The Mormon Trail: A Photographic Exhibit Stan Layton After leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846, the Mormons headed west. They spent the winter of 1846–47 in Winter Quarters near Omaha and at various places in Iowa, resuming their journey in the spring. First to leave Winter Quarters that spring was the advance party under the personal direction of church president Brigham …
Bountiful
Patricia Lyn Scott Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Bountiful is Utah’s second settlement and was named for one of the ancient American cities described in The Book of Mormon. Bountiful was settled not long after Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Perrigrine Sessions explored the area just three days after his arrival. In September 1847 Sessions gathered his family …
Hole-in-the-Rock Trek Remains an Epic Experience in Pioneering
W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, August 1995 In 1879 when a group of Mormon pioneers began the now famous Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, the San Juan region of southeastern Utah was one of the most isolated parts of the United States. The rough and broken country is characterized by sheer walled cliffs, mesas, hills, washes, slickrock, cedar forests, and sand. Certainly the …
The Lives of Six Pioneer Girls
Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, September 1996 The life stories of six cousins—Clarissa Wilcox, Martha Wilcox, Mabel Wilcox, Luella Hurst, Ida Hurst, and Mary Young—born in three Utah towns between 1863 and 1893 reveal what it was like to be a girl growing up in pioneer Utah. First memories: Martha was only five years old when someone came to the house …
Hilda Anderson Erickson, Working Woman
Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, October 1995 Women’s current struggle to balance home and career may seem new. But long before the turn of the century at least one Utah woman was combining home duties with four outside careers and apparently thriving. Hilda Anderson came to Utah in 1866 from Sweden as a seven-year-old. In Grantsville she learned early to work …
Robbers’ Roost in Utah’s “Outback” Was a Haven for Outlaws
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, August 1995 Between the Colorado, Green, and Dirty Devil Rivers lies a wild stretch of land crisscrossed with steep-walled canyons and hidden draws. For over 30 years this inhospitable terrain served as a hideout for outlaws of every description. Robbers’ Roost was a stronghold of the Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy’s motley band of bank robbers, …
Just Who Was the Outlaw Queen Etta Place?
W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, May 1995 According to legend, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh) infamous Utah outlaws noted throughout the West for their daring train, bank, and payroll heists, had a variety of female companions–but none quite as mysterious as the wild and sophisticated Etta Place. Some say she was a native of eastern Utah and …
Josie Bassett—Jensen’s Remarkable Woman Rancher
D. Robert Carter History Blazer, December 1996 Josie Bassett stands out as one of the most colorful characters in Uintah County’s colorful past. She was a unique blend: a sweet, generous, lovable white-haired lady who occasionally rustled cattle, poached deer, and brewed bootleg whiskey to survive and help family and friends. For 50 years she lived alone in a cabin …
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Morris A. Shirts Utah History Encyclopedia In April 1857 a California-bound wagon train estimated at 40 wagons, 120 to 150 men, women, and children, and as many as 900 head of beef cattle, in addition to draft and riding animals, assembled near the Crooked Creek, approximately four miles south of present-day Harrison, Arkansas. Most of these emigrants were from northwestern …
The Civil War in Utah
Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Governor Alfred Cumming left Utah quietly on 17 May 1861. Officially, Cumming was on a leave of absence, but the citizens of Utah knew that his hasty departure meant that he did not intend to return. General Albert Sidney Johnston, another leading figure in the territory, also left the area during the same …