Utah History Chapter 9

Ms. Astle

SETTLEMENTS, TRANSPORTATION, &

MINING

• After the Utah War, Europeans kept flocking to the Utah Territory. They came to get jobs, land, and to start a new life. Huntsville, The Cotton Mission, and Richfield were all new towns that were settled.

IMMIGRANTS START MORE SETTLEMENTS

• Shipping supplies and mail was difficult in the west. One major overland freighting company was Russell, Majors, & Waddel. They carried goods to the army and mining camps.

• Shipping overland was dangerous with storms, floods, poor roads, and Indian attacks. It took all summer for a freight wagon train to make the journey from the West to St. Louis & return.

TRANSPORTATION

• Settlers and visitors later used stagecoaches. Stations were set up along the route so drivers could get fresh horses. The Butterfield Overland Mail was an important stagecoach line in the 1860s.

• An overland stage route between California & Missouri passed through northern Utah. It carried both mail & passengers. Shoshone & Goshute Indians sometimes attacked the stagecoach.

TRANSPORTATION

• US Army troops attempted to establish order along the trail. South of Simpson Springs Station they surrounded & killed the an entire Indian Camp of men, women, & children.

• Other battles followed and the Goshute War continued until sixteen whites & over one hundred Indians were dead. Seven stations in Utah were destroyed and the stagecoach route was closed for long periods.

TRANSPORTATION

• A new company called the Pony Express had a bold new plan. It would carry mail from Missouri to California in only 10 days instead of the months it usually took for mail to reach the west by ship or stagecoach.

• The Pony Express built relay stations every 10 miles along the route. At each station the rider would jump off his horse & mounted a fresh horse. Two min. were allowed for a drink of water & piece of bread.

THE PONY EXPRESS

• After changing horses eight times, the riders tossed the mailbag to a new rider. The mail hardly ever stopped moving.

• The most dangerous part of the ride was across the Utah Territory, were Paiute Indians believed the riders & stations were threats to their hunting grounds. Indians burned stations, & killed the station keepers. The mail kept getting through.

THE PONY EXPRESS

• The first Pony Express rider came to Salt Lake City in April 1860. William “Billy” Frederick Fisher & his brother John both rode for the Pony Express.

• From April 1860 to October 1861 the Pony Express ran every week. It ended with the telegraph.

THE PONY EXPRESS

• Telegraph companies hired men to build telegraph wires from Omaha, NE to San Francisco, CA. Two companies raced to complete the task. One went east and one went west.

• Utahan’s hired out to work, placing poles & stringing wire. In October 1861, the eastern line reached Salt Lake City. One week later, the western line reached the city & the lines were connected. Messages were flashed over the wire in seconds across the plains & mountains.

THE TELEGRAPH ENDS THE PONY EXPRESS

• The first message sent from Salt Lake City, was by Brigham Young. It offered congratulations & assured the country that Utah was loyal to the Union during the on-going Civil War.

• Utah leaders planned to connect the telegraph in Salt Lake to other settlements in Utah. The people of each valley built a line through their valley & half way to the next. Soon lines went from St. George to Logan & to other small towns.

THE TELEGRAPH ENDS THE PONY EXPRESS

• 750 soldiers under the command of Colonel Patrick Edward Connor came from California & Nevada to Utah. They came to protect the overland mail & telegraph lines against Indian attack and robbers.

• The men built Camp Douglas on the east bench overlooking Salt Lake city. It became one of the key military bases in the West during and after the Civil War.

CAMP DOUGLAS: SOLDIERS COME TO PROTECT THE

MAIL

• Leaders of many religious groups came to the Utah Territory. Some came to provide for the needs of their followers. Others came to start schools & convince the LDS people the errors of their religious practices. Many built schools, hospitals, & churches.

• The Jewish, Episcopalian, First Congressional, Catholic, & Presbyterian religions all came to Utah.

A PLACE OF MANY RELIGIONS

• President Abraham Lincoln established the Uintah Valley Reservation for the Utes. The land was reported as “unsuitable for farming.” By 1870’s the Utes had been restricted to the Uintah Reservation. The dry land was only about 9 percent of their original homeland.

NATIVE PEOPLE FIGHT BACK

• There were problems between Indians & pioneers on the western trails. Many times ruthless or frightened travelers shot & killed friendly Shoshone Indians.

• Soon some Shoshone came to view all travelers as enemies. They began raiding wagon trains.

• Colonel Patrick Conner, in charge of soldiers in Salt Lake, decided that the Indians in Box Elder & Cache Valley were responsible for recent raids, even though he had no evidence.

BEAR RIVER MASSACRE

• The Idaho Enterprise called for action by Conner & his army.

• Conner’ opportunity came when several renegade Shoshone attacked gold miners on their way to Salt Lake City.

• Colonel Conner made plans to attack the Shoshone winter camp & not “take any prisoners.” He intended to kill all the Indian people at he camp, whether they were guilty of a crime or not.

BEAR RIVER MASSACRE

The troops approached the Indian camp in southern Idaho near the border of Utah, in the early morning.

The Shoshone ran to hide in a ravine along the Bear River. The battle soon turned into a slaughter. The soldiers massacred about 300 men, women, & children. They then burned teepees and rode away.

Those that survived returned to camp that evening to find any survivors. Sagwich found his baby daughter & put her in a cradleboard in a tree, hoping local settlers would find & save her. The next day local settlers came to the site looking for survivors & found her.

BEAR RIVER MASSACRE

• The Black Hawk War was the longest & most destructive conflict in the Utah Territory. Before the war Brigham Young & a government agent met with leaders of local bands, including Kanosh, Tabby, & Sanpitch.

• The agent wanted the men to sign a treaty, giving up their tribal lands & agreeing to move their people to the Uintah Reservation. The government promised it would pay the Indians thousands of dollars each year, in addition to animals, shelter, clothing, food, & training in agriculture.

BLACK HAWK WAR 1865-1868

• Under the coaxing of Brigham Young, the leaders finally signed the treaty which was sent to Washington D.C., were it was ignored for a long time & then rejected by Congress.

• Meanwhile the Indian agent began forcing the Utes to walk to the Uinta Basin during the winter. On the journey the North Utes suffered terrible hardship & many deaths due to starvation & cold.

BLACK HAWK WAR 1865-1868

• Black Hawk, son of Sandpitch, saw more and more settlers taking over Indian lands & hunting grounds. Realizing his people didn’t get the food & money promised by the government, Black Hawk began attacking Mormon settlements for horses & cattle.

• Many Utes, Paiutes, & Navajos united & attacked several pioneer settlements. Most attacks were in the Sanpete & Sevier Valleys. Eventually Sanpitch was killed by Utah militia, which only fueled Black Hawk’s anger.

BLACK HAWK WAR

• In Circleville at least sixteen unarmed Paiutes, including women & children were killed, most with their throats slit. The government officials took no legal action.

• The war marked brutality on both sides. From 50-70 settlers & about the same number of Indians were killed.

• Black Hawk finally signed a peace treaty. After laying down his arms, he toured Utah settlements. He spoke to Mormons in their church meetings, asking for forgiveness, understanding, & emphasizing the terrible condition of his people.

BLACK HAWK WAR

• Utah was rich in mineral ore. Early settlers mined salt, sulpher, silver, lead, & coal, but usually just enough to use.

• Many years later after large deposits of ore were discovered, mines operated in many places. Some men got rich off the gold & silver, while others didn’t find any. Others did all the work while mine owners became millionaires.

• Some of the mining towns created were Bingham Canyon, Alta, Park City, Stockton, Ophir, & Merur.

MINING IN UTAH TERRITORY

• Sanford & Thomas Bingham were the first to discover rich ore in the Oquirrh Mountains. They found gold in the soil while farming. Discouraged by Brigham Young to mine, they used the canyon for a supply of timber & grazing land.

• In 1863 George Ogilvie & Archibald Gardner, soldiers from Camp Douglas, found silver-bearing ore while dragging out logs from the canyon.

BINGHAM CANYON

• Soldiers soon crowed Bingham Canyon to search for more silver. They staked the first mining claim and a mining town grew. There was no railroad to take out the ore, & the expense of transportation by wagon nearly closed the mine.

• The men started washing ore to find gold. This is called “placer mining.” The Clay Bar became the richest placer mine & by 1868 had yielded more than $2 million in gold.

• After railroad lines were built to the mines, “lode mining” started up again. Mills, smelters, & plants were built.

BINGHAM CANYON

• Three soldiers from Camp Douglas came across an outcropping of quartz in Parley’s Canyon in the 1860’s. They marked the spot with a red handkerchief & took a chunk of rock to be examined. The ore was found to be rich in silver, lead, & gold.

• Miners streamed to make claims & a town, Park City, was created. The richest mine was the Ontario, founded in 1872. Park City attracted workers from many countries. The majority were Irish, but Swedes, Fins, Welshmen, Chinese, Scots, & Yugoslavians also came to get jobs in mines.

PARK CITY

• It was dangerous working in tunnels far under the ground. People fell from deep mine elevators, called hoists Miners were hit with falling rocks or got run over by fast moving mining cars. Sometimes tunnels collapsed, trapping everyone inside.

• Many miner developed lung diseases from breathing so much dust. The air in the mines could also be filled with deadly gases.

A MINER’S LIFE

• Miners took in a canary into the mines with them. If the bird died, they knew the air was poisonous & they got out quickly.

• Gases in mines also caused explosions. Many miners did not live to an old age.

• Miners were paid $3-$4 a day for ten or twelve hours of labor, six days a week. This was higher than most other jobs during that time. Jobs were usually easy to get.

• Many local people as well as thousands of immigrants from Europe, Canada, & Asia came to work in the mines. Later workers came from Mexico.

A MINER’S LIFE

• Not all immigrants came to Utah for religious reasons or to work in the mines. Many came to start businesses & open stores. Merchants started businesses in the mining towns of Alta, Bingham, Ophir, & Park City.

• Banking, mining, & manufacturing grew more & more important as Utahans tried to provide for their needs. Soon you could buy just about whatever you needed in the Territory.

BUSINESS & MANUFACTURING

• In Brigham City, Lorenzo Snow organized the Brigham City Cooperative Association. A cooperative is jointly owned business were the owners share the costs & benefits.

• The goal was to promote economic growth in the community. The farming cooperative included a shoe shop, woolen factory, and tannery.

COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS

• A new store named ZCMI was opened in Salt Lake City, with branches in other towns. Its business was to buy goods from the East & import them to Utah to sell. The store also bought or traded goods from Utah businesses & farms.

• Cooperative butcher shops, dairies, grist-mills, sawmills, tanneries, molasses mills, furniture shops, & others increased production & profits.

COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS

• A clothing-manufacturing branch was also established by ZCMI. Workers sewed all kinds of clothing. Provo Woolen Mills manufactured most of the cloth.

• Textile factories produced cloth & clothing in Hyrum, Ogden, Brigham City, Grantsville, Salt Lake City, & other towns.

• Utah’s first large factory was built in Provo in 1873. It was a wool mill. Employees at the mill were usually immigrants who had learned to make wool cloth in England & Scotland. Later young women were hired.

• They produced everything from clothing to blankets & yarn. Yarn & blankets were exported to eastern cities & to California.

TEXTILES

Utah Division of Heritage & Arts. Utah Division of State History: Digital Collection. State of Utah. 2014. Web. November 7, 2014. [http://heritage.utah.gov/dha/dha-

featured/digital-photos]

CITATION