FOREWORD

This book is neither a History nor a Topography of the Territory of Utah in the early seventies of the last century. The volume is due to the experiences of an outsider who tried to be impartial in his views and sympathies. The personal note, of course, rings in this record of those past days. No onslaught is made on the "wild and woolly" west, nor on the eccentric religion of the majority of the people.

Through much peril and privation, the wild wastes of the Territory had been occupied by a people whose hard toil had redeemed the desert. The picture of life presented in these pages is in accord with the facts, the only changes made are in the names of some of the characters.