It was a disappointment in a way. Messengers had brought back the word that the main party had entered the Valley two days before. Nathan sighed, and then shrugged. So it would be July twenty-fourth and not July twenty-second for him. What were two days in the grand scheme of things?
“There it is.”
Nathan’s head came up. He had not been paying attention and suddenly realized that they had come to the canyon’s mouth and that the Valley lay before him. He reined in, stunned by the sudden openness.
“Whoa,” Heber said softly to his horse, which seemed to have picked up the group’s excitement. He looked at Nathan. “I’d say that’s big enough.”
At the sound of a wagon, they turned. Wilford Woodruff’s light wagon was just emerging from the canyon. Nathan was a little surprised that he was that close behind them. Then he smiled. No, not really. In the back of Wilford Woodruff’s wagon was a bed. And in that bed was President Brigham Young. It was he who was urging Elder Woodruff ahead with all speed, of that Nathan was sure. Last night Brigham had wanted to ride his horse into the Valley, but over his protests the brethren had prevailed upon him to stay in his bed for at least one more day.
“It looks like they went that way,” Heber said, pointing to a gentle ridge above them. The wagon tracks were clearly evident.
They turned and rode to the top, then stopped to wait for their President. In a moment, Elder Woodruff could be heard urging his team up the hill. Thus far, none of the other wagons had appeared behind him, suggesting again that President Young had urged Elder Woodruff to proceed with full haste.
As Elder Woodruff’s wagon came up behind them, Nathan saw that someone had rolled up the canvas partway on both sides of the wagon, then tied it in place, allowing Brigham to see out either side. Now Nathan saw that Brother Brigham was up on one elbow, craning his neck to see better.
“I can’t see that much, Brother Wilford,” Brigham called out as they reached the spot where Brother Kimball and Nathan were waiting.
“Turn the carriage around, Wilford,” Heber suggested.
Wilford nodded and swung the wagon around in a large circle. When he stopped, the side of the wagon faced to the northwest. Wanting to hear Brigham’s reaction to what lay before them, Nathan nudged his horse closer. As the wagon stopped, both Elder Kimball and Elder Woodruff got down and moved to their companion. Reaching through the open canvas, they helped Brigham into a half-sitting position.
There was not a sound other than the stamping of horses and the soft jingling of the harnessing. For a long time, Brigham gazed out over the Valley. Nathan could not take his eyes from off the chief Apostle’s face. He was wrapped in concentration. His eyes were open and yet they did not sweep back and forth to take in the width of the scene before them. It was as though he were seeing something directly before him, something of such wonder that nothing else could draw his attention.
It seemed to go on for several minutes. No one spoke or moved. Finally, Nathan saw Brigham’s body relax somewhat. He sank down a little and turned to Elder Woodruff. There was a soft smile now and his eyes were filled with pleasure. “It is enough, Wilford. This is the right place. Drive on.”
Chapter Notes
Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow were the first to enter the Salt Lake Valley on Wednesday, July twenty-first. The main company entered the Valley the next day about four p.m. Brigham Young did not enter until about midday on the twenty-fourth of July. Because it was his vision that had guided the Saints to this place, the twenty-fourth became the official day of entry.
While the conversation of the Saints on seeing the Valley is based on actual comments written later by those who were there, most of what is said here does not come directly from the journals. William Clayton’s “happily disappointed” comment does come from his 22 July journal entry.
On the day Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley, Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal, “President Young expressed his full satisfaction in the Appearance of the valley as A resting place for the Saints & was Amply repayed for his Journey.” It was in a conference much later that Elder Woodruff gave more details: “When we came out of the canyon into full view of the valley, I turned the side of my carriage around, open to the west, and President Young arose from his bed and took a survey of the country. While gazing on the scene before us, he was enwrapped in vision for several minutes. He had seen the valley before in vision, and upon this occasion he saw the future glory of Zion and of Israel, as they would be, planted in the valleys of these mountains. When the vision had passed, he said: ‘It is enough. This is the right place, drive on.’ ” (Cited in B. H. Roberts,
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century I,
6 vols. [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930], 3:224.)
It is an interesting coincidence that though they had no way of knowing it, the main body of the Mormon Battalion left Pueblo de Los Angeles on the twenty-third of July at the very time when the Saints had finally reached the Salt Lake Valley.
Today, Big Mountain and Little Mountain still carry the same names. What the Pioneers called “Last Canyon” is now Emigration Canyon. The famous This Is the Place Monument stands not far from the mouth of that canyon. Those interested in following this portion of the Mormon Trail can find interpretive signs or historical markers at Echo Canyon (beside the westbound rest stop on I-80), Henefer, Hogsback Summit (the current name for Pratt’s Pass or Reed’s Pass), Mormon Flats (at the eastern base of Big Mountain), on the top of Big Mountain, at the summit of Little Mountain, and at the site of the last camp in Emigration Canyon. There is also a small monument just a short distance up Emigration Canyon noting what has come to be called Donner Hill.
The Donners took approximately sixteen days to cut a road from Henefer into the Salt Lake Valley. The next year the Saints would cover the same distance in four days. Thus, though their journey ended in tragedy, the Donner Party proved to be a great blessing to the Pioneer Company.
Chapter 47
As they dismounted at the base of the rounded hill, Nathan watched President Young carefully. He climbed gingerly down from Elder Woodruff’s wagon, looking pale and tired. Nathan saw his hands trembling a little as he held on to the tailgate of the wagon. Nathan and Elder Woodruff exchanged looks, but the Apostle gave a slight shake of his head and Nathan decided it was not his place to say anything. Brigham stood there for a moment, as though collecting his strength, and then he looked up.
Nathan let his eyes follow. They had ridden north about a mile and a half from the encampment on City Creek to where the foothills started rising above the north end of the Valley. This one rounded peak—or better, this knob, for that was what it was—stood apart from the others. It reminded Nathan of the head of a Franciscan monk with his bald pate and a ring of hair around his ears. In this case, the baldness was the rounded top of the peak itself. The hair—really only on one side—was an outcropping of rocks on the west side of the hill.
“I’d like to go to the top.”
Several heads jerked around. “President,” Heber C. Kimball said, “are you sure you are strong enough to climb?”
“Yes, yes,” he said impatiently, waving his hand. “I’m forty-six, brethren, not eighty-six. Don’t wait for me. You go on up and I’ll get there as soon as these old knees will carry me.”
Heber motioned for the others to go. “I’ll come up with him. You go on.”
From the top the view was spectacular. Directly west, like an azure mirror placed on a brown-gray tabletop, the Great Salt Lake stretched northward as far as the eye could see. Its south end was directly west of them, but in the other direction they could not see where it ended. To the south, the great emptiness of the Valley lay before them. The only thing in the whole expanse that drew the eye was the encampment. There the cluster of wagons was lined up along the first dark squares of the plowed fields. Nathan squinted a little, seeing the tiny figures of horses and men starting on a new plot, and wondered if one of them was Derek or Peter.
The main company had entered the Valley on Thursday. By the time Brigham Young’s group came in about midday on Saturday, they had more than five acres plowed and planted in potatoes, and had what they were calling City Creek dammed and turned into furrows to water the fields.
They had rested yesterday and joined in worship services, which primarily were services of thanksgiving. Today, Monday, the plowing was under way again, with sowers bringing in the other crops—oats, buckwheat, beans, anything that would grow rapidly—right behind them.
Nathan turned and walked to the north side of the knob and looked down. Brigham Young was coming slowly, following the trail the others had made, Heber Kimball on one arm, Willard Richards on the other. Brigham was using Elder Richards’s walking stick, and he leaned on it heavily as they moved along. Nathan watched until they reached the top; then, along with the other men, he moved over to join those who were waiting.
Brigham took almost five minutes to catch his breath, standing on the edge of the hill on the south side, gazing out across the Valley. The others in the exploration party said nothing but just stood back and waited.
Finally, their President turned and came back to join them. “Brethren, gather in close. There are some things I would like to say before we continue on with our task today.”
The men edged in closer, anxious to hear. He motioned to Heber, who, seeming to know what Brigham was after, withdrew a Bible from the bag he had carried up the hill. He handed it to the senior Apostle. Brigham immediately began leafing through the book until he found the place he was looking for. He closed the book with his finger in it and turned back to the men.
“Centuries before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah foretold great things which were to come on the earth in the latter days. Some of those things are now found in the Book of Mormon. Other things Isaiah said were quoted by the angel Moroni when he came that first night to the Prophet Joseph Smith back in September of eighteen twenty-three. Let me read one of the things Moroni quoted from Isaiah. This is in chapter eleven.” He opened the book and began to read in a loud voice. “ ‘And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left. . . . And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.’ ”
He closed the book again and looked from face to face. He still looked pale, but his voice was strong and filled with power. “Brethren, we have come to our new gathering place, and in fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, uttered so long ago, I would here like to raise an ensign to the nations. Brother Heber.”
To Nathan’s surprise, Heber already had a large handkerchief out of his pocket. He began to tie it to one end of Willard Richards’s walking stick. When he was done, he held it up high and waved it back and forth in the air.
“There is our ensign, brethren,” Brigham continued, standing straight, his eyes fired with new energy. “It is the banner which signals to all the nations of the earth to come home to their God. From this place we issue the call for all to gather to the house of Israel.”
The only sound now in the afternoon air was the snapping of the cloth as the makeshift banner was caught by the hot wind.
“Brethren,” Brigham went on after several moments, “I feel to share with you an experience. After the death of Joseph Smith, when it seemed as if every trouble and calamity had come upon the Saints, we of the Twelve sought the Lord to know what we should do, and where we should lead the people for safety. I knew of Joseph’s vision of the Rocky Mountains. As you know, he was preparing an expedition to go to the Rocky Mountains when he was called back to Nauvoo and then went on to Carthage to give his life. But I did not know what we should do once he was killed. Were we to continue to plan to go west?
“While I and others of the Twelve were fasting and praying daily on this subject, one night I had a vision of Joseph Smith. He showed me a mountain, a peak. While I gazed upon it in vision, an ensign fell upon that peak. Even as I watched, Joseph said to me, ‘Build under the point where the colors fall and you will prosper and have peace.’ ”
Nathan felt as if his whole body were tingling. And he had thought they came up here simply to get a grand overview of the Valley.
“We had no professional pilot or guide. Many wanted to show us the way, but we did not engage them, even though none among us had ever been in this country or knew anything about it. However, as I have said on many occasions when you have asked me where we were going, ‘I shall know it when I see it.’ Well, brethren, two days ago I reached this valley. I had Elder Woodruff turn his carriage so I could see better. And do you know what I was looking for?”
He watched them as he saw comprehension dawn. “Yes, my brethren, I was looking for this very peak. This is what I saw in vision that night, and the moment I saw it day before yesterday I
knew
that this was the right place. That is why I wanted to come here today.”
There was a faint smile as he saw the reaction of his brethren. Like Nathan, they had had no idea what his intentions had been.
“This is Ensign Peak, brethren,” Brigham said softly. “Now, go where you will. Send out your exploring parties to the east and west, to the north and south. You will always return and say this is the best spot to build our city, just as Brother Joseph showed me before we ever left Winter Quarters.”
Matthew was sitting beneath the shade of a huge oak tree that spread its branches wide over the flatlands near the last crossing of the North Platte River. He was watching two wagons from one of the emigrant companies that had arrived the previous night. They were not at the ferry; they were directly in front of him, just approaching the main channel of the river. The North Platte was no longer a fearsome sight. Down to no more than twenty or thirty yards across now, it was no deterrent to these two families.