Year: 1875

How n Village of the POlyRnmists in Utah Is


Founded.


To understand the country life of the
Mormons, says Tribune correspond
ent, it is necessary to have some idea of
the geographical features of the region
in which they live. The greater part of
Utah is traversed by high mountain
ranges and plateaus trending nearly
north and south. Through the valleys
wind small rivers, receiving their waters
from the mountain brooks, and pouring
them at last into salt lakes. The climate
on the whole is rather invigorating,
owing to the altitude. The level of Salt
lake is about 4, 200 feet above the sea,
and that of Sewer lake about the same,
and the habitable country ranges from
this altitude to 5000 feet. The higher
regions are available only for pasturage.
The settlements are strung out at con-
siderable intervals along the valleys.
They are situated in places which could
not have been utilized for such pur-
pose if the residents had been actuated
only by the ordinary influences which
tempt the immigrant. They were at
first bare desert spots at the base of the
mountains, covered with sage brush, ut
terly arid, except in the immediate mar
row river bottoms (Which are swamps),
and the soil is heavily charged with al
kaline salts. Of trees there were none,
except gnarled and useless cedars on the
foot hills, and spruce, aspens and pines
far above the mountain tops. These vii
lagos have been founded by the great
power of the Mormon church. 1t has
been the policy of that institution to
spread out it's population in such man
ner as to cover and hold every spot in
Utah that could be made habitable.
When new settlement is to be estab-
lished, number of families are selected
from the older towns, and notice is sent
from the rulers of the church to the
heads of the families that the church has
given them a mission for the building
up of Zion. A few refuse or evade the
call but the majority obey. Some of
| the persons selected are men of compa-
rative wealth, that they may give en-
ployment to the poorer brethren during
the first few years of hardship and pri-
vation.


The comfortable house, the teeming
garden, and the ripening grain field are
sold for what they will bring, and the
caravan sets out. leaving homes and
their comforts behind, to begin life in
some distant locality anew. The spot
selected is usually where some noun.
tain stream of clear cold water joins the
more sluggish and turbid river of the
main valley. After providing tempor-
ary shelter of tents, OF holes in the
earth, rooted over with poles and thatch,
the first work is to provide water for the
future farms. Agriculture is impossible
here without irrigation, and in some
cases the soil is so saline that it must be
washed for year, or even longer, be-
fore crop is possible. The mountain
stream is diverted from it's course and
the water led in bitches along all of the
streets of the village, and finally into
the new fields beyond. If the stream
be insufficient, and extended farming be
contemplated, sluice is made from the
main river, few miles above, and the
water distributed. The next work is the
construction of Westinghouse, which
is used also as schoolhouse, it being a
cardinal doctrine that the Lords house
must be built first. 1t is usually built
of rough stone or adobe, but the crude
masonry perhaps justlfies the strong
preference always felt here for good
frame building, when sawed lumber is
attainable. Next rude wagon road is
cut through the foot hills and upward
into the gorges and amphitheaters of
the mountains, where the tall, slender,
and marvelously straight spruce trees
grow in dense forests, and where the
slender aspens furnish poles for corrals,
and numherless uses. The log cabins
are then rapidly built, but they are re
garded only as temporary dwellings,.
After few years a sawmill is generally
started in the mountains, and the chief
cost of lumber is then the cost of haul
ing it. Of horses, and especially Of
horned stock, there is no lack in truth
the latter are already superabundant and
overrunning the Territory. Every nook
and corner of the Territory is at this
season of the year gnawed clean of every
herb which can support animal life, and
were not my own course of travel higl
up among the mountain tops, where cat
tie cannot climb, should find my ami
mails starving to death. Cattle form
the largest item of exchangeable wealth
but the excessive numbers of them seen
likely to depreciate their value.


SO-met-i-mes.


The other day at dinner, Jack Ham