Walter Jones Beehive History 16 Utah’s oil industry developed slowly in two distinct phases: a long period of exploration and a more recent time of commercial production. The exploratory period began in 1850 when Capt. Howard Stansbury, while on a survey of the Great Salt Lake for the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, discovered evidence of “petroliem” along the northern …
Settlement and Exploration
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Some judgments can be made on the valley from Fremont’s descriptions, from the experience of the Mormon pioneers, and from later explorations such as those by Howard Stansbury and John Wesley Powell. The deposits dropped by Lake Bonneville and by mountain streams provided fertile soil for Euro-mountain streams provided fertile soil for Euro-American …