OCR Text |
Show 166 did not include a high east-west range at the 38th parallel. There was little snow and few streams of any size in that area. The lakes were usually dry or wet only a few weeks of the year. It seems that Brigham Young and John C. Fremont had a similar misunderstanding of what the central valleys of the Great Basin contained. They were both in agreement that there must be some fertile regions in the area west of Fillmore and Beaver. Young saw his refuge as a series of oases where half a million people could live "scattered about where there is good grass and water." Fremont was convinced there were streams and lakes and fertile soil in the region similar to what is found at the base of the Wasatch. For the area to support this many people, Young must have also considered there was an adequacy of flowing streams and rivers, as the Mormons knew irrigation was a necessity in the Basin, and a few isolated springs could not serve the purpose. Both were also in agreement on other particulars. Among them was their opinion that the area contained few Indians. Fremont's influence on Brigham Young's conception (or misconception) of the interior Basin is, of course, only circumstantial. No document has yet been found linking Young's conviction in the existence of an interior oasis with Fremont's maps or reports. But we do know that the prophet was in possession of them, and that he had read them. While studying the possibilities of settlement in the Great Basin, the church acquired a copy of the recently published Fremont Report in 1845 while still at Nauvoo. This document was read orally before the entire Quorum of the Twelve by Franklin D. Richards, and it was largely the descriptions of Salt Lake and Bear River Valleys that 39 decided the prophetfs course in coming to the Salt lake region.J* It is true that Fremont and other explorers continued to prod the Great Basin after the noted expedition of 1843-1844, but there was little published |