Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/20



and some thirteen others to Los Angeles to obtain provisions, seeds, and livestock. This marked the beginning of the Utah-California trade.

The plan of Brigham Young for building a self-sustaining empire in the West called for an outlet to the sea on the Pacific Coast. A portion of the seacoast in the vicinity of San Diego was to serve as the desired outlet for the State of Deseret, organized in March 1849 and designed to include all of Utah and parts of present day Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It was the plan of the church to connect that harbor with Salt Lake by a line of posts along the Old Spanish Trail. The idea, however, was abandoned when an act of Congress on April 9, 1850, organized the Territory of Utah and set California as the western boundary. Young's idea of economic independence, however, was not abandoned. He needed cotton for his followers, and consequently, in 1850, the church purchased the San Bernardino ranch. In June of the next year two hundred settlers arrived, and way stations were established from San Bernardino to Utah along the route approximating the present U. S. Highway 91. The plan was further advanced in June 1855, when Las Vegas Mission, at what is now Las Vegas, Nevada, was founded. Here a fort was constructed, crops were planted, a lead mine w^as developed, and missionary work was carried on among the Indians. However, when the United States Army came to Utah in 1857, both of these posts were abandoned and the settlers were recalled.

A third attempt to unite the Utah Territory with the sea was made in 1864. This involved transportation on the Colorado River. The plan was to establish a warehouse at the head of navigation with the hope of bringing goods from the coast to that point, whence they could be carried overland to Salt Lake City. Such a plan had long been developing in the minds of church leaders. In 1851 the church presidency wrote to Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, ecclesiastical heads of the San Bernardino Mission:

. . . we learn that there are some surveys making from the mouth of the Colorado to the mouth of the Gila, and upwards, and some trading posts, or settlers in that vicinity but we have not particulars enough to form a just estimate of the practicability of navigating the Colorado, above the Gila, or of making settlements anywhere in that vicinity If light steamers can pass up the Colorado opposite our southern settlements, or the south east portion of Utah territory, we want to know it, together with all other information which can be obtained respecting facilities for passing the Saints from any part of the world, up said river; and wish you to be on the alert for any such information, and give us all the news you can get every mail.

Again in 1853 the Deseret Neivs observed that boats were running on the river and that a plan was under way to start operations above Yuma in an attempt to facilitate Utah trade. A similar plan was advanced at Colorado City the following year.

With the colonists who were called to settle Las Vegas Mission in June 1855 came an exploring party of five headed by Rufus Allen. Allen was instructed to explore down the river, beginning at the point nearest Las Vegas,