The Arrival of the US Government to Utah Territory

In my last blog, I shared Jim Bridger’s early history and ended with the building tension between he and Brigham Young. It occurs to me that ending the blog with the arrival of the US government might have been a bit premature. There are a few more details that must be explained before the government arrives.

First, what was happening with the Natives in and around the area? Who were they and what did they think of all this invasion? 

Chief Wa-ka-ra

In and around the Great Salt Lake, the major tribes were the Timpanogos Utes led by Wa-ka-ra (the whites quickly mashed his name into “Walker”). Please note: there are some sources that state that Chief Wa-ka-ra was Shoshone, not Ute. There were also the Uintah Utes led by White Eye, the Yampa Utes lead by Antero, and the Pahvants led by Chief Kanosh. I beg for patience, as there were so many Native tribes and societies, it is hard to list them all. To the north were the Shoshone, aka the Snakes, and Crow Peoples, to the east were the Sioux and Cheyenne among many, many others.

A few cultural things to know: Raiding and slave-taking were common practice among the Native cultures. Women and children were prized during raids for their differences - both skills and genetics. They were also excellent bartering tools. Horses were also the focus of raids, their value making warriors instantly wealthy. 

Next let’s revisit the Mormons’ situation. Like I said in my last blog, the Mormons had fled persecution in the United States in 1846-47, arriving in the Great Salt Lake area in the summer of 1847. Brigham Young wanted to create a utopia for his people where they could practice their religion and communal lifestyle without interference. The land where they initially settled was considered by the Natives as neutral ground, so the Mormon presence was not an intrusion.

Brigham Young wanted to occupy as much of the area as possible, not to push the Natives off their lands but to keep American settlers from claiming the land for themselves. He began intruding into the Ute territory in January of 1849, just to test the strength and unity of the Timpanogos bands. By spring, several sorties had been made, attacks and reprisals until Young sent thirty families to the mouth of the Timpanogos River to settle and build a fort for protection. Let’s just say the Timpanogos Utes took exception to their arrival.

And then there are the emigrants passing through the area. In 1847, fewer than five thousand emigrants headed west. By the spring of 1849, twenty-five thousand were using the trail that had now been rechristened the California Trail. Fort Bridger was a refuge on that long trail and will be the subject of my next blog.

So, here’s the picture. Brigham Young is doing whatever he can to make a homeland for his people to be free of religious persecution by Americans. Wa-ka-ra returns from raiding in California to find his homeland being invaded by the Mormons. Jim Bridger is looking at the opportunity for a career change from fur trapper to owner of a trading post and his chief customers are all the Americans who are headed to either Oregon or the goldrush in California. 

And then we have the Stansbury Expedition arrive in the area. This was an expedition of the US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers to do a survey of the area in order to recommend a site for a military post in the area, to explore for a potential route for a transcontinental railroad, to improve the wagon road from Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City, and to survey the whole of the Great Salt Lake Basin.

Captain Howard Stansbury led a group of sixteen men along with Lt. John Gunnison and ended up hiring Jim Bridger to serve a guide to accomplish all that they had been ordered to do. When they arrived at Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young was shocked and disturbed that the government had acted so quickly to size up the area for expansion. Young wouldn’t let Stansbury survey the lake without hiring his secretary, Albert Carrington, to go along so Young would have eyes and ears on their movements and discoveries.

And what was Stansbury’s conclusion? That Fort Bridger would make a perfect military location. This made Brigham Young furious. After all he had been through, now the American government was knocking on his territorial front door. And, in Young’s mind, Jim Bridger had surely facilitated it to get even with him after being accused of aiding the Indians in attacking Mormon settlements.

Conspiracy theories never go out of style, do they?

What was it like to visit Fort Bridger in 1849? It plays a key part of The Gantlet so don’t miss my next blog.