Susan Easton Black Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 In July 1846, under the authority of U.S. Army Captain James Allen and with the encouragement of Mormon leader Brigham Young, the Mormon Battalion was mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory. The battalion was the direct result of Brigham Young’s correspondence on 26 January 1846 to Jesse C. Little, presiding elder over …
Traders, Trappers, and Mountain Men
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 …
Seeking Adventure
Coarse-frocked Spanish friars from Santa Fe, New Mexico, penetrating the Great Basin in 1776—year of the nation’s Declaration of Independence—were Utah’s first tourists of written record. The Spanish Fathers came not to see the scenery—though they made the first written account of it in their journals and maps–but were trailblazers seeking a suitable shorter route between two Catholic frontier mission …
The Rivera Expedition
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Anxious to expand the Spanish Empire to thwart the expansion of other European powers, and to enrich themselves, New Mexican authorities sent expeditions northward. In 1765, a Ute from the north had sold an ingot of silver to a blacksmith in Abiquiu, a small settlement northwest of Santa Fe. That transaction set in …