New-York daily tribune., 1858-10-13
INTERESTING FROM UTAH,

-Mo,rSr Nrpo-woRuoS TOWNSVILLE CAP
TOI--AN INDIAN FARN-PoLf"N
ITY OF TIMBER--GoOD CROPS
yrsn Our Special Correspondent - - ~
GRr,T SALT LAKE CITY, u l.,
September 10, l-1'.
n, ,,1o. and the Territorial Secretary started
An ,he;r .,urnev ts Fillmore from the camp OF the
army in Cedar Valley ON TUESDAY August ~
The object of the trip, on the part OF the former
WAS 70 fix the times and places OF holding the
limited States District CesHts throughout the
Territory, which they src required by law to do
st the Territorial seat Of Government; on the
part Of the Secretary, 10 examine the condltios
Of the Capitol building, and report the same to
the Department of the Interior. Their escort
consisted of a squadron Of Dragons, ITS officers
being Capt. W ID. Smith, and Llcuts. H&aht
and Livingston. From Salt Lake CITY there s
q broad. wen.beaten road, running through Provo,
along the eastern side Of Lake Utah, to Fill
more a distance of about 100 miles, and thence
rl southwark 90 miles further to Psrowan.
This is the route over which passes the travel
10 San Bernardno and San Diego, in southern
California, the same route by which Col Kane
reached the city last March. But from Cedar
Valley. which lies west from the lake, there Is
cutoff intersecting the main road at the foot OF
Mount Nebo, fifteen or sixteen miles south OF the
lake The plan of our journey was to travel
down by the cutoff on the west OF the lake, and
10 return along the eastern shore, passing on our
route through the whole chain OF Mormon settle
mems between Salt Lake City and Fillmore.
Six or eight miles from the camp We reached the
spot where eantonments are being erected for the
Winter quarters of the army. 1t is near the center
of the valley. The ground slopes gradually toward
the east and is covered with a tangled growth OF
wild sage and greasewood The lake is invisible
from this point, although view OF II can be had
from the present camp Of the army through a notch
in the mountains. Six large frame buildings like
the freight depOts Of most Western railroads, have
been constructed for the reception OF the Quarter
masters and COmmissary stores. The troops on
the ground were busy building their company
quarters from adObes, which supplied by forty
or fifty Mormon workmen hired for the purpose
from Payson, Springyie, and Provo. The bricks
were drying in the sun all along the road. During
the afternoon We crossed broad but lOw dividing
ridge into Tintick Valley, named after ttah
chief, and campcd on the shore of the lake III sun
set. IN all Cedar Valley there was but one Nor
mon settlement, little adobe corral containing
half dozen houses. The inhabitants had only
recently returned, and begun to learn that the
troops are not all ogres and ghOus.
For mile and more on the north and south oi
our camp the lake was frnged thirty feet deep with
tall rushes, which dotted the water also to the dis
tance of two or three hundred yards from the
shore. We were coated with dust that it would
have been hard to discover difference in the color
of our garments and our faces so, after sunset we
broke = pathway through the rushes and essayed a
swim. but, though waded into the lake several
hundred feet beyond the reeds, the water nowhere
reached above our elbows. Opposite us the mouth
of Provo Canon clearly defined, that IT
seemed as il a good swimmer could reach it within
an hour, although il must have been nearly twenty
miles distant, for the lake at this point is about
fourteen miles wide.
Passing through Tintick Valley the next morn
ing, we came to the town of Goshen, containing 20
families. All the dwellings were rude huts of turf
or logs, facing upon square few hundred feet IN
diameter. The whole was surrounded by IA turf
wall outside which were large stacks Of hay and
grain. There was but one p0ygamist IN the town
the Bishop, Phineas Cook, who had but two
wives. His house, though the best in the place.
contained only two rOoms-one "a bedroom, the
other kitchen, in which sat the two women, max
ING baby clothes We unched outside the wall.
cool buttermk and bread, which the people were
glad to sell us near stack OF wheat. on which sat
pretty, Young girl braiding straw for hats. group
of inhabitants gathered around us, and one 0 them
AN old fellow tremulOus with palsy and supporting
himself on Il crutch and cane-lectured us ON the
necessity of poygamy To the requirement of celestial
glory. He said that, to get glory enough to be com
Portable in heaven. at least three wives
tal: that he had as ye, but one, and old and
sick and poor that he could not get another in this
world, but immediately after his death the Prophet
Joseph would appear and confer on him the two
Others requisite.
Driving on, We ascended the ridge separating
Tintick from Juab Valley, passed through narrow
canon, and descended long hill into Juab. We
made our camp for the night at the foot ot Mount
Nebo, the loftiest peak of the Wahsatch range
Its hight has not been definitely asccrtained but
liz supposed tO nearly equal that of FremOnts Peak
in the Wind River Mountans-l3,0 600 feet. W.
w. Phelps the Devil in the Mormon endowment,
claims Ia haze stood on its summit, but the clam
is somewhat apocryphal. When We first entered
Salt Lake Valley in June, the snow was brilliant
on this mountain, but il is now covered with
thick coating of dust. One of our party, VINO had
passed many years in the south of France, re-
marked that the appearance of its dun-coOred
drifts reminded HIM forcbly of the aspect of the
Pyrennees in summer. just before reaching camp,
We passed group OF huts, which had been built
and occupied during the emigration to the south.
Many of them were wickee-upS, or lodges, con-
stpcted like those in Echo Canon. Others were
made by planting two rows of willow branches in
the ground, six or eight feet apart, bending them
and weaving the twgs together so rs t0 form AN
archway. Others still were mere holes dug in the
bank, the earth thrown out being erected into
sort of breastwOrk.
The next morning we were shyerlng. The mer
curry had sunk nearly TO the freezing point; but as
soon as the sun rose above the mountain, the tenn
perature began TO change so rapidly that long be-
fore noon We were wilted by the heat Some OF
the Dragons could hardly keep their saddles.
few miles brought us to the tHwn OF Nephi on Salt
Creek, built at the foot of Sandy Spur of Mount
NebO Ii is surrounded by mud wall, about halt
mile square and ten feet high The streets run