The Conquest of the Desert

IMPROVEMENT ERA

Vol. XX SEPTEMBER, 1917 No. 11

The Conquest of the Desert Behold! It Blossometh as the Rose

By Dr. James E. Talmage

On the maps depicting the western part of the United States from the later '40s down to within the last decade or so, there ap- pears a stretch of land somewhat vaguely outlined, extending westward and southward from the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and designated The Great American Desert. Earlier than the period mentioned the entire region from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was so known. In a work entitled The Plains of the Great West, by Colonel Dodge, U. S. A., published in 1877, we read: "When I was a schoolboy, my map of the United States showed between the Missouri River and the Rocky Moun- tains a long and broad white blotch, upon which was printed in — small capitals 'The Great American Desert Unexplored.' " At the time of the first settlement of what is now the State of Utah by the "Mormon" pioneers, the Wasatch Mountains were regarded as the eastern boundary of the Great American Desert. John C. Fremont, in his official report of explorations, refers to the region as the "Desert"; and the name "Great Desert Basin" has found a place in American literature. Later maps show an area, greatly restricted when compared with earlier delineations, as the "Great Salt Lake Desert". It is interesting to note that this region of uncertain boundaries is the only area in North America to which the designation "Desert" is applied. On July 24th, 1847, the subjugation of the Great American Desert was begun. As an unbroken waste, an isolated empire of death that claimed high toll of those who were so venturesome as to invade its saline solitudes, the desert no longer exists. Be- hold! it blossoms as the rose! On the day named, Brigham Young the intrepid pioneer, successful colonizer, and inspired prophet, entered Salt Lake Valley in charge of a pioneer band, which was the vanguard of migrating hosts. As he caught sight of the valley from the Wasatch heights, after more than three months of toilsome and adventurous travel, the leader exclaimed It is the place. To his prophetic eye there rose a vision of what was to come. In rapt reverie he saw towns and hamlets take shadowy

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form, with the fairest of all. a city, whose beauty of situa- tion, whose wealth of re- sources, should be known throughout the world, rising in the shimmering desert, hard by the barren shores of the great dead sea. In the very heart of that scorched waste should stand the House of the Lord, with other struc- tures, stately and enduring. In the Public Museum of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a splendid mural painting, feat- uring the scene. The institu- tion named holds first place among the municipal muse- ums of America, and under the efficient administration of its director, Mr. Henry L. Ward, has acquired an envi- able fame both in this coun- try and beyond the seas. One of the most richly equipped departments in the Milwaukee Museum is that of Anthropology, with the well- known specialist and able in- vestigator, Dr. S. A. Barrett, in charge. Assisting Dr. Bar- rett is George Peter, an artist of high and varied attain- ments. To the co-operative effort of the three gentlemen named is due the credit at- taching to the splendid ex- hibit herein described, the cost of which has been met by the commendable liberal- ity of the Milwaukee munici- pality. Illustrative of the scen- ery and native life of the Great American Desert, a group installation has been made with marvelous skill and effectiveness. This, with the mural painting already

referred to, was first opened to the public in May of this year. The principal features are summarized in a letter from Dr. Barrett to the author, an extract from which follows:

"The group itself is 28 ft. in length, 13 ft. in depth, and room height, which is 16 ft. The scene depicted is, of course, one familiar to you, being the Pyramid Lake region with the Marble Ridge Mountains in the fore- ground just back of the des- ert north of Numana, Ne- vada. In the distance are the higher mountains lying in and around Lake "Winne- mucca, while Pyramid Lake lies off to the left. Here in the left foreground is shown a very interesting outcrop- ping of trachite covered with the thinolite deposit of tha old Lake Lahontan bed. From a rift in the trachite is- sues a tiny trickling spring, which is so characteristic of the desert region, and which forms the center about which the Paviotso family is gath- ered. The spring itself is actually living water, as I believe I pointed out to you when you were here, and is unique in group work in that respect. "At the spring is crouch- ed a boy who is getting a drink from the pool, while the mother of the house- hold, carrying her baby in the typical Great Basin baby basket, is just going toward camp with a water bottle in one hand. The camp lies on the right in the foreground, and is merely one of the typical summer brush en- closures, in which the father is skinning a rabbit while the daughter is tending the fire and supplying it with wood which is being brought in by another one of the sons.

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About this enclosure are the various utensils, such as baskets of various kinds, grinding stones, various kinds of food, rabbitskin blankets, etc. "In short the entire scene depicts the typical daily life of an average Paviotso family in the vicinity of Pyramid Lake before the coming of the Whites and when that tribe was in its prime."

A view of this excellent installation conveys to the observer the vivid impression of an outdoor scene, embracing far per- spective and vast distances. As set forth above the entire exhibit occupies an alcove 28x13 feet and 16 feet high. On the floor are the lifesized Indian figures, real baskets and other utensils, actual desert brush and sand, and the built-up ledge of volcanic rock encrusted with calcareous deposit from the old lake. The back wall is painted to show a continuation of the desert plain, with the shore-lined mountains rising in the distance. Looking at the picture, or gazing into the alcove through the plate glass front, one is unable to determine where the floor with its solid objects ends, and the wall with its painted scenery begins. No scenic presentation of the conquest of the Great Amer- ican Desert would be complete without the epoch-marking in- cident of the arrival of the "Mormon" pioneers in July, 1847. This the museum officials at Milwaukee were quick to observe and prompt to supply. On the wall above the glass front of the alcove, and extending throughout its full length, is a painting by Mr. Peter, showing the first view of Salt Lake Valley by Brig- ham Young and his pioneer companions. A further excerpt from Dr. Barrett's letter embodies this brief description:

"The mural painting showing the Mormon Pioneers overlooking the Salt Lake Valley, July, 1847, is, of course, too familiar to you to need any detailed description. I might mention, however, that the figures repre- sented are obtained from information supplied by yourself, and especially from photographs and cuts sent by you for our use; and it has been our endeavor to represent these early pioneers as portraits, keeping as nearly as possible to their probable appearance at the age they would have been in 1847. Of course in certain cases no early photographs were available, that is to say no photographs going back as far as 1847. They are from — right to left -as follows: Wilford Woodruff, Brigham Young, Erastus Snow. Geo. A. Smith, Willard Richards (on horseback), Chas. C. Rich, and Ezra T. Benson."

Mr. George Peter, the artist, caught the spirit of the scene when he stood upon the Wasatch barrier and looked westward over valley and lake. His obedient brush has pictured with ef- fective artistry the vision of Temple, Tabernacle, and other buildings, as he conceives them to have risen before the proph- et-leader's vision. Needless to say, this excellent and really mag- nificent exhibit in the Public Museum of Milwaukee is the sub- ject of much comment and praise, which it most richly deserves. As students of Utah history have often read, the first view of the promised land was forbidding to many of the pioneer

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party. An arid plain, rimmed by mountains making it a literal basin, held in its lowest part the salty dregs of what had been a vast inland sea. No flowery meadow, no tree worthy the name, hardly a patch of greensward appeared to entice the travelers from the mountain heights into the burning lowlands. 'Twas the very spot of which Colonel James Bridger had spoken when he boisterously pledged a thousand dollars in gold for the first ear of corn that could be matured in the valley. "Weak, worn, and weary as I am", wailed one of the three women in the pioneer party, "I'd rather we push on another thousand miles than stop here." Yet there they stopped; and, without loss of an hour, the

The Great Temple, Salt Lake City, July 1917, with flags of the Nation sus- pended between the east and ivest towers.

men hitched horses and oxen to plows and set to work to break the ground. But the soil that had been centuries in the baking refused to yield to the share. A dam was hastily thrown across the mountain stream alongside which the colonists had en- camped, and the site chosen for the first field was flooded. Po- tatoes and other seed were put in and the ground was watered again. Such was the birth of the irrigation system in modern America, which now is admitted to be the only practicable means