Thursday, July 24, 2014 

         Did anyone do any celebrating today for the Twenty-fourth?  There used to be lots of big wonderful parades and activities to celebrate Pioneer Day when Glade and I were young.  (That makes us sound like old people!)  They seem to have diminished and in most cases have vanished now.  Did anyone get to see a parade?

         Here is the final installment of Glade’s FHE lesson on the pioneer trek and arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.  He wants me to make a disclaimer here about accuracy in translation since he only had the text in Spanish and had to

translate to English.

Three Groups Enter Salt Lake Valley

After passing Fort Bridger, the difficulty of negotiating the narrow canyons of the mountains ahead required separating the company into three groups which arrived in the Salt Lake Valley separately.

The first, led by Orson Pratt, prepared a map of the route and prepared the way for the wagons to follow through, what would later be named, Emigration Canyon.  On July 21, 1847 Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow first entered the Salt Lake Valley and shouted for joy at the view ahead of them. After traveling a loop of 2O kilometers in the valley they returned to their company.

The second, or Vanguard Company, entered the valley on July 22 and immediately began developing a primitive irrigation system to flood land in preparation to plant. They then returned to their encampment.

On July 24, 1847 Brigham Young with the third company arrived at what is now known as Emigration Canyon.  Wilford Woodruff carried him in his wagon because the Prophet was still ill with “mountain fever.”  Both contemplated the future as they looked over the valley.  Wilford Woodruff wrote, “Happy thoughts and images flashed quickly through our minds as we contemplated the possibility that within a few years the inhabitants of Zion would raise up the House of the Lord in the mountaintops and the valley would be filled with orchards, gardens and fields, and the banner would be raised for nations to come.”

Wilford Woodruff had turned the wagon around as they left the canyon to provide the Prophet, [who was still sick] a view of the whole valley.  “As we admired the scene spread out before us, he had a vision that lasted several minutes.  He had already seen in another vision the valley and this time he contemplated the future glory of Zion and of Israel, as if it would be established in the valleys of these mountains.  After the vision passed, he said, ‘It is enough, this is the right place.  Drive on.’”

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our pioneer ancestors for their faith, courage, diligence, and sacrifice to cross the plains, come to the Salt Lake Valley, and make the desert blossom as a rose.   They laid a foundation of righteousness and obedience and made it possible for us to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.  I pray to always be a credit to their good names and be as worthy as possible of the sacrifices they made. 

Happy Pioneer Day!  Good Night!