 2-4, 1853. Heap gives a vivid picture of that early life.[29] His party came by the Sevier River over the Old Spanish Trail to Paragonah, Parowan and Cedar City on its way to the coast. Paragonah had thirty adobe houses arranged in the form of a quadrangle to form a fort. Outside the fort was an area of fifty acres enclosed by a single fence and cultivated in common by the inhabitants, a practice soon discontinued when the lands were divided into individual farms. The Indian War under Chief Walker, which had broken out in July 1853, farther north, had spread southward. Walker and his band had been harassing outlying settlements and stealing cattle and horses. Brigham Young sent one hundred and fifty men into action against him, declared martial law and ordered the people to concentrate in large communities. This order came to Paragonah while Heap was there. He says the inhabitants quickly began to move. Houses were demolished, windows, doors and furniture loaded into wagons, and they were soon on the road to Parowan.

Parowan was similarly organized but was much larger, having a hundred houses and a four hundred-acre field outside the fort. In describing Cedar City, Heap states that it was a place of even greater importance than Parowan, having extensive fields outside the fort abundantly irrigated. He writes:

The inhabitants are principally foreigners, and mostly Englishmen from
the coal districts of Great Britain. At the time of our visit, the
place was crowded with the people of the surrounding country seeking
refuge from the Indians, and its square was blocked up with wagons,
furniture, tents, farming implements, etc., in the midst of which were
men, women and children, together with every description of cattle,
creating a scene of confusion difficult to describe.... Mounted men,
well armed, patrolled the country, and expresses came in from
different quarters, bringing accounts of attacks by Indians on small
parties and unprotected farms and houses. In face of these reports,
Walker sent a message to Colonel G. A. Smith, military commander at
Parowan, telling him that the “Mormons were d—— fools for abandoning
houses and towns, for he did not intend to molest them there, as it
was his intention to confine his depredation to their cattle, and that
he advised them to return and mind their crops, for if they neglected
them, they would starve and be obliged to leave the country, which was
not what he desired, for then there would be no cattle for him to
take.”[30]

The Indian war subsided in the spring of 1854 and the people were again free to attend to farming and mining, although, as a matter of fact, they maintained the military organization for many years thereafter, as long as the Indian menace persisted.

Despite their precaution in maintaining a military organization, the Mormons actually preferred a policy of peaceful penetration and directed positive efforts toward that end. They sent missionaries among the Indians, established missions among them, cultivated friendship with those around the settlements and bestowed gifts and goods upon them. It was easier to penetrate by feeding and friendship than by fighting; moreover, this policy was in line with the teaching of the Book of Mormon that the Indians (there called Lamanites) would be converted and absorbed and would become “a white and delightsome people.” This Mormon policy of keeping peace with the Indians smoothed the course of settlement and improved opportunities for expansion.

At first the iron industry showed considerable promise, but technical difficulties and the enormous cost of transportation without railroad facilities prevented its expansion. Jules Remy, a French observer who passed through the settlements in 1855, states that the mines, both iron and coal, were being worked and the foundries were turning out about a ton of pig iron per day. This was obtained from ore yielding 25 to 75 per cent iron.[31] With the development of railroads across northern Utah, bringing in iron from elsewhere, the industry in the south languished. It had served, however, to accelerate the settlement of this region, and with its passing the pioneers turned to other occupations, especially to agriculture and stockraising, the foundation of the frontier communities.

Pushing South into Dixie

In the fall of 1851, a party pushed southward from Salt Lake City under the leadership of John D. Lee with the intention of settling on the Virgin or Santa Clara rivers. In this, they were to be disappointed, for actual settlement had to wait upon a preliminary period devoted to missions. Thereafter, during the period of settlement, the Mormons were to maintain contact with the Indians on their southern frontier through the agency of missionaries who were to shoulder the lion’s share of the burden of advance exploration, keep in touch with Indian movements and attitudes, designate routes of travel, report areas suitable for agriculture and grazing and act as emissaries to the Indians in times of trouble. This shift in policy is partly explained in a letter from John D. Lee published in the Deseret News, Saturday, April 3, 1852:

Mr. Editor:

On the 4th of Nov. I safely reached the city of Parowan, without the
loss of an animal or the break of a wagon in the whole company. We
then cheerfully went to work with all our might to arrange our affairs
and situate our families in this city, that according to counsel we
might leave them comfortable, while we would go and select a site and
build a fort for our defense. The brethren that joined our company in
Iron County sold out their improvements in full faith of helping to
form another settlement south of the waters of the Santa Clara and Rio
Virgin.

The severity of the weather and failure of the mill caused a detention
of three weeks. The most of our wagons were loaded and ready for a
start, when I received a letter from Pres. B. Young, advising us to
tarry ’till another season, and thereby strengthen the settlements
already planted. The policy was doubtless good, however revolting the
disappointment may have been to my feelings; and past experience
admonished me that to hearken was better than to sacrifice.

The Kanyons were now blockaded with snow and ice, which rendered the
pass to the timber and poles difficult, if accessible at all for
wagons. Under these considerations, I felt justified to spend a few
days in exploring the country, believing that the time thus occupied,
would be more conducive to the spread of the cause of Zion in the
mountains, than to sit by the fireside, reading, or otherwise passing
off the time of an inclement season.

Chafing under this restraint, Lee determined to explore the country regardless of Brigham Young’s advice, and on January 27, 1852, led a party of twelve men,[32] with four wagons, thirteen horses and fifteen days’ provisions, leaving Parowan for the Virgin River region. He followed the route of the Southern Exploring Expedition down Ash Creek but being burdened with wagons had to be more careful in selecting the details of the route. Near the present site of Pintura he left the wagons. Lee further reports in his letter of that date that:

... on foot and horseback [we] traveled down Ash Creek over sand hills
the distance of twelve miles which brought us near its junction with
the Levearskin River [LaVerkin].... Being unable to cross this stream,
we ascended one of these mounds, from which we discovered a stream
running a SW direction which we supposed to be the Rio Virgin; and
from the shape of the country, we concluded that we could take our
wagons to it: Feb. 2d, day, though in temperature more like May.

To the Grapevine springs 5 miles; these springs boil up at the foot of
a large sand mound and moisten about one acre of land, which is
completely interlocked with vines.... To the Rio Virgin River 5 miles,
mostly over yellow land; this stream is about 2 rods wide and 3 feet
deep, narrow bottom, shut in on both sides with low mountains....
[About 3 miles above Berry Springs.]

To the Otter creek 3 miles; stream 13 feet wide, 1 deep; abundance of
otter and beaver along these streams; as we descended this stream [the
Virgin], the bottom continued to widen out, and the amount of timber
increases affording land and other facilities sufficient in many
places, to warrant small settlements.... At the distance of 15 miles
from camp we found ourselves in one of the most pleasant, lovely
valleys that the mountains afford [Washington and Washington Fields].
It is about 5 miles in diameter. The soil is of a lively alluvial
nature; and of a dark chocolate color, and easily irrigated; banks of
the stream low. The climate is of a mild temperature; the sun here
rises without being hid behind the mountains so that its morning and
evening smiles are fully appreciated by the favored vegetation of this
valley.

Feb. 3d, the grapevines and cottonwood are almost leaved out; the dock
and other early herbs are in bloom.... This valley lies rolling to the
south with occasional springs of pure water breaking out at the
distance of from 1½ to 1 mile from the river, converting that portion
of the valley into a rich meadow and vineyard....

Two miles over a small range of mountains brought us in full view of
the Santa Clara country and valley. This valley is about the same
magnitude as the one already described: ... beautiful springs,
grapevines and meadows not excepted.

The Santa Clara river is 1 rod wide and 20 inches deep, pure, clear
water, rich bottoms, though narrow, and heavily timbered for the
distance of 30 miles. On this stream we saw about 100 acres of land
that had been cultivated by the Paiute Indians principally in corn and
squashes.... This tribe is numerous and have quite an idea of
husbandry. Through the day, we saw three of the natives who appeared
frightened and fled at our approach. I called to them in their tongue
and told them that we were their friends and would not hurt them; we
gave them some bread, and told them to pilot us to their peup-capitan
[big chief]; but fearing that six men might slay the nation, they took
us some two miles above their settlement where we met in council with
thirteen of their braves, who after an understanding of our business,
received us friendly and expressed a desire to have us settle among
them and be tue-gee-tickaboo, that is, very friendly....

From the Virgin the six men went up the Santa Clara to the California road and followed it down to the Virgin below the Beaver Dam Mountains. Lee and two others tried to make their way up the river to the mouth of the Santa Clara looking for a short-cut, but were disappointed to find the river flowing through a box canyon which Lee estimated at 4,000 feet in depth (in reality about half that). The trip was a difficult one; it rained incessantly for two days and they were often obliged to wade the river waist deep and were three days without food. They returned to Parowan on February 18. Writing to Brigham Young, March 17, 1852, Lee says:

I am making ready to accompany you on your exploration when you come
along. I have been gathering all the information that I could from the
Spaniards and Walker [Indian Chief], and have taken a map from
them.... Sometimes I think I am more anxious about the formation of
new settlements south. But when I was there in the forepart of the
month of February and saw the trees putting forth their green foliage
and the herbs almost in bloom, the rich soil and abundant streams of
pure water, ... where we can raise cotton, flax, hemp, grapes, figs,
sweet potatoes, fruits of almost every kind ... I scarcely could
content myself to stay ... ’till another fall.[33]

In early June, 1852, the old Indian chief, Quinnarrah (Kanarra), requested the Parowan leaders to go over to Panguitch Lake to visit the Indians who had gathered there to the number of a hundred. J. C. L. Smith, John Steele, John D. Lee and three others made the trip, going eighteen miles up Parowan Canyon to the top of the mountain and descending nine miles on the other side. They met the Indians, explored the region around the lake, and garnered much information about the country farther east on the headwaters of the Sevier River, into which the lake drained. This information excited their curiosity and upon returning home from their three-day trip, they immediately organized another party to cover the region to the east beyond the mountains.[34]

This party set out on June 12, 1852 and included the following: J. C. L. Smith, John Steele, John D. Lee, John L. Smith, John Dart, Solomon Chamberlain, Priddy Meeks and F. T. Whitney. They went through Paragonah, up Little Creek Canyon (now Bear Valley route) and down into Panguitch Valley which they considered suitable for a settlement of fifty to one hundred families who could engage in lumbering, as there was excellent timber in the mountains nearby.

Two days’ travel up the Sevier River brought them to a place on Mammoth Creek with abundant timber, grass and water, suitable for a small settlement. From here they bent their course southeast to Fox Creek (now Asa Creek), passed through Pleasant Valley (Duck Creek), over a ridge into Strawberry Creek. According to the report of this trip written by J. C. L. Smith and John Steele, they proceeded

... thence on to the mountains which lie low and level, so that a team
and wagon might be driven any place unto the highest mountains which
are entirely covered with pine timber. [The mountains between Midway
and Duck Creek east of Cedar Mountain].

We traveled three days among this timber which is of the best quality
and clear of underbrush; we then crossed again the divide and came
into Skull Cap Valley and creek [now Swains Creek], which is about 10
feet wide and one deep; thence up that 8 or 10 miles, and crossed
another ridge to the south, and came to the headwaters of the Levier
Skin [_sic_] [now Long Valley Canyon]; thence down the Levier Sking
[_sic_] about 50 miles. [To upper end of Parunuweap Canyon].

There can be a good wagon road got from the Sevier country to this
point. There are plenty of hops, and timber and handsome places for
settlements in the narrow but fertile bottom of the stream
[undoubtedly Long Valley].

We have now to leave the stream on account of the driftwood and
narrowness of the passage down through, and take to the mountains [to
the south over Harris Mt. Pass]; here the chance for a wagon road
ended and after considerable difficulty and winding around, we arrived
upon the Virgin bottoms [now Canebeds] within one day’s ride of the
Colorado. Here a number of Indians came to us, who told us that Walker
had told them of us, and they seemed very much pleased although
somewhat afraid at first. Brother J. D. Lee gave them a talk, which
pleased them very much, to think that we were not come to kill them.

These Indians are very smart, quick and active, almost naked, with
bright intellects. We then proceeded along, followed by our friends,
who would not leave us; showed us all the curiosities they could think
of, amongst the rest, a weed that will quench the thirst
[Bottlestopper, _Eriogonum inflatum_].

This is a fine country covered with verdure, although there are no
streams at this point, but it has the appearance of raining a good
deal. We then got some Indian guides, who brought us to the jerks of
the Virgin, Levier Skin [La Verkin] and Ash Creek [probably via
Hurricane] where we found a number of Indians raising grain. Their
corn was waist high; squashes, beans, potatoes, etc., looked well.
They had in cultivation four or five acres; their wheat had got ripe
and was out. I looked around to see their tools, but could not see the
first tool, only their hands to dig the ditches, make dams, or
anything else. The Piute chief made us a speech showing us their
destitute situation, without clothes or food. Brother Lee told them we
would learn them to work and raise breadstuff, make clothing, etc., at
which they were well pleased, and wanted us to come soon and make a
settlement among them. This point is some 30 miles above where Brother
Lee intends to settle. We then crossed over Ash Creek, took our old
trail, and soon arrived at Parowan being gone 12 days—having traveled
336 miles.

Sometime during the fall of 1852, John D. Lee and several others located on Ash Creek, about twenty-five miles south of Cedar City, at a place they called Harmony (near U.S. Highway 91, a few miles north of Ash Creek bridge). John D. Lee wrote to Brigham Young, March 6, 1853, describing the progress as satisfactory:

I have built six houses for my family besides helping on every other
building in the fort.... In the month of January, in company with
Peter Schurtz, I rode over to the Rio Virgen country (or Warm Valley
as the Indians call it); we found the climate mild and pleasant....
Brother Brigham, If it is not asking too much, please drop me a few
lines relative to your feelings of forming settlements south, and the
probable time of settling the Warm Valley that I may be ready to meet
your expectations.... Please make known thy will and with pleasure I
will try to obey it.[35]

At the October, 1853 conference in Salt Lake City, a group of fifty families and missionaries under the leadership of Rufus C. Allen (who had been trained in missionary work under Parley P. Pratt in South America) were “called” to strengthen the southern Utah Mission and labor among the Indians. The settlers left immediately but the missionaries delayed until the next spring.

In the meantime, the additional settlers had strengthened Harmony and an Indian school had been established. When the missionaries arrived, May 16, 1854, they found ten Indians in the school.[36] Brigham Young visited Harmony on May 19 and while there inquired if a wagon road could be built to the Virgin River. He was given a discouraging reply.

A few days later, a number of the missionaries under Allen, pushed on to the south among the Virgin River Indians.[37] On June 5, they descended Ash Creek and encountered a group of Indians near the present site of Toquerville. They made friends with the Indian Chief Toquer (meaning black, probably from the lava rocks) and bargained with him to send a runner to the neighboring Indians to arrange for a meeting with them. They moved on next day and met the other Indians at the present site of the old Washington Fields on the south side of the river.

These Indians were in a surly mood and had hidden their squaws and papooses; hence the Mormons were doubtful of their reception. However, one of them hunted up a hidden papoose and gave him a small pocket mirror which the child showed to the squaws. The trinket so pleased them that they all came out of hiding and quickly made friends with the whites.

The missionaries proceeded thence to the Santa Clara River by way of a trail north of the present site of St. George. Here they made friends with the Indians and laid the foundation for the establishment of a mission. The remainder returned to headquarters at Harmony, but Jacob Hamblin and William Henefer remained for some time on the Santa Clara working with the Indians and visiting others farther upstream. They did not reach Harmony until July.

On June 21, 1854, a party of six under the leadership of David Lewis went west from Harmony to Mountain Meadows, down the Santa Clara and thence back over the mountains. On the trip, they preached to the Indians and baptized one hundred and nineteen into the Mormon Church, advising them thereafter not to steal or fight, but to learn Mormon ways of living. Two Indians were sent as messengers to the Muddy River Indians in Nevada, “To tell them we would come among them if they wanted us.”[38]

The settlers at Harmony found a better location a few miles farther upstream on Ash Creek and during the summer of 1854 moved thither, calling it New Harmony. They built a fort there that fall. The missionaries in the Virgin and Santa Clara valleys found their remoteness inconvenient; accordingly a settlement was made on the Santa Clara where they could live among the Indians, and on December 1, Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight and A. P. Hardy established the nucleus of a permanent colony. Two weeks later Rufus Allen and Hyrum Burgess left Harmony for Tonaquint on the Santa Clara near its junction with the Virgin River where they built three log cabins. The missionaries helped the Indians construct substantial dams and ditches for diverting irrigation water. The first dam across the Santa Clara Creek, built in 1855, was a feat which aroused much enthusiasm among the Indians, five hundred of whom gathered to watch its completion. When the dam (100 feet long and 14 feet high) was finished and the water began to rise and run out, half on one side for the Indians and half on the other for the whites, a great shout of exultation went up from the dusky spectators.

The hard labor and poor nourishment which Jacob Hamblin had endured brought on a spell of sickness. To procure medicines and proper food for him, Gus Hardy went to Parowan. While there, Mrs. Nancy Anderson, a southerner, asked him about the mission of the Santa Clara and learned of the long, warm growing season. Believing that the climate might be suitable for cotton, she gave him a quart of cotton seed which she had brought with her from her old home. The missionaries planted the seed on the Santa Clara and raised a crop during the summer of 1855. This cotton was carded, spun, and woven into cloth by the women at the mission. Some of this cloth was sent to Salt Lake City and aroused no little interest there. Samples of the cloth even found their way into England and were said to compare favorably with cotton grown elsewhere. This was the beginning of cotton culture there, which finally led to the fuller settlement of the “Utah Dixie” along the Virgin River, much as the iron industry had led to the development of Iron County. Moreover, like the iron industry, it answered a temporary need by supplying clothing when it was impracticable to import cotton.[39]

A sad mishap occurred at the mission late in 1855, when a young Indian living at the home of Thales Haskell, while examining a gun, accidentally shot the missionary’s young wife, Maria Woodbury Haskell. The death, naturally, cast a pall of gloom over the mission.[40]

The missionaries continued their work with the Indians and gained some ascendency over them. This served a useful purpose during the next few years in deterring or preventing Indian thievery and attacks on travelers on the Mormon trail along the upper part of the Santa Clara. Jules Remy, about to leave the Santa Clara on his way to the Pacific coast (November 10, 1855) says: “There was a log hut there made by the Mormon missionaries, who occasionally come to this place to teach the natives farming.” Here a band of Indians crowded around Remy’s camp, causing some alarm. Thinking to impress the Indians, Remy’s party indulged in a little target practice and revealed some expert markmanship. The Indians, not to be outdone, gathered in a line to shoot at a target about a hundred yards distant. At a signal from the chief, the arrows were released in unison and flew to the mark. Remy noticed that even the youngsters were able to hit small birds flying close at hand. The Indians were not intent on injury, but merely on theft, and hoped by their numbers to distract the attention of the whites while they pilfered the camp. The Frenchman, however, proved a match for them.[41]

Another cotton crop matured in 1856. During that year there were further accessions to the missionary colony and a rock fort was built. Though the Indians as a whole were friendly enough, there was always danger lurking and the fort was at least a symbol of safety.

In the spring of 1857, twenty-eight families (160 persons), mostly converts from the South and experienced cotton farmers, were called to go to the Virgin River to undertake cotton culture on a larger scale. They were enthused with the prospect of a warm climate where cotton could be grown and fondly referred to the Virgin Valley as “Utah’s Dixie.” They arrived May 5, 1857, at the present site of Washington and immediately set to work diverting water for irrigation, clearing land, plowing and planting. Hopes of good crops were doomed, however, for the cotton was almost a complete failure. Some became discouraged with the location and scattered, a few families locating at Tonaquint on the Santa Clara just above its junction with the Virgin.[42]

This failure did not kill the idea of raising cotton in Dixie, but further experiments were necessary before the industry could properly expand. In January, 1857, a small company had been fitted out in Salt Lake City under Joseph Home to establish an experimental cotton farm on the Virgin River. They arrived in early February and located on the Virgin just below its junction with the Santa Clara. Dams and ditches were constructed and land cleared and planted by May 6. The crop was harvested and hauled back to Salt Lake City. The total cost of raising this first crop, including all expenses of the trip to and from Salt Lake City, was $3.40 per pound. A similar experiment the next season reduced the price per pound to $1.90.[43]

In the meantime, other settlers had been looking enviously toward the warm semi-tropical lands of the Virgin Valley. As early as 1854, Brigham Young had inquired about the possibilities of building a road into the valley from Cedar City, but the cost of construction over “the black-ridge” barrier seemed prohibitive. In 1858, with the advice and consent of Isaac C. Haight, bishop of Cedar City, six families moved down Ash Creek and settled Toquerville. These included Joshua T. Willis, John Willis, Samuel Pollock, William Riggs, Josiah Reeves and Willis Young, all of whom had been attracted by the stories of cotton-raising.

The movement had already received considerable impetus and the Mormon leaders desired more information about the possibilities of settlement. Nephi Johnson, a young missionary among the Virgin River Indians, and who had been Indian interpreter for many emigrant parties passing over the Mormon Trail, was called by Brigham Young to explore the Virgin River farther upstream and hunt for suitable places for settlement.

In the fall of 1858 he rode from Cedar City to Toquerville, where he fraternized with the Indians and persuaded them to guide him up the river. They led him over the Hurricane Fault which had hitherto blocked progress of the missionaries upstream. He explored the upper Virgin River and thus was probably the first white man to enter both Parunuweap and Zion Canyons. He says in his autobiography that in September, 1858, he went into the upper Virgin River valley as far as the site of Shunesburg and reported that a settlement could be made where Virgin was later built.[44]

He does not mention Zion Canyon, but his daughter, Lovina A. J. Farnsworth[45] relates that her father often told her of visiting it. According to her account, he followed the Virgin River with his Indian guide and reached Oak Creek, above the present site of Springdale, where the Indian stopped and refused to go any farther. Wai-no-pits, he said, might be found up there in the shadows of the narrow canyon. But the Indian agreed to wait there if Johnson insisted on going on, provided he returned before the sun (tab) went down. It is not known how far Johnson went up the canyon, but later, recalling his experience, he used to say that there were places where the “sun never shone” because the walls were so high and the canyon so narrow. He was gone much longer than he expected, and when he returned, the sun was setting and the Indian had his arm over the horse ready to mount and depart.

Back at Cedar City, Johnson was sent to found a settlement at Virgin. He gathered a small group together and set out in early December. On the 6th, they began building a road over the Hurricane Fault below Toquerville and drove their wagons into Virgin on the 20th, over a route since known as the “Johnson Twist.”

In the fall of 1860, Philip Klingensmith led five other families from Iron County over the Johnson Twist, and passing up the Virgin River selected a spot two or three miles above Grafton where water could be diverted for irrigation, and founded a settlement called Adventure (between Grafton and Rockville).

In 1861, Brigham Young paid his first visit to the Dixie settlements. Leaving Salt Lake City on May 15, he reached Cedar City about the 22nd and followed the Mormon Trail westward to Pinto and the Mountain Meadows, then southward down the Santa Clara Creek. He left the trail where it struck over the hills toward the Beaver Dam Wash, and followed the stream down to the Santa Clara mission, then comprising thirty-four men, thirty houses and two hundred and fifty acres under cultivation. Several orchards and vineyards were already producing apples, peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines, pears, quinces, almonds, figs, English walnuts, gooseberries, currants, and grapes of both Isabella and California Mission varieties. The cotton crop and casaba melons were flourishing.

The next day he drove to Tonaquint at the junction of the Santa Clara and the Virgin. This was the strategic point at which Jedediah Smith’s two trips had forked in 1826 and 1827; where Parley P. Pratt’s exploring party had turned homeward on January 1, 1850; and where John D. Lee’s party on February 3, 1852, had halted in the exploration of the Virgin River. After Brigham Young left Tonaquint, a settlement of twelve families, he stopped his carriage near the center of the valley in which St. George was later located. As members of his party crowded around him, he seemed to envision the future. On his left, running north and south, was a black ridge. Three miles to the east was a parallel black ridge. Fronting him two miles to the north was a red sandstone bluff running east and west, down the face of which were streaks of vivid green vegetation marking springs or streams. The Virgin River behind him made the fourth side of the square. According to Bleak, Young prophesied: “There will yet be built between those volcanic ridges a city with spires, towers and steeples; with homes containing many inhabitants.”[46]

The party then proceeded up the Virgin River via Washington, Toquerville and Virgin as far as Grafton. From here it retraced its steps to Toquerville and then started homeward via Harmony, Cedar City and Parowan, arriving in Salt Lake City on June 8, 1861.

The Cotton Wave

It was this trip to the Virgin River settlements that convinced Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders of the wisdom of pushing the settlement of Utah’s southland. The outbreak of the Civil War may have clinched the argument. When it became apparent that the cotton supply from the southern states would be cut off, the decision to advance the Dixie settlements with a view toward cotton culture was strengthened.

By this time moreover, there was sufficient evidence from settlers and the experimental farm to prove the practicality of cotton as a staple crop. During the summer of 1861, plans were laid for more extensive colonization. Heretofore, the settlements had been outposts of Iron County. Now the region was to come into its own as a separate colony with the central settlement to be located in the valley above Tonaquint, and to be named St. George.

At the general church conference in Salt Lake City on October 6, about three hundred families were “called” to the Dixie Mission to accelerate the cotton industry. Many of these people were abruptly informed of what awaited them when they heard their names read out, but most of them responded with good will. The families were carefully selected in such a way as to insure balanced communities: farmers, businessmen, educators, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, entertainers; all in the proportions needed.[47]

The colonists got under way in November with Apostles George A. Smith, Erastus Snow and Orson Pratt, as leaders. Towards the end of the month the vanguard stood at the forks of the road west of Toquerville at the parting of the ways up and down the river. The leaders had already traveled upstream looking over possible locations, going through the settlements of Virgin, Grafton, Adventure and up both forks of the Virgin River into Zion and Parunuweap canyons, investigating the agricultural lands along the way.[48] How far they went up Zion Canyon is unknown. Erastus Snow later reported that ten miles above Grafton the mountains closed in, leaving but a narrow gorge, through which the east fork of the Virgin forced its way, allowing no room for the passage of man or beast. His factual report indicated no wonder at the marvels he must have beheld. The sense of awe awakened today by such inspiring spectacles of nature’s handiwork appears to have been largely lacking in the hard-working pioneers who spent all their energy in wringing a meager existence from the wilderness.

At the forks of the road, the paths divided. A few went upstream with Orson Pratt, but the majority went down, arriving in early December at the site of St. George. Other settlements quickly sprang up along the length of the Virgin Valley wherever water could be diverted for irrigation. Thus the “cotton-wave” ushered many pioneers into the Virgin River valleys and insured the growth of the area.

Settlement of Zion Canyon

The cotton migrations were the prelude to the settlement of Parunuweap and Zion canyons. Because of a disagreement with Erastus Snow, Orson Pratt did not go to St. George, but led his group over the Johnson Twist up the Virgin River to the last outpost at Adventure (the lower end of the present Rockville fields), arriving in late November or early December, 1861. Here he paused long enough to gather information and make plans for settlement.

Coming up the river, Pratt undoubtedly conferred with Nephi Johnson and other settlers at Virgin, Old Grafton and Adventure. Members of the expedition, of course, went scouting for themselves, but the advice of Johnson probably led some of them to decide upon Shunesburg, where on his visit in 1858 he had reported a settlement could be made.

Adventure was a small place with limited prospects for expansion but just above it was a much larger tract of land requiring more extensive irrigation. A townsite was selected on the bench high above the river, and at a meeting held at Old Grafton on December 13, it was decided to name the new townsite Rockville because of the many boulders along the foot of the hill where it was located.

Of those who went up the river above Adventure, three families stopped at the forks of the Virgin at a place afterward called Northrop, while six continued up the Parunuweap four or five miles to the farm of an old Indian named Shunes. They purchased the land for a trifling consideration, but the price proved to be only the first installment, for the old Indian continued to live in the vicinity for many years, working and begging for food from the whites to add to his native supply of seeds, lizards and wild game.

The settlers were hardly located when a stormy period began. They were digging irrigation ditches and cutting timber for log houses, but were still living in their covered wagons when bad weather set in. Rain started on Christmas day, 1861, and continued for forty days. The Virgin became a raging torrent and, at least twice, great floods washed out the dams, filled the ditches, undermined banks, overflowed the plains and despoiled valuable farm lands. On January 8, the flood inundated the village of Grafton, the water rising suddenly during the night. As the waters swirled around the wagon box home of Nathan Tenney, several men picked it up with his expectant wife in it and carried it to higher ground north of the river, where a son was born. He was named, appropriately enough, Marvelous Flood Tenney.

After the floods subsided Old Grafton was abandoned and a new site was selected on the south bank on a higher bench a little farther upstream. The area was surveyed and laid off in town lots and fields. A new ditch costing $5,000 was dug within the next year. The new townsite of Rockville was similarly laid off into lots and fields during the summer of 1862, and an irrigation ditch was completed in time for use during 1863. In the meantime the settlers at Adventure continued to cultivate the land irrigated by their first ditch. At the forks of the river at Northrop, a ditch was built by James Lemon and others to irrigate a stretch of land below the junction of the two forks of the streams. At Shunesburg, the town and fields were surveyed and ditches constructed to divert the water from both Shunes Creek and the east fork of the Virgin.

The known settlers in Adventure included the following: Orson Pratt, Dr. S. A. Kenner, John C. Hall, Henry Stocks, William Ashton, and Elijah Newman. Those at Northrop included James Lemon, Isaac Behunin, and probably Joseph Black. The following went to Shunesburg, all of them having come together from San Pete Valley: Oliver DeMille, Hyrum Stevens, Alma Millett, George Petty, Hardin Whitlock and Charlie Klapper.