Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, Number 2, 2000

JL XJL A JL

UTA H HISTORICA L QUARTERL Y (ISSN 0042-143X)

MAX J EVANS, Editor

STANFORD J LAYTON, Managing Editor

KRISTEN SMART ROGERS, Associate Editor

ALLAN KENT POWELL, Book Review Editor

ADVISOR Y BOAR D O F EDITOR S

AUDREY M GODFREY, Logan, 2000

LEE ANN KREUTZER, Torrey, 2000

ROBERT S MCPHERSON, Blanding, 2001

MIRIAM B MURPHY, Murray, 2000

ANTONETTE CHAMBERS NOBLE, Cora,WY, 2002

RICHARD C. ROBERTS, Ogden, 2001

JANET BURTON SEEGMILLER, Cedar City, 2002

GARY TOPPING, Salt Lake City, 2002

RICHARD S.VAN WAGONER, Lehi, 2001

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, and reviews contributing to knowledge of Utah history The Quarterly is published four times a year by the Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. Phone (801) 533-3500 for membership and publications information. Members of the Society receive the Quarterly, Beehive History, Utah Preservation, and the bimonthly newsletter upon payment of the annual dues: individual, $20; institution, $20; student and senior citizen (age sixty-five or older), $15; contributing, $25; sustaining, $35; patron, $50; business, $100

Manuscripts submitted for publication should be double-spaced with endnotes. Authors are encouraged to include a PC diskette with the submission For additional information on requirements, contact the managing editor Articles and book reviews represent the views of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Utah State Historical Society.

Periodicals postage is paid at Salt Lake City, Utah

POSTMASTER: Send address change to Utah Historical Quarterly, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

98 IN THIS ISSUE

100 Tales o f Four Alta Miners By Charles L. Keller

112 The Press on Wheels Meets the Mormons By Sherilyn Cox Bennion

125 The Dun n Family and Navajo Mountain Trading Post By James H. Knipmeyer

139 The Company Doctor: Promoting Stability in Eastern Utah Mining Towns By Troy Madsen

157

"Diversities of Gifts": The Eclectic Architecture of Early LDS Churches By Janell Brimhall

172 BOO K REVIEWS

Jared Farmer. Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Country.

Reviewed by Richard Firmage

Hank Hassell Rainbow Bridge: An Illustrated History.

Reviewed by Robert S McPherson

Vince Welch, Cort Conley, and Brad Dimock The Doing of the Thing:The Brief Brilliant Whitewater Career of Buzz Holmstrom.

Reviewed by Marianna Allred Hopkins

Brigham D Madsen Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Western Historian.

Reviewed by F. Ross Peterson

Don C.Woodward, ed Through Our Eyes: 150Years of History as Seen through the Eyes of the Writers and Editors of the Deseret News

Reviewed by Sherilyn Cox Bennion

Michael Collier, et al Water, Earth, and Sky: The Colorado River Basin.

Reviewed by Sam Schmieding

John D McDermott A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West: Over One Hundred Historic Sites in Seventeen States.

Reviewed by John A. Peterson

Gerald D Nash The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the Twentieth-Century West.

Reviewed by M. Guy Bishop

If not an Alta prostitute as local lore has it, then who was Patsey Marley? Not even a woman, our readers will learn in the lead-off article Patsey was in fact Patrick Marley, an enterprising Irish immigrant who scraped a hard-earned buck from several Alta mines in the 1870s, scrapped as a prize fighter in the local saloons, and scrimped on his spending habits until dying a pauper in 1916.Yet he was not without friends In fact, at least one of them "nominated" him to the highest office in the land, and several others pooled their money to buy him a respectable funeral and burial Patsey is just one of four such colorful characters whose stories are sketched here and whose enterprises helped shape the early history of Little Cottonwood Canyon Unlike them, however, he snatched a special piece of immortality by having his name attached to a beautiful hill high in the Wasatch

N o less colorful was Legh Freeman, an itinerant newspaperman who is the subject of the next selection. Bringing his "press on wheels" to Ogden in 1875, this free-swinging gadfly launched his semi-weekly Ogden Freeman at a time whe n Brigham Young was still admonishing his people to patronize Mormon businesses. Into this setting add Freeman's flamboyant and melodramatic personality, and the account that follows will not soon be forgotten by anyone who appreciates the often vituperative and usually hyperbolic tone of late nineteenth-century journalism

Equally entrepreneurial but more stable and respectful of local customs, the Dun n family is the focus of the third article Hearing that Navajo Mountain Trading Post was for sale, Ray Dunn made an acceptable offer to founder Ben Wetherhill and moved his family to that remote southeastern Utah spot in 1932 For most of the next fifty years, the Dunns owned and managed the post, enduring the tedium of winter isolation, enjoying their relationship with the Navajo people and a few other traders, promoting tourism, and simply making a living in a place that was still considered the frontier -when men were walking on the moon

Not far away, either in time or location, is the setting for our next feature—a look at the company doctors in the coal camps of eastern Utah Through the diaries, letters, and reminiscences of these physicians and their patients, a picture emerges of providers who did their best to care for people who were often poor, sometimes non-English speaking, and nearly always distrustful of anyone representing the company Such earthy practitioners as Dr Eldon Dorman promoted stability and comfort in those communities and left behind a corpus of stories, yarns, and memories that will amuse and entertain students of history for many years to come.

We close with a photo essay of LDS meetinghouses in Utah Drawn from the Hal Rumel collection, these beautiful images reflect a remarkable variety of architectural styles—a variety not seen or even imagined with such buildings today Like the subjects of the preceding articles, these distinctive creations suggest the spontaneity of a less structured, less homogenous time Whether those times were better is open to debate, of course, but no one would argue that they were dull. With the clarity of a Rumel photo, the distinctive nature of these earlier times and places will emerge from the pages that follow to charm and entertain the discerning reader ON THE COVER: A miner in Consumers, Utah, a coal camp in Carbon County. ABOVE: A woman and her children negotiate a street in Consumers. Both photos were taken in 1936 by Dorothea Lange, who had been hired by the Farm Security Administration to photograph the people affected by the depression.

FSA administrator Rexford Tugwell later wrote that the agency not only sought to bring government resources to the desperate but also "to make certain that never again should Americans be exposed to such cruelties.... It seemed important to record the incredible events of those years."

Consumers, which was named after the Consumers Mutual Coal Company, was defunct by 1950.

Tales of Four Alta Miners

In the late 1860s Little Cottonwood Canyon, about fifteen miles southeast of Salt Lake City, was gaining a considerable reputation for its deposits of silver ore. By 1870 a mining boom was in full swing, spawning the community of Alta near the head of the canyon at an elevation of 8,600 feet above sea level.There are many stories about the riches ofAlta's mines and how miners and investors alike realized fame and fortune from the treasures that Nature had placed there. However, for each one of those lucky persons, there were hundreds who were not so fortunate: those who labored in the depths or prospected the hills, ever certain that they, too, would soon realize the reward they so fervently desired but who were destined to remain nameless and faceless in the annals of history. In spite of their misfortunes, or lack of fortune, they were individuals whose lives witnessed joys and sorrows, who touched other individuals for better or for worse, and whose lives provide interesting vignettes in the ongoing human drama. A few of those men left enough of a trail, albeit faint, to allow us to look back into their lives and witness what the life of the average ABOVE: Alta citizens pose for the miner was like more than a century ago camera.

JOHN FORD and his young wife immigrated to the United States from their native Germany and somehow found their way to the mines of the Wasatch Mountains His name surfaced in May 1881 when he and three of his fellow miners at the Vallejo Mine came into Salt Lake City with the body of Richard Williams, a comrade who had been killed in an avalanche that had devastated the town of Alta and its surroundings the preceding January.1 Williams had remained buried until spring thaws lowered the snow levels enough to expose his body.

After this incident, John Ford returned to Alta and anonymity until February 1885.At that time he, his wife, and their small child were comfortably settled in a little house in the mining community On the evening of Friday, the thirteenth of February, Ford, his wife, and a neighbor friend named Mrs Keist were sitting around the stove in the Ford home Ford was holding his child in his arms when a huge snowslide roared down the mountainside to the north, smashing the house and those in it In an instant, most of the town ofAlta was damaged or destroyed. Twenty-seven houses were carried away, leaving only some twelve standing About 150 persons were in or about Alta that evening, although many were in the mines or living in boardinghouses at the mines Of those who were in town, thirteen lost their lives,includingJohn Ford's wife and the baby. Mrs. Ford was found within a few feet of the infant, indicating that her last action was to reach for her baby.When rescued, Ford could remember nothing except that the child was snatched from him at that fateful moment.2

Both Ford and Mrs Keist were badly injured; in fact, their rescuers thought that Ford would die from his injuries. On the second day after the avalanche, a party of Alta residents started down the canyon with the dead and the most severely injured on sleds.Among them was Mrs. Ford with the body of her baby lashed to her breast On a following sled was John Ford, wrapped in blankets.A train was waiting atWasatch, at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, to carry the victims into the city; there the injured were hospitalized and the dead taken to undertaking establishments Mrs Ford and her child were buried after services at St Mark's church on February 20.

John Ford remained in the hospital for several months, recovering from his physical injuries, but the records fail to disclose what travels he took to escape from his memories What is known is that one year later, when lessees took over the workings of the Emrna Mine and installed a power plant and pumps at the mouth of the tunnel,John Ford was there as the engineer. It was he who first started the machinery to pump the water from the mine.3 Presumably, he remained at that job for some time, for on

Salt Lake Tribune, May 27,1881

Ibid., February 18, 1885

Ibid., May 28, 1886

March 4, 1891,he was one of nine employees of the Emma Company who were sent down the canyon to get some beef As they struggled back up the canyon, each with a load of meat on his back, an avalanche came down Emily Gulch, about a quarter mile below the town ofAlta It was not a big slide,but it caught all nine men and carried them along at a rapid rate When it stopped, one man was dead and two were badly hurt. One of the latter was John Ford. The following morning he again made a sled trip down the canyon and to the hospital.4

Following this disaster, Ford wandered about the country, going as far east as Chicago and west into Washington. But the Wasatch called to him, and he returned to follow his calling at Alta. In 1904 he went to the head of City Creek Canyon to help a friend with assessment work on his claims One day he was doing some blasting. Six shots he set and six shots he heard, but when he went back into the tunnel he made only several strokes

Ibid., March 6, 1891

with his pick before there was an explosion Some powder that should have been consumed in the blasts remained, and when he struck it with his pick it exploded He later said that he knew the powder they had was bad, so he had been careful—but he was not careful enough.When he recovered consciousness, one of his eyes was gone;his head was crushed and his abdomen torn open. He sent a lad who was at the mine with him into town for help. When aid arrived, he was taken to the hospital, where he remained for sixteen months.After he was finally discharged, he returned to Alta to follow the only calling he knew Some years later he reflected, "Will I strike it rich? Don't ask me that.We all expect to.The riches of the Wasatch range will be uncovered for me some day...."5

The years and the many injuries were taking their toll on poor John Ford. In 1910 he remembered having six children at the time of the Alta avalanche that took his wife, four of them being lost in the tragedy However, records from that time fail to support his memories; although there were a number of children buried in the snow that night, only one of them was his.He became increasingly tired and despondent until finally, on November 8, 1913, he was found dead at the age of sixty-seven in his bed in the American Rooming House on Commercial Street in Salt Lake City.6 Back in 1910,when he was talking about the riches of theWasatch, he had continued, "Well, on the other side there are those who beckon me now; they will welcome me later There are riches there There is a haven there for old fellows like me."7 John Ford had finally found his reward.

PATSEY MARLEY was born Patrick Marley in Ireland in 1840 or 1841 When he left his family home, he went to London for a period of time then emigrated to the United States. It is not known what drew him to Utah, but he arrived in the territory early in 1870 and soon gained a considerable reputation as both a pugilist and a miner.The first indication of Marleyspresence in Utah was the recording of the Patsey Marley Claim on May 23, 1870, it having been "dated at Curtis & Spaffords cabin."8 Levi Curtis andWW Spafford, the owners of the cabin,were two of the locators of the Grizzly claim, filed just six weeks earlier, as was Abram Noe, one of Marley's collaborators in the Patsey Marley claim At this time Patsey was about thirty years old; he must have had a considerable knowledge of prospecting and mining matters, for six weeks later the Salt Lake Herald mentioned that "Patsey Marley brought into town ninety six pounds of bullion, the result of three quarters of an hour run of his newly built smelting works."9 Mining histories mention nothing of this smelting works, but

5 Ibid.,July 13,1910

6 Deseret News, November 8, 1913 Commercial Street (34 E.) ran between First and Second South Streets It is now called Regent Street

7 Salt Lake Tribune, July 13, 1910

8 Patsey Marley Claim, May 23, 1870, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book A, 62, Salt Lake County Recorder Archives

9 Salt Lake Heraldjuly 13, 1870

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the mining recorder's books do, for the following year there was an entry referring to "a furnace known as the Marley Furnace."10 And ifMarley really brought bullion rather than ore into town, he must have used some sort of furnace, however crude it may have been.

The mine was becoming known A letter from Salt Lake City published in the Missouri Democrat stated that Patsey had a number of men working for him and that the claim was estimated to be worth one hundred thousand dollars.11 The following February it was reported that the mine had been bonded by certain western parties for thirty days;in other words, the parties had an option to buy.12 As often happened when an option was taken on a mine, the discovery of a rich deposit in the mine was also reported.Then the mine's production of news worth printing ended, but its brief days of glory assured that it would be remembered by miners in the years that followed.

Marley remained in the area, although his name appeared on only two other claims in the district, neither one of which amounted to anything. But Patsey made more news with his other profession, that of a fighter. Some of his sparring matches were arranged—"mills," they were called— and some were spontaneous. The latter more often than not ended in police court or jail. One such event, on election day in August 1871 at Central City, started as a friendly match but quickly escalated to involve rocks and then pistols, and it ended with one man being shot in the stomach and dying early the following morning.13 In 1873 Patsey and an associate, Matt Brennan, opened a saloon at No 7 Commercial Street in downtown Salt Lake City, where they taught boxing, foiling, and other gymnastics.14 Of course, the saloon was host to numerous incidents that involved arrests and appearances in court. In October 1873 Patsey was back at Alta, where he engaged in a series of matches at Nick Drainer's Hall in the Grand Hotel He was willing to take on anyone willing to challenge him He gave a good account of himself in these matches, but he admitted he was getting too fat to fight and only put on the gloves for the exercise it gave him.15

In spite of his skirmishes with the law,he was a very popular fellow. The press loved him for the stories he gave them; for instance, someone once posted his name on the Central House bulletin board as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, with other prominent citizens as candidates for various other offices.16 And when a desperado by the name of

10 Restraining Order, March 28, 1871, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book A, 210

11 Deseret News, July 12, 1870

12 Salt Lake Herald, February 16, 1871.

13 Salt Lake Tribune, August 9 and 10, 1871 Central City was a temporary mining camp located just below Alta

14 Ibid., March 5, 1873

15 Ibid., October 14,1873

16 Ibid., February 7, 1874. Central House was a "hotel"/flophouse in Central City.

George Curran assumed an alias of Patsey Marley, the newsmen happily published Patsey's denial: he was not the same man "Patsey," they wrote, "has attended a few Irish weddings but has not and never expects to disturb other people's rights or property."17 They then started calling Curran "Patsey Marley No. 2" and for the next two years followed and reported his misdeeds,which ranged from Salt Lake City west into Nevada

Patsey himself drifted west and engaged for some time in mining in the Tooele and Stockton area, then he moved north into Idaho. Little was heard from him in local circles, and it seemed he had drifted into oblivion But then he returned to Utah, took up some claims in Farmington Canyon, and worked them in spite of his advancing years In July 1905 he was brought to Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City in a most enfeebled condition, disabled by inflammatory rheumatism He was destitute but still had a few friends. Mr. D. P. Felt, editor of the Davis County Argus, undertook to contact Marley's mining friends to help him with his needs.18 In the year that followed he was back in the hospital at least two more times, but he was not easily put down In 1912 he was still working his claims near Farmington. He struggled along until mid-1916, when his health became so seriously impaired that he had to be moved to Salt Lake After a time in the county infirmary he was moved to the county hospital, where he died on December 12 Someone who knew not only him but also his dire financial situation stepped forward and had a brief article published in the Salt Lake Tribune. Unless his friends subscribed to a fund to pay for a funeral, the article said, Marley would be buried in a pauper's grave. 19 Within a week's time funeral arrangements could be made, and on December 22, 1916, funeral services were held, attended by a few old friends One man, dressed in tattered clothing, tiptoed into the chapel and stood in a far corner. No one asked his identity, but several times he was seen to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his tattered coat It was later learned that he was an old friend of Marley's, one who was in similar financial circumstances and who wished to remain inconspicuous while he bade farewell.20

Patsey Marley was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery While his grave is unmarked, his name lives on in Patsey Marley Hill above Alta.The various slopes above Alta were named for the mines located on them Such was the case with this hill, the site of Patsey's original claim.The name continues to be used to this day,although few people know its source One recent article that professed to explain the origins of Wasatch Mountain names went so far as to suggest that Patsey Marley was a madam at an Alta brothel.21 Amid such fallacious stories, perhaps it is time that history be set

17 Ibid., July 2, 1872

18 Salt Lake Tribune, July 28,1905.

19 Ibid., December 15,1916

20 Ibid., December 23, 1916

21 "What's in a Name? Place Names of the Wasatch," in Sports Guide, February 1998

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

One Alta snowslide caught the attention of this national publication.

straight and Patsey Marley given his just and due recognition.

JEREMIAH REAGAN

was a teenage boy when he came to Alta to find work and seek his fortune. The first documented evidence of his presence in that camp was in October 1876, when he was one of four men recording a claim near Central City.22 He was eighteen years old at the time. While Jerry Reagan never found his fortune in the mines, he was destined to have a continuing association with Alta's greatest nemesis, the snow avalanche. In December 1879, when he was twenty-one years old, he was caught in an avalanche between Alta City and Grizzly Flat.23 Although found to be completely buried, he was only slightly injured. Then in January 1881,when avalanches smashed into and around the town, killing four at the Grizzly boardinghouse, two at the Toledo compressor house, and another three at Strickleys store in the heart of Alta, Reagan was one of fifty-two people who fled the besieged town and made the long trek down the canyon, sometimes groping through the cold darkness of the tramway snowsheds and other times climbing out to wade through the deep snow to pass around sections of the sheds that had been wrecked by the crushing snows.He did return to Alta, at least briefly, for he was one of twenty-four who filed a mining claim in August 1881.24

In March 1884 Alta suffered another devastating snow avalanche. In the early evening of the seventh, an avalanche carried away the buildings at the New Emma Mine, killing ten men and two women All except one had fled their homes in Alta, seeking safety in the cold depths of the Emma tunnel, but they were still in the boiler house when the avalanche struck. Jerry Reagan was not in Alta that night; he was reported to have been in a hospital in San Francisco at the time, but his good friend Edward Crocket, the fireman at the Emma Mine, was on duty that fateful evening and was killed on the job.

Ed Crocket had been born in Scotland and had spent some time in and around the South African diamond mines before coming to Alta in the early 1870s. His name appeared on at least six mining claims between 1873 and 1883,and he worked in a number of mines. In 1874 he was a foreman for the lessees of the old workings of the Flagstaff Mine.25 In January 1883 he relocated the Kate Hayes Mine, renamed it the Crocket,26 and attempted to work it, apparently without much success, for he soon found himself working at the New Emma Mine as the fireman. He was at work that evening of March 7, with the boiler house full of people getting warm and, perhaps, heating tea or coffee before they moved into the tunnel to spend the night. But before they left the building the avalanche struck and carried all of them into eternity. The 48-year-old Ed Crocket was found in the wreckage of the boiler house, lying against the furnace with his hands, badly burned, pressed against the boiler door The bodies of the victims were brought into Salt Lake City, where Crocket was buried "with three of his fellow victims in a plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery.27

Crocket had been the epitome of the legendary Scotchman; he was a miserly individual, hoarding his money to the extent of starving himself, although occasionally he would go on a spending binge and part with several hundred dollars.While he worked at the New Emma he lived at the saloon run by James Kennedy and J J O'Riley It was thought that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money, but after his death none was found.

The following spring Jeremiah Reagan returned to Alta In July he was working at the Buckland tunnel on Emma Hill, the north slope above Alta He lost his clothing, blankets, and other articles when the bunkhouse burned down, but he was not in the building at the time.28 Later that summer, Reagan leased the Kennedy & O'Riley Saloon and became a businessman. On Monday night, September 29, after he closed the saloon, he went to bed in the building. During the night he awoke when he thought he heard someone calling his name. He sat up and saw an apparition of

25 Salt LakeTribune, September 16, 1874

26 Crocket Relocation, January 1,1883, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 176

27 Deseret News, March 12, 1884; Salt Lake Herald, March 11, 15, 1885; Salt Lake Tribune, March 11, 15, 16,1884

28 Salt Lake Tribune,]uly 6, 1884

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Edward Crocket The spirit told him to go down to the post in the cellar and get Crocket's money and keep it.Reagan struck amatch to light a candle, but the spirit had vanished and he found himself alone The next morning he went into the cellar and dug around the post that had been placed there to support the building, but he found nothing The incident weighed heavily on his mind, so later in the day he went back down and dug some more This time he found apurse containing about $75 in moldy bills and several letters addressed to Crocket.That evening he described the event to George Cullen, superintendent of the New Emma Mine,who said that Reagan's description of the apparition matched exactly what Crocket was wearing the night of his death Unable to get the incident off his mind, Reagan wrote a letter to his friend J.J. O'Riley in Salt Lake City, telling him the entire story With that action, the matter reached the newspapers There were, of course, many disbelievers who thought Reagan was making up stories But Father Kieley, assistant pastor at the St Mary Magdalene Catholic church, claimed to be acquainted with Reagan and said he "knew him to be a man of unimpeachable veracity."29

The winter of 1884-85 brought new avalanche dangers to the town of Alta On February 13, 1885, the same massive avalanche that killed John Ford's family wiped out much of the mining camp. Strickley's store, at the upper end of Main Street, was built into the hill,so the snow passed over it, but the buildings below, including O'Riley's store with Jeremiah Reagan inside, were smashed and carried down the hill into the buildings below Reagan was one of the thirteen people who lost their lives that evening. The bodies of the victims were taken into the city, where the twentyseven-year-old Reagan and three of his fellow victims were buried in a city cemetery lot near victims of earlierAlta snowslides.30

FRITZ RETTICH was another immigrant from Germany who found his way to Alta.His name surfaced in the spring of 1874 when he reopened the Canon House in Alta, but there were implications that he had been on the scene for some time and at that time was well-known among the residents as "Baldy Fritz."31 The following year he moved down-canyon to Tannersville,where he ran the Mountain House throughout the entire season. 32 It was that same year, 1875,that Rettich filed his first mining claims One of them was the Baldy Fritz Claim, on the north side of the canyon above the short-lived Central City The following year he established the

29 Ibid., October 2, 3,1884.

30 Salt Lake Herald, February 15,17,18, 1885; Salt Lake Tribune, February 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 1885

31 Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 1874; Salt Lake Herald, June 3, 1874. Herald correspondent "Archibald" commented that "the boys are happy that the old man is once more in the field." Rettich was forty-three years old at this time

i2Salt Lake Tribune, May 30, 1875, July 9, 1875, October 10, 1875 The latter article, which kidded Rettich as having "been in Zion attending Conference," mistakenly gave his home as Grantsville instead of Tannersville There is no evidence that Rettich had joined the Mormon church

Baldy Fritz tunnel to work the earlier claim, establishing a presence at the site that would continue throughout his long life and beyond In the years that followed he filed at least thirty-four claims, most of them near the site of the former Central City. Only one took him out of the Tittle Cottonwood Mining District, when he and three associates made a claim above Lake Catherine at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon.33

It appears that Rettich enjoyed moderate success with his mining ventures, but he also continued to be one ofAlta's businessmen When the city was destroyed by fire in 1878 Rettich was running a saloon that burned to the ground, complete with its furniture and stock But as the community rebuilt, he constructed a new saloon where his cheery voice could be heard greeting passers-by at all reasonable hours.34 He was surrounded by an air of joviality and enjoyed telling stories, many about himself Although he was a shrewd and clever businessman, one of his stories was about a bad investment. When he first arrived in Alta in midwinter he looked for a place to build a cabin. He was shown a lot that had a comfortable log cabin, although the only part of it visible above the twelve-foot-deep snows was its stove pipe. Knowing that prices would rise in the spring, he paid $1,200 for the lot and cabin. But when spring arrived and the snows melted he found that his structure consisted of only three sections of stovepipe that had been stuck in the snow. 35

Years later, another man remembered Rettich at the period around the turn of the century. Rettich was fun to talk to, he recalled. He said that Rettich was once caught in a snowslide and was completely buried. As some men were digging for him, he could hear them, but they could not hear him.They concluded that he was not in the slide and decided to leave.

"I got real mad," Rettich said,"and managed to stick my finger through the snow.They saw my finger and dug me out."36 Rettich also had intellectual interests. One of them, ancient history, was reflected in the names of some of his claims:Romulus, Remus, and Xantippe.

He continued to run his saloon until February 1885, when most of Alta was destroyed by the avalanche.37 After that event he gave up the occupation of saloonkeeper and devoted his full attention to mining. He continued to run his Baldy Fritz Mine but also took leases on other old and sometimes profitable mines, including the Moltke on Bald Mountain, the North Star on the north slopes above Alta, and the dump of the Toledo Mine, from which he made several shipments of concentrates in 1891. Rettich also continued to file claims of his own. He took over the old

33 Silver King No. 2 Claim, September 12,1883, Big Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 427.

34 Salt Lake Tribune, September 4, 1878, January 1, 1880

3D Salt Lake Tribune, October 16, 1880

36 Frank Ottley interview, September 6, 1967, in Lawrence P.James, Little Cottonwood Canyon Collection, University of Utah Western Americana Collection, MS 632

37 Salt Lake Tribune, October 3, 1883, February 15, 1885 The first of these articles says that Rettich was "captain of a good refreshment house, and he is as full of fun as ever." The latter enumerates losses in the avalanche and lists Baldy Fritz's saloon as a $500 loss

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Crown Prince and Frederick mines and accumulated other properties, many of them near his original Baldy Fritz Claim, where he built a comfortable cabin that became his home. He continued to believe that the Alta mines would revive and once again see the activity they enjoyed during the 1870s, even while the camp's population declined and most mines fell into disuse and disarray. In 1894 and 1895, for instance, only nineteen votes were cast in the district mining recorder election—an indication that few active miners remained in the area

In 1900 he leased one of his claims, the Columbus, to a young mining hopeful named TonyJacobson, who found considerable marketable ore and went on to found the Columbus Consolidated Mining Company38 The success of that company certainly placed Rettich in comfortable financial circumstances for the remainder of his life, but it did not keep him from pursuing his own mining interests The last claims he filed were in 1901 for the Hellgate, located in the bed of Little Cottonwood Creek about a mile below Alta, and the Alaska Extension up at the head of Peruvian Gulch.39 The first was near his cabin home, but the second was over fifteen hundred feet higher, at an elevation above 10,000 feet.Though then in his seventies, he was still a hardy man.

Fritz Rettich lived in his beloved Alta home for another decade before he died on August 7, 1910.Although the media reported that he died at Sandy, his tombstone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City carries the inscription, "Fritz Rettich; Born Feb 27, 1831;Died atAlta, Utah, Aug 7, 1910."40 In spite of many lonely years spent in his mountain home, he still had friends who honored him with written tributes. Peter Lochrie wrote, "This much can with truth be said of Fritz Rettich: During his eighty years of life he made no enemies His generosity was bountiful, and when before the last sleep came he had the consciousness of knowing that he had done his best in life to help his fellow man."41 In another article, Jerome B. Ireland revealed that in spite of the "Baldy Fritz" nickname Rettich carried throughout his life, he did not like the name, although he revealed his dislike to very few. His close friends called him Fritz, never "Baldy." He often remarked that since he had been parting his hair in the middle for so many years, it was the name he objected to, not the implication.42

During Rettich's long life at Alta no public mention was ever made of any family he might have had. From all obvious appearances he had lived alone and died alone.Yet on the first day of January 1889 one Hugo Rettich had filed three claims with the district recorder, two of them as

38 Salt Lake Tribune, October 20 and December 30, 1900, July 16, 1903

39 Little Cottonwood Mining District, January 2, 1901, Book G, 103; July 8,1901, Book G, 120

40 Mount Olivet Cemetery, Plot T-31-8

41 Salt Lake Tribune, August 14, 1910

42 Jerome B. Ireland, "Recollections of Fritz Rettich," Mining Review, September 15, 1910.

"Hugo Rettich for Fritz Rettich." 4 3 Hugo's name appeared in the recorder's books again on January 1, 1891,January 2, 1894, and January 3, 1895.44 Hugo, as it turned out, was Fritz Rettich's son Following the lead of one of his grandfathers, Dr. Friedrich Beck, who was personal dentist to King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, Hugo attended the Philadelphia Dental College and went on to a successful dental practice in New York City. It was later revealed that Hugo also had a brother, Dr Adolph Rettich, who was a dentist in Stuttgart, Germany.45

During Hugo's annual visits to his father he posted many other claims, having at least fifteen to his credit by 1904.Three of them were additions to his father's Hellgate, forming a group that would continue to be in the mining news for a number of years.After his father's death, Hugo became heir to the mining properties and revealed that he had inherited his father's penchant for mining. He patented the Hellgate claims and formed the Hellgate Mining Company to receive the properties and work them He continued to hold the Frederick andAlaska groups as his personal property. Although he employed miners to operate the mines, Rettich made annual visits to Utah, often accompanied by his wife, to inspect and supervise the operations The mines continued to operate over many years,although their financial success is questionable. It is likely that more money flowed from New York City to Utah than in the opposite direction In 1924 the comment was made that Dr. Rettich had advanced the company more than $20,000, and in 1928 Rettich admitted to having spent a great deal of money in the enterprise, but there was no thought of giving up."It looks too good to quit now," he said.46 But by 1930 Alta was practically a deserted camp,with only a dozen or so men in the district.The Hellgate was the only property lighted by electricity; the few other mines used candles or carbide lamps for light. Rettich admitted he had never seen the camp so dead, but he reaffirmed his faith by saying, "Change is sure to come."47 However, that was a time when the national economy was heading downward, and Rettich was destined not to have enough time to see the change he awaited. Dr. Hugo Rettich died in New York City on February 22, 1934, and with him died the promise and hopes for the Rettich properties at Alta.48 All that remains today is the Hellgate name applied to prominent cliffs and properties in the canyon between Snowbird and Alta.

43 Tippecanoe, Ben Harrison, and Idanha claims, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 315-317, January 1,1889

44 Jennie, Columbus, Oxford, and Alaska claims, Little Cottonwood Mining District Book D, 359, 431, 502, January 1, 1891, January 2, 1894, and the last two on January 3, 1895.

45 Salt Lake Mining Review, August 30, 1920; Mining Review, February 27, 1934 The Salt Lake Mining Review became the Mining Review on September 15, 1927.

46 Salt Lake Mining Review, November 30,1924; Mining Review, September 30, 1928

47 Mining Review, September 15, 1930

48 Salt Lake Tribune, February 24, 1934 Mining Review, February 27,1934

The Press O n Wheels Meets the Mormon s

When Legh Freeman sent his wife, Ada, to Ogden during the summer of 1875 to start a semiweekly newspaper called the Freeman, while he stayed on in Wyoming to look after his interests in the coalfields, he counted on his theretofore-congenial relations with the Mormons to ensure commercial success. Had he been an astute ABOVE: Legh R. Freeman in and cautious businessman, rather than a"wild Salt Lake City when he was in Ishmaelite," as the Ogden City Directory of his mid-twenties (1867).

Sherilyn Cox Bennion is a professor emeritus ofjournalism and mass communication at Humboldt State University in California She is the author of Equal to the Occasion: Women Editors of the Nineteenth-Century West and of numerous articles about western women and journalists This article is based on a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Mormon History Association in May 1999.

1883 called him, he might have seen trouble ahead. The Ogden Junction, under the editorship of Mormon stalwart Charles W. Penrose, was publishing both semiweekly and daily editions. It had enjoyed the support of the church hierarchy since its founding in 1870 and surely would not welcome competition. Less evident but probably more damaging was Brigham Young's campaign to keep Mormon money in the territory by directing church members to patronize only Mormon-owned businesses. For Freeman, this would mean not only a reduction in the pool of potential subscribers but, even more important, also aloss of advertising patronage.

Completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and subsequent development of the Utah Central and Utah Northern railroads had made Ogden a bustling commercial center by the mid-1870s. Legh Freeman must have felt confident, based on his earlier experience as an editor in Union Pacific terminus towns from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, to Bear River City,Wyoming, that he could make a success of a newspaper in yet another railway city.

Born December 4, 1842,in Culpeper,Virginia, Legh had an active imagination and grand ambitions even as a child, when he decided that "HoratioVattel, Lightning Scout of the Mountains" would be the name he used when he went out West "to explore and write up the country."1

Although subsequent accounts of his life by himself and others are filled with exaggerations and contradictions, it appears that he served as a telegrapher in a Confederate cavalry regiment during the Civil War and, after capture in May 1864 and imprisonment at the Rock Island military prison between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois, accepted in October a chance at freedom provided by President Abraham Lincoln's offer of amnesty for recruits willing to man forts in the West Legh arrived at Fort Kearney in April 1865 as the war ended and soon became the post's telegraph operator In December, with no printing experience, he became editor and publisher of the Kearney Herald, which had been abandoned by its former owners a short time earlier

Thus began Legh's tenure as proprietor of what became known as the "Press on Wheels" and as adventurer and entrepreneur in the beckoning West He left his brother, Frederick, to manage the newspaper while he attended the Fort Laramie treaty conference between the government and the Sioux; then he traveled on through Wyoming's Powder River country Frederick, with no ties to the fort, moved the Herald to the town of Kearney in May 1866 After only a few months there, the brothers moved their publication to North Platte, still in Nebraska Territory, and over the next two years to Julesburg, in Colorado Territory; Fort Sanders, Laramie City, Benton, and Green River City in Dakota Territory; and Green River City and Bear River City inWyoming Territory. In North Platte the news-

paper received the name it retained on its roundabout journey to Wyoming, the Frontier Index. Frederick took charge of the newspaper while Legh explored the West and became known for the humorous reports of his adventures that appeared in his own and other publications under the byline "General HoratioVattel."

However, Legh wrote much more than humor. His racist and political diatribes attacked Indians, blacks, Chinese, and Republicans, adding local military officials after his comments about General Ulysses S.Grant aroused their ire Legh supported vigilante committees in the rowdy railroad communities where the Frontier Index appeared. In Bear River City, after vigilantes jailed and hanged purported lawbreakers, a mob of railroad workers freed jail inmates then moved on to ransack the newspaper office, destroy equipment, and burn the building Legh fled on horseback to Fort Bridger

At age twenty-five, Legh added youthful enthusiasm to his natural optimism and promised to rebuild at once He told the Salt Lake Telegraph in November that he had ordered new equipment and would be "on wheels" again in three weeks In December he predicted that a few more weeks would find him "hotter than red, in the vicinity of Ogden."2 He did indeed revive his newspaper at Ogden, but not until seven years later

In the interim, Legh journeyed back to his birthplace inVirginia, where he lectured "graphically and humorously" about the West in the guise of General Vattel.3 He also found a wife, Ada Virginia Miller. She had been born in 1844 at Strasburg,Virginia, where she studied German, piano, art, and needlework and taught fourteen students during the final year of the Civil War She became assistant to the principal of Strasburg Academy, wrote articles for a newspaper at neighboring Winchester, and translated a German folktale for publication With experience in hunting and fishing, Ada could handle a shotgun as well as a pen, a combination of talents that must have appealed to Legh

After their wedding on May 6, 1869, the newlyweds spent an idyllic summer inVirginia Then Legh received and accepted an offer of employment as a telegrapher from an agency in Rock Island, Illinois, where their first son was born in March 1870 During their time there,Legh apparently lost a considerable sum of money on Chicago stock investments, a circumstance that may have influenced his decision to move west once again.4 The Freemans settled in Rock Springs,Wyoming, where a second son was born and where Legh hoped to develop claims on coal properties, perhaps planning to sell coal to the Union Pacific. However, by 1875 it had become apparent that the railroad would develop its own coal business, and Legh once again turned his hand to journalism—or at least turned Ada's hand in

Ogden City in 1876.

that direction, sending the boys with her to Ogden, where she would start the semiweekly Ogden Freeman.

The first issue appeared on June 18, 1875, listing Mr. and Mrs. Legh R. Freeman as editors and claiming descent from the Frontier Index. Although the earliest surviving copies date from September 1876, it seems likely that the first numbers established the pattern that would continue over the four years of the paper's life It was a four-page, seven-column paper with "patent outsides," meaning that the first and fourth pages came readyprinted from a service contracted to supply them Along with miscellaneous short articles on a wide variety of general-interest topics, the front page consistently featured a large map of theWyoming gold fields; the back page contained three columns of articles and four of advertising.The inside two pages held local and regional news notes, articles, and ads prepared or solicited by the paper's editors and contributors.The Ogden Junction reported that Ada had responsibility for local reporting.5 Even after Legh abandoned his Wyoming coal leases to move to Ogden, he continued to travel extensively, soliciting subscriptions and advertising and sending back reports of hisjourneys for publication.

Legh had written favorably of the Mormons in the Frontier Index, advertising that paper as "the only 'Gentile' paper that is conducted in such a conciliatory manner as to have secured a general circulation among the widespread business element of the Mormons!!!!!" He visited Brigham Young in 1868 and reported a favorable reception, withYoung characterizing him as"a pretty good Mormon, but not much Saint" and wishing him success,he wrote.6 He may have soughtYoung's support for a land develop-

ment venture at the confluence of the Virgin and Colorado rivers in Arizona The settlement, to be known as Freemansburg, did not materialize

The first issue of the Freeman received a positive reception from other newspapers.The Deseret News called it "neat and newsy," and even the rival Junction expressed "a feeling of surprise aswell as pleasure" that the publishers had been able, in a brief period, "to get up so large and full a paper," adding a wish that the Freemans' high expectations might be fully realized The Salt Lake Tribune quoted Ada's own comment:

The editress of the Ogden Freeman says: "Be it recorded as part of the history of Utah, that a Virginia born and bred lady, came into Utah unacquainted with a single soul, and, within a period of six weeks, organized, established, and conducted the Ogden Freeman, took charge of two infant sons, and gave birth to a third, and in that time was never censured because her endeavors to assist her husband did not accord with'notions.'" 7

The 1883 Ogden City Directory credited Ada with producing a paper that was "very conciliatory in tone and character." She had "appeared desirous to conciliate the people of Ogden and gain their good will" and had succeeded to some extent "by her non-interference with the religious and social system of the citizens."However, the Directory's Mormon authors continued, Legh changed the policy of the paper and "was in continual hot water during the time he remained here in consequence of his malignity and abuse of many of the citizens." He was "a sort of wild Ishmaelite—his hand was soon turned against every man that he could not bulldoze."8

Legh described the transformation and its causes in an 1877 article, recalling that upon his arrival in Ogden he had proposed to the editor of the "thumb paper," as he frequently referred to the Ogden Junction, that the papers should unite in lifting each other and the community He claimed to have pursued this course "and received the thumb papers attacks without reply, in kind," adding that when he did respond "it was with a supply of ammunition which is not yet exhausted." He wrote that the Mormons promised they "would take our paper soon They liked it better than any other paper ever before printed in theValleys of these Mountains,"but after six months "it was generally understood among the Saints that we should have no patronage from them except promises, and it was equally as thoroughly agreed that they would steal every copy of our paper that the Apostates, Spiritualists and other non-Mormons, who take it in every settlement, place within their reach."The article concluded with a warning to the Junction that it need not print any extracts from the Freeman, for the brethren studied it "so assiduously that they can repeat its contents from memory with much more accuracy than they can any portion of the Book

of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, or Brigham's discourses."9

Certainly, by September 1876, the date of the first surviving copies, the Freeman had become stridently anti-Mormon. A series on the Danites and extended coverage of the trial ofJohn D. Lee for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, mostly reprinted from the Salt Lake Tribune or from New York newspapers, gave the Freeman opportunities to express its antiMormon stance. As might be expected, polygamy provided a continuing focus. Besides several articles on "The Basis of Polygamy" that debunked claims of divine inspiration for the practice, the Freeman followed the legal actions brought against BrighamYoung by his former wife Ann Eliza Webb Young and referred to polygamists as "lecherous beasts,"10 among other unflattering terms. When Emmeline B.Wells testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 1879 that "the Mormons had no dram shops, no paupers, no outcast women, no illegitimate children," the Freeman countered with charges that BrighamYoung engaged in the distillation of poor whiskey and cheated government revenue officers, that poor people abounded in Utah, and that 50,000 Mormons were "kept women" bearing "a horde of illegitimate children."The paper also called for strict enforcement of anti-polygamy laws but at the same time urged passage of a statute to legitimize children borne in "criminal relations."11

Misuse of church tithing funds was another recurring theme in the Freeman. In one instance Legh framed his complaint as a parody of Mormon scripture with publication of a purported vision beginning, "And lo an angel of the Lord came unto The Freeman office and said: Arise, Brother Freeman, and look upon the iniquity that I will show you And I arose and looked."What did he see? A deceptive spirit taking tithings and donations in the name of the Lord.The vision went on to reveal specifics of the deception and prophesy the downfall of the deceivers, concluding, "And I, Brother Freeman, being in great favor with the angel of the Lord, arose and wrote these things that he had shown me—for the warning of the people lest they partake of that which is accursed, and destruction come upon them suddenly, as has been shown me in a vision."12

The Freeman offered fairly restrained coverage of BrighamYoung's death in 1877, concluding an obituary with the hope that "whatever was pure and true in his teachings" would "prosper and flourish." Out of respect for the sincerity of his people's sorrow, the paper would, for the time being, "let his errors pass to the judgement of that higher tribunal, from whose justice there is no appeal, and whose decrees cannot be evaded." However, the next issue of the paper, which contained a detailed eyewitness account ofYoung's funeral, also included an untitled note describing two of his

9 Ogden Freeman, August 14, 1877.

10 Ibid., June 25, 1878

" Ibid., January 24,1879.

12 Ibid., June 15,1877

sons:"Johnny W and Briggy are both short, corpulent, obese, hoggish looking sports, with bald heads and gross, dull looking porcine eyes But they know how to spend millions of the peoples' church money for their own carousals."13

Young's death gave Legh an opportunity to revive an earlier proposal that Joseph Smith III, son of the Mormon prophet, assume his rightful place as leader of the Utah church Smith had visited the Freeman office in December 1876, and the paper stated then that he would "shortly return to Zion to regenerate the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." After Young's death, Legh invited Smith to take the presidency that "unquestionably" belonged to him and later printed Smith's response Smith courteously expressed the hope that Legh's diagnosis of the feeling in Utah was correct but concluded, "Whatever shall be proper for me to do, as determined by me and the brethren associated with me, that I shall do What may seem feasible and proper from your standing ground may not be so from ours, all things considered However, the times are ominous and changes imminent."14

When Mormon patronage for the paper failed to materialize, Legh declared the Freeman to be the voice of the Liberal party, opponent of the Mormon People's party.The paper devoted considerable space to the meetings and activities of the Liberals, until the party placed its advertising in the Junction instead of in the Freeman. This led to some vituperative comment in the paper, which probably assured a continuing preference for the Junction on the part of Liberal leaders.

The Freeman did not limit its attacks to Mormons and Liberals Anyone who ran afoul of its editor might feel his wrath in its pages. Sometimes the altercations went beyond the Freeman office to the streets or the courts of Ogden In one such instance, in January 1877, Legh accused Ogden postmaster Neal J Sharp,"a so-called Gentile," of selling papers he should have

13 Ibid., August 31,1877, and September 4, 1877

14 Ibid., December 12, 1876, September 11, 1877, September 18, 1877

mailed and of insisting on payment for postage in advance from the Freeman while allowing the Junction sixty days to pay. In response, Sharp sent a warning about Legh to the postmaster at Walla Walla, Washington, where Legh was scheduled to travel, and the paper there published it. Soon the Salt Lake Tribune, which, Legh wrote, hated him "as the devils hate holy water," reprinted the attack.The Junction picked it up from the Tribune.15

Returned from his trip, Legh went to the post office to pay his bill and, undoubtedly, to give the postmaster a piece of his mind. Postmaster Sharp and Marshal Moroni Brown followed him into the street and attacked him, according to Legh's version of the incident. Certainly a fight ensued, and Legh earned a $30 fine, while Sharp paid $40.Although he claimed grave injuries, Legh managed to write a dramatic story of the confrontation for theApril 3 Freeman, with along series of headlines that summed it up:

Attempted Murder.

Postmaster Sharp Seeks to Assassinate the Editor of The Freeman with an Iron-Shod Bludgeon.

He Does It Premeditatedly afterWeeks and Months ofThreatenings. His Mormon Accomplices.

Dr Adams Pronounces that Mr Freeman is Liable to Die from His Injuries Anytime.

The Mormon Police Defy the Deputy U.S.Marshal toArrest Sharp. But Afterwards BackWater when the U.S.Marshal Telegraphs toTake Him by Force.

U.S. Commissioner StreetWill Have a PreliminaryTrial Tomorrow.16

Nothing came of the assault case Legh filed in federal court. The hyperbole of Legh's public grudges helped to make the Freeman a lively and informative paper, but the paper also contained plenty of local news items as well as regular reports from surrounding communities and towns farther afield, like Rawlins and Laramie, that Legh regularly visited. It provided news of Ogden's Catholics, Episcopalians, and Methodists, as well as its Mormons, although even in these reports the Mormons usually came in for at least a few snide comments, as witness this item about a meeting at the tabernacle:

Brother M. D. Stuart got up in the tabernacle last Sunday and told about the good work that he had done in the States on his mission tour, but omitted to mention what he told privately to his friends about the people almost kicking him from their doors, so great an abhorrence have they for Mormonism. He gathered just one family to Zion. After he had berated the Gentile dogs in the pulpit, Bishop Farr arose and said he considered there are Gentiles in Ogden who m the Mormons would do well to look up to as examples of nobleness, honor and Godliness.17

15 Ibid.,January 5,1877, March 6, 1877

16 Ibid., April 3,1877.

17 Ibid., September 5, 1876

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

A column on "Southern Idaho," from Malad City, carried the subhead "All the Gossip of that Stake Epistolated by BrotherJohn Gilpins."18

The Freeman remained a firm booster of Ogden and its potential for growth and prosperity. According to the paper, the city had superlative scenery, a great climate for growing grapes,and an ideal setting for an astronomical station.As a railroad junction, it offered unlimited opportunity for business entrepreneurs, and mineral discoveries nearby held the promise of successful mining enterprises Mining held Legh's interest throughout his years in Ogden, probably because of his own history of mining investments. He published reports from Utah's Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, Ophir, and Bingham; from the Big Horn country of Wyoming; from South Dakota's Black Hills; from Tuscarora, Nevada; and Bodie, California—all positive In 1879 the paper informed readers that they could buy a ticket to the Snake River gold fields for $13.50. Legh linked mining and railroad development and promoted extension of lines north and south of Ogden partly as a means ofproviding easier access to mineral discoveries

Not only did the Freeman wax eloquent about Ogden's prospects; it also took credit for the city's progress.When the paper began its third year, it commented on the remarkable fact that during the six years between completion of the railroad and the Freemans advent, Ogden had stood still economically, "while during the three years that she has had a FREE PRESS this city has more than tripled itself, and is now considered by all parties to be the most prosperous place between San Francisco and Omaha." Three years earlier everyone had thought it "an old one horse Mormon town," but now it was the shipping depot for two million people.19

The Freeman never lacked humor, whether from tongue-in-cheek references to Ogden residents, outrageous exaggeration, or telegraph items selected for their bizarre content. A parody of Edgar Allen Poes famous poem "The Raven" revealed not only the writer's sense of humor but also a hint of wistfulness for a kinder reception than the editors had received. It is reproduced here in its original format:

One day last week, while sad and dreary, as we wended, weak, and weary, across the unswept floor; we heard, at first, a gentle rapping, at our sanctum door. "Come in!" we said; while yet he pondered, and in silence we still wondered what for us could be in store; then, the doorbolt gently turning, in he walked. Ou r cheek was burning! Thoughts of crimson gore "Are you the man that does the writing?" (What word will rhyme with this but fighting? Quickly tho't we, o'er and o'er.) "Sir we are," we gently told him, nodding to the boys to hold him, if he tried to beat us sore. "Then you'll please give me a credit opposite that little debit, for four dollars more I like your paper, and will take it as long as you will strive to make it as good as it has been before." We jumped! He dodged! Thus we missed him, or we surely would have kissed him, n o matter the boys did roar; so seldom treated in this manner, we felt inclined to sing hosannah! Only this, and nothing more. 20

18 Ibid., January 25, 1879

19Ibid.,June 18,1878.

20 Ibid.,June 25,1878

Another mostly-for-fun feature was the Freeman matrimonial bureau, which probably had its genesis in aJune 1877 note that lamented the "singular fatality" attending young women working in the Freeman office: They kept getting married In two years the paper had lost five or six of them The item concluded, "We think of opening a matrimonial bureau to furnish spare-ribs for a consideration Another matrimonial candidate please come forward." In October the plan became more concrete when the paper responded to an offer by a New York woman to supply wives for South Dakota miners by suggesting that the miners would do better "by wintering in the valleys of Utah and marrying young Saintesses who are apostatising by wholesale, and are eager for a whole Gentile apiece,"a tactic that also would solve the "much-vexed Mormon problem." The Freeman marriage bureau would enroll "the most charming young ladies of the kingdom," and participants could buy tickets for drawings to be held every three months.21

By December the matrimonial bureau, which Legh admitted he had proposed in jest, had attracted considerable correspondence, and for the next few months the paper carried announcements with the rules of the projected raffle, which involved purchasing raffle tickets for $1.50 apiece by an April deadline and participating in a drawing shortly thereafter However, the paper printed a selection of letters from interested parties free of charge These included one from "a miner with a good claim" who wanted "to make the acquaintance of some good woman with about $1,000 capital"and another from a man who sought awife "under 20;blonde with good figure and a pretty face." He would rather she did not know too much so he "could mould her mind to suit" himself A woman wrote that she liked the plan "for getting rid of the sisters in Utah." She was Swedish, good-looking, and not afraid to work She added, "I wish some man with plenty of money would ask me to marry him. I don't care how old he is, or how ugly—if he would be good to me I would live with him."22 As the April deadline approached, however, the Freeman postponed the raffle with the excuse that moving into a new office building took first priority After that, the matrimonial bureau disappeared from the paper's pages. It undoubtedly provided plenty of amusement, if not amazement, while it lasted.

By mid-1877 the Freeman had dispensed with its patent outside pages. Although it continued to fill pages one and four mostly with articles produced by an outside service, it added local and regional material as well, so that the percentage of content prepared in the Ogden office increased Whether this move proved effective in increasing circulation and advertising patronage cannot be determined Advertising continued to occupy a healthy portion of the paper, although some advertisers may have paid

21 Ibid.,June 12, 1877, October 16,1877.

22 Ibid., December 21, 1877,January 1,1878January 11, 1878

reluctantly or not at all.The paper claimed an established circulation among two million "liberal, money-spending Westerners, with whom it is the favorite," characterizing itself as"Aggressive and Progressive, Anti-Mormon, Anti-Chinese, Anti-Indian."23

In 1876 and 1877 the paper printed circulation figures, broken down by state or territory Although they may not be completely reliable, the figures indicate circulation totals of 2,925 in October 1876, 3,895 in May 1877, and 4,785 in December 1877.The Utah total remained at 1,100 during this period, with Wyoming also stable at 550 Circulations in Nevada (350) and Montana (100) stayed the same as well, while totals for Idaho (600 in 1877), Colorado (400), Arizona (325), Oregon (275),Washington (240), Dakota (200), New Mexico (150), Nebraska (120), British Columbia (75) and miscellaneous other states and territories (550) increased.24

Many readers as well as advertisers apparently delayed paying their Freeman bills. In October 1876 the paper included a"dun" asking its delinquent subscribers to pay up.The following month, in another move that may have indicated straitened fiscal circumstances, it advertised for a foreman and job printer, offering to sell a fourth, third, or half interest in the paper to such a person, on the grounds that someone with a stake in the paper would take more interest in it.This notice hastened to add that the paper was established "on a healthy, paying basis"and was dependent on no ring, clique, or party for support.25

Periodically, the Freeman promised a daily edition In fact, one issue— probably a sample—of the Ogden Daily Freeman survives. Dated December 9, 1876, it looks very much like the regular semiweekly In May 1877 the paper announced that a daily edition would start on August 1, but onjuly 31a note indicated that the editor had been unable to get around to solicit advertising for it because of a crippled ankle. If Ogden's businessmen wanted the daily, they could come by the office to purchase ads "Otherwise," the note concluded, "they can have a semi-weekly with patent guts, as long as they decline to have any better medium of inviting trade to come here from the surrounding territories." Once more, inAugust 1878,the possibility of a daily arose, with a report that many had asked for one Again, Legh made solid local support a precondition.26

Perhaps Legh had already thought about moving on by this time. The same note that proved to be his final mention of a daily edition went on to state that the editors, having earned reputations as town builders, had received flattering offers to edit papers in other localities It concluded, "And it may be that we will take a notion to go sometime, unless people in Ogden wake up to the situation and treat us as entitled to all the work which the live men of the city require."This undoubtedly referred to con-

23 Ibid.,June 21,1878

24 Ibid., October 31, 1876, May 25,1877, December 21, 1877

25 Ibid., November 17,1876.

26 Ibid., May 25, 1877,July 31, 1877,August 6, 1878

Legh Freeman and three of his sons in Missoula, Montana, 1883.

tracts for job printing as well as advertising; in addition to the newspaper, the Freeman had maintained an active printing business from the beginning

In November 1878 the paper reduced its frequency of publication to become a weekly, but the following January it moved into a new two-story, fireproof brick building that had cost between four and five thousand dollars to build The story in the Freeman gave no indication as to how much of this cost, if any, the paper had borne, but it touted the building as the first printing office in Utah built by anyone except the Mormon church. Even when the paper announced in May that a branch of the Freeman, to be called the Frontier Index, would soon begin publication at the terminus of the Utah and Northern Railroad in Butte, Montana, it gave no indication that the revived Frontier Index would replace the Freeman.21 The last surviving issue of the Freeman appeared June 27, 1879, containing no announcement of its demise Legh's wanderlust may have contributed as much as the lack of expected support in Ogden to his decision to move.

In any event, he went ahead to Butte, leaving Ada to pack up household goods, printing equipment, and children, now numbering four with the addition of another son in September 1877, and move them north. Ada drove one wagon and a printer drove the second as they left Ogden in early August 1879.Just 150 miles south of Butte, a rifle fell from its strap into the wheel spokes of the wagon Ada was driving. It fired a load of shot into her hip, and six days later she died. Legh published an obituary in his new Frontier Index. He praised her extravagantly, of course, and referred to her journalistic work as follows:"Asjoint editor of The Ogden Freeman, she performed good work in Utah, and even the Mormons regretted her departure, after opening their eyes to the errors of Mormonism." He

27 Ibid., January 24, 1879, May 23, 1879

promised to retain her name at the head of his editorial columns,with confidence that "the holy diction of this guardian angel will inspire the pen of the surviving editor to pure and noble sentiments."28

Legh's subsequent career followed the railroads from Butte to Thompson Falls,Montana;Yakima City,Washington; the Puget Sound area; Seattle; and finally, in his first move east, back to North Yakima In each of these locations he established publications, the most long-lived of which was the Washington Farmer, continued as Northwest Farm and Home, which survives to the present. Five years after Ada's death, Legh married Janie Ward, a Virginian with whom he had corresponded at the suggestion of his sister She became his associate in publishing the Washington Farmer. At her death in 1897 she left a son and a daughter.A year later the Yakima Herald asked who would be "the lucky girl filling the need for a lady editor,"29 but it took two more years for Legh to find Mary Rose Whitaker while he was on a trip to St. Paul, to marry her, and to install her as associate editor of Farm and Home. Mary and her daughter inherited Farm and Home upon Legh's death in 1915 and kept it going until Mary's death two years later, at which time it was sold Until his death, Legh maintained the pattern established in Ogden of traveling to solicit patronage for his papers and look into business opportunities -while his wives and also his children, as soon as they became old enough, stayed behind and kept the publications going.30

Legh still managed to maintain at least vestiges of the flamboyant persona of HoratioVattel. Certainly that romantic image had influenced his behavior in Ogden, as he wandered the frontier, shot from the hip—metaphorically, at least—and dreamed grand dreams for the future of the West He met the Mormons and became their friend but turned on them when they proved unresponsive to his expectation of support. The fault for his antiMormon stance lay on both sides Although he retaliated with excessive zeal, it was the Mormon ban on patronage of Gentile enterprises that hurt his newspaper and printing business and triggered his enmity. Still, a friend's memorial address at the time of his death stated, "Mr. Freeman has often told me that one of the mistakes in his life was in not remaining at Ogden, which offered the finest sort of a field for newspaper development."31 That may have reflected time's dimming of the difficulties encountered by the Freemans in Ogden, but it must have had something to do as well with their youth and optimism as they embarked upon a new adventure, and with the promise of the flourishing young community.

'Heuterman, Movable Type, quoting the Frontier Index, August 23, 1879

' Ibid., 133, quoting the Yakima Epigram, August 13, 1898

1 As teenagers, the boys moved out to establish themselves independently.

Heuterman, Movable Type, 141, quoting the Washington Farmer, March 1,1915

The Dunn Family and Navajo Mountain Trading Post

Far down in the southwestern corner of San Juan County, Utah, is the blue-black bulk of Navajo Mountain. Geographically, it is tucked into the angle made by the Colorado River and the Arizona state line. Indeed, the extreme southern slopes of the peak sit astride the boundary.The mountain is a laccolith of fairly regular outline. From a distance it appears as a symmetrical mound rising some four thousand feet above the relatively flat plain of the surrounding plateau, "an island in the midst of a sea ofwaterworn and wind-worn, brilliantly colored sandstone."1

At an elevation of 10,416 feet, the mountain is the highest point in the Navajo country and may be seen from a distance of more than one hundred miles. It has long been a prominent landmark in the Southwest and is a commanding feature of that part of the region known as the Rainbow Plateau.Writing in 1916, geologist Herbert E. Gregory described this isolated area as "the most inaccessible, least known, and roughest portion of the Navajo The southern slope of Navajo Indian Reservation." Some seventy-eight Mountain.

1 Herbert E Gregory, Geology of Navajo Country, United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 93 (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1917), 128 A laccolith is a lenticular-shaped intrusion of igneous

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

years later, fellow geologist Donald L Baars was still able to state that "this remains perhaps the most remote and little-known region in the conterminous United States today"2

The plateau surrounding the mountain is covered with juniper and pinyon, sagebrush, and other low browse,but the mountain itself is cloaked with pine, fir, spruce, and aspen. Seen from a distance, this cover suggested the name Tucane—"black peak"—to the Paiute Indians The earliest written record of Navajo Mountain by Europeans was its designation as Sierra Azul on the 1745 map of FatherJuan Miguel Menchero.The early Spanish explorers, then, saw it as the "blue mountain." In the first half of the 1800s, Mexicans referred to it as Sierra Panoche, which is a Spanish term for a lump of unprocessed brown sugar. 3

Mormon missionaries traveling from the Utah settlements to the Hopi villages in northern Arizona in the 1850s and 1860s called it Mount Spaneshanks, after a Navajo headman by that name who lived some miles south of the mountain.4 When Major John Wesley Powell made his historic voyage down the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers in 1869, he wanted to name the peak Mt Seneca Howland after a member of his expedition. But as he completed his map of the region in 1872, topographer Almon H Thompson convinced Powell to give it the name Navajo Mountain for the Indian country in which it is so conspicuous a landmark.5

The first human residents of the Navajo Mountain area were prehistoric peoples Some of these, the Puebloan Anasazi, built dwellings and other structures on the plateaus and mesa tops and in the canyons; today, ruins remain to mark their culture By the early 1800s, some Navajos and members of the San Juan band of Paiutes were herding livestock in the general area,but it was the Kit Carson military campaign of 1863-64 that stimulated migrations of Navajos from the east into the remote areas near Navajo Mountain It was this influx of refugees that gave the peak its Navajo name of Naat'sis'aan, meaning "hiding place from the enemies."

The Navajo Mountain area was explored byAmerican prospectors in the 1880s and early 1890s, but they were decidedly unwelcome among the native population, and white, or Anglo, visitation was scarce Neil M Judd, writing of an archaeological trip to the region in 1909, stated, "Incredible as it may appear, we were the first white men ever seen by Navahos in their mid-twenties," who were attending an Indian gathering just to the south-

2 Herbert E Gregory, The Navajo Country: A Geographic and Hydrologic Reconnaissance of Parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 380 (Washington, D.C : Government Printing Office, 1916), 44 Donald L Baars, Navajo Country: A Geology and Natural History of the Four Corners Region (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 61.

3 Herbert E Bolton, ed., Pageant in the Wilderness (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1950), 119. Jose Manuel Espinoza, "The Legend of Sierra Azul," New Mexico Historical Review, April 1934, 152. L. R. Bailey, ed., The Navajo Reconnaissance (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1964), 83

4 Pearson H Coibett,Jacob Hamblin, the Peacemaker (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1952), 191-92

5 Frederick S Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1962), 141

east of the mountain. As late as 1994, geologist Donald Baars said, "Even now, those Navajos living in this isolated corner of the reservation are less Americanized and maintain more primitive living habits than their cousins to the east."6

Ben Wetherill and the unfinished stone house he built at Teas-yatoh, April 1932.

It was to this remote region that Ben Wetherill, his wife, and two small children came in the early spring of 1928.They located at the eastern foot of Navajo Mountain, just within the Utah state line at what the Indians calledTeas-ya-toh, "Water under the Cottonwoods."7 HereWetherill built a small stone building to serve as a store, the beginning of what would later become Navajo Mountain Trading Post. During the three years that Wetherill had the store,it was usually referred to as Cottonwood Spring

For the first three months the family lived in a tent, later moving into a back room of the store By the end of the summer they had begun construction of a house from the roughly quarried rock of a nearby cliff. The Wetherills were sixty-five miles from a post office atTonalea,Arizona, more than one hundred miles from a telephone or doctor atTuba City, Arizona, and almost two hundred miles from such evidences of civilization as railroads, hotels, and drug stores at Flagstaff.This was,until it ceased operation, the most remote trading post on the Navajo Reservation For three years Ben Wetherill operated only during the spring, summer, and fall months, taking his family to Kayenta, Arizona, for the winter season The entire operation was a struggle, and by the end of 1930 he could no longer handle the financing for the post The family left the store and still-unfinished house,which stood empty for the next eighteen months.8

(Norman:

7 "Teas-ya-toh" is a phonetic spelling used in the 1920-30s, as was the spelling "Teece-Ya-Toh."

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The Dunn Family. Left to right: Ethel, Ray, Madelene, and Roy Dunn. Photo

Late in 1931 a man named Ray Dunn, then living in Williams, Arizona, heard that the post was for sale. He wrote to Ben Wetherill that fall, and the next spring the two of them went to the store site to look things over. The deal was made, and thus began the Dunn family's connection with Navajo Mountain Trading Post, a connection that was to continue, with only one interruption, for nearly half a century9

Though he was operating a Shell Oil Company service station on Route 66 at the time, Raymond C. Dunn was no stranger to Indian affairs or to the Navajo Reservation He was born on January 2, 1895, in Sedgewick County, Kansas, near Wichita. His father, Willis C. Dunn, had earlier been the U.S government agent at the Red Moon Agency in western Oklahoma near Elk City. In 1912 Ray married Ethel P.Tourtillott, who was one-fourth Menominee Indian from Wisconsin and who worked for the U.S. Indian Service.10 After their marriage they homesteaded what the family always referred to as the "claim,"a 360-acre farm in the southeastern corner of Colorado.There they raised "broomcorn" and had a cow and a few chickens Ethel also sold eggs and cream in the nearby town of Campo It was here that the couple's first two children were born, Madeline on September 17, 1913,and Harry DeRoy ("Roy") on December 1, 1915 At age eight, Madeline changed the spelling of her name. It was supposed to be pronounced as if the "i" were an "e,"but most people pronounced the

10

NAVAJO MOUNTAIN

name wrong. So she took it upon herself to change the spelling to "Madelene."

ABOVE: Navajo Mountain Trading Post at "Teas-ya-toh," April 1932.

BELOW: Jack Owen and Ray Dunn in front of the store, 1932.

Making an adequate living at the "claim" was difficult at best, and as the two children got older Ray began to cast about for better prospects. In 1920 he joined the U.S. Indian Service. His father had been in the Indian Service, and the work provided a steady income. Ray was sent to Fort Defiance on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. In hisjob there as a stockman, or range-rider, he helped the Navajos with problems related to the soil and the raising of sheep and cattle. For four years Ray worked at various locations on the reservation: Fort Defiance, Lukachukai, Chinle, and Chilchinbito. For a brief time in 1924 the family moved back to farm in Colorado. Some of these moves were made in order for Madelene and Roy to attend public schools instead of the Indian schools.11 In 1925 the Dunns returned to the ••*'." ,:>reservation. This time, Ray worked at the trading post at Rock Point. Two years later, they made another move to a trading post at Chambers, Arizona, so that Madelene could attend high school at Sanders, some eight miles away.

Financial considerations temporarily forced Ray out of the trading post business, however. In 1928 the family moved to Williams, where Ray not only ran the Shell station but was also the bulk dealer for Shell. The Williams years were busy ones for the Dunns. A new daughter, Harriett, was born to Ray and Ethel in 1929, and Madelene married John W. "Jack" Owen in 1931. So it was an extended family that made the move to

11

Williams

Navajo Mountain in the spring of 1932. Ray, Jack, Region around Navajo and Madelene arrived at their new home on April Mountain. 11, with Ethel, Roy, and two-year-old Harriett following at the end of May; they had stayed at Williams until the end of Roy's school year.

When the Dunn family first arrived, they used the back part of Ben Wetherill's original store building as living quarters. During the next few months they finished roofing and flooring the stone house begun by Ben, and they installed doors and windows in time for winter. A fireplace and kitchen stove provided heat. In the two-room store, which had come with only one counter scale and a platform scale, Ray,Jack, and Roy laid floors and constructed shelves and counters. In 1933 they built two small wooden cabins.Jack and Madelene stayed in one; the other was used for the occasional overnight guest.

Ray and his son-in-law Jack were partners in the store,which they called Navajo Mountain Trading Post During these early years, however, visitors and others referred to it as Dunn's Trading Post It was even labeled as such on the U.S Geological Survey topographic map of the region

One of the first customers to the trading post was known as Old Nasja, a Paiute who lived several miles to the east at the so-called Lower Crossing of Piute Canyon His "government name" was Abner Owl; Nasja means owl in English One source states that he was a member of the small band of Navajos and Paiutes led by Chief Hoskininni early in 1864 This band took refuge in the isolated Navajo Mountain area to escape the U.S military campaign being waged in ChinleValley and Canyon de Chelly12

Nasja (Abner Owl) at Navajo Mountain, 1935.

According to one story, while Nasja and his son Nasja Begay were hunting for stray or wild horses in the canyons north and west of the mountain sometime prior to 1909, they came upon what would later be called Rainbow Natural Bridge. In the winter of 1908-1909, when Louisa Wetherill, wife of trader John Wetherill and mother of Ben Wetherill, was inquiring about a "stone rainbow" on the far side of Navajo Mountain, Nasja and his son were the only two who came forward

The next summer, John Wetherill led a combined expedition, following instructions from Nasja for the first part of the journey around the north side of the mountain and guided by Nasja Begay for the last part to the west On August 14, 1909, the expedition made the Anglo "discovery" of what turned out to be the largest natural bridge in the world.13

In an interview done by the Kansas Wichita Eagle in 1934 while he was on a visit to his parents and grandparents, Ray described his trading post operation. He said that his customers were mainly Navajos and some Paiute Indians."Everything we sell they buy and everything they sell we buy."The business was nearly all done by barter, using very little cash Hides, pelts, lambs,wool, rugs, and saddle blankets were the principal barter used by the Indians, while the Dunns traded calico, sugar, tobacco, flour, and other staples. Some of the dry goods and hardware were obtained from the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company in Flagstaff, but the Dunns trucked in most of the supplies from the Charles Illfeld Gallup Mercantile Company in Gallup,New Mexico.

According to Ray, 90 percent of his business was on credit. He pointed out that "the credit risk of the Indian is much better than that of the white people The Navajo Indian is the most industrious tribe and wholly self supporting This is a very interesting race and those who are not educated

or civilized are strictly honest. The Indian Jack Owen and animal pelts, who has had contact with white people are Navajo Mountain, ca. 1933. [sic] not of such good character."14

The main livelihood of the Navajos was derived from sheep and lambs. Ray would drive a herd of young sheep nearly 150 miles to Hibbard, a stop on the Santa Fe Railroad near Winslow,Arizona, each spring, selling them to feeders who took them to eastern Colorado and western Nebraska for fattening.A month's time was needed to get the herd to the railroad.

Very few of the local Indians spoke English at that time, but Jack Owen gradually picked up Navajo; and Madelene and Roy spoke the language fluently, having been raised among Navajo children since the ages of seven and five. Ethel could speak some Navajo, and Ray, of course, spoke the language from his years with the Indian Service and work at various trading posts in northern Arizona.

Writing in 1938 of a somewhat earlier trip, one visitor wrote the following, referring to Jack:

O n one of these days some of us went round the side of the mountain to Dunn's trading post, which must be one of the remotest on the reservation While we were in the store, looking at the bracelets left in pawn, a Navaho woman arrived with her herd and came in with a small sack of wool. It was queer to see how the trader, a pleasant young man with rimless spectacles, wh o looked as if he would be at hom e behind the prescription counter of a good drugstore, suddenly changed his easy hearty manner to suit the slow mysterious manner of the Indian woman."15

In 1963 the main room of the trading post had changed but little. It was rectangular, about thirty feet wide and twenty deep At the back was a

14 Wichita Eagle, July 27, 1934.

15 J B Priestly, "Rainbow in the Desert," Saturday Evening Posrjune 18, 1938, 29

wooden counter about four feet in height that stretched around to include both side walls.The counters on each side had glass fronts; the one on the left contained leather goods and household articles of various kinds, while the one of the right displayed silver and turquoise jewelry On the back counter sat the big, old-fashioned cash register. Shelves lined all three walls and were piled high with rolls of cloth, blankets, clothing (mostly shirts and jeans), and canned fruit, vegetables, and meats. One appliance present in 1963 that had certainly not been there in 1938 was a cooler/freezer full of soda pop and ice cream next to the front door.The room's only two windows flanked the door and had iron bars affixed on the outside.16

The trading post was a social gathering place as well as a place to conduct business.Always the pace was slow and unhurried. It may have taken a good part of a morning or an afternoon for a local Indian to bring in an item—a rug or blanket or perhaps even a goatskin or sheep pelt—and then "trade out" its equivalent in some carefully chosen store items This was especially true in the 1930s and '40s, though the process tended to speed upjust alittle with more cash transactions from the 1950s on.

However, travelers to Navajo Mountain were not frequent during the 1930s, and life at the trading post was often a lonely existence.The Dunns would lay in enough supplies by the first of December to last until spring. During the winter the family would be snowbound from the main roads, and their only contact with the outside world was by radio.They would sometimes have to wait two months before it was possible to go the sixtyfive miles to Tonalea for mail. During these slow times, Ray,Jack, and Roy would carry on quite a trapping enterprise, collecting coyote, bobcat, and occasional wolf pelts,while the women would read and play board games.

Every now and then something out of the ordinary would happen to break the routine. Each summer from 1933 until 1938, members of the Rainbow Bridge—Monument Valley Expedition from the University of California at Berkeley would pass by the post In 1933 the group spent two weeks in reconnaissance of the nearby Rainbow Bridge and Forbidding Canyon drainages. That summer was especially memorable because the expedition spent the Fourth ofJuly—complete with an Independence Day celebration—at the trading post.A member of that year's expedition,Torrey Lyons,wrote in his diary:

Mon July 3 It was 12 miles to Dunn's Place, a little trading post at the foot of Navajo Mountain The engineers and the geologists were here already and tonight a bunch of fellows from the east arrived In fact, everyone is supposed to be here for the 4th tomorrow, about 60. There are a lot of Indians here, and we sang for a while and now the Indians are singing

Tue July 4 This morning the expedition fellows had wrestling matches, an air mattress blowing contest, and a dressing contest inside the sleeping bags Th e Indians looked on and seemed to get quite a kick out of it This afternoon up on the hill the Indians had horse races, mule races, a chicken pull, foot races, a tug of war between the

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Indians and the whites (the Indians won), and a whiskering contest for the expedition guys It rained this evening, and we had fire works I just saw a camera flare over where the dance is to be so I guess it must have started "17

The summer of 1934 saw a noteworthy visitor, though the visit seemed unremarkable at the time On June 29 young Everett Ruess, a painter, poet, and traveler from California, wrote in a letter from War God Spring on Navajo Mountain:

The post where I last got my supplies is a costly place to trade The owner has to haul his stuff 350 miles by truck, over the worst of roads. In this remote place he never sees a tourist, and seldom a dime crosses his counter in a year. All his business is trade, in wool, sheepskins, and blankets Gallup, Ne w Mexico, is the nearest place he can dispose of them. He has been offered 17 cents a pound for the wool which costs him 20 if he will haul it to Ne w Mexico.18

That this referred to Navajo Mountain MadelenG) Jack> andMadelene> Trading Post is evidenced by a letter he wrote the following day, in which he stated, "I left theWorld Digests with Trader Dunn at TeeceYaToh (Water under the Cottonwoods)."19

Later that fall, in November, Ruess disappeared while traveling south from the little town of Escalante in southern Utah He was, seemingly, never heard from or of again. Several unsuccessful searches were made, including a final one in the late summer of 1935 by reporterJohn U.Terrell of the Salt Lake Tribune. Part of this search included the Navajo reservation, where Ruess had spent much time, and Terrell's party outfitted at "Dunn's Navajo mountain trading post."

In an article appearing in anAugust issue of the newspaper,Terrell stated that "Mr. Ray Dunn, the trader at Navajo mountain...stood firmly behind the assertation [sic] that had Ruess come into the Navajo country it would have been known at once."The following day, Terrell quoted Ray as saying, "You may go through it [the Navajo Reservation] without seeing an Indian,but don't ever think the Indians won't see you. It would be impossible to ride through that country and not be seen."20

18

L

19

20 Salt Lake Tribune, August 25 and 26, 1935

In 1935 there was another new arrival to the Dunn—Owen family with the birth of Jack and Madelene's daughter, Arlene, in March In 1936 the "community" expanded with the opening of the U.S Indian Service day school a short distance down Cottonwood Wash, east of the trading post. In 1946 this school was enlarged into a boarding school.

In 1937 Ray, Ethel, Roy, and daughter Harriett left Navajo Mountain and moved to Madelene Dunn Cameron and Fort Defiance, Arizona. As a concession from Ralph Cameron in Miami, the federal government, Harriett had been Oklahoma, ca. 1953. allowed to attend the Indian school at Navajo Mountain, but at that time it only went up through the second grade. Therefore, the Dunns felt that a move was necessary to get her into a regular school At Fort Defiance, the family bought and operated Dunn Mercantile, which included a store, cafe, warehouse, and living quarters all under one roof.Jack, Madelene, and Arlene stayed on at Navajo Mountain and continued to run the trading post

In the spring of 1940 tragedy struck when twenty-four-year-old Roy died of cancer at the U.S. government hospital in Fort Defiance. He, perhaps more than any other member of the family, had traveled and explored throughout the Navajo Mountain area. It seems that he rarely went anywhere without his camera, as at least five albums of black-and-white photographs attest. In several places he left his name and the date carved in the rock Roy liked the Indians, and since he spoke fluent Navajo, he was accepted by them and shared many experiences with them.21

In 1942 Ray, Ethel, and Harriett made a momentous move For the first time in more than twenty years they left the Navajo Reservation region and headed back east, not just to Colorado but to the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma In Ottawa County, almost to the Missouri state line, they settled on a farm of clear streams, rolling hills, and abundant trees.

They had several reasons for making so drastic a move. Even after two years, Ray especially was still feeling the effects of his son's untimely death. The store at Fort Defiance had been a large operation, meaning constant work and long hours, and the family had little time off and few "free" days. According to his daughter Harriett, all of this caused Ray what today we would call burnout Northeastern Oklahoma provided a complete contrast to the northern Arizona and Navajo Mountain region, and Ethel's brother and sister-in-law also lived nearby.

Another upheaval in the lives of the extended Dunn—Owen family was a move byJack, Madelene, and Arlene to Fort Defiance in 1944. Once again,

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the relocation provided an opportunity for a child—nine-year-old Arlene—to attend public school.Jack and Madelene ran the Fort Defiance Trading Post, which was,coincidentally, almost directly across the road from the old Dunn Mercantile store. The family sold the Navajo Mountain Trading Post to Elvin Kerley, a trader from Tuba City,Arizona. For the next eight years, someone other than a member of the Dunn family was at Navajo Mountain During most of that time the post was managed by Lloyd Bolles.

In 1945 Jack, Madelene, and Arlene followed Madelene's parents to Oklahoma. For about six months they livedjust a few miles from the farm, in the small town ofWyandotte, while they assisted with the buying of registered sheep and dairy cattle for the farm But the move was only temporary. By the fall, Madelene and Jack had returned to the Navajo Reservation. They purchased The Gap Trading Post on Highway 89 in northern Arizona, some sixty-five miles southwest of Navajo Mountain across the Kaibito Plateau Arlene remained in Oklahoma to attend school, but she spent her summers in Arizona.

During the next few years, two losses came to Madelene. In October 1948 Jack died as a result of a severe case of pneumonia, and on March 1, 1951, her father, Ray, passed away from a heart attack. After her grandfather's death Arlene returned toArizona to finish high school in Flagstaff

Madelene stayed on at The Gap, little realizing that Navajo Mountain would soon be beckoning once again. In June 1952 she married Ralph Cameron, a trucker who frequented The Gap During this time, Elvin Kerley contacted the couple and offered to sell Navajo Mountain Trading Post back to them. Madelene and Ralph wanted the more traditional setting of bartering mainly with Navajos instead of dealing with the highway tourists and truckers who came to The Gap, so they decided to make the move—one that would last Madelene for the next twenty-eight years.

Another factor in the decision was the opportunity to take tourists by horseback to Rainbow Bridge, which lay nestled deep down in the maze of canyons on the northwest side of Navajo Mountain.The area had been a national monument since 1909, but a visit to the bridge required either a river trip down the Colorado River and a six-mile walk up Aztec Creek and Bridge Canyon or a grueling hike around Navajo Mountain. Actually, the Camerons were not the first to take paying "dudes" on horseback to Rainbow Bridge As far back as 1924, four years before Ben Wetherill's time, the Richardson family ofWinslow,Arizona, had had the same idea. In April of that year, on the southern,Arizona, slope of Navajo Mountain, S.I. Richardson began building Rainbow Lodge Though it had a store that catered to the local Indian trade, it was not a true trading post like the Dunns' establishment. Indeed, the Richardsons' original permit granted them permission "to establish Rainbow Lodge at Navajo Mountain."22

According to Madelene and Harriett, soon after their father obtained the trading post from Ben Wetherill in 1932 there was an unwritten "gentleman's agreement" made between the Richardsons and Ray Dunn that if Rainbow Lodge stayed out of the trading business Ray would stay out of the tourist business. But by 1952 circumstances had changed.The Richardsons had sold Rainbow Lodge in 1938, and in August 1951 it had burned to the ground.

To accommodate tourists, Madelene and Ralph used the two small wooden cabins built in 1933. Later, a stone washhouse, complete with showers, was constructed. Ralph would often lead the pack trips himself, though other wranglers, notably Tom Daly and, later, Joe Folgheraiter, worked for the Camerons seasonally and would occasionally guide trips. Almost all of the trips were to Rainbow Bridge, although the couple also advertised excursions to the top of Navajo Mountain.As of 1962, however, it was stated that "he [Ralph Cameron] reports that he has had only four takers"for the summit trip!23

InApril 1957 Madelene and Ralph's trading post and pack trips received some worldwide mention in a National Geographic article,"Three Roads to Rainbow," by Ralph Gray. One of the three "roads"was by horseback from Navajo Mountain Trading Post Less publicity, but more appreciation, came between 1959 and 1962,when archaeological investigations were conducted at various prehistoric sites near Navajo Mountain through the Glen Canyon Project of the Museum of Northern Arizona. Navajo Mountain Trading Post served the needs of the personnel with various services and supplies,and it provided the group's water source.

The final published report of the museum's work was in part dedicated to "Madelene Dunn Cameron." Also, in the "Credits and Acknowledgements"section of the report, thejoint authors stated:

Mrs Madelene Cameron, Navajo Mountain Trading Post, has since the Project's inception contributed directly and indirectly to the success of each field operation Mrs Cameron assisted in the recruiting of workmen from the Navajo Mountai n Chapter for our field crews, offered the hospitality of her home and the facilities of the trading post to our field staff, and on innumerable occasions undertook to answer and solve our questions concerning geography, history, and local inhabitants of the Navajo Mountain region Often these bits of information provided new insight and approaches to our work as well as data not readily obtainable without intensive field work with local informants Further, it should be noted that Mrs Cameron has on numerous occa-

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

sions served the anthropologist by assisting each field worker to establish himself in the area Th e interest and cooperation of Mrs Cameron.. [are] sincerely appreciated."24

Slowly,"civilization" came to Navajo Mountain In 1959,about a quarter mile east of the trading post, the Navajo Tribal Council built a chapter house for the use of the local political arm of the tribal government.The road from the south was graded and"improved," but still it was a rough, two-hour-plus drive to the highway between Kayenta andTuba City The Camerons still trucked in their own supplies, though they had switched their supply point from Gallup to Flagstaff. Aslate as the mid-1960s most of the native residents of the Navajo Mountain area were still "traditionalists."A number still spoke no English, but they turned their battery-powered radios to the daily Navajo language program from Flagstaff and the weekly Navajo news roundup from Gallup.

In 1972 Madelene endured another loss when Ralph suffered a severe heart attack and died in an airplane en route to the hospital in Flagstaff She continued on with the trading post for seven more years before finally "retiring" and selling out to Dick Johnson ofKanab, Utah, in 1979.Just as her parents had done thirty-four years earlier, shemoved east, to the town of Miami in northeastern Oklahoma There Madelene helped care for her mother, who lived in Miami just a few miles from the old farm. Ethel passed away onJune 17,1983.

At thepresent time, Madelene still resides in Miami, nowliving with her own daughter, Arlene Owen Pendley Her sister, Harriett Dunn Tolliver, livesjust a few hours away in Hutchinson, Kansas. Madelene still gets back to Navajo Mountain on occasion, usually for theannual Pioneer Days celebration sponsored by the local tribal chapter Madelene Dunn Cameron certainly qualifies asapioneer ofthe area

The Navajo Mountain community today remains one of the smallest and most isolated communities on the reservation.A telephone is still hard to come by,and mail is delivered only three days a week. A doctor comes up once a week for an open clinic A twenty-mile graded washboard road provides access to the nearest pavement south, near Inscription House Trading Post, though the pavement is slowly creeping northward. The Dunns' trading post, once thecenter ofthe community, isnowclosed. "Too hard to get gasoline trucks in on the road," said the last owner, Dick Johnson,"and toomany regulations to meet."25

The trading post closed in 1990.A few miles north, a new school anda fifteen-unit housing complex comprise what is called Rainbow City.The old Navajo Mountain Trading Post now sits lonely and abandoned by the water and cottonwoods ofTeas-ya-toh andbeneath the blue-black bulk of Naat'sis'aan.

The

Company Doctor: Promoting Stability in Eastern Utah Mining Towns

Eastern Utah's early social landscape portrays the volatility characteristic of mining towns in the western United States. Known across the state for their rampant disorder and untamed energy, the coal mining towns of Carbon County departed dramatically from the ecclesiastical, agrarian societies dotting the rest of Utah's map. Raucous taverns and seamy brothels lined Main Street in Helper.Violent union strikes shook the foundations of the communities' coal companies. Dark clouds of imminent danger hung above the portals of the region's somber, murky mines Deeply rooted ethnic distrust abounded In the midst of the chaotic atmosphere of Utah's coal fields, though, stood a figure whose presence seemed to calm the communities' tensions: the coal camp doctor. The company physicians of the Carbon County mining towns provided stability to the coal camps through their work as healers, their efforts as intermediaries, and the psychological force of

Dn Eldon Dorman worked as the their presence in the camps. company physician in Con-

The camp doctors' presence in coal com- sumers, Sweets, and National.

A native of Price, Utah, Troy Madsen completed a degree in history at Brigham Young University and is currently attending medical school at Johns Hopkins University He wishes to express his gratitude to the history department of Brigham Young University and to the many current and former residents of Carbon

Through his work as the company doctor in Standardville and Hiawatha, Dr. LaVille Merrill learned that coal camp medicine meant treating not only mine employees and their families but also vagrants, prostitutes, and even housepets.

munities can be traced to the beginnings of coal production.With the emergence of coal mining in Wales, doctors became part of the dangerous industry, providing medical care to the injury-plagued miners Mining companies in the United States maintained the tradition of hiring coal community physicians; coal towns in Ohio and West Virginia were among the first to employ camp doctors The mines of the western United States instituted the camp physician as well, and the earliest records of eastern Utah's Clear Creek and Winter Quarters mines refer frequently to the company doctor. 1 As mining towns spread throughout eastern Utah, company doctors became more and more visible within Utah's coal communities.

Eastern Utah's camp physicians lived and worked in the region's numerous isolated mining towns.These coal camps developed as a practical response to the inadequate transportation and roads of the early twentieth century Because the portals to rich coal deposits were typically nestled in the extreme reaches of winding canyons, company-owned towns formed near the mines Consisting of between 500 and 2,000 residents, the mining towns housed single males as well as families, all representing a variety of ethnic origins and religious backgrounds. By 1900 the towns of Winter Quarters, Castle Gate, Clear Creek, and Sunnyside had surfaced near the portals of Carbon County's burgeoning mines, and the communities of Kenilworth, Hiawatha, Storrs, Standardville, Rains, Wattis, Consumers, Columbia, and Dragerton soon followed.2 Coal companies in each of these communities employed physicians in order to provide ready medical care to the towns' residents

In return for his agreement to provide "adequate and efficient medical and minor surgical services," the camp physician received a monthly salary. The miners contributed to this salary through regular deductions from their paychecks, and the coal company provided additional money for the physician's wages. The Spring Canyon Coal Company payroll documents from 1929 record that the company withdrew $1.50 per month from min-

1 Winter Quarters and Scofield register of deaths, January 1921—March 1937, Western Mining and Railroad Museum, Helper, Utah

2 Allan Kent Powell, "Land of Three Heritages: Mormons, Immigrants, and Miners," in Carbon County: Eastern Utah's Industrialized Island, ed. Philip F. Notarianni (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1981), 13

Mining camp medicine often involved the entire family. Dr. LaVille Merrill's wife Kathryn is pictured here working as a nurse in the Hiawatha hospital. The Merrill children learned to answer emergency telephone calls, develop x-ray films, and prepare the hospital for an injured miner's arrival.

ers' paychecks in order to cover routine medical expenses Dr LaVille Merrill worked as the camp physician for Standardville and Hiawatha, and he reported on his 1946 income tax return that he was paid ten thousand dollars by the company. 3 Doctors generally received an additional payment of thirty dollars from the miners for obstetrical cases, and agreements between companies and doctors stated that company compensation did not cover "contagious cases, tuberculosis or mental diseases, fights or brawls, drug addiction, attempted suicide, sane or unsane [sic], [or] venereal disease."4 Camp doctors interacted with all segments of the coal camps by treating miners and their families, superintendents and their families, vagrants, prostitutes, and even house pets. Common procedures for community members included immunizations, sutures, broken-bone casting, and disease treatments.5

3 Chloe Merrill, interview by author, October 10, 1998, Ogden, Utah; notes in possession of author.

4 Spring Canyon Coal Company Statements, May 1929, in possession of Stanley Davis, Price Peerless Coal Company physician agreement between Ezra P Thompson, A P Cederlof, and A R Demman, December 30, 1937, Peerless Mine Collection, 2:8, Special Collections, Harold B Lee Library (HBLL), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

5 Josie Gordon Nielsen, interview by Marvel Nielsen, September 27, 1998, Scofield, Utah; copy in possession of author Chloe Merrill interview Ronald G Watt, A History of Carbon County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Carbon County Commission, 1997), 309.

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The stable income from the companies served as perhaps the most prevalent motive for doctors' decisions to work at the camps Typically, the camp doctors were not originally from the Carbon County area Dr Roy Robinson and his wife both came from Salt Lake City. Dr. Eldon Dorman was raised in Greeley, Colorado, and attended medical school in Lorna Linda, California A few of the camp physicians, though, were naturally drawn to eastern Utah because of family ties to the region Dr Anthony R Demman, a son of Italian immigrants, and Drs. William and Frank Gorishek, both of Slovenian descent, were all raised in the coal camps of Carbon County, and returning to serve their communities seemed a logical choice.Most camp physicians came to Carbon County having recently finished medical school and a one-year general care residency, and the company's timely pay in cash provided a tempting alternative to the pay in produce and goods of the agricultural communities of Utah.6 Physicians also relished the opportunity to gain experience in nearly every aspect of medical care.Because of the stable salary and the opportunities for varied work, many young physicians coveted medical positions in the coal camps.

The camp doctors generally intended to remain in the communities for a few years then return to a medical internship to receive training in a specialty area. 7 However, the attachment to the community that soon developed often meant a lifetime of service in the region. When Dr. Roy Robinson and his wife, Marion, arrived in Kenilworth in 1926, they planned to stay in the area for no more than ayear Thirty-three years later, Dr Robinson and his family finally left the community, but only because the Kenilworth Mine closed. Even then, the Robinsons moved to the neighboring town of Price, where Kenilworth residents continued to seek the doctor's services After decades of commitment to miners and their families, doctors like Roy Robinson became symbols of the bonds physicians frequently developed with the coal camp communities.8

Coal camp doctors interacted with all segments of the eastern Utah coal camps, but their principal function was that of healer to the communities' miners.The hazards of mining meant that the camp physician treated frequent crushing and burn injuries The monthly injury reports from the

6 Dr Eldon Dorman related the contrast between his work in the town of Spanish Fork and his employment in the Carbon County mining towns After working for six months with Dr Samuel W Georges of Spanish Fork, Dr Dorman accepted an offer from Terry McGowan of the Blue Blaze Coal Company. On his first day in Consumers, he delivered a baby boy. He recalled his impressions that day: "Many of my fees were collected down there [in Spanish Fork] with a box of potatoes or some apples or some other poultry maybe. Before I hardly got the umbilical cord cut and tied up, this man, Reavely [the father], put a twenty dollar bill in my hand.That was unknown to me, I thought, boy I've came [sic] to the right place." (J Eldon Dorman, interview by Madge Tomsic, February 4, 1994, Western Mining and Railroad Museum, 2.)

7 J Eldon Dorman, Confessions of a Coal Camp Doctor (Price, Utah: Peczuh Printing Co., 1995), 69 Dorman's collection of stories from his days in the Gordon Creek coal camps provides a colorful, candid look at the many facets of the camp doctor's life

8 Marion Nottage Robinson, "Reminiscences of a Doctors Wife in a Coal Camp," Western Medical Journal 136 (January 1982): 3

Spring Canyon and Royal coal companies Inside a Castle Gate Mine, 1920. provide a picture of the types of injuries incurred in the mines. On January 30, 1930, Mike Dintzis experienced a severe injury: "Top coal fell on man Fracture of skull, neck, ribs, rt [sic] arm, left leg." On April 6 of that same year, M.C. Brennan faced the injuries workers frequently incurred from the mines' heavy equipment: "Caught between two cars Contusion of chest." Joe Rossi suffered a tragedy when gases in the mine exploded on April 12, 1924, leaving him with a"burned head, face, neck, and arms."The industrial injuries incurred by the miners were not always crushed limbs or burns from gas explosions; Melvin Higgenson required medical attention on November 22, 1930, for an acid burn: "Acid covered screw driver slipped Puncture—acid burn left hand."As miners suffered the devastations of mine cave-ins, explosions, and injuries from equipment, the company physician was called upon to treat the various wounds.9

In such an atmosphere of injury and disaster, the camp physician contributed to the stability of the Carbon County mining communities by aiding the miners' recovery from injuries and helping them return to work more quickly Coal companies were familiar with the dangers of the mining industry, and they understood that an effective camp physician contributed to the success of their mines by maintaining the health of the workers. Knowing the nature of coal mining,A. Philip Cederlof, a superintendent in the Peerless Mine, often repeated the advice he had received from a friend: "If we are going to be in heavy industry we are going to have accidents, and if we can't stand up under it we don't belong in the industry"10 Camp doctors helped the mine superintendents to "stand up

"Employees Injured by Accidents Arising out of and during Employment," Royal Coal Company injury report, Spring Canyon Records, 3:14; Spring Canyon Coal Company injury report, Spring Canyon Records, 3:16, Special Collections, HBLL.

10 A Philip Cederlof, "History of the Peerless Mine," Peerless Mine Collection, 1:2, MS, Special Collections, HBLL

under" the dangers of the industry by healing the injured workers. Miners also were familiar with the perils of mining, and when they suffered an accident their principal goal was to recover as quickly as possible and return to work.11 By providing effective medical care to the miners, the camp doctor satisfied both the superintendent's desire to maintain a healthy workforce and the miners' desire to again provide for their families

Because of the location of the mining camps, the doctor was essentially on his own, without access to specialists or top medical facilities, when treating industrial injuries. The deep wintertime snows and winding canyon roads made passage difficult in the vehicles of the 1920s and 1930s Dr J Eldon Dorman, who worked for the mines of Sweets, National, and Consumers, paid fifty dollars for a well-used 1929 Model A Ford with snow tires, on which he placed heavy chains to facilitate wintertime travel among the three camps Getting out of the camps and into the area's larger cities of Price and Helper often proved impossible, however. Luella Tryon, a resident of the Sweets coal camp, remembered that in the wintertime "snow would drift five, six, seven feet deep and you couldn't even get through." Even when roads were passable, transporting patients to larger hospitals along the Wasatch Front was not an option until the patient's health had stabilized somewhat.When Ruth Kantor's husband, Stanley, was working at the Castle Gate Mine, "a big chunk of coal came down [and] hit him right on the top of the head It crushed his skull." Dr Long, the community's doctor, realized that Stanley's condition required better facilities and specialized medical attention, but he knew he could not allow the miner to be transported the 120 miles through winding canyons to Salt Lake City Instead, he treated Stanley in the company hospital The following day, once the miner had reached a stable condition, Dr. Long sent him to St.Mark's Hospital.12

Camp doctors often risked their own safety to help the workers. Chloe Merrill remembered that her father, Dr LaVille Merrill, frequently entered the mines to treat injured miners. "It was nothing for him to go in the mine on an accident instead of waiting until they brought it out... My dad was one who would...get his hands dirty. He put his life on the line a lot for these miners, and he wasn't above them." Dr Eldon Dorman s experiences with injured miners also demonstrated his willingness to put his own safety at risk to treat the workers When a cave-in occurred at Sweets, he boarded a coal car and rode deep into the mine.There he found three miners who had been buried by the falling coal As the workers tried to dig the miners out, "more coal kept falling from the roof and the rib...[and] for a time it seemed that the rescue team and all might be buried in a massive cave-in." Dr. Dorman eased the miners' pain by administering morphine. The rescue team eventually removed the workers from the mine, and the doctor was then able to further treat their injuries.13

Because of the dangers of the mining industry, company physicians came to provide more to the miners than medical treatment Community members witnessed firsthand the traumatic fate of friends and relatives,and miners entered the murky portals each day aware that their own fortune might soon expire. Coal companies also knew very well the dangers of their industry, and they hired physicians in part because of the psychological security the doctor offered to the injury-threatened miners.14 The camp doctor's psychological influence attracted workers to the industry and helped retain experienced miners, contributing to the success of Carbon County's coal mines

The coal mines paid their workers fairly well; in fact, according to Paul Madrigal, whose father worked as a miner in Columbia and Kenilworth, mining was the "best paying work for an uneducated man." But for many Carbon County residents even the higher salaries of the mines were not enough to persuade them to enter the dangerous profession The presence of a physician, however, seemed to make miners more willing to face the dangers of coal mining Max Robb, the son of a miner, was raised in the towns of Dragerton, Hiawatha, and Castle Gate, and he worked as a miner and mine manager in Consumers, Spring Canyon, Hiawatha, and Gordon Creek from 1939 to 1982. His interaction with the communities' workers confirmed to him the important psychological role of the camp doctor "I know of several men who would not have taken coal mine employment without the company having services of a resident doctor and small hospitals and offices on the property," he said.According to Dr. Dorman, miners "figured they were going to get hurt," and they wanted a physician who would be readily available to treat their wounds.15

13 Merrill interview Dorman, Confessions, 32

14 Cederlof interview

Miners in Consumers, Utah, March 1936, a time when the economy of the area was extremely depressed. As miners entered the mines each day, the doctor's presence in the community eased fears of death and injury.

Coal companies contracted with physicians with the understanding that the doctor would provide psychological comfort to the miners.The key to this comfort was the doctors' constant presence at times of accidents or injuries; if a camp physician failed to fulfill this duty, the company promptly released him. The Gordon Creek officials offered Dr. Dorman hisjob after the previous doctor had left for two weeks to inspect gold-mining property in California: "In the meantime they had a bad accident where a man lost his leg in the mine, so when this guy came back they fired him and hired me."Although the absent doctor may not have been able to save the man's leg anyway, he had failed to retain the trust of the miners A Peerless Coal Company document described a similar situation that resulted in the release of the camp physician and the hire of Dr Anthony R Demman: "Since Dr. Elliott got mixed up in the Mutual Coal Company deal, he has neglected his practice and has spent much time in Salt Lake City. There is no doubt some dissatisfaction has been brewing ever since Tony Girodo died." 16

The camp doctor's presence at the scene of accidents and disasters fostered the trust between him and the communities' miners. According to Tom Grundy, whose father mined coal at the Castle Gate Mine from 1933

Robb, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author J Eldon Dorman, interview by author, January 26, 1998, Price; notes in possession of author

16 Dorman interview by author "Request for Release of Dr Elliott and hire of Dr Demman," Peerless Coal Company medical correspondence, Peerless Mine Collection, 2:8, Special Collections, HBLL

to 1948,"[The camp doctor] was always there when [the miners] needed him.... He was present when one of my uncles "was killed in the mine, and also when my father was injured." Jack Woodward's father worked as a miner in Royal, and Jack's memory of the camp doctor also centered around the doctor's presence at a time of community disaster. When an explosion occurred in the Royal Mine,"[the camp doctor] was at the portal with all the families."According to Louis Pestotnik, a miner and union leader in Hiawatha and Sunnyside, the doctor's presence at the mines "would give [the miners] a sense of security, and that's why they looked up to him so much." At times, their esteem even bordered on a sort of worship. Mary Buffo, a nurse in Standardville and the daughter of a Royal miner, related the statement her mother often repeated: "Next to God, there was the doctor."17

Besides their involvement in the industrial aspects of the mining towns' medical care, the camp physicians also took on numerous social roles within the communities The social disorder of the coal camps cried out for a stabilizing force; doctors' positions as trusted healers poised them to become intermediaries within the camps' conflicts between unions and companies, between ethnic groups and native miners, and among the miners themselves Each of the coal camps dotting the eastern Utah landscape represented a microcosm of the region's unrest and disorder.The coal companies, with their interest in production and their frequent conflicts with unions, proved inept at quelling the communities' contentions. Democratic government was not an element of the coal camps; coal companies owned and governed all aspects of the community. Each town did have a company-paid marshal, but as a social mediator the marshal proved inadequate Disputes between community members did not fall under the jurisdiction of law enforcement officials until a law had been broken, and at that point the marshal acted to punish the offender rather than to mediate the conflicts.18

Religious leaders did provide some stability to the coal camps by intervening in many of the smaller conflicts involving members of their ecclesiastical communities As a Winter Quarters Mormon bishop and mine superintendent,Thomas Parmley used his religious and economic influence to resolve the grievances of the Mormon miners in the community After the Winter Quarters Mine disaster of 1900 and the subsequent influx of non-Mormon miners, however, Parmley's influence diminished.19 Within

17 Tom Grundy, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author Jack Woodward, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author Louis Pestotnik, interview by author, September 26, 1998, Price; notes in possession of author Mary Buffo, interview by author, September 25, 1998, Price; notes in possession of author

18 Pestotnik interview Although it may seem that the town marshal might serve as a cause of contention because he was paid by the coal company, this was not the case The marshal played an important role in enforcing the law in the coal camps, and the miners seemed to respect his position and authority. Louis Pestotnik stated,"They observed law and order... His word was fair."

19 Allan Kent Powell, The Next Time We Strike: Labor in Utah's Coal Fields, 1900-1933 (Logan: Utah State

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the Greek segments of the coal camps, patriarchs and matriarchs often intervened in disputes involving members of their ethnic community20 The efforts of these religious leaders were less effective, though, when the disputes extended to members of other cultural groups. Ecclesiastical leadership did play an important part in resolving numerous conflicts within the coal camps, but religious diversity often prevented these authorities from expanding their influence to many of the communities'large-scale disputes.

Because many of the traditional social institutions proved incapable of calming the larger conflicts of the eastern Utah communities, coal camp physicians emerged as intermediaries within the mining camps. During the 1930s the eastern Utah camp doctors assumed a heightened role as stabilizing forces in their communities During this time,the inherent instability of the coal camps increased with the stronger presence of unions after 1932,a presence that deepened the polarization between companies and miners. An additional element, the nationwide depression of the 1930s,led to economic uncertainty within the camps. 21 In these circumstances, the stability the camp doctor offered contributed to the survival and success of the coal camps.

Many doctors found that in their stabilizing role in the coal fields they could help to resolve issues between the mining communities' most powerful elements:the union and the company.Because of their relationship with both supervisors and miners, they were able to help resolve the inherent conflicts between the two groups Community members were willing to heed a doctor's advice in company—union disputes because of the doctor's loyalties to both sides of the conflicts; the coal company paid part of the doctor's salary and maintained his medical facilities, yet the physician's primary interest in the community was the physical and emotional well-being of the miners.22 This perspective allowed the camp physician to advocate positions that would benefit both the management and the union, especially in conflicts centered on medical issues

In mediating between miners and management, doctors often involved themselves by playing more of a preventive role.A physician might propose to company officials policies that would forestall future strikes.The correspondence of Dr LaVille Merrill, for instance, provides evidence of his

University Press, 1985), 46 Powell's book provides an excellent overview of the tension between unions and companies that existed in Carbon County He outlines the early attempts at unionization, the rise of the unions to prominence during the 1920s, and the impact of the union presence on labor conditions in Carbon County coalfields

20 Helen Z Papanikolas, "Women in the Mining Communities of Carbon County," in Notarianni, ed., Carbon County, 85-86 See also Helen Z Papanikolas, ed., The Peoples of Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1976): 430

21 Powell, Next Time We Strike, 196.Thomas Alexander, "From Dearth to Deluge: Utah's Coal Industry," Utah Historical Quarterly 31 (1963), 241. Alexander's article touches on the impact of the depression on the Carbon County coal mines He notes the decrease in production, which was remedied a decade later by the onset of World War II

22 Stanley Davis, interview by author, September 25, 1998; notes in possession of author Spring Canyon Statements

attempts to balance union and company

Independent Coal and Coke interests. In a letter to Walter Cochrane, Company in Kenilworth, superintendent of the Spring Canyon Coal September 1910. Company, Dr Merrill wrote about the problem of having a miners' residence located above the hospital.The boisterous miners living there entered and left at all hours of the night, disturbing the sleep of the injured miners in the hospital below. Dr. Merrill stated, "Patients as they leave the hospital dislike to complain as most of them are afraid for theirjobs in the mine and also feel that they don't want to create a disturbance."Acting to avoid future union conflict, Dr. Merrill concluded, "I realize that the situation at the present time is not the opportune time to make radical changes The Union are talking of medical chang [sic] they would like I believe a satisfactory program can be worked out."23 By working with mine officials on potential union concerns, Dr. Merrill and other camp doctors helped mitigate tensions within the communities. Because of the companies' respect for their doctors, they frequently heeded the physicians' advice and implemented programs that benefited the miners

The perspectives of many camp physicians did not allow them to act solely as advocates of the miners' interests;in their mediation, they also proposed policies that may not have benefited miners but that satisfied the fiscal needs of the companies In doing this,physicians recognized their roles as healers to all members of the community, yet they also understood the practical fiscal side of medicine and the burden upon the coal company. In a letter addressed to D.V Shurtleff of the Spring Canyon Coal Company Welfare Medical Department, Dr Merrill referred to a highway automobile

LL L'

The Castle Gate hospital, 1920s. Small hospitals such as this provided x-ray equipment, nurses' quarters, and pharmacies for Carbon County's isolated mining camps.

accident involving a miner and his family The miner's wife was killed in the accident, and both the miner and his son were treated at Spring Canyon Hospital Dr Merrill recognized the practical aspect of the company's inability to pay for non-mine accidents: "The question involved is rather [whether] or not we are responsible for these hospital bills or not I feel that if possible we should take care of them but yet I do not feel that we are responsible for all accident cases that happen on the high way We should have a definite set ruling on this case."Dr. Merrill went on to note that he had recently treated two employees who had been drinking and had been involved in an automobile accident. He stated that he did not feel the company should have to pay for their medical care. 24

In an extreme case,the doctor even stepped in to support the company's position in an accident involving a nurses' aide of the camp hospital Ronald Jewkes, whose father managed the Kenilworth company store, recalled that while his mother was crossing the railroad tracks, she was struck by a coal train.According to Jewkes,"The only thing that saved her life was she was wearing a big heavy fur coat The train knocked her right down...but the cow catcher caught her and rolled her right down the track."Witnesses urged the woman to sue the company for negligence, but Dr. Richard Dowd, the company physician, saw the situation differently: "Dr Dowd helped talk her out of it because he said, 'You know we're all going to lose our jobs.'"25 Dr. Dowd recognized that his medical assistant had suffered significant emotional distress, but her physical injuries "were limited to minimal scrapes and bruises. He apparently considered a lawsuit's potential damage to the community and his own medical practice as well, and he urged a course that would maintain the prosperity of the Kenilworth mining community His actions may not have been completely

24 L H Merrill, letter to D.V Shurtleff, November 23, 1938, Spring Canyon Collection, 3:11, Special Collections, HBLL

25 Ronald W. Jewkes, interview by author, September 26, 1998, Western Mining and Railroad Museum, Helper; notes in possession of author

altruistic, but Dr Dowd's understanding of both company and community perspectives seemed to prompt him to seek solutions that would continue to promote the stability of the mining community.

Besides assisting in conflicts, many company doctors also sought to promote a relationship of cooperation between the union and company. In Hiawatha, Dr. Merrill ventured to establish a congenial association between union and company officials by avoiding any show of favoritism toward either group Chloe Merrill recalled, "The mine bosses would come in and they'd eat at our house...and my dad would say,Tf you're going to eat here then get some union representatives and they eat here too.' It was never separate."When the officials were together at the doctor's home, Dr Merrill "would never let them talk business."The physician's encouragement of a general equality between union and company created an environment conducive to cooperation.26

The doctors' medical position also placed them as general mediators within the coal camps' medical committees As part of a delegation consisting of both union representatives and mine officials, the doctor was frequently able to provide his perspective on medical issues and propose policies that would serve the interests of both the miners and the company officials Dr Eldon Dorman sat on the committee for the mines of Sweets, National, and Consumers, "a committee made up equally of company and union personnel."Topics facing the committee directly affected the doctor, so both parties naturally valued his opinion and perspective on medical issues Through the general relationship the doctor sought to facilitate, the unions and companies were able to improve their communication and avoid potentially explosive conflicts.27

In mediating between company and union interests, physicians seemed to search for solutions that were fair to both parties.At times, though, the company did not see the wisdom behind its doctor's recommendations, and in these moments some doctors put their loyalty to the miners over their sense of duty to company officials. Eldon Dorman relates the story of Dr. Claude McDermid's reaction when a Castle Gate Mine official proposed a policy with -which he disagreed According to Florence Reynolds, who was waiting for her appointment with the doctor, a new mine official stormed into the office, warning Dr. McDermid that he was going to turn off the electricity to the miners' homes in order to decrease the coal company's overhead costs Knowing the potential effects of the cold winter weather on the families without electricity, Dr. McDermid asserted his opposition to the official's proposal, only to hear the economizing superintendent repeat his intentions Sparked by the official's blatant disregard for the needs of the miners and their families, "Dr. McDermid rose to his full six-foot-

six,hit the manager with his fist and sent him sprawling."28 Although reactions such as Dr McDermid's did not necessarily characterize the typical work of a camp physician as a mediator, a desire to see fair treatment of community members seems to have existed among camp doctors.

Community celebration in Standardville, early 1920s. At this time, the town was a thriving coal camp of 250 miners, most of foreign extraction.

The company doctor also played a significant role in integrating the immigrants into camp society Many physicians were able to calm the tensions inherent in these multi-cultural communities. Ignorance often breeds fear, but through their trusting medical relationships with the immigrants, many doctors learned to understand the people within the communities' various ethnic groups; doctors saw their sicknesses, -witnessed their pain, and felt theirjoys. Camp physicians typically did not allow ethnicity to dictate differences in medical treatment; they provided equal, dedicated care to the immigrants, and through this care doctors and patients formed lasting friendships Community members recognized the doctors' acceptance of immigrants, and this recognition prompted many to follow a similar course of tolerance and understanding

Immigrants were a part of the Carbon County community from the beginnings of the coal camps Foreigners came to the United States in search of employment and prosperity, and the relatively high wages of the mining communities provided incentive for an influx of immigrants into eastern Utah. Ethnic groups arrived at the Utah mining towns in distinct stages:"Northern Europeans, such as Irish,Welsh, and Cornish, arrived in the coal and metal towns first, followed by southern and eastern Europeans, Japanese, and Mexican."29 Within the Carbon County area, a group of

Ibid., 21

Philip F. Notarianni, "Utah—A Pretty Great Mining State," in Beehive History 16: Mining and Minerals

Chinese arrived at the Winter Quarters coal camp in the 1880s, followed by a mass immigration of Finns, who by 1903 "accounted for more than one-third of the miners at Clear Creek and Winter Quarters."30 This influx of ethnic groups led to an incredible diversity of language and culture within the coal camps.

With so many different ethnic groups in the Carbon County area, biases and differences were bound to exist Many native miners saw the immigrants as a threat to their own positions in the mines. In the early twentieth century, when unions had not yet established their presence as advocates for miners, mine officials were more apt to favor those miners willing to work long hours for low wages In an extreme case in the Clear Creek Mine, Dr Dorman recalled, "The Chinese people lived right in the mine. They cooked and slept and everything in the mine." As a result of the immigrants' eagerness to perform their work as miners, the competition for reasonable wages was keen Anti-immigrant groups such as the Ku Klux Klan developed in Carbon County. Frances Lamph, a resident of the Hiawatha and Standardville coal camps between 1912 and 1933, recalled that "the KKK was active in sewing the seeds of ethnic hate." Chloe Merrill noted that the Ku Klux Klan "was still active" as late as the 1950s As A Philip Cederlof explained the situation simply, "The immigrants were not assimilated readily into the community life." The Carbon County area, then, experienced a certain level of ethnic distrust and tension.31

In the midst of this ethnic unrest, the doctors' equal treatment of immigrants eased tensions, both softening the foreigners' transition to the community and providing an example that other community members noticed. Dr Dorman recalled trips up Sawmill Canyon to treat an Austrian family who spoke very little English:"I could drive my car as far as the tipple [the coal unloading area located near the entrance to the mine], then walk the remaining half mile The shacks these people lived in were terrible: leaky roofs, poor floors (some dirt),broken windows and walls that let the cold in and heat out."32 He also remembered interactions with Japanese immigrants:"[Their] boarding house at Sweets was always a fascinating place for me to go... There was aJapanese man who...always called me when one of the Japanese miners became ill, and he could interpret for me and talk to them."33

Ruth Beech Kantor, a member of the Kenilworth coal camp, noted, "Dr. [Roy] Robinson was friendly, and I don't think he chose between nationalities.They all got treated the same.... He wasn't partial. If there was a hurt

(Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society 1990), 5 Notarianni's article gives a general overview of the development of the various mining communities in Utah.

30 Powell, Next Time We Strike, 10-11

31 Dorma n interview by Tomsic Frances Lamph, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author Merrill interview

32 Dorman, Confessions, 59

33 Dorman interview by Tomsic

person needed his attention, they got it. He was just a good camp doctor, and for everybody." Similarly, Luella Tryon of the Sweets coal camp recognized that many immigrants did not even speak English, yet "they trusted the doctor and they knew he -would be there for them."34 Because the community members noted the unbiased medical treatment that the immigrants received, they, too, may have been more inclined to impart equal treatment to the foreign miners

Children of immigrant families spoke highly of the doctors in the camp communities Louis Pestotniks parents emigrated from eastern Europe in 1901 Louis recalled with admiration the treatment he and his family received from the camp doctors: "I admired them and almost worshiped them, I guess."Remo Spigarelli, a miner whose parents had emigrated from Italy before he was born in Hiawatha, expressed similar feelings He stated, "Our doctor was regarded as a very special person... [He] looked out for the patient and was our friend." Perhaps the strongest evidence of the immigrants' appreciation of the camp physician was the number of immigrants' children who entered the medical profession As J Eldon Dorman noted, "A large number of Carbon County immigrants' sons became medical doctors and dentists.... Second-generation Italian-American Charles Ruggeri Jr. became an ophthalmologist.... A. R. and John Demman were another pair of Italian immigrant sons who practiced medicine Drs Nick and Mike Orfanakis were sons of Greek immigrants. The Austrian [Slovenian] Gorishek brothers,William and Frank, opened their practices in Carbon County."35

Doctors worked to ease the tension among ethnic groups, but perhaps a doctor's greatest challenge was to calm the disputes among the miners themselves With the mining community came the inherent unrest and fights between miners, and many company doctors quickly found that their role included emotional healing as well.While providing medical care to men injured in the communities' frequent brawls, camp physicians used their positions to prevent future brawls and quell the antagonisms between fighting miners. Chloe Merrill remembered her father's simple response to the fights. Dr. Merrill -would get involved in the disputes between miners "only if he had to patch them up, and he told them they were both idiots and they needed to shake hands....He didn't believe in violence."36

Because of their responsibility to heal, camp doctors interacted directly with fighting miners Dr Dorman remembered the surgery he performed at the beer parlor at Sweets. Not wanting to take a bleeding man back to his office, he sutured the miner's sliced neck as he lay on the pool table.

Luella Tryon recalled the many efforts of the camp doctor to heal the wounds of the pugilistic miners She remembered one man in particular:

"This guy, he'd get drunk every Saturday night, and he'd go and camp at Dr. Dorman's until the next morning because he either had a cut or a broken arm or something that Dr Dorman had to fix up."37 Max Robb recalled a unique call for the camp physician:"I remember one time he was called to keep a man from bleeding to death from a bleeding nose. Not the incidental nosebleed. This man had been in a fight and his opponent had bitten off a chunk of his rather large nose."38

Community members were familiar with the doctor's efforts to heal the wounds of battered miners, and miners regularly turned to the doctor for those injuries inflicted outside of the portal of the mine Often, though, the doctor's role went beyond a simple case of sutures When tension arose between a Sweets miner, Osby Martin, and another man, the miners naturally sent for Dr. Dorman. Martin had suffered slight injuries to his chest and leg, but the weightier issue "wasthe fact that Martin was poised "with his ".30-.30 upright between his legs,"ready to retaliate against the miner who had caused his wounds. Dr. Dorman took advantage of his role as a trusted healer, easing the discomfort of Martin's wounds with "some 'pain' pills -well laced with sleeping pills."Taking his gun away, Dorman tucked the sedated miner into bed. As he reflected on the situation, Dorman recalled that he "never understood why they didn't call the sheriff, the mine superintendent or the mine foreman in these situations. Perhaps they thought my services were about to be needed and that I should be handy"39 As this intervention illustrates, miners called on doctors to ease the emotional tensions of the conflicts as well as the physical wounds.

After nearly fifty years of interacting -with the camp communities, the company doctors gradually left the Carbon County mining towns Following the return of men from World War II, the need for communities around the base of the mines gradually waned, and former camp residents moved to the larger cities of Price and Helper A few coal camps, such as Hiawatha, continued to exist well into the 1980s because of their relative isolation from major cities. Such camps, though, became mainly homes for retired miners, while the new generation of workers commuted from the county's larger cities.40 Mortar walls and rotted wood frames soon stood as the sole reminders of many of the camps.The silent snows and sagebrushcovered foundations left only slight hints of the booming camp activity of years past.

When many of the old camp physicians died, their personal relationships with the coal communities became apparent. Dr. Merrill of Hiawatha passed away on May 17, 1966, and word of his death spread quickly through the county Letters from former patients arrived, filled with phrases

Dorman, Confessions, 15-16 Tryon interview Rob b interview.

Dorman, Confessions, 17-18 Robb letter

such as "-wonderful doctor,""beloved," "-willing to look past the element to what -was going on," and "no one -was quite comparable." Hundreds crowded the church for the funeral.41 When Dr.William Gorishek died in 1980, his years of camp service evoked high praise from local residents and physicians,42 and Dr.Anthony Demman s death four years later precipitated similar reactions.43 Former camp members considered the doctor a friend as well as a physician, and the doctors' deaths left many with deep sentiments of sorrow and loss.

The eastern Utah company physician has disappeared from the world of medicine, but his memory lives on in the minds of those with whom he interacted. Many camp doctors played a significant part in the success of Carbon County's coal camps through their contributions both within and beyond medical practice They healed miners and their families of the -wounds and illnesses common to the industrial setting, and their very presence provided a psychological comfort to the community. Company doctors also mediated in the communities' conflicts, whether between unions and companies, immigrants and the native camp members, or among the miners themselves.Through their various roles in the coal camps, company physicians provided stability to the eastern Utah mining communities, ultimately contributing to the success of Carbon County's clusters of social volatility and ethnic diversity

41 Merrill interview

42 The community's praise of Dr Gorishek may be noted through letters from former camp residents who interacted with the physician: Darlene Howard, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author; Merrill Newren, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author; Anne Palletta, letter to author, October 1998, in possession of author Dr Eldon Dorman died during preparation of this article, on March 22, 2000

43 Sun Advocate (Price), November 7,1984

"Diversities of Gifts": The Eclectic Architecture of Early LDS Churches

Latter-day Saint meetinghouses have served as important community centers in Utah. Used as schools, chapels, and social halls, they have been in the Salt LakeValley since the earliest settlement years. In February 1849 Brigham Young divided Salt Lake City into nineteen bishops' wards. Each ward was responsible for locating property and building its own meetinghouse through a building committee, which made major decisions concerning the architect and the style of the building All members of the ward contributed to the building of the church, either with labor or funds; even the little children would bring their money to help with the construction This process gave all members a feeling of pride and reverence for their meetinghouse.1

The fact that each ward -was responsible for its own meetinghouse gave rise to a tremendous variety among nineteenth- and early twentieth-century -ward buildings The building styles and materials varied, and the size and wealth of the ward factored into how elaborate the building would be.The diversity of these early Mormon churches later gave way to standardized meetinghouse designs

The First Ward, organized in 1849, obtained a building permit for construction of this meetinghouse at 760 S. 800 East in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1911.3 Designed by the Pope and Burton architectural firm, this meetinghouse was one of Utah's best examples of the Prairie School style made popular by Frank Lloyd Wright. The style is characterized by low or flat roofs, casement windows with geometric patterns, and an emphasis on horizontally.4 The building was demolished in 1976.

wherein function, not aesthetics,became the most important consideration. The diversity of these early meetinghouses has been captured by Salt Lake photographer Hal Rumel. Trained at the Los Angeles Art Center, Rumel became a respected and talented photographer In the 1930s he opened a small studio at Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon and sold scenery shots to tourists. World War II interrupted his photographic career, but upon his discharge in 1943 he opened a studio at 49 W 300 South in Salt Lake City He later moved to a studio at 520 E 200 South, where his business operated until the late 1970s. Rumel's photographic work has earned several awards, including the National Professional Photographers Association's Master of Photography Award.2 The following images have been selected from Rumel's photograph collection located at the Utah State Historical Society. In 1937 Rumel photographed LDS meetinghouses in Salt Lake and Davis counties, creating a total of 120 images. These meetinghouse photographs, part of a larger Rumel collection, illustrate the diversity of the buildings Some of these buildings are still standing, but most have been demolished and replaced. Fortunately, a record of these buildings has been preserved through the Hal Rumel photograph collection

Highland Park Ward, designed by Salt Lake architects Pope and Burton, was built between 1924 and 1927. Howard J. McKean, a member of the ward, served as the contractor for this Tudor Revival meetinghouse, building it at a cost of $45,000.5 The Highland Park Ward meetinghouse still stands at 2535 Douglas Street in Salt Lake City.

The Emigration Ward (top) began meeting in this building in October 1910 even though the building was not completely finished until 1920. Yet another Pope and Burton design, this meetinghouse seated 300 people and had seven classrooms. On December 8, 1940, the building was condemned because it had been built on soft, sandy ground with several springs underneath.6

The Center Ward meetinghouse stood on the east side of Redwood Road between 400 and 500 North. The ward, organized in 1891 from the Brighton Ward, mainly consisted of farms. The ward members aided in excavation of the building site. When the church was completed in 1915 at a cost of $10,000, a Deseret News article described the style as "Italian Renaissance." Designed by Salt Lake City architect James L. Chesebro, the building's modern style incorporates clean lines and geometric shapes. The chapel had a balcony and could seat 250 people; there was also an amusement hall with a stage and classrooms.7

OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: The impressive Riverton Ward meetinghouse was designed by Richard Kletting, the architect of the original Salt Palace, the state capitol, and the original Saltair. Once again Kletting turned to the Neo-Classical style, which is evident in the dome and symmetrical design. Construction began in 1899, and the building was completed ten years later. Inside, the main auditorium seated 800 people; outside, an adjoining public field accommodated sports. This unique structure was demolished in 1939.8

OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM: The Fourteenth Ward was one of the original nineteen wards in Salt Lake City. This handsome church, originally finished in 1861, became one of the first meetinghouses to use gas lights instead of oil lamps. In 1911 a new fagade was added, giving the building a Gothic influence, as seen in the arched stained glass window in front.9 The building was demolished to make room for the Salt Palace Arena.

THIS PAGE: In 1902 the Twenty-first Ward built a chapel on First Avenue between J and K streets, replacing an older meetinghouse constructed in 1877. An addition to the chapel that included a recreation hall and classrooms was built in 1926 at a cost of $60,000.10 The Victorian Gothic Twenty-first Ward chapel and Tudor Revival addition were demolished in the early 1970s.

OPPOSITE, TOP: Wasatch Ward, named for its proximity to the Wasatch Mountains, began construction on this unusual building in 1917 and held its first meeting in the new chapel on April 21, 1929. The unusual style of the church combines an Art Deco design with Spanish flair, which is noticeable in the red-tiled roof. Made of brick and stucco, the Wasatch Ward building, equipment, and lot cost $125,000." The building, which stood at 1455 East Emerson in Salt Lake City, was demolished in the late 1990s.

OPPOSITE, CENTER: The first stone of the West Bountiful meetinghouse was laid by LDS apostle John W. Taylor on August 21, 1903. Joseph Fackrell had donated and deeded the land to the ward in 1879. Built at a cost of $14,200, the building was dedicated on February 21, 1904. Note the beehive motif in the upper section of the front windows. The building was demolished in 1955.12

OPPOSITE, BOTTOM: The unusual shape of the Twenty-fourth Ward meetinghouse was created to fit on a triangular-shaped lot at 700 N. 200 West. The Queen Anne style is evident in this building's irregular plan, asymmetrical fagade, and tower. Built in 1907, this church had a seating capacity of 500, and the basement included a spacious amusement hall.13 Today the building is occupied by the architectural firm of Cooper-Roberts.

THIS PAGE:Located at Ninth Avenue and D Street, the Ensign Ward was constructed in 1914. Joseph Monson and Arthur Price, the architects of this Prairie School-style meetinghouse, projected a cost of $25,000-$30,000; however, the final cost was $50,000. One of the wings housed the chapel and the other wing contained the amusement hall, while the basement held classrooms and offices. In the chapel the choir was seated to the side of the congregation rather than in front of it.14 The building was demolished in the late 1990s.

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Because businesses had replaced much of the residential property in the Thirteenth Ward boundaries, the Twelfth and Thirteenth wards were combined in January 1908 to form the Twelfth-Thirteenth Ward. In 1909

Francis D. Rutherford and Ramm Hansen designed a meetinghouse for the ward at 363 E. 200 South. The building, erected with money obtained through the sale of the Thirteenth Ward property, included a chapel with 400 seats, an amusement hall, and twelve classrooms. In December 1937 the building was deemed unsafe due to cracks in the structure, especially in the front of the building, and it was torn down. A decision to re-divide the ward into the Twelfth and Thirteenth wards went into effect June 30, 1938.15

Capitol Hill Ward members held the first meeting in their new meetinghouse on December 15, 1929. The cobblestones on this Tudor Revival building were gathered from local hills and give texture to the walls. The Capitol Hill Ward meetinghouse, built at a cost of $65,000, is situated on the corner of 300 North and West Capitol Street.16

The Granite Ward, comprised of residents living near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, was organized July 1, 1877. In 1903 the ward paid $100 for land for a meetinghouse. The cornerstone was laid on May 12,1905, and the building was ready for use two years later. Originally heated by wood stoves, the building did not include bathroom facilities until the 1930s.17 Today the building is painted white and stands at 9800 South and 3000 East.

The Thirty-first Ward meetinghouse was built in 1902. Joseph Don Carlos Young designed this Victorian Eclectic building, including such features as brick pilasters capped with ball and spike finials and small dormers that provide ventilation.18 Today the building, located at 1130 S. 900 East, is occupied by the Stage Right Theater Company and Realms of Inquiry, a private school.

The Syracuse Ward meetinghouse was built in 1897 for $12,000. Due to its similarity to several churches in Davis County, including the one in Clearfield, it appears that the building was designed by William Allen, a Kaysville resident. The building was later destroyed by fire and replaced with a new meetinghouse:0

The Clearfield Ward, an agricultural area with two fruit canneries within the ward boundaries, was organized from the Syracuse Ward in 1907. William Allen designed a Victorian building for the ward using Gothic elements such as a tower and rose window; it was dedicated September 17, 1911, by LDS church president Joseph F. Smith. In 1925 improvements were made to expand the seating capacity.19 Today the building, located at 325 S. Main, is occupied by Clearfield Manufacturing.

The Nineteenth Ward meetinghouse was constructed between 1890 and 1892. Designed by Robert Bowman, this unusual building reflects the Victorian Eclectic style and incorporates exotic features such as the onion dome, which seems to allude to Oriental, Russian, or German architecture. Henry Grow, the architect of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, served on the ward's building committee.21 The Salt Lake Acting Company currently occupies this historic building in Salt Lake's Capitol Hill District.

The Taylorsville Ward chapel was built in 1894, with an amusement hall added in 1910. The chapel was designed in the Victorian Gothic style, but the addition has an Arts and Crafts flavor. In 1937 a room was built between the two buildings at a cost of $4,000. The meetinghouse also has a basement and a two-story vestry containing four classrooms.22

The Thirty-fourth Ward,located at 131 N. 900 West in Salt Lake City, is a great example of the Colonial Revival style, with strong Neoclassical influences. The building has Doric-style pillars supporting the pediment. The front end of the building is the chapel area. Designed by architects Joseph Don Carlos Young and Ramm Hansen, it was built at a cost of $56,000 and dedicated in 1920.23

The Seventeenth Ward, located at 139 W. and 200 North in Salt Lake City, consisted of two buildings. The school, on the left, opened for classes on January 3, 1875, as the 17th District School. The school was also used as a church until public schools were organized. The chapel, on the right, was designed by the Salt Lake architectural firm of Ware and Treganza and was dedicated March 31, 1907. The building was English Gothic Revival in style and had a beautiful stained glass window in the front. These buildings were demolished in 1966, but the stained glass window was salvaged and now hangs in the Seventeenth Ward chapel built across the street.24

"DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS"

Construction on the Midvale Second Ward began January 1929. The Colonial Revival meetinghouse is a pleasant sight on Midvale's Main Street. The most unusual feature of this building is the roof garden, where dances were held during the summer. In this photo the string of lights on top of the roof gives evidence of these summer-night dances.25

The Twenty-seventh Ward was created from a division of the Twenty-first Ward in 1902. Shortly after the division the new ward built a meetinghouse at 187 P Street in a Victorian Gothic style. During construction, members of the ward would stop by the site on their way to or from work to help with the building. The dedicatory services for the chapel were held on April 26, 1908. In 1927 construction of an addition to the chapel began and was completed in 1930.26 The Tudor Revival addition complements the design of the original chapel.

Notes

1 Joseph F Smith, Jr., "Uses and Maintenance of Churches by Latter-day Saints," Improvement Era 17 (May 1914), 732

2 Register of the Hal Rumel Photograph Collection, 1981, C-266, MS, Utah State Historical Society (USHS), Salt Lake City, Utah

3 Permit Number 3910, Salt Lake City Building Permits Register, USHS

4 Thomas Carter and Peter Goss, Utah's Historic Architecture 1847-1940: A Guide (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988), 142

5 Highland Park Ward, Salt Lake City Architectural Survey, State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) files, USHS.

6 Andrew Jenson, "Emigration Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City Permit Number 2922, SLC Building Permits Register.

7 Deseret News, February 7, 1914

8 Lonnie and Annette Holt, comp., "History of the Jordan Area: Riverton," 1989, MS, USHS, 63

9 Deseret News, November 6,1873 Church News; November 22, 1958

10 Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church offesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing, 1941), 754

11 Andrew Jenson, "Wasatch Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives.

12 Andrew Jenson, "West Bountiful Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives

13 Jenson, Encyclopedic History, 756

14 Deseret News, February 7, 1914

15 Andrew Jenson, "Twelfth-Thirteenth Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives

16 The Story of Salt Lake Stake, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 150 Years of History, 1847-1997 (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Stake), 214; Allen Roberts, "A Survey of LDS Architecture in Utah, 1847-1930," 1974, typescript copy at USHS

17 Granite:The Story of a Land and Its People (Sandy, Utah: Granite View Stake, 1995), 38.

18 LDS Thirty-first Ward, Salt Lake City Architectural Survey, SHPO files.

19 Andrew Jenson, "Clearfield Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives

20 The Community of Syracuse (Syracuse, Utah: Syracuse Historical Commission, 1994), 422-23

21 National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, SHPO.

22 Andrew Jenson, "North Jordan Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives

23 LDS Thirty-fourth Ward, Utah Historic Sites Survey, SHPO

24 Andrew Jenson, "Seventeenth Ward Manuscript History," LDS Church Archives; The Story of Salt Lake Stake, 217-18

25 Maurine Jensen, ed., Midvale History 1851-1979 (Midvale, Utah: Midvale Historical Society, 1979), 176.

26

Twenty-Seventh Ecclesiastical Ward of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historical Record (Salt Lake City: Hobby Horse Press, 1970), 44, 67, 71.

QUARTERLY BOOK REVIEWS

Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Country

T O BEGIN , IT SHOUL D BE understood that this attractive, well-written, and well-researched book is much more than a study of Glen Canyon and its notorious dam and associated reservoir, Lake Powell, so passionately hated by many "while loved by hordes of others It is a book about the soul of the West, using history to understand its body, with Glen Canyon perhaps as its heart

Jared Farmer is a young man still in his twenties, but he writes with something that many others seem to lack—a sense of the basic ambiguity at the heart of the matter of living and of the complexity of both history and the human heart This can be translated in our fractured times as a sense of balance, even a type of "wisdom H e does not write to shock or to display -with lyrical phrases his passion or his perceptiveness He seeks neither to outshout nor outcharm others. I say it as a compliment that he writes the way a good historian should "write—in an ordered "way, with an articulate voice, interweaving many themes into a coherent whole.

Farmer, like most good writers, does write "with passion, but it is a glow that illuminates his writing; it does not characterize it. He is not preaching to either the choir of dam lovers or of haters. It seems to me that he is trying to understand what Glen Canyon (and, by extension, the western landscape) now is by tracing how ideas about it and uses of it have actually evolved through the past century or so. Its grounding in history helps give this book a sense of fairness, of respect, even for those at the extreme ends of the polarized factions, yet it does this while preserving a sense and a set of values.

What is Glen Canyon? Ho w did it come to symbolize so many things to so many different people? What does it have to say about our forerunners on the land and their values? And what are we to make of it now—what are our own values and conflicts as we face this symbol of loss? Thoug h lamenting the loss of the beautiful canyon under the waters of Lake Powell, the author understands that we cannot just lament, we now must face the dam and its reservoir t o make somethin g meaningful of it "whether it is drained or continues to exist as a playground (and even symbol of beauty) to millions

Th e boo k does no t so muc h attemp t t o bridg e the gap

between positions as to help elucidate the passion behind the positions, the paradoxes and dilemmas facing both camps It does not vilify those of opposing camps as either knaves or fools—the West has always engendered conflicting views from those who often shared a surprisingly similar love and passion for the landscape Similarly, Farmer acknowledges the genuine thrill of some of those viewing Rainbow Bridge from the deck of a houseboat, even as he appreciates the sacred significance of the place or the view that formerly was gained only after days of physical exertion to reach it These are problems the author wrestles with and invites the reader to consider. Change is always occurring, but when does change become loss? And, faced with both change and loss, can we—all of us—develop a consciousness that will cultivate the "specialness" of many places, developed or not, while seeking to conserve "what we can of those places more commonly seen as special, places that are truly under siege, being loved to death before our very eyes (yes, even by those who endeavor to defend the "wilderness)? We need a greater scope of defense, the author suggests, one that will allow us to conserve, protect, and cherish even those places som e consider contaminated or spoiled Problems of change and loss and our evolving attitudes towards "wilderness" "will continue with us into the new millennium; to his credit and our benefit Jared Farmer has tried to articulate the problems in this very rewarding book, which will benefit readers of "whatever political stance or environmental position.

RICHARD FIRMAGE

Draper, Utah

Rainbow Bridge: An Illustrated History By Hank Hassell (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999 x + 173 pp Cloth, $38.95; paper, $19.95.)

IN 1999 ALONE, 234,550 people visited a rock located to the northwest of Navajo Mountain This book is about that rock and the people and cultures who have become attached to it through religious, economic, political, and social bonds While this structure—Rainbow Bridge—is an impressive sandstone arch 291 feet high and 275 feet wide, its most important story lies not in its creation but in the human drama that has played out both within its shade and as far away as Washington, D.C The players in this drama are varied, from the Anasazi to the Sierra Club and from Navajo medicine men to Stewart Udall. Their involvement spans

at least a thousand years, drawing the reader through a shifting kaleidoscope of ideas and values that reflect their times and culture.

Th e book is divided into eight chapters, the beginning and ending ones being the author's personal experience and thoughts as he backpacked twice into the bridge within a ten-year period. Other chapters deal "with the arch's geologic formation, American Indian perspectives, the "discovery" and consequent controversy over "firsts," and the early days of tourism with its attendant difficulties in an isolated land. Next, the author examines the issue of the flooding of Glen Canyon and its effects on the bridge, the conflict betwee n environmentalist s and th e Burea u of Reclamation, and the political furor over legislation based in the West but voted on in the East.

Ho w successful was the autho r in telling the history of Rainbow Bridge? Very. He has performed extensive research, primarily at Northern Arizona University, which houses a large collection of Colorado Plateau materials Many of the full- or halfpage photographs also come from those archives and will be new even to readers familiar with this region. There are also sixteen color plates of the arch and its environs inserted -within the book's pleasing format

The author's theme, developed particularly in the last half of the text, is one of environmental protection. He leaves no doubt as to his feelings concerning the Bureau of Reclamation, uncontrolled tourism, economic development at the expense of the landscape, and political maneuvering that undermines preservation. His rhetoric is unabashed. H e says, for example, that in a 1973 ruling "the Circuit Court's decision dealt a sickening blow to the conservationist movement" (140), and later, when discussing the rising waters of Lake Powell under Rainbow Bridge, he tells the reader, "Glen Canyon Dam had claimed its last significant victim" (141) In line with these sentiments, he pays tribute to heroes such as David Brower of the Sierra Club, -who "bless his heart, has never given up the fight" (152) for environmental protection, and John Wetherill, promoter of the bridge as an experience. Hassell is as much an advocate as those he admires, but his tone is not distracting The author is a good writer, and most of his information is highly accurate.

However, as in most books, a few factual errors have crept in. For instance, the name "Anasazi" is more accurately glossed as "Ancestral Enemy " instead of "Ancient Ones " (25); Blanding (founded 1905) did not play a part in the nineteenth-century gold

rush and other mining events along the San Juan and Colorado rivers (36); and Hassell's explanation of the role that Kit Carson played in the roundup of the Navajos as well as what Hashkeneinii accomplished as a leader in the Navajo Mountain area could have been tempered with more current scholarship In addition, more than a dozen typos are somewhat distracting, but these faults are minor compared to -what has been achieved. Hassell has done a masterful jo b in gathering sources that vary from geology to court cases and from government documents to Navajo oral history

This book is recommended to readers interested in southeastern Uta h and issues in tourism, environmentalism, politics, and Rainbow Bridge as a national monument

The Doing of the Thing: The Brief Brilliant Whitewater Career of Buzz Holmstrom

290 pp. Paper, $20.00.)

MOS T O F US KNO W Buzz Holmstrom as the first person to solo the Green and Colorado rivers in 1937, and this biography illustrates just ho w predictable it may have been that he would chart new territory in the relatively new pastime of running rivers in America It turns out that at a young age Holmstrom and his brother, Carl, came by their knowledge of moving water readily "The y kne w the motio n of -water as -well or better than the groun d beneat h their feet—the heave of an ocean swell, the smoothness of a lake, the tug of a stream, or the pull of a river They could tell the difference between a trickle, a freshet, a riffle, and a rapid" (29)

A high school student working at Ed Walker's Service Station, Buzz Holmstrom meticulously began to fit together a boat in the basement of the family's Coquille, Oregon, home As Holmstrom's thoughts turned toward running the Rogu e River, he looked to others "who had gone before him for advice on boat design and whitewater navigation, including Zane Grey Ells-worth Kolb, and Julius F. Stone. Th e Rogu e River tale sensuously describes the smells and sounds of the river, the rhythms of Holmstrom's rowing, the agony of his decisions—all luring one into the romance of an early adventure of river-running by one lone boy in search of

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

himself.

Th e authors, all three professional river guides, bring to bear their experience tellingly in their investigation of Holmstrom and his adventures. Their omniscient look at Holmstrom's analyses of ho w and what to do "while a student of the river provides an engaging account of his exploits. If John Wesley Powell's biographer, William Cul p Darrah, achieved success in writing about Powell's river adventures while lacking any personal river experience of his own, it is because Powell was know n for so muc h more than running rivers But Holmstrom's achievements centered on boat-buildin g and whitewate r navigation, and th e detailed description and aptly selected journal entries create a rich historical account of the development of moder n rowing technique and boat design, one of the great strengths of this book

While many early characters fall through the "eddy lines" in the literature of the river, The Doing of the Thing treats us to tales of early inhabitants of the coastal region—the placer miners, the fishermen , and th e mountai n men In addition , the biograph y recounts Holmstrom's friendships and acquaintances "with a host of notable characters of the Colorado Plateau Amon g them, Holmstrom himself turns out to be one of the most fascinating and, at times, the most inscrutable

For readers of river lore, two sensitive issues emerge over campfire discussions: the mystery surrounding Holmstrom's premature death and the rumor s regarding his sexual orientation. These authors responsibly explore the mysteries of Holmstrom's death and compellingly point to suicide. However, regarding the issue of homosexuality, which may reasonably bear some relationship to suicide, these authors wonder why other historians have even analyzed Holmstrom's character and motives They tend to ignore the fact that this is what historians, and particularly biographers, do For their part, within the entire and richly detailed narrative they explicitly offer only one dismissive line regarding the question of homosexuality W e recognize that it is difficult to pin this issue down, given the times and the probable lack of sexual detail in journals, as well as the questionable expectation that biographers be psychologists However, the authors do choose to move around inside Holmstrom's mind whe n it comes to ho w and wh y he would change his downstream ferry angle or change strategies in the middle of a rapid, and they do it in undocumented detail at times Yet the authors choose to treat the issue of homosexuality by contributing some oblique evidence to the contrary On e has to wonder if this is an abdication of the biographer's responsibility

to come down on one side or the other or to explain the reason why this is not possible.

For readers of human-interest accounts, the biography swells -with stories of mentoring, unqualified love and support, humility and courage, and, in the end, despair Whe n this book is held up against other Colorado River research and literature, much of which fails to go beneath the surface, we understand just ho w analytical and probing this kind of research needs to be In most ways, this well-researched, well-illustrated, and poetically written biography stands high

(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998 x + 414 pp $31.95.)

BRIGHA M MADSE N IS A TEACHER Although his life took many turns and he spent years as a carpenter, Peace Corps and VISTA administrator, and university librarian and administrator, he is a teacher. His career spans decades and his amazing administrative and leadership talents are recognized by three different Utah universities, yet he remains the ultimate teacher. A native of Utah, he moved with his family to Idaho, where he finished college during the Great Depression and taught in the public schools. H e then went to the Cumberland Mountains as a Mormo n missionary and served in World War II. H e married, went to graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley after the war, and began an intriguing career that saw his influence spread over decades of teaching.

This autobiography is definitely necessary reading for anyone interested in contemporary Utah. The author is matter-of-fact but totally honest as h e discusses his activities as a Uta h educator, author, and activist. There are many exciting reflections on relationships and incidents—for instance, his discussion of his years in graduate school, where Madsen and western historians S. George Ellsworth, Richard Poll, Everett Cooley, and Merle Wells all studied together and wrote dissertations that dramatically changed the teaching of Utah and western history

Madsen's brief stint at Brigham Young University is revelatory as he presents his remembrance of ho w the dreams of a young idealistic professor -were shattered by the autocratic leadership of

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Ernest Wilkinson. Although Madsen demonstrated his leadership at BYU, he also experienced a loss of religious faith, in part because of his colleagues who quietly analyzed different aspects of their religion Madsen's anecdotes about traveling the West with LDS general authorities are enlightening and humanly delightful. In many respects, Madsen's trial of faith came from the way others, like Sterling McMurrin and John Fitzgerald, were treated. He chose to leave BY U and join his family in the construction business for seven years. Eventually, he returned to an academic career, and he served "with distinction as a teacher and administrator for more than two decades.

Madsen wrote many books, mostly since his retirement, that put him in the forefront of -western historians His several books on Native Americans are pathbreaking, as are his studies of communities, individuals, and institutions His clear, concise style is complemented by a passion for accuracy and objectivity. Whether it is a biography of Col Patrick Connor, a study of Corinne, Utah, an analysis of the Montana trail, or a revisionist view of the Bear River Massacre, Madsen presents history as classical human drama.

However, Madsen is still best remembered as a teacher His intellectual disagreements "with Mormon theology do not diminish his commitment to the universality of humanity as taught by Mormons. He has found his personal guideposts through a lifetime of service to his wife, family, students, and colleagues His life is an example of the best who write history while they are making history

Through Our Eyes: 150 Years of History as Seen through the Eyes of the Writers and Editors

of the Deseret New s

(Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1999. vi + 216 pp. $39.95.)

BEGINNIN G WIT H ITS FIRST NUMBER , published on June 15, 1850, the Deseret News became "messenger, educator, arbiter, advocate and entertainer" (2) This book offers a generous sampling of the newspaper in each of these roles and fulfills the promise of its title by providing glimpses of 150 years of history as seen by Deseret Mews writers past and present

BOOK REVIEWS

designed

with narrative and connecting commentary by Deseret News writers Twila Van Leer and Carma Wadley, the book unfolds chronologically, a decade per chapter Each chapter has a brief introduction and features seven to twelve topics, providing quotations from Deseret News reports and explanatory commentary by the book's authors Four pages in each chapter, printed on different stock, present brief news reports, editorial comments, fillers, and advertisements under a facsimile of the front-page masthead used during the decade in question. A timeline lists notable national and international events.

Th e book's large format (it measures 14 by 11 inches) allows space for photographs on virtually every page plus ample room for variety and creativity in layout and design Photos come not only from th e paper ; collection s of th e LD S Churc h Historica l Department, the International Society of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the Uta h State Historical Society, and the LDS Church Museu m of Histor y and Art are also well represented Even though color came to the pages of the Deseret News only toward th e en d of th e twentiet h century , colo r adds visual appeal throughout the book.

A nine-page summary history of the Deseret News by longtime reporter and editor Hal Knight and lists of the "century's biggest stories," "Th e Church News Top 10," and "Newsmakers" appear at the end of the book Th e index is not comprehensive but could serve to lead readers to featured topics and personalities

Th e book's foreword forestalls criticism of the choice of material by pointing out that it is not intended to be a comprehensive history and admitting that many significant events may be recalled with only a passing mention. Most readers will sympathize with the formidable task of choosing "which stories to retell; at the same time they may wish that the selection had differed slightly in one way or another

Whether or no t one agrees with the book's emphases, it offers something of interest on every page. Readers may sample it at random and find one intriguing item after another For example, page 16 tells the sad story of Joh n Dawson, third governor of Uta h Territory, wh o left Uta h after only three weeks in office "under circumstances somewhat novel and peculiar. . . in a state of mental derangement." Th e next page reports the discovery of a grave-robbing worke r at the city cemetery wh o had removed clothes and valuables from the dead It also provides statistics on

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

causes of death for the forty-six persons buried at the cemetery during April and May 1865 Scarlet fever, with ten victims, leads the list

Or, jumping ahead five decades, on page 86 one learns of the flight of refugees from the Mormo n settlements of Mexico during the Pancho Villa campaigns and, on page 87, of the sinking of the Titanic. The boo k brings us up to date with "Surviving 1-15" and "Th e Olympics: boon and bane" (186 and 191)

The book's creators state that they hoped "to recapture the flavor of the times" in order to provide "a clearer insight into the past." They have succeeded admirably

Water, Earth, and Sky: The Colorado River Basin By Michael

(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999.128 pp $29.95.)

CONTAININ G SOM E O F TH E PLANET' S most dramatic landscapes in 244,000 square miles of the desert Southwest, the Colorado River watershed has always piqued human curiosity

Beginning with the exploration accounts of Ives, Powell, Stanton, and others, the literary canon "would eventually include a plethora of scientific monographs, a voluminous body of "works on reclamation , and th e contemporar y large-format celebrations of regional aesthetics and environmental politics Very few works have taken an interdisciplinary bioregional approach. Combining a stunning array of aerial photographs from primary author Michael Collier with a series of essays from writers across several disciplines, Water, Earth, and Sky is a book both visually stimulating and intellectually challenging, achieving -what "Foreword" author and conceptual collaborator David Wegener calls "a natural history perspective that would integrate all aspects of the landscape"(9).

Although the book contains essays on geology, geography, biology, ecology, and personal philosophy, the main "text" is composed of Michael Collier's 140 aerial photographs. After a quarter-century of traveling the Colorado and its tributaries, Collier—a family physician, geologist, and author of several books—said, "I wondered wha t th e river and its basin really looke d like"(21) .

Beginning at the glacial sources of the river's main stems, the Green and the Colorado, in the Wind River and Never Summer

ranges, this visual narrative traces the watercourses and surrounding physiography throug h the Rock y Mountains , Colorad o Plateau, and Basin and Range, all the way to the Sea of Cortez. In addition to providing a pleasing aesthetic journey, the photos provide a scientific overview of the watershed's physical geography, multiple ecologies, and human context. Basic geomorphic structures, erosional processes, and drainage patterns are poignantly illustrated, while the human presence—reclamation, agriculture, and industry—appears fragile and small in comparison to its actual impact.

Although the six essays offer a variety of perspectives and disciplinary expertise, they are not intended to provide comprehensive coverage but instead an interpretive context for the illustrations Collier's lead essay explains his background in flying, motivation for the project, and personal philosophies Geographer Joh n Schmidt describes the region's unique physical structure and its ability to demonstrat e "th e many stories of the interactions between river and regional geology" (37) Geologist E.D.Andrews focuses on river hydrology, reclamation, and politics, outlining resource limitations, ecological stresses, and social and political irony Aquatic ecologist Richard Valdez outlines the historical diversity of the system's fisheries and the way reclamation has radically altered five millio n years of biologica l development Ecologist Larry Stevens looks at the micro-ecologies that exist -within the greater system, -while writer Ellen Meloy provides an impressionistic sketch of river-runnin g and natural history Despite different subjects, the essays contain a couple of consistent themes Th e Colorado River system has been poorly managed, with a resulting decline in ecosystem integrity Yet, unlike many green thinkers wh o see only loss that leads to rigid political stances, the authors possess a guarded optimism and understanding of how political economies and ecologies are not separate from philosophical idealism

In his 1974 boo k Topophilia, cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan described "topophilia" as the "effective bond between people, and a place or setting," a gestalt created in the space between perception and lived experience (4) Battles over water and wilderness in the Colorado Paver Basin have created competing "topophilias" between utilitarian and preservationist camps, the polarization evoking fervent emotional responses, rigid political positioning, and endless litigation Water, Earth, and Sky is a much-neede d overview of spatial, aesthetic, ecological, political, and philosophi-

cal issues free from narrow disciplinary strictures, one that also possesses a responsible political tenor and provides a potential model for eclectic quasi-scientific documents.

A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West: Over One Hundred Historic Sites in Seventeen States

(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. xxvi + 205 pp. Paper, $16.95.)

GIVEN TH E SCOPE of its subject, A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West is remarkably compact This slender volume is clearly designed to fit into the glove box of an automobile or in an undergraduate's backpack. Its place on the scholar's bookshelf is begrudgingly won, however, by its inventories of battlefields, historic sites, and museums related to the Indian wars (complete with addresses, concise touring directions, hours, and in many cases even phone numbers of interpretive centers). The value of these lists of sites is bolstered by the book's simple arguments that "battlefields are classrooms for understanding" and that "visiting historic sites and museums [is] an important way to acquire an understanding of the Indian wars" (113). Indeed, nothing quite compares to studying history "on location," and McDermott, a retired historian and administrator for the National Park Service, obviously has a keen sense of the worth of such study

The book is neatly divided into two sections, the first reviewing the general context of western Indian wars between 1860 and 1890, the second containing lists by region and state of significant places to visit The book never claims to be a scholarly tome; to the contrary, its stated purpose is to provide "basic knowledge about the Indian wars...and how the interested student or traveler can learn more about them" (xix) Beautifully and insightfully written, the first section makes it clear that McDermott knows certain aspects of his field intimately. His thinking is cogent and relevant as he quickly examines the wars' basic causes in the two cultures' contrasting concepts of land use, expansion, treaty-making, and nationalism An admirable sense of balance is maintained throughout; the point of view of both sides is compassionately explained, and neither is condemned. The heart of the first section consists of four "well-written chapters contrasting the Indians and

their U.S. Army opponents on such themes as lifeways, material culture, military organization, and warfare. McDermott, in very little space, takes on the enormous difficulty of generalizing about scores of tribes, each with disparate traditions and lifeways It quickly becomes clear that his knowledge of the Plains Indians far exceeds that of other western cultures In fact, he nearly ignores the latter, a serious defect in a book purporting to provide a balanced overview of Indians and Indian wars throughout the West

A related problem is that McDermott at times lets his love for military trivia entirely overtake his narrative as he displays his great knowledge of the minutest details pertaining to various types of uniforms, boots, hats, gloves, rifles, and pistols used by the U.S. Army. Th e amount of space he gives to this area of his specialized expertise would be commendable—if this book did not almost totally slight th e Indians of the Pacific Coast, th e Southwest, and the Intermountain West. McDermott, for example, gives far more page space to the number of buttons on military uniforms and the Victorian hoopskirts worn by officers' wives than to the Bear River Massacre, which he hardly mentions A quick look at his map of battles or his list of historic sites to visit shows the book's inordinate focus on the Plains Indians. Judging by the map and narrative, most of California and Idaho and all of Utah and Nevada were devoid of Indian wars Lamentably, the 1863 Bear River Massacre, which Brigham Madsen has shown was one of the earliest, largest, and most significant battles in the entire West, did not even make McDermott's map or, for that matter, his list of sites to visit Despite these criticisms, McDermott has produced an admirable, if unbalanced overview of the Indian wars of the West

The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the Twentieth-Century West

TH E FEDERA L GOVERNMEN T seems a heavy weight to many westerners, and Utahns, these days Noted western historian Gerald D. Nash, of the University of Ne w Mexico, offers readers an enlightening consideration of the federal presence in the twen-

tieth-century American West

The Federal Landscape focuses, rightly, on the economic impact of the federal government in the West—rightly, because the specter of Washington, D.C , looms powerfully over many western minds The West, correctly or not, likes to picture itself more like an independent commonwealth than a region heavily dependent upon federal monies for its livelihood Likely this perspective has been shaped by westerners' perceptions of themselves as hardy individualists Neither Dr Nash nor this reviewer would contend that such a viewpoint is totally mistaken, but all westerners (and Utahns) ought to acknowledge the hand of the federal government in the region's development

The federal government is largely responsible for the economic character of today's West. Withou t federal monies, the natural resources of the West may well have gone undeveloped Muc h of the economy of the West, with Utah being a good example, is heavily dependen t upo n economi c input from Washington Withou t federal monies, development projects like dams or national parks would seem to be beyond the reach of states like Utah, Wyoming, or Idaho In Utah, Professor Nash notes the role of the aerospace industry The "largest" government contractor in the state in 1965, for example, was Thiokol Corporation, which brought "at least fifty thousand new jobs" to Utah (95) However, writes the author , "I n Uta h federal mone y came primaril y through government installations"—hence the recent fights in Congress to save Hill Air Force Base

Two other areas of weighty economic importance to Utah that Professor Nash addresses are dams and tourism The state's residents should readily acknowledge the importance of each to Utah's economic interests Still, even knowing this, the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation are often seen as unwanted intruders in Utah Yet dams and their adjacent reservoirs, like Glen Canyon, and the many national parks and monuments in Utah, like Zion and Bryce Canyon and even the reputedly nefarious Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument all help to funnel tourist dollars into Utah. "In the controversy over the Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument," writes Nash, "ranchers were angered by the withdrawal of lands they had hoped to buy from the federal government" (73). Economics once again. It seems that, at least to ranchers, there is no economic value in a national monument.

"In 2000," Nash concludes, "the West entered the new century as a federal landscape" (161) In the nineteenth century the West

was marked by individuals interacting with the environment, yet in the twentieth century it was, to a considerable extent, an interaction with the federal government. Those interested in this relationship will profit from reading The Federal Landscape.

BOOK NOTICES

The Western Range Revisited: Removing Livestock from Public Lands to Conserve Native Biodiversity By Debra L Donahue

(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999 xii + 388 pp $47.95.)

As both a wildlife biologist and professor of law, Donahue knows her stuff as she contends that livestock should be completely removed from large tracts of BLM lands. It's a radical proposal, but the arguments, based on history, economics, science, ecology, and the law, are compelling

The traditional rationalizations for public land grazing—that it sustains a traditional culture, that it is key t o the economies of the rural West, and that it is important to the preservation of open space—have driven land management decisions for decades. Yet Donahue enumerates serious flaws in these beliefs and concludes that "the current federal grazing policy is a largely unintended artifact of history, perpetuated by myth" (7) and that allowing grazing on arid lands is "indefensible public policy" (9)

A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church: Volume One, 1830-1847

(Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, BrighamYoung University, 1997 477 pp $55.95.)

Peter Crawley, professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University has compiled this magnificent volume as a culmination of his lifelong obsession with collecting Mormo n publications As he acquired books, he started an annotated bibliography on early Mormo n Americana both in and out of his possession; he included any printed piece with one or more pages having text relating to some church issue. Volume On e covers books produced by Mormons in support of the LDS faith during the period 1830-47 Th e bibliography excludes individual newspaper or magazine articles, maps, prints, bank notes, and ephemeral

pieces such as printed forms or elders' licenses.

The bibliography is arranged chronologically and, for the most part, by author. Although the objective is to focus on the books themselves, not to give an historical account of the Mormo n church, the book does attempt to include historical context for the publications. Following the discussion of each item is the book's citation from Chad J. Flake's A Mormon Bibliography 1830-1930 (Salt Lake City, 1978) or Chad J Flake and Larry W Draper's Ten Year Supplement (Salt Lake City, 1989), followed by a list of libraries that own an original copy

To make the book even more useful, following the endnotes at the back of this volume are three indexes Th e first is an author/short-title index to the entries in this volume Th e second is an index to the biographical sketches scattered throughout the text and the endnotes, and the third is a general subject index.

The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy

In 1991 scholar Paul Fussell, exploring the "dumbing of America" and such ills as "BAD Advertising," "BAD Airlines," and "BAD Television," made a ludicrous inference "When did the dumbing of America begin?" he wrote "Some rude skeptics might want to locate the origins of'creeping nincompoopism'...in the 1830s, when Joseph Smith took from dictation a number of miserably written narratives and injunctions conveyed to him by the angel Moroni and then persuaded a number of hicks to begin a new religion" (41)

Oh, well. Fussell fits right into the historical trend. Although there have been many unconventional American religious groups, author Givens claims that none has been so persecuted and derided as have Mormons In this fascinating study, he examines how Mormons have been constructed as the great and abominable "Other." Interestingly, although the religion was once scorned for its weirdness, "it is now because Mormons occupy what used to be the center that they fall into contempt" (164) Just when the church managed to position itself in the mainstream, the "mainstream" shifted; in a postmodern era that values the margins and the unconventional, conservative Mormons seem to remain "Other."

The Antipolygamy Controversy in U.S. Women's Movements, 1880-1925:

A Debate on the American Home By

Iversen

(New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1997. xv + 321 pp.)

Second in a series on American feminism, this volume traces the development of the antipolygamy movement Explored are such topics as the maneuvering between Mormo n and national suffragists, national and Utahn

antipolygamists, the male backlash against the home purity movement, and the effects of Teddy Roosevelt's polemics against "race suicide."

Roosevelt's approval of male virility and his abhorrence of birth control were actually factors in the decline of the antipolygamy movement Indeed, he expressed admiration for polygamist fecundity. When a Mormon church official testified before the Senate that he had fathered forty-five children, Roosevelt sent him a gold button inscribed with "Bully!"

Madelyn Cannon Stewart Silver: Poet, Teacher, Homemaker By LeonardJ

Arrington (Salt Lake City: Barnard and Cherry B Silver, 1998 xvi + 331 pp.)

Madelyn Silver "was not a woman who could be easily categorized. A mother and homemaker, she was filled with creativity and longed to have more time to write poems and stories. She died in 1961, before the women's movement really got underway, but she spoke out for equal rights and an end to discrimination. She was active in the LDS church and at the same time vigorously promoted the goals of Planned Parenthood A full participant in female conventions of her time, she found some of her greatest fulfillment in the freedom and adventure of the outdoors In writing Silver's life, Arrington has perhaps illuminated the experience of thousands of women whose lives, though placid on the surface, are filled with tensions between social expectations and the expression of individuality

Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape: Mesa Verde and Beyond

Varien's research re-examines and discards the either/or approach to theories of mobility in Southwest archaeology—those approaches that contrast the frequent movement of hunter-gatherers with the sedentism of agricultural groups. Sedentism and mobility, he claims, were strategies used simultaneously by Southwest cultures.

Using a variety of research methods, including the measurement of potsherd accumulations and analysis of the reuse of roof timbers, he shows that agriculturalbased households and communities moved more frequently than was previously thought Some of these moves were short in distance (in which case families could reuse roof timbers), and some were more extensive Not only did environmental and resource issues affect these moves, but they were often socially negotiated as "well.

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

For Wood River or Bust: Idaho's Silver Boom of the 1880s

(Moscow and Boise: University of Idaho Press and Idaho State Historical Society, 1999 260 pp $29.95.)

For one high-energy decade, Idaho's Wood River region pulled in fortune-seekers -who turned the place into a moderately booming mining district—one with strong ties to Salt Lake City's financiers This volume admirably tells the story of boom-to-bust as it played out on the Wood River. All of the usual players and themes are here but "with their own individuality One account is of the 119-day strike, the longest up to that time, by the Broadford Miners' Union during the silver slump of the mid-1880s Although the strike led to a cry of "$4.00 a day or blood," the miners ultimately got neither.

Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1864-1868, vol 9

Edited and compiled by Kenneth L Holmes (Reprint ed.; Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999 xi + 258 pp Paper, $13.00.)

From the present standpoint, the overland migration seems to have the qualities of the archetypal hero's journey: the venture into unknown space in search of a better life, the almost-overwhelming tribulations, the gaining of new perspective. The diaries in this lightly annotated volume are records of the day-today experience of this "archetype." In the introduction Sherry L Smith writes that each diary suggests "that the trail experience was not a joyous adventure but one of drudgery characterized by mile after mile of dust, dangerous river crossings, and death by disease or accident. It was an experience to be endured and, hopefully, survived It was. .the bridge from one life to another."

America's National Historic Trails By Kathleen Ann Cordes

(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. xii + 370 pp. Paper, $19.95.)

The country's twelve National Historic Trails include a variety of paths, such as explorations, voluntary and involuntary (Indian) migrations, goldseeking (Iditarod), and civil rights activism (Selma to Montgomery).This volume outlines the history, present state, and important sites of each, and it provides photos and maps Although these introductions are competent and interesting, the book is not a comprehensive guidebook. Those -who plan to explore the trails will -want to obtain more detailed information

Preserving the Glory Days: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nye County, Nevada

(Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1999 xiv + 301 pp Paper, $21.95.)

Expanded and updated since its original publication in 1981, this book gives directions for locating nearly 200 sites, along with town histories, photos, and assessments of present conditions. Lacking in the directions are explanations of road conditions, however Are four-wheel drive vehicles necessary for some of the roads? The book does not say What it does show is that, beyond the long stretches of Nevada highways, ghost towns and old stories are hidden in nearly all directions.

The Maverick Spirit: Building the New Nevada

Edited by Richard O. Davies (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1999. x + 304 pp. Paper, $17.95.)

Added together, the profiles of fourteen Nevadan leaders in this collection create insight into the evolution of this unique state. In particular, the rise of gaming, -with all of its undercurrents and effects, is shown through many angles.

An oddly diverse group has helped birth the "new Nevada." The profiles, then, necessarily include such different individuals as the pugnacious and influential Las Vegas Sun editor Hank Greenspun, politicians Sue Wagner and Paul Laxalt, writer Robert Laxalt, casino promoter Bill Harrah, mob-man Moe Dalitz, civil rights activist James McMillan, and UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian

The Mountains We Have Crossed: Diaries and Letters of the Oregon Mission, 1838

Edited by Clifford Merrill Drury (Reprint ed.; Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999 336 pp Paper, $15.00.)

In 1938 Asa and Sarah Smith set out with idealistic zeal to cross the continent Along with three other newly wed couples and a single man, they had committed their all to preaching among the Indians of the Northwest as reinforcements for the mission that Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding had established there.

The journey and subsequent mission efforts were marred by Asa's impatient and critical nature and Sarah's fragile health. For her, the 1,900-mile side-saddle journey was not as exhilarating as it had been for Narcissa Whitman, to say the least, and in Oregon the Nez Perce called Sarah the "weeping one." Yet she and

her husband remained zealous in their desire to convert and "civilize" the Indians. Sarah's diaries and Asa's letters and other mission-related documents are ably presented and edited in this volume.

HISTORICAL NOTES

Brigham Young's Death: A Proposal for a Different Diagnosis

Brigham Young is the American Moses and is so characterized by historian Leonard Arrington in his exhaustively researched book Brigham Young: American Moses, published in 1985 Brigham Young had earned that appellation by leading the first contingent of Mormon emigrants across the central plains from Missouri to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847. Thirty years later, in 1877, Brigham Young, age seventy-six, was dead after suffering an acute intestinal illness for six days

Newspaper accounts of the time state the cause of the leader's death as "cholera morbus." What is "cholera morbus"? At the time of Young's death it was a nonspecific term used to denote a variety of acute abdominal catastrophes characterized by diarrhea, cramps, and vomiting. The term is not used in present medical terminology and has no relationship to the cholera epidemics in some parts of the "world

What, then, is the diagnosis in present medical terminology? An excerpt from Dr Arrington's book states, "A medical historian who has carefully considered the notes kept by his doctors suggests that what they called 'cholera morbus' was, in reality, the as-yet-unidentified condition of appendicitis. Brigham expired from the infection produced by a ruptured appendix."

The clinical and pathological condition we now know as appendicitis was first described and so named in 1886 by Dr. Reginald Fitz. It has been generally accepted that Young died of a ruptured appendix. An article by Dr. Lester E. Bush, Jr., entitled "Brigham Young in Life and Death: An Overview" and published in the Journal of Mormon History also suggests that a ruptured appendix was the cause ofYoung's death.

I propose a different cause of death Other excerpts from Dr Arrington's book tend to support my thesis. Those excerpts, plus some medical probabilities and a little medical conjecturing, lead me to a different diagnosis, one that I think is more likely in this particular instance My proposal is not unique, however Others have proposed the same diagnosis

In 1876 Brigham Young was in his seventy-sixth year. He had been very active in his last year of life attending to the improvement of the administration of the

priesthood units of the Mormo n church He apparently suffered from rheumatism and arthritis and had some urinary distress due to an enlarged prostate Overall, however, he was in fairly good health for a man of his age Just a few days before his death on August 29, he had been bathing in the Great Salt Lake "for the first time in several years and enjoyed it exceedingly."

Dr Arrington's book also reports that early in 1877 Young had said his health was excellent He said, "I have not for years endured the labor of speaking at Conference and public meetings as well as I have done at this last Conference and of late. I have spoken at each meeting in the Ne w Tabernacle the last two Sundays with no bad effects to myself The pain which I have so frequently suffered from in my stomach after speaking to large congregations, has troubled me but very little of late."

Young was known as a forceful speaker with a powerful voice. He sometimes became "wrought up" and pounded on the pulpit. Marks he made by pounding are still evident on one pulpit in the St. George temple. When he spoke to large congregations he had no access to amplifiers and had to increase the volume of his voice. Those vigorous activities may have been physically taxing to the aging leader.

I have already noted the abdominal pains he suffered after speaking to large congregations I think those pains were due to "intestinal angina," a manifestation of ischemic bowel disease, an impairment of the blood supply to the intestines due to the narrowing of the mesenteric arteries.

Brigham Young was apparently well on Thursday, August 23, 1877. He attended a meeting with bishops in the Council House in Salt Lake City, but in the afternoon he felt an "inclination to vomit." At his home later in the day, at about 11 p.m., he became suddenly and violently ill with abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea, the "cholera morbus" of the time.

Acute appendicitis usually does not begin suddenly and violently. It usually begins insidiously and becomes gradually worse over a period of time. The violent, acute onset ofYoung's "cholera morbus" is not typical of the onset of appendicitis Also, appendicitis is characteristically a disease of young people Admittedly, it can occur in a seventy-six-year-old, but it is not common in older people.

For several months Brigham Young had suffered episodes of abdominal pain, which may well have been "intestinal angina" due to impaired circulation caused by the "hardening" of his mesenteric arteries, those arteries that supply blood to the intestines. Those narrowed intestinal arteries can suddenly become blocked, just as the coronary arteries that supply the heart can suddenly become blocked, thereby causing an acute heart attack Whe n the mesenteric arteries become blocked, an acute abdominal catastrophe known as acute mesenteric artery thrombosis (blood clot) occurs. This is characteristically an older person's disease. In Brigham Young's time the condition would be a catastrophe and uniformly fatal.

In his article, Lester Bush considers five possible causes of Brigham Young's death, including acute mesenteric artery thrombosis. H e also mentions acute

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

arsenic poisoning, acute pyelonephritis, diverticulitis, and acute appendicitis He quickly eliminates the first three possibilities, and I agree. However, acute mesenteric artery thrombosis cannot be so easily eliminated. Acute appendicitis and acute mesenteric artery thrombosis remain as the two most probable causes of Young's death

Critical to my thesis are the differences in the onset of acute appendicitis and acute mesenteric artery thrombosis. Acute appendicitis typically is of insidious, gradual onset, while acute mesenteric artery thrombosis is typically sudden and dramatic in onset After the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours, however, the two diseases would be expected to follow similar courses, leading to gangrene of the bowel or appendix, necrosis and perforation of the appendix or bowel, leaking of intestinal contents into the peritoneal cavity, peritonitis, possible abscess formation, possible Gram-negative sepsis, shock, and death Thus, the mode of onset is the key to the diagnosis in this case.

Brigham Young's illness was sudden, violent, and dramatic in onset, a clinical picture more typical of acute mesenteric artery thrombosis. Therefore, I am of the opinion that acute mesenteric artery thrombosis more likely than rupture of the appendix to be the cause of the leader's death

Sources:

Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985).

Lester E Bush, Jr., "Brigham Young in Life and Death: An Overview," Journal of Mormon History 25 (1977)

Ralph T. Richards, M. D., Of Medicine, Hospitals, and Doctors (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1953)

LETTERS

Editors:

Please note on your Index page [volume 56 (Fall 1988), 406] that you have misspelled Col. Abert's name. The entry as it reads is currently: "Albert, John J., head ofTopographical Engineers, 56: 149-50, 155." His last name is Abert.

Best Regards, D Erickson via e-mail

UTA H STAT E HISTORICA L SOCIET Y

Department of Community and Economic Development Division of State History

BOAR D O E STAT E HISTOR Y

RICHARD W. SADLER, Ogden, 2003, Chair

CAROL CORNWALL MADSEN, Salt Lake City, 2001, Vice-Chair

MAXJ. EVANS, Salt Lake City, Secretary

PAUL ANDERSON, Salt Lake City, 2003

MICHAEL W HOMER, Salt Lake City, 2001

KIM A. HYATT, Bountiful, 2001

JOEL C. JANETSKI, Provo, 2001

PAM MILLER, Price, 2003

CHRISTIE SMITH NEEDHAM, Logan, 2001

ROSS PETERSON, Logan, 2003

PAUL D.WILLIAMS, Salt Lake City, 2003

WALLY WRIGHT, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2001

ADMINISTRATIO N

MAXJ. EVANS, Director

WILSON G MARTIN, Associate Director

PATRICIA SMITH-MANSFIELD, Assistant Director

STANFORD J LAYTON, Managing Editor

KEVIN T.JONES, State Archaeologist

Th e Utah State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, and publish Utah and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; collecting historic Utah artifacts; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric buildings and sites; and maintaining a specialized research library Donations and gifts to the Society's programs, museum, or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

This publication has been funded with the assistance of a matching grant-in-aid from the National Park Service, under provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended.

This program receives financial assistance for identification and preservation of historic properties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Th e UUS Department of the Interior prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or handicap in its federally assisted programs If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Director, Office for Equal Opportunity, Department of the Interior, Washington, DC , 20240.