Settling the Great Basin

1. Settling the Great Basin Chapter 7 Utah Studies

2. Exploring the Valley • On July 27th, just a few days after the advanced pioneer company had entered the valley, a group of sixteen men set out to explore their new home. • They explored the entrance of the Tooele Valley, Bear River and Cache Valley. • They said Cache Valley “looked beautiful from the summit of the mountain.” • At Miles Goodyear’s Fort Buenaventura the found some log buildings and corrals with animals.

3. Tooele Valley Bear River Valley Ogden, Utah (Originally Fort Buenaventura) Cache Valley

4. Building a New Home • The three most important tasks facing the Mormon Pioneers were planting, building homes, and exploring the valley. • They found timber in the mountains, and made it into lumber to build houses. • They built a fort and put log cabins inside the fort. • Anyone not cutting timber or making adobe bricks at digging irrigation to bring water to crops. • They planted potatoes, corn and wheat.

5. Laying out Salt Lake City • Brigham Young assigned Orson Pratt and H.G. Sherwood to lay out a grid pattern for a new city. • They had use this same pattern when they had developed Nauvoo, Illinois. • There were 135 blocks, each having 10 acres divided into eight lots, where homes and gardens could be made. • The streets were wide enough for a wagon and team to turn around if needed. • Four public squares were placed in different parts of the city.

6. Public Squares in SLC City County Block Temple Square Pioneer Park Liberty Park

7. Miracle of the Seagulls • The first winter was very difficult for them. • The Mormons lost all of their crops except for potatoes because they were trampled by animals. • The next spring just as their crops were starting to grow, clouds of black crickets starting eating the crops. • Some people even talked about leaving Utah and going to California as this problem got worse. • People tried to fight these crickets in many ways: with pots and pans, brooms and buckets.

8. Miracle of the Seagulls • For weeks the settlers fought the crickets, but they still were eating all of their crops. • The story goes that the Mormon people prayed for a solution to the problem. • Soon Seagulls flew in and there were so many that they blocked the sun. • They would eat the crickets, go over and throw them up and then go eat more. • This game them the relief they needed to save their crops.

10. Gold in California • In 1848, some members of the Mormon Battalion were working at a sawmill at Sutter’s Fort, California. • One day gold was discovered in a stream by the fort. • This changed the west forever. • In 1849, over 80,000 people moved to California looking for the opportunity to become rich quick. • All of these “49ers” passed through Mormon settlements on their way to California. • Some of these 49ers brought to much or too little and the Mormons were happy to supply or buy from them.

11. A Great Gathering • While the Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley were building their homes and farms, missionaries were still being sent out to convert people in North America and foreign lands. • All of these converts were encouraged to make the difficult journey to the Great Basin. • Brigham Young wanted them to come and strengthen the settlements. • He also wanted their working skills. • Remember, their were building and growing everything they needed to survive.

12. A Great Gathering • During the 1840’s and 1850’s millions of immigrants entered the United states to find jobs and freedoms. • A large number of Mormons from Canada, Great Britain and Scandinavia came in this rush of immigration. • First they had to cross the ocean, then they would go by riverboat or train as far as they could go. • From there they would come by wagon train the rest of the way to the valley. • By 1857, there were 35,000 immigrants in the Salt Lake Valley.

13. A Great Gathering • Brigham Young wanted a way to bring more LDS members who were poor to the Salt Lake Valley. • This was done with the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF). • The fund was built up with contributions from members in the Valley who had benefited from trading with 49ers. • This allowed poor church members to borrow money and supplies to get to the valley. • Once, the immigrants made it to the valley, they were required to pay the loan back. • This got over 30,000 members in Great Britain to the valley.

14. A Great Gathering • When Brigham Young wanted to establish a new community he often “called” the people to go. • This was often done in church meetings, and was usually unexpected or unknown before it happened. • They would have to leave what they had established and start over again. • Sometimes people were chosen by their skills because a community needed a certain skill. • Sometimes people would establish their own communities without being called. • Germans, Italians, Welsh, Icelandic and Swiss converts did this.

15. Germans came to Providence Italians came to Logan Swiss came to Midway Icelanders came to Spanish Fork

16. A Great Gathering • People were sent to certain places to produce certain goods. • People were sent to Cedar City to produce iron. • St. George was started to grow cotton and flax. • Sugar House was started to make sugar from sugar beets. • Other towns were started to raise large herds of cattle and sheep. • Some towns were established as missions to Indian groups. • Las Vegas, Nevada; Harmony, Utah and Lemhi, Idaho were all started this way. • In all of these communities agriculture was the main occupation.

18. Patterns of Mormon Settlements • In other areas that were settled in the west, like California and Oregon, families would settle one at a time, away from each other on large farms. • The Mormons wanted to live in towns so they could meet together often for religious instruction, recreation, safety, and so they could work together on building and farming projects. • They build their towns in the valleys where mountain streams flowed from the canyons and provided them drinking water and watered their crops and vegetable gardens. • They would live in their wagons when they first got there until they could build a permanent house.

19. Patterns of Mormon Settlements • As the towns grew, churches, stores, schools and better homes were made of adobe bricks, wood or stone. • The old buildings wee then used for storage or barns for animals. • Utah settlements had all of these features. • Streets were laid out on a grid pattern. • Streets were very wide. • Irrigation ditches ran beside most streets.

20. Patterns of Mormon Settlements • City blocks for homes and gardens were large (four acres or larger). • “Squares” in the center of towns contained parks and public buildings, such as a church house, business offices, and stores. Celebrations were often held in the public squares. • Farmlands were planted around the outside of the city. Farms were surrounded by tall trees to shelter crops from the wind.

21. Salt Lake City Salt Lake City

22. A Unique Lifestyle • As part of these settlements, Mormons believed that there needed to be order in all things. • The people were divided into “wards”. • Each ward was led by a “bishop.” • These leaders were in charge of religious matters and everyday survival. • Land was given according to the needs of each family. • Bishops gave food to the poor or those who had just arrived and could not grow their own food yet. • Church leaders provided jobs for new immigrants as well.

23. A Unique Lifestyle • The Mormons practices polygamy during this time. • Mormons saw polygamy as a commandment, and a revival of something that had been done in the Old Testament. • Smaller towns tended to have to have more families living in polygamy. • Most men seldom married more than two or three women. • Brigham Young and other leaders married more often.

24. A Unique Lifestyle • During the first twenty years people were hungry much of the time. • Crops were still destroyed by grasshoppers, and unpredictable temperatures ruined crops too. • They had to kill animals or eat things like roots or thistles when they could not grow enough food. • They wore their clothes until they were to worn to be of any use. • Then part of the fabric was made into quilts.

25. The State of Deseret • Within a few years of coming to Utah, LDS Church leaders held a convention and wrote a constitution to set up the State of Deseret. • They chose the name because in an ancient language deseret meant honeybee, which stood for industry. • The boundaries of the proposed state were large, and even included part of the Pacific Coast. • They petitioned the U.S. Government to become a state and were turned down.

27. Utah becomes a territory • After the United States gained land including Utah when they won the War with Mexico it created some problems. • Leaders of our country wanted a balance between slave and free states in our country. • With all of this new land, there would be more free states than slave states. • As part of a compromise Utah was allowed to become a territory, and choose whether they wanted slavery or not.

28. Utah Territory in 1851

29. Handcart Companies • During the first ten years of settling the Great Basin Mormon immigrants came to Utah using wagon trains supplied by the Perpetual Emigration Fund. • After the gold rush ended in California there was not as much money in the fund, so Mormon leaders had to figure out a lower cost way to get members of the church to Utah. • Brigham Young came up with a handcart system, where pioneers would walk and carry their supplies in a handcart they would pull.

30. Handcart Companies • This handcart system was mainly used to help poor immigrants who had been converted to the Mormon Church. • Most of these people had lived in cities and been factory workers. • They had never been in open territory like the trail, and did not have any of the skills that they needed to survive on the trail. • They would need to learn all of that.

31. Handcart Companies

32. Martin & Willie Companies • The first four companies left in 1846, and made great time, with almost no deaths, and arrived in Utah in great shape. • Almost all of the Martin and Willie companies were made up of immigrants from Scandinavia and England. • They had many delays in their journey, including not having enough wood to build handcarts. • They did not leave Iowa City until August.

33. Martin & Willie Companies • Franklin Richards, a Mormon apostle rode rapidly ahead to warn leaders in Salt Lake City that more immigrants were coming. • Leaders in Salt Lake thought that there were no more handcart companies coming in 1856. • The late start would lead to a disaster with the Martin and Willie companies. • When the handcarts reached Wyoming in November, they were caught in mountain snowstorms.

34. Martin and Willie Companies • When the rescuers from Salt Lake City found them, people were in tents buried in snow, suffering from starvation, along with having frozen feet and fingers. • 280 of the 980 members of the companies had already died by the time rescuers came. • Many more died before they reached the Salt Lake Valley. • The rescuers were very heroic in their attempts, particularly at the Sweetwater River.

35. This tragedy took place on the high plains of Wyoming

37. The Martin and Willie Handcart Companies experience was a tragedy, but the rescuers were definitely heroic.