Lofty Plans

The valley beneath the Wasatch Mountains was fertile but dry.  Brigham Young planned to divert mountain streams into irrigation canals.  He told his people, "No person can buy land here for no one has any land to sell.  But every man shall have his land measured out to him which he must cultivate in order to keep it.  There is no private ownership of the canyon streams, nor the timber that grows on the hills.  Those belong to the people." 

Each adult male Mormon was to be awarded a town lot and his share of farmland.  The temple would cover 40 acres, the streets 88 feet wide, and the sidewalks 20 feet wide.  Each lot would contain 1 1/4 acre with 8 lots to a block.

Young was determined to shun all Gentile influence.  His community would be the State of Deseret (after the Mormon word for honeybee because of its industriousness and cooperation).  Young's own house was called the Beehive House. 

The planned Mormon state would cover all of present day Utah and extend through much of the territory gained by the United States from Mexico in California, down to San Diego where there would be a Mormon port.  Young vowed to acknowledge the government's ultimate sovereignty but little else - especially direct control. Eventually most of the Far West came under the US government's control which was not in Young's plans.

Next time...The Starving Time
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This Day in Pioneer History: "On June 19, 1868, Father De Smet talks peace with Sitting Bull.  Attempting to convince hostile Indians to make peace with the United States, the Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet meets with the great Sioux Chief Sitting Bull in present-day Montana.