OCR Text |
Show DIXIE PROJECT, UTAH 61 old Spanish Trail in 1843 and 1844, and Father Escalante and Jede- diah Smith who had passed through the area in their expeditions. The gold seekers from the East utilized it in their trek to the gold fields of California. Brigham Young knew that the climate and fertile soil provided an opportunity for the settlers there to become a self- sufficient people. One of the first settlements of any significance in Dixie was the Indian mission on the Santa Clara River near the present city of Santa Clara. The mission was established in the winter of 1854 by some of the hardiest of the Mormon missionary settlers. In a few years, the settlement showed great promise. In early accounts of a visit to the area by Brigham Young, testimony was produced that the settlement consisted of some 30 houses, and approximately 250 acres under cultivation, with flourishing orchards of apples, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, figs, grapes, and a promising crop of cotton. There were even cooperative farming arrangements with the Indians. But in the winter of 1862 came the rains and a flash flood of the Santa Clara, like a " thief in the night" to completely wipe out the settlement with its crops, orchards, and homes. These determined people stayed on to rebuild their farms and orchards, suffering from food shortages, sickness, disease, and other setbacks. History tells us that just 2 years later this same Santa Clara River that overflowed its banks and wiped them out, dried up in midseason, leaving the crops and orchards to burn up in the heat of the summer sun. In the meantime, Brigham Young had determined that the settlement in Dixie had not grown and flourished as it should, and called over 300 men on a mission to Dixie to grow cotton and develop the area. Nearly 250 of those called responded and left their homes and farms in the Salt Lake Valley and journeyed to Dixie. Most of these people settled in St. George, which is today the county seat of Washington County. One of the first, certainly one of the most important, problems of these people was getting water from the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers onto the land to quench the thirst of their crops and orchards. And just as important as securing water was the problem of controlling the rivers so that they would not again be wiped out by floods. A review of the history of this area will reveal that these people endured great hardship over extended periods of time. They built dams on the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers, only to have them washed out by the raging torrents, sometimes twice in 1 year. They dug canals and tunnels, only to have them filled with mud and debris. They suffered droughts, but these courageous pioneers faced the hardships and resolved their problems the best they could. The only certainty was uncertainty itself. Dixie had great potential, and these settlers knew it, but there were some real problems involved. They knew these problems well. They worked and sacrificed and adapted themselves to a point where they could survive and provide for themselves and their families. But, gentlemen, here we are, a hundred years later, and some of the most basic problems of this area have not been resolved. There is still a shortage of water; there is still a threat of floods and drought; there is a shortage of electrical energy, and a shortage of employment opportunities. This truly is unfortunate, because Dixie is not an ordinary 36- 351- 64 5 |