| Description |
One-hundred and forty-eight human souls in the small town of Winter Quarters near Omaha, set out on April 7, 1847 to find a new place under the sun where there would be no religious persecution. On July 24th, one-hundred and nine days after the arduous trek was begun, this hardy band of Mormon pioneers stood at the mouth of Emigration canyon and heard their great leader, Brigham Young, say, "This is the right place, drive on." Of this historic incident, Orson Pratt wrote: "After traveling six miles through a deep ravine ending with the canyon, we came in full view of the valley of Great Salt Lake, "We gazed in wonder and admiration upon the vast valley before us, with the water of Great Salt Lake glistening in the sun, mountains towering to the skies, and streams of pure water running through the beautiful valley. It was the grandest view we had ever seen till this moment." And now, eight-seven years later, from the same place where Brigham Young uttered his famous words, one views a scene much changed. For a great part of the time one can not discern the beautiful handiwork wrought there by Mother Nature, for it is now obscured by the presence of a man-made, opaque blanket of smoke which completely covers the valley below. Alas, this picturesque locality, with its waters of Great Salt Lake that rarely glisten in the sun, is buried beneath that sea of smoke, its people living in an atmosphere polluted with soot and noxious vapors and robbed of a full proportion of the health-giving rays of the sun. |
