"This is the right place. Drive on"

Western America is coming of age. The march of time is bringing centennials to the fore in the area "beyond the Missouri." The "wild and woolly" West, which is no longer either "wild" or "woolly," can now take its place with the "solid and substantial" East, because when a section celebrates its one-hundredth birthday it certainly is entitled to be considered as being grown-up. Of the intermountain States, Utah's centennial comes first. Because of the historical background and the circumstances surrounding the founding of Utah, people in all of the Western States have a direct interest in the one-hundredth anniversary of the Bee-hive State.

In reality the marking of the centennial of the coming of the Mormon Pioneers to the Rocky Mountains is of special interest to persons in every State in the American Union and in every civilized nation in the world. Certainly no other State will have its centennial celebrated so widely or by people of so many nationalities.

Utah's centennial is most unique. It marks not only the anniversary of the settlement of an American State, it commemorates one of the greatest mass movements in the history of the world; and more, in its fulfillment of prophecy, both ancient and modern, it signalizes the establishment in the heart of the Great American Desert of a type of government and community culture unlike anything previously recorded.

Of the first government established by the Mormon Pioneers, Historian Bancroft wrote, "There is only one example in the annals of America of the organization of a commonwealth upon principles of pure theocracy." And that is exactly what it was. For the first two years particularly, practically all the inhabitants were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They had come here for their religion and had been led here by their religious leaders. They had been driven from their homes because of their religion and for self-preservation had banded together and traveled into the wilderness where the only law was Church law. When they reached the mountains Church law still prevailed.

Their leader, Brigham Young, said, "We are looking for a place no one else wants"—and they chose Salt Lake Valley.

To some ultra-purists this establishment of Church law and its maintenance for a time may seem objectionable as being a merger of Church and State. To better appreciate both the necessity and desirability of such procedure, suppose we look at the conditions existing at that time.

What is now Utah was then Mexico. To the northwest was a roughly defined area known as Oregon. It included northwestern Utah, part of Idaho, part of northern California and all of the present Oregon and Washington. British fur interests had sought for years to establish a foothold for British colonies in that area. Beyond "Oregon" was Canada and still farther Alaska, then owned by Russia.

To the southwest was a section, unsurveyed and bounded only in the most general terms, called "Upper California." As the Mormon Pioneers trudged over the plains in oxteam trains, in handcart companies and in other groups, they frequently broke the monotony with music. Next to the Mormon classic "Come, Come, Ye Saints, No Toil Nor Labor Fear," one of the most popular songs was "The Upper California."

This then was the setting into which the Mormon Pioneers came. There was no government; there was no law. Mexico owned the land, but it had not been colonized. The Mexican war was on. The Mormon Pioneers had sent 500 of their most active young men into the armed forces of the United States to help bring that conflict to a successful conclusion.

Under these conditions, Brigham Young and his Pioneer Company of 143 men, 3 women and 2 boys, filed out of Emigration Canyon and "set up house" near the very heart of the Rocky Mountain area.

The Mormons had a wide choice from which to select a site for the city and the empire they were prepared to build around it. There was no colonization to speak of west of the Missouri, north of the Mexico border, south of Canada or east of California. In both "Oregon" and "Lower California" colonization had begun but on a limited scale. The whole of the Rocky Mountain area at least was at the disposal of the Camp of Israel. So here they "raised their banners" and established a community under ecclesiastical law. With the arrival of non-Mormons, civil law was established by the Mormon leaders.

The selection of the valley of the Great Salt Lake as the central headquarters for the transplanted Church violated all rules of human judgment. None of the explorers or trappers who were familiar with the mountains advanced a single point in favor of the establishment of colonies there. To the contrary, all the advice was to go to California with its semi-tropical climate, or to Oregon where nature had smiled much more generously than on the barren wastes concerning which the Saints were asking so many questions.

Brigham Young was deaf to any appeal from within or without that would lead his people from the place he had already described to them. He had said, "We are looking for a place nobody else wants." Latter-day Saints believe his decision was not the result of the Pioneer leader's determination to follow a course once charted without deviating either to the right or the left. Wilford Woodruff, in whose carriage Brigham Young was riding because of illness, gives the explanation that Mormons accept without hesitation. In describing the history-making episode that occurred on July 24, 1847, when President Young had his first view of the Salt Lake Valley and the lake beyond, Wilford Woodruff said: "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 planted in the Valley." At any rate, no one else wanted the Rocky Mountain Valley and the Mormons did. A hundred-year period has supplied full vindication of this decision from many angles.

When the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on July 24, 1847, President Brigham Young and his followers hoped and believed that at last they had found a homė where religious, political and economic peace would be their lot for years to come.

While their dreams came true in part, and at times seemed possible of complete fulfillment in the early days, it has taken most of the past century fully to remove the persecution and conflict that followed the Saints more than a thousand miles into the wilderness.

And they settled in the West and the ancient prophecy was fulfilled: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and If any of the Pioneers harbored the notion that with the establishment of Zion in the Salt Lake Valley their Pioneer days were over, they were doomed to disappointment. Their mission was not only to found a city: they had come to the West to establish a Church and an empire to support that Church. When Brigham Young drove into the Salt Lake Valley there were more than 20,000 members of the Church in the East, most of them at Winter Quarters on the west bank of the Missouri River. Most of these members were already preparing to come West.

In the three weeks President Young and his companions spent in the Valley that first year, before returning to the body of the Church in Nebraska, foundations for the city were laid, the site for the great Temple had been selected and explorations had been made into surrounding territory in every direction. Leaving most of the pioneering company to carry out the plans for that first winter, the Church leaders returned to the East to organize for the migrations of the following years. With the coming of spring in 1848 the real Mormon migration was on in earnest. The advance company, which had arrived July 24, 1847, was joined in September and October by 2,000 others under the leadership of Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor, making a sizeable community to begin the building of Zion that first winter.

While July 24 is Utah's official Pioneer Day, July 21, 22 and 23 also are historic days. The entry of Brigham Young's company into the Salt Lake Valley was not one grand triumphal march. The first of the scouts arrived in the evening of July 21; the last, the official company, including the Pioneer leader, about noon three days later. Brigham Young had been taken ill by what was then called mountain fever and was forced to halt for rest. But time was precious. He directed that an advance company be formed under Orson Pratt, apostle, astronomer, mathematician and explorer who had been the principal scout for the entire distance. This party preceded the main company all the way into the Valley. Erastus Snow, who had carried instructions from Brigham Young regarding the location of the site for the city and the place to plant their crops, joined Orson Pratt on the afternoon of July 21 and together they made the historic entry into Salt Lake Valley. By the morning of July 22, other wagons had joined the advance company and under the leadership of Willard Richards, all the wagons, except those in the rear company, entered the "promised land" and made camp. In the meantime, on the same day, Orson Pratt, still in command of the advance group, selected nine men, including himself, to explore the Valley and make one of the most momentous decisions ever made in the founding of a city. Considerations too numerous to record were constantly before them. Also, they had definite suggestions from their leader. By nightfall the die had been cast and the site of the Latter-day Zion had been selected.

On July 23, the wagons moved north from the camp of the previous night and by noon, modern irrigation had had its birth. First the earth, which had been baked so hard that the first plows were broken, was flooded, then furrows were made and potatoes planted. That night the weary travelers made the first permanent camps in more than three months. Brigham Young's personal and official entry into the future home of the Saints was made without ostentation or fanfare. Shortly after noon, his company emerged from the canyon and he became the principal actor in a simple drama that will be reenacted in every part of the civilized world in this Centennial year. The short dramatic episode over, the President, who was still ill and was riding in an improvised bed in the back of the carriage of Wilford Woodruff, said simply: "This is the right place. Drive on." It was four miles to the Pioneer Camp which was reached at 2 o'clock.

The rest permitted the Pioneers in their new home was very brief. It lasted one day-Sunday. Monday morning, Brigham Young, ill though he was, led the first exploring group to the hills overlooking the Valley. From one eminence, which they named Ensign Peak, they had an excellent view of the entire Valley of the Great Salt Lake. At this point it is roughly thirty miles wide and fifty miles long. From that initial exploration the Mormon Pioneers spread out over practically all of the West. By 1849 when the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had been made with Mexico, explorations had extended virtually to the Canadian and Mexican borders, to California and all of the Southwest. From each of these wide regions the explorers brought to their leader detailed information. When the first civil government was formed, the Provisional State of Deseret, its boundaries included not only all of the inter-mountain region, but extended to and included a short stretch of the Pacific coastline. President Young was not modest in his desires. An immense tract of land was claimed "extending from latitude 33° to the border of Oregon and from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevadas, together with a section of territory now included in Southern California, and the strip of coast lying between Lower California and 118° 30′ of western longitude."

The area embraced all of the present Utah and Nevada, part of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Reaching to the Pacific Coast, it followed the coastline to a point nearly opposite the southern end of the Sierra Nevada Range, then east to the mountains and north along the crest of the Sierras to the Oregon border. From this point the boundary followed east through Idaho and into the present Wyoming.

Within the borders of Brigham Young's Provisional State of Deseret were included the watersheds from which every stream of water that enters Boulder (Hoover) Dam arises. Instead of organizing this area under its requested name, Deseret, the Pioneers were compelled to form the Territory of Utah, containing but a fraction of the original land. Periodically even the approved boundary was whittled down until in 1869, Utah's area was permanently established, where it now stands.

The development of Utah was just as unique as its founding. It followed a pattern that was and is distinctly Mormon. Many of Brigham Young's associates had participated in selecting sites, laying out cities and developing community life. This was incident to the persecution of the Mormons who were driven from city to city, from county to county and from state to state.

Joseph Smith, first President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had provided the original plan. As his people were driven from place to place, gaining experience and profiting by their mistakes, they became masters of the art of laying out cities. Salt Lake City represents the climax of that art. Founded one hundred years ago, it is today one of America's most modern and beautiful cities. Its general pattern, remarkable in community service, has been followed in hundreds of Mormon cities and towns throughout Western America, including a number in Arizona.

With the Mormon Pioneers there came into the mountains a distinctive type of culture. Unlike other groups that pioneered other sections of the West, the Mormons came to the mountains for one purpose only-religion. They were not seeking gold or lands or fame or fortune. They had been banded together in the East by the persecution that followed them relentlessly for more than a quarter of a century. Finally they were driven from "Nau-voo, the Beautiful" beyond the bounds of the white man's lands.

In the Far West, in the desert country which other groups had shunned, they thought they saw a place of deliverance, a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, a place where their industry could express itself, a place where their peculiar and different type of civilization could develop unmolested.

Within the group were highly educated men and women. There were artisans and skilled workmen in many lines. Most of them had come from New England and the Eastern States. They had established schools, including a University at Nauvoo, and in the combination of school education and a broad and comprehensive religion based upon the thesis that "the glory of God is intelligence," had laid the foundation for a culture and a type of civilization that were destined to attract the attention of scholars and sociologists the world over.

Of this Mormon culture, some eighty years later William Allen White, noted American editor, said: "In my opinion civilization in America has reached its highest development in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake."

The culture, the progress and the economy developed by the Mormon Pioneers have been shared with the world. The Mormon system of education, recognized as outstanding and progressive, the Mormon plan of irrigation, the cooperative systems having their basis in the teachings and practices of Mormon leaders have been carried to many parts of the earth.

Now a state and a nation look back one hundred years to the time when only trappers, traders, explorers and Indians roamed the West; when vast, virgin spaces awaited the urge of the strong pioneer-spirit of just such men as these. The Latter-day Saints and their friends of all religious faiths read again from Isaiah: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."