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Show 204 and he sent Bishop David Evans of Lehi to explore them and put in a fort and Indian mission in the region. It was in Snake Valley on June 1, about twenty miles north of present-day Garrison, that Evans recorded: "Here for the first time I got sight of the White Mountain, which lies from this place about 35 miles southeast. The lower the sun got the whiter this mountain appeared until ?4 about sunset or a little before it looked like a great pile of dirty snow." From this description it appears that the White Mountain was a singular peak in the Wah Wah Range of western Millard County, Utah. Eventually, E. G. Williams, a member of Evanss company, reached the foot of this curious peak: Here we halted a few moments to gaze at the mysterious wonder which was only known by a faint, meagre description by the Indians. This mountain is a white sandstone rock, interspersed with bastard diamond.... These small diamonds almost cover the ground for some distance before we reach the mountain, so much so as to dazzle the eye of the traveler on a sunny day. There are some who say they have been to the White Mountain, but I think not excepting the red men. I claim that I was the first white man 25 who ever stepped upon it and I have been the highest up its rugged slopes. From their descriptions, there can be little doubt that the White Mountain was Crystal Peak in the Wah Wah Range. It was Williams's "bastard diamonds" that Crystal Peak was named for. Orson B. Adamss map of the desert, which he made during his expedition with Bean in 1858, also includes a "White Mountain" very close to the proximity of Crystal Peak. Having followed Evans route to Snake Valley very closely, Adams almost certainly witnessed the same phenomenon that the earlier company did. Evans's company had been named the White Mountain Mission before it ever set foot on the desert. When the Lehi bishop reached Snake Valley, he planned |