# The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 32

* FOUNDING OF THE FRONTIER CITIES.
* Brigham's First and Last Revelation
* The Departure of the Pioneers
* The Discovery of Salt Lake Valley
* The Return to the Missouri River.
On the banks of the Missouri, the exiles were in Indian Territory. The renowned chief of the Pottowattamies, Pied Riche, surnamed Le Clerc, gave them a kindly welcome on the east of the river, and Big Elk was as gracious on the west. The red men were liberal, extending to them the free use of their unoccupied lands, and liberty to cut all the timber they required, with which was thrown in an expression of genuine sympathy for their misfortunes. With a vivid remembrance of their recent troubles in Nauvoo, and their flight from the abodes of the "pale-faces" in the depth of winter, this warmth of human feeling made a deep impression upon the Mormons, and during their stay among the savages they returned to them manifold the favours that they received.
On the eastern side of the river, camps were formed wherever the land was good and favoured farming, and settlements sprang up near the streams and groves of timber. The main settlement was called Kanesville, in honour of Colonel Kane, and was the foundation of what is now Council Bluffs City, Iowa.
The main body of the emigrants crossed the river, and located six miles north of what is now Omaha, Nebraska. There they built up "Winter Quarters," a city of some seven hundred log-huts and "dug-outs," in the midst of which was the "Tabernacle of the congregation," where the disciples assembled for worship and instruction.
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Before reaching Salt Lake City the pioneers met with the renowned "Jim" Bridger, who did anything but encourage them with hopes of finding a fruitful land in Salt Lake Basin, and, with the usual liberality of the West, "Jim" was prepared to give a thousand dollars for the first ear of corn that Brigham could raise there.
Jim had lived in wigwams with squaws for half a long lifetime, far away from the abodes of the "pale-faces," and up to that hour he had not heard of the wonders of the modern gospel. Brigham knew what faith was going to do—his kind of faith—and he prophesied liberally to Jim about what he and his squaws would yet live to see. Jim could not comprehend how that the summer-parched soil, with a rainless sky overhead, was going to sustain any body of civilized people, as those now approaching from the East, and advised the Mormons to travel on. He had "trapped" all over the country for a score of years, and knew every green sward that dotted the banks of the rivers, and had counted the verdure-clothed springs that were few and far between, and small even then. But the more that the future of Zion was doubtful in Jim's mind, the more Brigham abounded in grace and prophesied. Jim had never seen the heavens dropping rain—"only very occasionally!" Brigham had studied irrigation. Jim was looking for favours from above. Brigham was counting on the labours of below.
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On the 22nd of July the apostle Orson Pratt and a few others reached the rim of the Salt Lake Basin, and the next day they rode over a portion of the valley, exploring for a camping-ground near wood and water. They returned to the camp of the pioneers, and reported that they had found the place that Joseph had spoken of where the Church could be located, and where the Saints could increase and multiply without molestation.
On the morning of the 24th of July, 1847, when Brigham Young and the body of the pioneers first got a glimpse of the Great Basin, there was a universal exclamation—"The Land of Promise! The Land of Promise!—held in reserve by the hand of God for the resting-place of His Saints!" Thus writes the historian. After a tedious journey over unmade roads, a distance of 1,100 miles, and passing through so many difficulties by the way, it would have been strange indeed had the weary travellers gazed upon the beautiful scenery of Salt Lake Valley without admiration and "ecstacies of joy." From the mouth of the canon through which the pioneers entered the valley, the view is ravishing. In the distant west the Great Salt Lake lies glistening like a sheet of silver, and in every direction that the eye can travel lofty mountains bound the horizon.
Brigham was sick when he reached the Valley, but he was no less enthusiastic than the others, and was fully satisfied that they had reached the Zion of the Mountains, that had been the theme of ancient prediction.
On the banks of a small stream southwest of the Tabernacle block, the pioneers made their first encampment, and, as soon as their horses and cattle were unhitched and cared for, the Valley of Great Salt Lake was consecrated to the Lord.
In the same hour the ploughs were taken from the wagons and the earth was upturned to receive the seed for the autumn crops, upon which so much depended for the support of the ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/294 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/295