OCR Text |
Show 205 to put his settlement there, not in the vicinity of Crystal Peak. Although the mission in Snake Valley was never built, the term "White Mountains" became applicable to the Snake Range and other ranges as well. Dame's approach to the title of the White Mountains was to apply it to any high, snowy range in the Great Basin's interior. There is evidence to show that the term had become a general one by 1858. Consider, for instance, Brigham Young's condemnation of Evans's efforts in 1855- Although it was conceded that Bishop Evans had reached the White Mountains, Young criticized him for not going to the mountain where he was sent in his "Sebastopol" speech of March 21. Yet, at the time, he had already dispatched Bean to the White Mountains. No doubt, Brigham Young was using the term "White Mountains" for a multiplicity of ranges. From his instructions to Bean, it is plain that the White Mountain region was the area north of Fremont's supposed east-west range. That the term was widely known in I858 is attested to by its unhesitant usage in contemporary diary accounts.2 6 The inference in some of these chronicles is that the White Mountain region was west of the southern Utah settlements. On a clear day these distant ranges are visible along the western horizon from elevated points along the Wasatch front. But the term did not apply to any particular mountain or range of mountains in I858. It seems that these ranges roughly comprised the eastern edge of the White Mountain country. The term once applied to a single peak had expanded to include an entire region. By the second week of May, it was becoming rapidly apparent to both Dame and Bean that the White Mountain region was not what it bad been believed to be. The country just did not possess the resources to sustain anything but the smallest of settlements, and those very few. As Bean reported on his return to 2T Provo: "The difficulty was to find soil, timber & water together."' (Italics mine.) |