The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-24

Sixty-One years ago this morning the
| little band which had weathered the long
march and suffered all the hardships of
the trail looked down upon the possibil-
! ties of this valley and made ready to
make themselves a resting place from toll
! by further toll.
There were AS of them. men. women
and children. and these. with their cat
tie and few possessions. made the van
guard of the 100000 souls now finding a
home within range of their vision.
The state sets apart this one day of
all the year in which to honor those few
brave souls. land once at the end of a
fifty-year period, the commonwealth set
apart whole week in which to show spe-
cial honor with rejoicings to the rem
nant still left. This was eleven years
ago. and at that time there were left
twenty-eight of the original band. OF all
who entered the valley in that year of
lSi7 there were 200 received the Pioneers
badge" the honor being conferred on all
of the first-year pioneers. regardless OF
what company with which they came.
Only a Few Remain.
or the twenty-eight original pioneers
living at that time, less than dozen
remain. the only one within reach of the
city being w. c. A. Smoot of Sugar
House ward. OF the 200 who received all
the hOnors the state could bestow less
than half left to commemorate TINS
day There can never be another tins
of general rejoicing and honor such as
was held in this city for one week in
1897 for the main part of the celebration
The sturdy old pioneers will be gone with
i'm few years II is deemed fitting that
their descendants and all that have come
after them should pay honor TO them so
long as they live and 10 their memory
after. The meaning of Pioneer DAY can
not come home to the present generation.
but to the old people ii is most signifi-
can't
Eyes. indeed l do remember the day
we'll said Mr.. SmOot. 1T was a bright
July day but not intensely hot, and to
me the valley lying before us was
beauty spot. Ii was not even in any sense
the forbidding place ii has been held to
be The entire valley-which did not look
to be anything like the size we later.
found il to be-was covered not alone with
sage brush but with clumps of bunch
grass, which had dried from the lack OF
moisture and waved in the breeze like
wheat field Far away in the middle OF
the valley could be seen a clunp of trees.
and by that sign We knew that there
was water there
Timber in Abundance.
II had been delayed. in company with
Orson Pratt. by reason of my team stray
ing away in the night from our last camp
ing place and so l was not with the very
first to view the valley. but when we
came to the opening of the canyon we
say the party ahead and knew this was
the valley we were making for. OF
course no one. even the president him |
self knew whether or not to make this /
a permanent place but this was not de- |
cided for several days. or till the best
wOodsmen had explored the neighboring /
and reported timber in album |
dance-in Red Butte enough for ten years /
and in Dry canyon smaller wood enough !
for fifteen. -
Meantime the entire party made for |
the clump of trees. which were found TO |
be three tall cottonwood trees. standing |
a little southwest of where the Knutsford
now stands These were on the banks of |
one fork of City creek. and below this !
point the stream w.~ened out into a sort |
Of lagoon or swampy marsh land. Here /
we made our camp. and here for a Few |
days we all stayed. Some soldiers on |
their way west came in a few days later |
and then they. together with a few |
others of us. went farther north and
made camp on neck of land just at the |
forking of the canyon stream-l think I
Just east of where the temple now stands. /
Here one stream went TO the west and |
Dne TO the south. and we found this a
good place TO plant our potatoes.
Salt Pure and White.
1.-THE only water We had seen from the /
hill as we entered the valley was the long |
inc of the lake, but by a heavy growth
IF willows in zigzag line we knew there
was a river flowing along, and of course |
as soon as the crops were In we younger
fellows set out to find this. We found
he stream and later the lake of which
we had learned through Fremonts sur
reys. and we gathered whole wagon
Dads of salt just as ii had caked along
he shore There was a long distance on
he east side where the salt had formed |
1 perfect crust over which we could ride
Dur horses as il ii were a pavement. The /
AXE was very low-lower than IL has ever
been since-and the dry land extended
over to the island. The salt which had
never been interfered with was pure and
white and just as good salt as one would
want in its natural state. We used it al
ways for all household uses. but not till
several years later did we refine it.