The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1920-01-21
LOCAL TOURIST IN
GREAT WESTERN CITY
DESCRIBES COUNTRY
SALT LAKE CITY, HOME OF NOR
MONISM, is RICH IN INTER
ESTING HISTORY
Pasadena, Cal,

ESTING HISTORY
Pasadena, Cal.
Banner News Readers
From notes taken druing
our recent visit to Salt Lake City. the
strong hold of Mormonism, l will en-
deavor to interest you in what saw
and heard while viewing the sights
there. With many other tourists we
visited the various points of interest
and gazed with establishment and de-
light on the many wonderful cur
iosities which are exhibited to catch
the eye of the traveller and to attempt
to have him or her, transfer from their
pockets some coin of the realm to en-
rich the treasury of the organization
of the church of the Latter Day Saints
From the secret recesses of our
memory comes unsolicited, a picture
of home and thoughts of rest are sug-
gested and the memory film presents
a scene which compares most favor
ably with the best that is shown tour
lists in the Mormon district, however,
L am free to admit like the famous
queen who visited Soloman in the
palmy days of his magnificience and
power, "The half has not been told",
sorry am that my meagre ability to
word picture that wonderful country,
is such as to almost debar fe from
attempting the task.
Drawing on the imagination is
term frequently made use of, in
speaking of certain conditions de-
scribed, but / cannot conceive of an
imagination, however powerful, which
would be able to cover the magnitude
displayed by nature in this country of
the Latter Day Saints, Brigham
Young, let our opinion be what it may
as to his peculiar dogmas, by him des-
ignated as religious, he undoubtedly
read the future and planned for COM
ing generations, when at his command
his followers stopped their wanderings
and decided to locate on the banks Of
the Great Salt Lake, when forced by
public sentiment to abandon their for.
mer homes in Illinois in 1874.
To the east, south or north, no such
country could they have found, fur
Their westward they might have jour.
nyed but the decision to remain where
at that time there was nothing but
land completely covered with sage
brush and valueless except in the far,
seeing judgement of their leader,
which in the light of the present day
needs no comment as to the shrewd-
ness Of the so called prophet of their
cult. From our touring car we were
shown immigration Canyon, a narrow
defile in Wahsatch mountains, which
surround the beautiful valley of Salt
Lake on three sides, through this
canyon Mr.. Young and his handful of
followers, laborously climbed into the
land, which in future years they caus.
ed to blossom as the rose.
1t needs no vivid imagination for
anyone to see with the minds eye, the
picture which greeted the gaze of
Brigham Young and the couple hun
dred fellow travellers who had survived
the hardships of that long and danger
Gus journey from their former home
back east. where the citizens 30 siren
uously objected to their manner of liv-
ing and Of their so called religious be-
liefs. In the clear atmosphere of that
wonderful country when the valuable
mineral deposits were yet undiscover-
ed and the smoke of industrial activ-
tiles were yet unknown, the little land
of Mormons could see a valley of such
proportions and future possibilities in
the way of agriculture, as to satisfy
the most up-to-date granger, and they
decided TO stop and carve for them
selves a future. The result of their
decision is a most wonderful revela-
ton of what man can accomplish.
Salt Lake City has about sixty-five
thousand population, forty-fve per
cent are of the Mormon faith, there
are fifteen churches of various de-
many of them of quite
handsome and substantial structures,
but to the tourist and they are legion,
the Mormon Temple is the one great
attraction and the attention of the
sight seeing traveller is at once invited
on that building and its surroundings.
Temple Block, situated in the centre
of the city has ten acres of ground,
by stone and adobe wall
twelve feet high and three feet thick,
with iron gates and four sides for en-
trance. But one gate is available for
being the gate on the south
side of the enclosure where just inside
Of the gate is situated the information
bureau Of the church authorities and
is open every day. In this building
which has four good sized rooms, are
displayed all kinds of curious, most OF
them showing Mormon buildings in
china, glass, copper and the natural
productions of Utah. Church
relics of the days when the pioneers
crossed the plains are shown, many
suggesting hardships encountered
along their journey, others are mat
ter of record of the daily progress
made through the vast wilderness
which the now prosperous middle
western states was at that time. The
dried and whitened front head bone of
a young buffalo, with horns attached,
having written upon it the day and
date and the information that up to
that time they had met with no acct
den or death, thanking God for the
of their lives, the per-
sonal signature of Brigham Young be-
ing attached to the memorandum on
the horn. From explanation given by
49,. e tIo o,.rAoJ,o,o f1to xaIs. - x,...oh