context of those who settled the virgin river basin

Many of today’s communities in the Virgin River Basin were settled by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A brief history of the church provides context to the founding of the Virgin and Moapa Valleys which explains why they settled the area.

BORN FROM PERSECUTION

From the church’s founding by the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830, Seneca County, Fayette, New York, the saints had been persecuted and expelled from the state of New York, Kirtland, Ohio, the state of Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois. During this time the church significantly grew from a handful of saints, to thousands of members living in the Nauvoo region with hundreds continually flowing into the area. During this time Joseph Smith the Prophet was also a statesman and political figure for the church and community. Due to controversy inside Nauvoo and Persecution outside, Joseph Smith was martyred in Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844. With Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum killed, the leadership of the church scrambled to find a foothold on who would direct the saints into the next chapter of the church’s future. During this time persecution persisted among those still living in Nauvoo as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles raced back to meet and decide how to manage the succession of the prophet. Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve addressed the saints in a miraculous way, which allowed the members of the church to rally behind him and unite under the Quorum of the Twelve’s leadership.

With homes fully furnished and smoke still billowing from their chimneys, the first of the saints fled Nauvoo in the winter of 1846 to follow Brigham Young across the Mississippi River and west to the Salt Lake Valley. The first company of Latter-day Saints reached the Salt Lake valley July 24, 1847.

Brigham Young, sometimes referred to as the “Great Colonizer” had led the saints to the western edge of the Rocky Mountains to worship free from persecution with the vision to build the State of Deseret.

The Saints’ hardships across this expanse of wilderness were greater than words can express. They traveled by wagon, handcart, and by foot across what in 1847 was northern Mexico.  Hundreds perished in route, despite strong organization into companies with “. . . captains of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens”—and the establishment of waystations and communities along the way where crops were planted to sustain the travelers.

A decades-long immigration brought 60,000 to 70,000 pioneer converts from many states and nations—first to Salt Lake City, and then beyond. The Saints’ hardships across this expanse of wilderness were greater than words can express as they traveled by wagon, handcart, and by foot. Hundreds perished en route, despite strong organization into companies with “…captains of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens”—and the establishment of way-stations and communities along the way where crops were planted to sustain the travelers.

LATTER-DAY SAINT VISION

When Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the United States was at war with Mexico. In February 1848, the war concluded, and the Mexican government relinquished its northern territories to the United States. The saints once again lived on U.S. soil. However, they lived far from American population centers and government officials. They could build their own society, based on religious convictions, in the Great Basin. Brigham Young knew they needed access to the Pacific Ocean to facilitate trade. Within a few years, Young assigned families to go on “settlement missions” to build new communities in the west. Church leaders planned for several of these communities to act as way-stations for saints to rest and resupply.

Additionally, Young wanted the church and its members to be self-sufficient. Brigham Young and other leaders envisioned building a state of their own where they would provide for their needs and build their own economy. The desire for self-sufficiency led to the establishment of Latter-day Saint missions, in locations that could provide resources, a variety of crops, or access to trade.

THE PROPOSED STATE OF DESERET

Leadership of the church also fulfilled civic and governmental roles within these fledgling communities. In 1849, Brigham Young convened a group of leaders to draft a constitution and petition the United States Congress for statehood. Thousands of Latter-day Saints lived in the Great Basin, and hoped to continue their vision of building a society that was largely autonomous. Young and the delegation proposed boundaries and a name, Deseret, for their desired state. Encompassing much of the territory that had been added to the United States via the recent treaty with Mexico, the proposed state boundaries included the entirety of present-day Utah and Nevada and portions of present-day Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. The boundaries of Deseret would have given the saints a Pacific port and a diverse range of climate and geography which would have provided a wide variety of crops and resources to their goals of self-sufficiency.

The Government of the United States did not support Young’s expansive State of Deseret, and formed the Territories of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon – and the State of California (1850) from what had been the envisioned State of Deseret. While the State of Deseret was abolished, Brigham Young’s dream to open a travel route to the Pacific Ocean survived — and plays into the story of the Virgin Valley.

As new pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they were continually “called” to continue their journey to missions or communities within the boundaries of the proposed State of Deseret.

These pioneer families were devoted, determined and courageous. They left homes, farms and businesses in Europe, the United States and Canada to gather to the arid American West for religious freedom and a life of struggle and hardship.