--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Riter, W. W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 11 published: 1921-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'W. W. Riter, "Correct Placing of the Monument, Pioneer View," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 11 (September 1921): 969–976.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera24011unse start_page: 969 end_page: 976 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Correct Placing of the Monument, Pioneer View Correct Placing of the Monument, Pioneer View By Elder W. W. Riter My brothers and sisters, and friends— I feel so full of emotion that it may be with some difficulty that I speak to you. As I reflected, during the prayer offered by Brother Willard Young — the son of the man who lay sick in a wagon, on this spot, seventy-four years ago yesterday— it seemed almost like an unbelievable romance. It is not my purpose, and it would not be proper for me to attempt any lengthy talk to you, and I shall content myself, mostly, by relating to you how I know this to be the place where Wilford Woodruff swung his wagon around, and President Brigham Young, leaning on his elbow, looked from under the wagon curtain, over the valley and said, "This is the place." The reason I say that this is the place is because no other place could be the place. I know there has been considerable discussion as to just where the place was. Now, let me give you the evidence that this is the place, which comes first from my memory. I was a little boy, then only nine years old. I crossed this same spot ten weeks later, and my memory has always been, from the beginning, that this is the place. Only day before yesterday a gentleman called me by phone, who proposed, as near as I could catch his words, t<i take a number of boys on a hike to the top of Big Mountain, and he asked me if I thought it was possible for that to be the place. I told him, No. He wanted to know if there was any controversy about it. I told him there could not be. The summit of the Big Mountain is twelve and three-quarters miles from this spot. I hold in my hand here the Emigrants' Guide, written by William Clayton on that memorable trip, and afterwards published in Saint Louis, in 1848, for the benefit of subsequent travelers. This also contains the signature of Governor Brigham Young, at the Gov- ernor's office. (Applause.) In this guide book it is stated that the distance from the Missouri river to that point is one thou- sand thirteen and one-quarter miles; and to the city of the Great Salt Lake, it was about one thousand thirty-one miles ; and to this spot down in that peach orchard, there, one thousand and twenty-six miles. The reason I point to that peach orchard is this: William Clayton measured and kept a record of the dis- tance from the Missouri river to this valley, taking note of lead- 970 IMPROVEMENT ERA ing land marks, and in their absence, for five and ten-mile stretches he used for markers buffalo heads and buffalo skulls, as the country was strewn with them, in those days. Sometimes he would find a piece of wood and use that for a marker, to be driven into the ground. The buffalo skulls, of course, were loose. He got a piece of wood — something, as I remember, near the size of my hand, and drove it into the ground as the last marker, right down in that flat where that peach orchard is. It was a sandy spot then, but has since been made into an orchard. From the summit of the Big Mountain only a portion of this valley is visible, and President Young could scarcely have said, there, "This is the place," for the reason that he could not see it, except a small portion of the valley over there at the mouth of Bingham Canyon. A few square miles, lying on On the Summit of Big Mountain the other side of the valley, is visible from the summit of the Big Mountain. No other place, between there and here, gives a view of the whole valley as this does. Strange as it may appear, between that point of the mountain and the other point of the mountain, twenty-two miles to the south, I doubt if there is a spot where the whole valley is unfolded to the view in the same degree as it is from this place. I shall merely sketch to you a little of the road from the summit of the Big Mountain. Com- ing down on this side of the mountain it is very, very, steep, in- deed. After dead-locking (as we used to call it) both hind wheels of the wagons, for a distance of something near a quarter of a mile, even then the wagon would push the cattle or horses, CORRECT PLACING OF MONUMENT 971 as the case might be, and they would have great difficulty in keeping the road. After coming down the canyon, the company continued down that creek to what is now called The Dell. Afterwards it was Mayor Armstrong's ranch, and it now be- longs to the City. From there they came on down to what is called the foot of the Little Mountain. That lies five miles to the east here; down to the upper edge of what was at one time Dr. Seymour B. Young's farm; later purchased by the City, and it is now covered by the waters of the Parley's Creek Reservoir. On the Summit of Little Mountain From there they came up the Little Mountain one mile. It was very steep and the road very tortuous. Then down again on this side, three-quarters of a mile, to the foot. The old road is now very visible, as perhaps many of you have seen. In those days the canyon, above the foot of the Little Mountain was called Killian's Canyon, and on this side Emigration Canyon. One year before the coming of the Pioneers a company called the Donner Party — most of whom, or a large portion of whom, perished at Donner Lake by starvation, in the fall or winter of 1846-7 — they came down through this canyon, but did not stop to make a road. Coming down the canyon, in the absence of a road they had to follow the creek-bed as much as possible; and between the mouth of the canyon and the Little Mountain they crossed the creek thirteen times. When they got here to the mouth of the canyon there was a ledge of rocks that pushes its way down to the creek-bed. By the way, you may have noticed that all these canyons have a kind of a gateway, composed of hard rocks. Mill Creek canyon looks like it had been cut out with a knife, and also Big Cottonwood, Little Cot- tonwood and Ogden canyon, for the reason that there is a ram- 972 IMPROVEMENT ERA A View of the Old Pioneer Road on the Valley Side, Near the Summit of Little Mountain. part of rocks that faces this canyon range for a distance of one hundred miles, and all these canyons have a narrow passage way right at the mouth. The Donner party thought they could not get down over those rocks; neither could they, without some work; so they turned up over that hill yonder. It is barely visible, the top of it, from here. It is so steep that Elizabeth Donner, daughter of George Donner, who afterwards wrote the history of the trip, said they had to put oxen to the wagons, that reached all the way from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill, to pull the wagons up ; and then they went down this side of the creek and followed it straight to the Jordan river, crossing the Jordan river in what was afterwards called the Fifth ward pasture, right opposite to the Fifth ward, and then on to the west. When the vanguard of the Pioneers came along, they thought it better to work a passageway down the creek. So they stopped and broke off some of the rocks and cut down some of the trees. There was a large grove of trees growing right in CORRECT PLACING OF MONUMENT 973 the mouth of that defile. They cut off the trees and left the stumps about a foot high. It was a very stumpy piece of road, and a very rocky piece of road as well. Instead of coming over that exceedingly steep hill, they came down through here. When they got to the upper edge of this peach orchard, here, they could not get through. By the by, a good many have claimed that they went over what is called the Hogback — this ridge right below here. If you will go down there and note how the hogback was originally, you will see that was ab- solutely impossible; but I am inclined to think that even if they could, no view of the valley could be had from that point. That passageway was cut through there, at various times, from year to year; but originally it was absolutely impassable. They turned up to the right and came up pretty nearly where this present road is — and by the way, the old road is entirely obliter- ated, except a little stretch in the oak brush. If you care to go down there, after this meeting, you will find the remnant of the old Pioneer road, coming up through the oak-brush. From there down it has been dug away to get dirt and for various other reasons; so that scarcely any vestige, practically no vestige of the old road is left, except this little stretch, right down here in this patch of oak brush. From this point after getting out onto the bench, they struck almost due west. They went down off the bench on Ninth South, right there by Mrs. Gilmer's place. The reason for going down there was this: That bench originally, from the neighborhood of the High School, there, clean away up to the mouth of Dry Creek, was covered with rocks. They were hauled away in the course of the years, and were used for foundations in the houses. The hill was too rocky to make the passage down, but they found free passage on down Ninth South. They took a straight "bee-line," crossing City Creek, right behind the old Methodist Church. Years later the road was changed somewhat, and they struck off in a northwest direction, so they struck the bench where it com- mences to decline, at the head of Third South Street. Some of you may remember that in an early day Third South was called Emigration Street, and it was so called up until the last thirty years; for the reason that it was down that street the emi- grants poured, in those early days; not only the emigrants of the Latter-day Saints but the emigrants for California as well. I am very sorry that the name of that street was ever changed to Third South, for it was truly Emigration Street. Now, I don't know but I am trespassing on the time of the man who is to follow me. I want to say just a word or two in regard to the Pioneers; and if I say things in their favor, 1 want to distinctly disclaim that I am speaking of myselt. 1 was 974 IMPROVEMENT ERA only nine years old when we came to this place — a boy of ex- cellent memory, by the way. I came here involuntarily. I came with my parents, so I am not entitled to any of the praise that might be given to the Pioneers. If I had been a grown man and had the use of my own free will, I don't know that I would have had the courage to have embarked on such an enterprise. I have on my desk the names of the Pioneers of '47, exclusive of Hon. W. W. Riter the four hundred of the Mormon Battalion who came the same fall. There are in the neighborhood of sixteen hundred, I think. I frequently take it down and look it over, and I call up to my view, to my memory, the faces and the looks of hundreds of those pioneers, especially the men. Having an excellent mem- ory, as I told you, I can remember where their lots were, where they got their five-acre lots, their oxen and their horses, and many things pertaining to them. I have asked myself this ques- tion, many times : "What was it that gave those men the strength CORRECT PLACING OF MONUMENT 975 to endure the hardships that they endured?" You will re- member that when our people started from Nauvoo they only followed the setting sun. They did not know where they were going. There was an indefinite idea that they were going to California; for you may remember that in some of the old edi- tions of our hymn book there is a hymn : "In Upper California — Oh, that's the land for me!" True, this was California then; it was Mexican territory until February of the following year. They were led by a sublime faith. As I remember them, they were a class of men who could raise their hands to high heaven and say: "I know Joseph Smith is a prophet; I know that Brig- ham Young is his successor; I know that this is the Kingdom of God, and that it will triumph in the earth." It was this that sus- tained them; it was this that enabled them to endure the ter- rific hardships which they did endure. I have frequently said, and I repeat it now: The story and description of the hard- ships of the early Pioneers of this country never has been writ- ten, and I doubt if it can be written. Those honest souls who trudged over these arid places were buoyed by a power that they themselves did not understand. I doubt if Brigham Young himself, when he was on this spot — prostrated with mountain fever, which is a species of typhoid fever and most exhausting to the human frame — I doubt if he himself, prophet though he was, realized just what the power was that was with him. He said, "This is the place." When I came along with my parents, ten weeks later, and came to this same spot, and everybody, of course, got up on the hill here to view the valley, it struck me that this was not the place — (laughter and applause) — and if I had been a man, I don't know whether I would have had the courage to say: "We will stay here this winter." But that was not the case, as a rule, with the great band of pioneers. The most of them believed it was the place. I well remember I drove a yoke of oxen, hitched to a light wagon, from here to the valley; and from the marker, down there in the peach orchard, to this side of the old fort, where the Covey Brothers have built an apartment house, there used to be a spring. That water ran until a few years ago, when the sewer dried up that spring. Five hundred wagons had passed down there. The soil was very dry and it was cut up from four to six inches deep. I thought that was the longest five miles and the hottest afternoon that I had ever experienced. (Laughter.) I was not alone in my dismal forebodings; and I don't know that I was inexcusable, as a child, in my narrow vision, to have those dismal forebodings; but somehow, every- thing seemed dry and drear. I don't want to prolong my remarks; but I want to say this: 976 IMPROVEMENT ERA That marker says: "This is the place!" To the civilization that lies west of the Mississippi river that is the same kind of an emblem that Plymouth Rock is on the Atlantic coast, that marked the spot of the landing of the New England fathers (applause). That monument at Plymouth was the commence- ment of a civilization that has passed around the earth. This monument here is the marker of a civilization that has subdued this entire country between the Missouri river and the Pacific ocean (applause). And I just want to say: God bless those sturdy Pioneers; God bless their memories; God bless their faith; God bless their works, forever. Amen.