| Description |
A PERSONAL NOTE FRCM THE CHAIRMAN In its beginning, the history of Sanpete County is different in some respects from other areas in the State of Utah. Sanpete vas settled on request of the Ute Indians. Here is how it cane WALKARA'S DBEAM Whether fact or fantasy is anyone's guess but the story is told of the Great Indian Chief Walkara (Walker) having dreamed that Indians aM Mormons vere living side by side in the valley of the Sanpitch. This may have prompted Valkara to take six of his brothers, also Chieftains, with him into the Salt Lake Valley and ask the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, to send settlers to the Sanpitch. They arrived in Salt Lake on June 9, 1849 when Salt Lake was a settlement of only two years. Imagine these chiefs sitting cross-legged around the campfire passing the peace pipe from hand to hand until it reached Brigham Young. Brigham was not only surprised but stunned by this strange request. Would he send settlers to the Sanpitch Valley, land of the Utes, to teach the red men how to plant crops and build homes? Brigham, whose policy was to accept the Indians as brothers in the House of Israel, listened and then consented. His followers were only a handful of people within a sea of Indian nations. But to divide the flock and send part of them a hundred and. thirty miles to the south with only one small outpost, "Fort Provost," along the way seemed like the actions of a foolish man. However, as he looked into the faces of these terrifying warrior chiefs, he raised six fingers and said, "In six moons I will send settlers to Sanpitch Valley." Peace at any cost was better than war. On Ctetober 28, 1849, 224 pioneers left Salt Lake In covered wagons and headed south into this little-known, trackless wilderness. Mormon scouts ha2 reported the region so forbidding that it couldn't support a rattlesnake. Arriving on the l?th of November, 18*t9 near the present site of Manti, the entire company camped beside the creek. However, "Father Morley" advised them to move to the south side of a hill that projected out Into the valley, now Temple Hill. Here they would be better protected from winter's northern blasts. Most of them burrowed into the side of the hill making small rooms known as dugouts. Here they spent the winter. The Indians living in the valley were in desperate circumstances. Their diet consisted of wild vegetables and smaller mammals including rabbits, crickets, and grasshoppers. Their clothing |
