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Show Introduction L his is the story of people living in an arid land. They struggled with pervasive heat, sparse forage, and scarce water because they were living in the Mohave Desert, right where it abuts the edge of the Colorado Plateau in Utah's southwest corner. Limited water determined much of what they could do, yet their ingenuity responded to the setting, producing several civilizations over many centuries in this harsh land of exquisite beauty. This book focuses on the Anglo- Europeans who settled the area in the latter part of the nineteenth century. They present a contrast to their forerunners, the Anasazi, and the Paiutes, because these pioneers more successfully molded the land to fit their will-plowing, fencing, and irrigating. In the 1850s the Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) came to settle; soon after European and American explorers had made the region more well known. Initially the Paiutes welcomed the "Saints." Greatly relieved, even optimistic about their relationship with the Indians, the Mormons set up villages and a subsistence agriculture that was distinguished by its cooperative labor. Their hope for friendship with the Indians dwindled xvi INTRODUCTION over time, but they learned much from the natives (herbal medications, trails, knowledge of other tribes) and maintained a fairly peaceful relationship with the Paiutes although less so with the Navajos. The Latter-day Saints worked together to bring water onto the land. Though they found water to be limited, they succeeded in building canals and dams. The longer they stayed, the more ambitious the water projects became-notably the Cottonwood Canal, the Hurricane Canal, the Washington Dam, the La Verkin Canal, and the Enterprise Reservoir-substantial achievements requiring many years to construct. They created irrigated oases to sustain small arable plots, sometimes called "pocket farms." As an alternative, some farmers turned to grazing sheep and cattle on the open range where the animals had to move seasonally over vast stretches to find sufficient feed. Mormon villages were tightly organized, often, though not always, laid out in a planned four-square pattern. Within the village, family life and society were concentrated; farm lands were outside the village boundaries. Some twenty-five communities nestled close to the Virgin River and its tributaries-Santa Clara Creek, Ash Creek, and Quail Creek in Washington County, and a few more in adjacent valleys. For 100 years these settlers lived in relative isolation. Even though they were part of the larger endeavor of settling the whole eastern side of the Great Basin, these colonists occupied a remote corner just below its rim. It was soon nicknamed "Dixie," because it was hot, southern, and produced cotton. The name "Utah's Dixie" was an inexact term, usually referring to the lands involved in the Mormon church's Cotton Mission. Neighboring towns such as Bunkerville and Mesquite, though outside of Utah, were certainly producers of cotton and closely related to St. George, the region's capital. Melvin T. Smith offers a most expansive view: "Dixie is bounded on the east by the faulted cliffs of the Colorado Plateau; on the south by the Grand Canyon...on the west by the dry deserts of the Great Basin . . . and on the north by the south rim of the Great Basin, old Lake Bonneville, and the lava-covered Black Ridge." There were frequent visitors to the remote Dixie landscape INTRODUCTION freighters, federal officials, religious leaders-given its position on the Salt Lake-Los Angeles corridor. A sweep of silver miners came but left after a decade. The telegraph reached the community early, so residents knew what was happening in the larger world of America. They knew of the Civil War, for example, but were relatively untouched by it. The railroad never arrived, nor did the merchants, bankers, and investors who would have come with it. Roads in the region were extremely hard to build over volcanic flows and sandstone washes; not until 1930 was an oiled road finished, linking Washington County to the national highway system. The relative isolation from 1854 to 1930 was both a boon and a bane. Area residents largely were left alone to pursue their peculiar culture, but they also were left without certain comforts. The heat was oppressive. The Virgin River below the Hurricane Fault was full of sand and sulphur. The ubiquitous wind blew sand into everything. But the settlers were determined to conquer one of Utah's harshest environments. If there was to be any culture, it had to be home grown; and it did flourish, partly as encouragement against harshness. Bands, choirs, dances, literary societies, and especially theater, with regular monthly performances, sprang up. There was a modest library, and several attempts were made to sustain newspapers. Schools also were established. Although they were basic at first and held sessions only a few months each year, still, the settlers valued learning enough to require that each ecclesiastical ward maintain a regular school. Religion was pervasive and motivating. Many people came to Dixie in response to religious assignment, but only a portion of them stayed. Those families that persisted, some for five generations, were the sinew that made Washington County. Even those who stayed moved within the region a great deal. Mobility became the norm as people sought more land and water to sustain the next generation. The story of Utah's Dixie is a mixture of local initiatives and outside influences. The latter came increasingly after the turn of the century. The economic depression of the 1930s was especially severe for Washington County, but the New Deal programs combatting it brought federal investment in the county as never before. The devel- INTRODUCTION opment of Zion National Park is an example of how outside forces impinged upon the region. Founded in 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument, it became Zion National Park in 1919. By the 1930s and 1940s, a tourist industry developed around it as motorists came to the area to view the scenic wonders of the red cliffs and towering mountains that had so long isolated the locals from the rest of Utah and the West. When air conditioning arrived after World War II, tourism overcame its biggest obstacle, the oppressive heat. The sunshine that had driven many settlers away suddenly became an advantage instead of a curse. Outside forces flooded into the county. Pioneer lifestyles of austerity and frugality gradually gave way to consumerism. The automobile brought America to Dixie to enjoy its desert wonders. With it also came filmmakers to enliven the saga of the cowboy. The area became the workshop of movie stars, who in turn helped make the region almost as well-known as Palm Springs. By the 1960s, a new set of pioneers were at work in Dixie. They were largely local entrepreneurs who dreamed of the area as a destination. They built an airport and established an airline. They promoted road building. Their enterprising skills produced golf courses, planned housing communities (Bloomington and Green Valley- largely done by newcomers), a new Dixie College campus, industrial parks, and water-reclamation projects. All this was a prelude to the arrival of the interstate freeway in 1973; 1-15 did for the region what the railroad had done for many other communities in the nineteenth century. It opened the world for Dixie. Washington County became virtually a crossroads, connecting Utah's Wasatch Front with southern Nevada and California much more closely than in the past. Today's county has completed that transformation from isolation to destination. Outside capital flows freely into the economy as do newcomers. The freeway has surpassed anything the railroad could have done in making Dixie a destination. The population today has a majority of newcomers. They have been welcomed by the fifth generation of pioneer descendants. Washington County hosts virtually every national franchise available; shopping malls have moved merchandising out of the downtown section of St. George and drawn shoppers from wide distances. The community now supports many INTRODUCTION xix religions. Dixie has been quite thoroughly Americanized, but its pioneer heritage is still in evidence. Though the county shares the story of conquering the frontier with the larger movement of Americans onto western lands, the local version has a few unique twists. Some of them are tragic, including the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857 and the nuclear radioactive fallout that killed many residents a hundred years later. At least one is curious-the numerous polygamous marriages of the nineteenth century and the isolated replay of polygamy in the twentieth. The overarching local story of cooperation and harmony contrasts with the general individualism of the West, but conflict in the area was not unknown. How it was resolved often took unusual forms. The people of this generation are committed to their cultural values and are striving to perpetuate them into the future. The county is still an arid place. The land, weather, water, and sunshine are always dominant features. They draw visitors and newcomers and make every day stimulating, but the desert is a jealous mistress as the Anasazis found out centuries ago. So the future most likely will still be a contest between human ingenuity and nature's limitations. VQVA3N |
