--A Barren Valley or a Legend Barren of Truth?

Persistently-propagandized Mormons have long claimed that when Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, he and his cohorts found the place to be devoid of trees--except, supposedly, for a single cedar, tenaciously clinging to life in a desolate wasteland that the Mormons boast to have (according to scriptural prophesy, of course) resurrected to resplendent glory.

Indeed, even today, Utah promotional shop-and-spend guides portray the Salt Lake Valley of invented 1847 fame to have been a veritable no-man's-land:

"Historically, the one-time desert wilderness [of Utah] was created by settlers seeking refuge from religious persecution, and neither barren land, nor drought or a plague of crickets could dissuade the Mormons from their purpose."

(“Salt Lake City Attractions,” at: http://www.attractionguide.com/salt_lake_city/)

Uh-huh. And if you believe that, I've got thousands of cricket-gorged seagulls to sell ya.
_____


--Actually, It's All Kid's Stuff

Here's a dose of reality from a Social Studies unit designed for Utah fourth-graders (which, apparently, is a learning level still far above that of many true-believing Mormons):

"There is a myth about the Salt Lake Valley. It says that the valley was a barren and lifeless desert with only one tree when the first Mormon pioneers arrived.

"Here is what the valley was really like when the Mormon pioneers first came. Much of it had rich, good soil. Wherever sagebrush grew, the soil was good, and sagebrush grew all over the valley. There were also tall grasses. Trees and bushes grew along all the streams and flowed from the mountains to the Jordan River and into the Great Salt Lake. On the mountains were forests of pine trees.”

(“Utah's Biomes: A Social StudiesUnit Created by Sarah Bennet, Fourth Grade,” at: http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnesF2000/sarben/bennett.htm)
_____


--Chopping Away at the Tall Tale

If a basic elementary school lesson isn't enough to convince brain-gutted, gullible Mormons of the facts on the ground, LDS historian Will Bagley put the silly "Lone Tree" fable to rest, once and for all, in an article for the Salt Lake Tribune, entitled "The Lone Tree Shrine: Fact And Fiction:"

"One of the most colorful fights over Utah's history--the Battle of the Cedar Tree Shrine--concerned what the Salt Lake Valley looked like when Brigham Young first saw it . . . .

"Salt Lake City schoolchildren used to be taught that the only tree growing in the valley when the Mormon pioneers arrived was a cedar (actually, a juniper) standing in the middle of what is now 600 East just below 300 South.

"Several 1847 journals reveal this simply wasn't so. The clerk of the Pioneer Camp, Thomas Bullock, wrote that the 'very extensive valley' was 'dotted in three or four places with Timber.'

"But facts seldom get in the way of a beloved legend, especially one that celebrated the belief that the Mormon pioneers found a wasteland and made the desert 'blossom as a rose.'

"True or not, the Lone Tree tale was enshrined in bronze on Pioneer Day in 1934 when the Daughters of Utah Pioneers erected a columned 'peristyle' shrine around what was left of the cedar on the median of 600 East.

"A plaque told how the pioneers of 1847 paused beneath the shade of the lone cedar to offer songs and prayers of gratitude.

"The 1847 Mormons actually missed the tree by a mile, since they followed the Donner Party trail to present-day 1700 South and took 'a strait road to a small Grove of Cotton Wood Trees' on City Creek at 300 South and State streets.

"[Also enshrined on the marker is the exaggeration that] the tree was a favorite 'trysting place' for lovers.

"But then, on the evening of September 21, 1958 . . . someone sawed off and absconded with the Lone Tree. The Daughters' president . . . noted how hard the society worked to preserve old relics and how discouraging it was when 'vandals come along and tear down our good work.'

"That might have been the end of the story had not an enterprising reporter phoned A.R. Mortensen, head of the [Utah] state historical society.

"'Kind of secretly,' the reporter asked the state's chief historian if he believed that the cedar was the only tree growing in the valley in 1847. Mortensen burst out laughing and asked, 'Hell no, do you?'

"That afternoon the front-page of the Deseret News claimed he had called the revered Lone Tree 'a historical fraud' and 'a dead stump with little historical value.'

"These offhand remarks ignited a firestorm and brought down the wrath of . . . 300,000 Daughters [of the Utah Pioneers] on Mortensen's unsuspecting head. The controversy nearly cost him his job and led the historical society's board to denounce the 'wanton destruction' of the Lone Tree and censure Mortensen's 'unfortunate comments.' Mortensen stuck to his guns. He was, after all, right. . . .

"The Lone Stump monument still stands, graced by a 1960 plaque that acknowledged there were other trees in the valley in 1847.

"But there's a part of this tale that has never been told in print--the solution to the mystery of the stolen cedar. Not long after the desecration, Salt Lake Tribune editor Art Deck got a call telling him to check a locker at the Greyhound Depot if he wanted to know the fate of the Lone Tree. Inside the locker was a sack containing the ashes of one of Utah's most beloved landmarks."

(Will Bagley, “The Lone Tree Shrine: Fact and Fiction,” in “The Salt Lake Tribune,” 23 July 2000, at: http://www.historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/history_matters/072300.html)


Still, the Mormon Church-owned "Deseret News" tried hard to perpetuate the myth. Read here, under the headline, "Pioneers Found Lone Cedar Tree Growing in Valley Upon Arrival":

"Whne the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, a bleak desert stretched out before them to the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Along the banks of the canyon streams, willows were growing but the first and only tree they saw was a lone cedar."

("Pioneers Found Lone Cedar Tree Growing in Valley Upon Arrival," in "Deseret News," 24 April 1947, at:http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19470424&id=JpRTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E4gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6816,3076591; included with this article is a photograph of this supposed "lone cedar tree," before it was chopped down by vandals a decaded later)


Alas, praise be to actual research. Even the "Deseret News" finally was forced to admit the single-tree0in-the-valley story was nothing but another Mormon-manufactured myth:

From its story headlined, "Most Likely Pioneers Didn't Find Desolate, Varren Valley: Area Had Plenty of Water and Trees, Historians Say":

"Pioneer legend paints a grim picture of the Salt Lake Valley — barren, harsh and a desert, save a lone cedar tree.

"In reality, say historians, the valley was well watered, with tall grasses and trees along the many stream banks.

"'One of the greatest myths of the Church is that the valley was total desolation,' said the late Dr. Stanley Kimball, a Utah historian. No pioneer diary accounts he ever found supported the desolate valley idea.

"Most of the paintings depicting the valley when the Mormon pioneers arrived look more like the west desert area than the Wasatch Front.

"Richard Jackson, professor of geography at Brigham Young University, did extensive research in the 1970s on what the Salt Lake Valley was really like when the pioneers arrived. . . .

"Many diary accounts support that the Salt Lake Valley was more green that history paintings illustrate:

"William Clayton's journal for July 22, 1847, records his first view of the Salt Lake Valley and comments on the land between the mountains and the Great Salt Lake:

"'The intervening valley appears to be well supplied with streams, creeks and lakes, some of the latter are evidently salt. There is but little timber in sight anywhere, and that is mostly on the banks of streams and creeks of water, which is almost the only objection which could be raised in my estimation to this being one of the most beautiful valleys and pleasant places for a home for the Saints which could be found.'

"Jackson said on Sept. 9, 1847, Brigham Young cautioned the Saints before he left to return to Winter Quarters that in 'selecting your firewood, it will be wisdom to choose that which is dry and not suitable for timber of any kind, and we wish all the green timber and shrubbery in the city to remain as it is . . .'

"Henry Bigler noted in his diary in October of 1848 that he commenced building a house. 'I began to make preparations to build me a house on a city lot . . . situated in a very nice part of the city on City Creek, a nice little grove of Box-Elder and Cottonwood on it.'

"Thomas Bullock, clerk of the Mormon pioneer camp, wrote that the valley was 'dotted in three or four places with timber.'

"'A valley of about 28 miles wide lay before us the most of it covered with good grass and various other vegetables. but timber was handy,' is what Levi Jackman, a member of the original Mormon pioneer group to enter the Salt Lake Valley, wrote . . . about his first impression.

"There was enough water in the Salt Lake Valley of 1847--even in mid-summer--that the first recorded pioneer death was from drowning, not from thirst. Milton H. Therkill, a 3-year-old boy, fell in City Creek and drowned on Aug. 11, 1847.

"Jackson believes when the leaders and members of the pioneer companies of 1847 talked about the lack of timber, they were apparently comparing it to the Midwest and also recognizing that it would be a challenge since their homes had been built primarily of wood, and wood was the primary fuel source. Within a few days of arrival they found lumber in the mountains."

("Pioneers Didn't Find Desolate, Varren Valley: Area Had Plenty of Water and Trees, Historians Say," by Lynn Arave, "Deseret News," 24 July 2004, at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595079483/Most-likely-pioneers-didnt-find-desolate-barren-valley.html?pg=all)
_____


--Getting to the Root of It All

As usual, inconvenient historical facts end up proving just how easily Mormons can be stumped. However Mormon faithful and its Church-owned newspaper may wish to spin it, the lone-tree myth is a lumbering lie. Even the "Deseret News" notes that the supposed lone cedar tree was eventually chopped down by vandals:

"[A] [p]laque on [a] monument gives the history of the 'Lone Cedar Tree.' Vandals chopped down the tree in 1958."

(ibid)


Here's a picture of the monument erected in honor of that mythical Mormon tree, dubbed the "Cedar Tree Shrine":

http://img.deseretnews.com/images/article/midres/590078485/590078485.jpg


And here's what the is misnamed tree's associated plagues report:

"Plague A: 'LONE CEDAR TREE--Although willows grew along the banks of the streams a Lone Cedar Tree near this spot became Utah's first famous landmark. Someone in a moment of thoughtlessness cut it down, leaving only the stump which is a part of this monument. 'In the glory of my prime I was the pioneer's friend.' Central Co.'

"Plaque B: 'THE CEDAR TREE SHRINE--Erected July 24, 1933, by Daughters of Salt Lake County The street to the north was originally Emigration Road--the only approach from the east. Over this road the pioneers of 1847 and subsequent years entered the valley of the Great Salt Sea. They found growing near this site a lone cedar and paused beneath its shade. Songs were sung and prayers of gratitude offered by those early pilgrims. Later the cedar tree became a meeting place for the loggers going to the canyons. Children played beneath its branches. Lovers made it a trysting place. Because of its friendly influence on the lives of these early men and women we dedicate this site to their memory.'"

More data on this chunk of Mormon fairy-tale deadwood:

"Site Information:
Location: 316 S 600 East
SALT LAKE CITY , 84102
SALT LAKE County
On center grass strip

"Marker Information:
Placed By: Daughters of Utah Pioneers
Date Placed: 1930
Materials: Bronze
Organization Comments: 2 D.U.P. Markers
Marker Condition: Good
Condition Comments: Plaque B oxidized

"Monument Information:
Constructed By: Daughters of Utah Pioneers
Materials: Wood, concrete
Dimensions (top): 20' H
Dimensions (base): 5' Diameter
Condition: Good
Condition Comments: Portion of tree missing"

("Markers and Monuments Database: Lone Cedar Tree," "Utah Dvision of State History," at: http://heritage.utah.gov/apps/history/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2467)
_____


Information on the Condition of the LDS Lone-Tree Tall Tale: Destroyed

TIMMMMMMMMMMMBER to another Mormon lyin' legend.



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2014 05:00PM by steve benson.

our FIRST New Year's pun!

From reading family journals it appears there were many trees, just not enough to support building and fuel needs.

There are numerous mentions of trips up the canyons to gather firewood.

Of course with any society there are those that choose to live of labor of others. Such was the case in early Bountiful where there was a thief stealing hard won firewood.

No one knew who the thief was. Great grandpa took matters into his own hands. He hollowed out a nice piece of firewood and filled it with gunpowder. They soon discovered who the thief was when someone stole the powder filled log and tossed it into their stove.

I believe the some facts....small amounts of unusable timber in the valley gets overplayed and exaggerated at the expense of the full truth that plenty of timber was available nearby.

lol, that gunpowder story is awesome.

John Peter DeSmet told Bringum that the railroad was going to be built in Utah and to stake out the land and the church would get rich from it.

That is the only logical explanation for why the morg settled next to a putrid, dying basin of salt water.

The reason the government let them have Utah in the first place was because they needed it settled to justify putting a railroad through there and no one was dumb enough to settle next to the Great Brine Lake except for the treasonous mormon cult.

Think about it. That's why the Army didn't take them out when they had the chance.

so, it was the extended way of the rich tradition: penal colony.
"A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony

i have kind of liked the interpretation that isaiah 35:1 is not about lds pioneers but future native amerikans as in d#C 49:24....

Wilford Woodruff's journal for July 24, 1847 states:

"We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile
valley which lay for about 25 miles in length & 16 miles in
wedth Clothed with the Heaviest garb of green vegitation in the
midst of which lay a large lake of Salt water of [ ] miles
in extent in which could be seen large Islands & mountains
towering towards the Clouds also the glorious valley abounding
with the best fresh water springs rivlets creeks & Brooks &
Rivers of various sizes all of which gave animation to the
sporting trout & other fish while the waters were wending there
way into the great Salt lake."

However on July 3, 1880, this same Wilford Woodruff said:

"When we came here thirty-three years ago we found this place a
barren desert. There was no mark of the white man here• It was
a desert indeed, hardly a green thing to meet the eye."


As BKP has said, "some things that are true are not useful."

Ignoring, as is traditional, the possibility that Native Americans lived in that 'hood, I heard a long time ago that there were European descent settlers living in the valley prior to the B.Y. & company arrival who were driven off, killed or assimilated by the Mormons. Anybody know if this was true?

Fur traders, explorers, and other travelers passed through Utah before the Mormons' arrival, but in 1847 the only permanent white settler was trapper Miles Goodyear. He began Fort Buenaventura, near present-day Ogden, in 1845, completing it in 1846, and lived there with his Native wife, their children, and some Indian helpers. He sold out to the Mormons in late 1847.

I don't know where stories of pre-Mormon white settlers come from, unless they're somehow related to tales of "lost mines," allegedly found by Spanish explorers who ran afoul of the indigenous peoples and were killed off or driven out.

General Conference reports parrot the hell-on-earth myth, describing the Salt Lake Valley as:

"... barren desert wasteland ...."

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/be-anxiously-engaged?lang=eng


" ... a vast desert wasteland, barren of green hills, trees, and beautiful meadows ...."

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/the-past-way-of-facing-the-future?lang=eng&clang=ase


As does the Ensign magazine:

" ... a valley bleached and barren by the desert sun, a vast lake bottom, a wasteland ...."

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=0b8b57b60090c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1


True to form, however, another official LDS source provides a contradictory (but this time, accurate!) description of the Valley at the time the Mormons moved in. Contemporaneous journal accounts (quoted in "The Mormon Legacy in the History of the American West") read as follow:

“'The soil looks indeed rich, black and a little sandy. The grass is about four feet high and very thick on the ground and well mixed with rushes. . . . This land is beautifully situated for irrigation, many nice streams descending from the mountains which can be turned in every direction so as to water any portion of the lands at pleasure.'”
...
[The area is] "' ... watered by numerous Brooks & Rivulets perpetualy flowing out of the mountains on every side, filled with Trout, which, with the various kinds of rich grass & rushes, renders it one of the best grazing countrys that can be found.'"
...
“'We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley which lay for about 25 miles in length & 16 miles in wedth Clothed with the Heaviest garb of
green vegitation in the midst of which lay a large lake of Salt water . . . in which could be seen large Islands & mountains towering towards the Clouds also the glorious valley abounding with the best fresh water springs rivlets creeks & Brooks & Rivers of various sizes all of which gave animation to the sporting trout & other fish while the waters were wending there way into the great Salt lake.'”

"The Mormon Legacy in the History of the American West," p. 7, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2009. (Linked at https://www.google.com/#q=site%3Alds.org+%22The+soil+is+deep%2C+rich%2C+black%2C+and+mixed+with+sand%22 )


Do I feel an "essay" coming?

I was specifically taught this myth as a child and young adult. With the added story that fellow Mormon con man and entrepreneur, Samuel Brannan, urged "Brother Brigham" to move to the gold filled California (Mexican) territory. Of course the spiritual Prophet, BY, was inspired to stay in the "barren valley" because no one else would want to live in a dessert other than TBMs.

I used to get so angry when I thought of my childhood mentors and friends lying so blatantly to me. As I have read (here and elsewhere) I have come to accept they were passing on lies and believed they were teaching me the gospel.

I forgive them.

I do not forgive the vile Joe Smith or Brigham Young.

*sigh*
I used to write as Threadkiller but someone has this name now...but I still kill threads.

Few people bother to research what the environment of Utah was like when the first Mormons showed up and most people have relied on hand-me-down versions of those early experiences. And those first settlers had their own opinions about what constituted a desert.

For people coming to the territory from the eastern U.S. or northern Europe, Utah was all part of the Great American Desert. To these people who were accustomed to regular rainfall and green landscapes, Utah must have seemed desolate and barren. Isolation must have made it seem even more so. And this is the perspective and experience that they've passed on to subsequent generations. (There is probably a little too of, "When I was a kid I had to walk three miles in the snow to school - uphill both ways.")

Certainly, some members know the fuller history of Utah. In my geography class at BYU (circa 1974) the professor read to us a pre-Mormon explorer's account of the Utah Lake area (I think it was the 1776 Escalante expedition) that described how green and lush the valley was, and that the thick grass came up as high as the bellies of their horses. Mormon folklore is misleading on this, but it only reflects the cultural geographic preferences of the original settlers themselves.

There are numerous other examples of other 19th century settlers to exotic areas (Hawaii comes to mind) where their expectations were based on what they thought was proper and normal as defined in London or Boston. Proper brick or clapboard houses and green meadows. And no naked breasts.

To Escalante, coming from southern Spain and then later from New Mexico, Utah seemed pretty verdant. Modern members aren't familiar with the historical context and unknowingly continue to recount the experience of the first settlers to whom Utah seemed a desert. And the early settlers did accomplish a great deal. Their learning and applying irrigation techniques that were not part of their farming background was a remarkable success story.

I have often wondered why Young didn't take Brannan's advice to come to California, but it was probably better that the Mormons stayed in Utah. California was politically very unstable, and given the Mormon's poor history of getting along with their neighbors, I can see why Young decided to stay where he could control the whole show.

Well said Markj.

And then years later: "It was a barren desert."

AND that person is prominent in the ruling organization, you can pretty safely rule out everything EXCEPT a faith promoting lie.

Let's face it, the "Lone Cedar" is a story designed to make Mormons look like the brave, enterprising folks that some of them were and most of them weren't.

I was taught this myth as a child too. Glad to see it is getting the boot as well.

Just wondering--do you have info on the seagull story? I don't know if you've covered it before or if anyone else has on exmo, but I haven't ever read anything on here about it.

OMG, Steve.....

Must you cut down and burn every misguided myth... er, I mean faith-promoting story we've ever heard about Utah & Mormons??

Can't we hold on to at least ONE??

Lemmie see, I'm sure I can think of at least ONE....

*sigh*

Stumped.

The same kind of dishonesty about a barren, unattended desert is used regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

And Mormons love making the comparison of Jerusalem and SLC being next to a dead sea.

When I was young I used to think that this was "proof". 8)

I was searching for a picture of the monument and found information about an actual Lone Tree monument in Nebraska:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Tree_Monument

"Lone Tree was a solitary cottonwood tree, which stood on the north side of the Platte River about three miles southwest of where Central City is located. The trunk of the tree was about 10 to 12 feet in circumference at the base and was about 50 feet tall. It was a landmark, it was claimed, which could be seen for 20 miles across the prairie by early travelers.
Native Americans knew the tree and named it (though the name is not known) before the pioneers came. Legend has it that Native American chiefs held council under its shade.

It was a landmark for pioneers as early as 1833. In 1858, it was selected by Western Stage Co. as the site for the Lone Tree Station.

In 1865, a great storm blew the tree over. The tree had died in 1863 and this was thought the consequence of two factors. First, as pioneers passed along the Overland Trail and Mormon Trail, they made carvings in its bark, thereby gradually destroying it. Second, pioneers often built campfires at the base of the tree, which may have further weakened it."

I wouldn't be surprised if BY wanted to co-opt this idea for his center of power, SLC. Cedar trees have a more biblical connection so it seems natural that the mythical tree in SLC would be identified as a cedar.

. . . including site details and photographs, at: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1126129,1126129#msg-1126129



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2014 04:44PM by steve benson.

The Mormons:

Sawing away at reality until it fits mythology.