Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Following the Mexican Revolution in 1821, traders from Spanish and Mexican territory bartered actively in Utah. Following the reconquest of New Mexico and throughout the seventeenth century, New Mexican traders purchased elk, buffalo, beaver, and other skins from the Comanches and Utes. The reports of Rivera and Dominguez and Escalante led to the …
The Spanish Trail Cut a Roundabout Path through Utah
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, June 1995 The Spanish Trail, a major trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, has entered western lore as the scene of historic events and as a route for famous explorers. A large section of the trail curves north to pass through central and southern Utah before bending south again and passing out of …
Father Escalante and the Indian Boy
Patricia Hale Kendig Beehive History 1 When Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante set out on a trip from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey, California, some two hundred years ago, there were no super highways. There were not even any maps of the area. But, like other missionaries of his day, he was inspired not only by the desire to …
Dominguez-Escalante Expedition
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, the Right Place Much better known than the Rivera expedition, the travels of Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante have left the name of the latter on a number of Utah sites. Utahns did not honor Dominguez, the expedition’s leader, with site names until the bicentennial of their trek in 1976. Both Dominguez …
Shoshone of Northern Utah
Kristen Rogers Beehive History, 26 Fifteen years after the Mormon settlers arrived in Utah, their livestock had so overgrazed the native grasses and seeds that the Indians were starving, noted Jacob Hamblin, one of those settlers. The Great Basin was hardly lush to begin with, but indigenous peoples had survived there for centuries. How did they live on the land? …
Colorado Plateau
Joseph M. Bauman, Jr. Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic province encompassing 130,000 square miles of the Four Corners states, including Utah’s southeastern quarter. Arguably, it is the least-tamed country remaining in the lower forty-eight states. It is a land of outstanding natural beauty and ecological diversity. The high, semi-arid region is actually a gigantic basin …
The Peoples of Utah, The Oft-Crossed Border: Canadians in Utah
The Peoples of Utah, ed. by Helen Z. Papanikolas, © 1976 “The Oft-Crossed Border: Canadians in Utah,” pp. 279–301 by Maureen Ursenbach and Richard L. Jensen Probably the first significant meeting of two Canadians in what is now Utah took place on the banks of the Weber River, east of present Ogden, on May 23, 1825. There, around mid-morning, Peter Skene …
The Peoples of Utah, Imperial Zion: The British Occupation of Utah
The Peoples of Utah, ed. by Helen Z. Papanikolas, © 1976 “Imperial Zion: The British Occupation of Utah,” pp. 61–113 by Frederick S. Buchanan On board the “International” All joyful and lighthearted. Bound Zionward, four hundred Saints, From Liverpool we started. We’re English, Irish, Scotch, and Welsh Assembled here together; Resolved to do the will of God, Whate’er the wind and …
The Peoples of Utah, Jews in Zion
The Peoples of Utah, ed. by Helen Z. Papanikolas, © 1976 “Jews in Zion,” pp. 187–220 by Jack Goodman Except for the pitifully few American Indians occupying remnant of their once pristine homeland, we are a nation peopled solely by the descendants of immigrants. “Americans all, immigrants all,” Franklin Roosevelt once said. Rather than a melting pot, the United States as …
The Peoples of Utah, The Pioneer Chinese of Utah
The Peoples of Utah, ed. by Helen Z. Papanikolas, © 1976 “The Pioneer Chinese of Utah,” pp. 251–77 by Don C. Conley The distance from the subtropical rice paddies of China’s southernmost province to the mountainous desert of the Great Basin spans one-third of the earth’s circumference. Along this tumultuous course of Pacific Ocean waves and Sierra Nevada mountain peaks came …