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December Announcement for the Utah Westerners
Golden Visions: Halfway on a Long and Perilous Journey
Will Bagley
With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852 is the second of four scheduled volumes in Bagley’s acclaimed series, Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails. The first volume of this series, So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848 was the recipient of several awards including Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010 and the 2011 Western Heritage Award.
With narrative scope and detail unmatched by earlier histories, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them picks up where So Rugged and Mountainous left off, retelling this classic American saga through the voices of the people whose eyewitness testimonies vividly evoke the most dramatic era of westward migration. Traditional histories of the overland roads paint the gold rush migration as a heroic epic of progress that opened new lands and a continental treasure house for the advancement of civilization. Yet, according to Bagley, the transformation of the American West during this period is more complex and contentious than legend pretends. The gold rush epoch witnessed untold suffering and sacrifice, and the trails and their trials were enough to make many people turn back. For America’s Native peoples, the effect of the massive migration was no less than ruinous. The impact that tens of thousands of intruders had on Native peoples and their homelands is at the center of this story, not on its margins. Beautifully written and richly illustrated with photographs and maps, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them continues the saga that began with Bagley’s highly acclaimed, award-winning So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812–1848, hailed by critics as a classic of western history
Will Bagley is an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company’s documentary history series, KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier. Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hannah, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852 is the second of four volumes of “Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails”.
Upcoming Speakers for the Utah Westerners
December – Will Bagley discussing his forthcoming work on the Gold Rush trails to California.
January – John McCormick & John Sillito discussing radicalism in Utah
February – Linda Thatcher discussing JC Penny in Utah.
November Announcement for the Utah Westerners
The Pony Express Stations in Utah
Patrick Hearty & Dr. Joseph Hatch
We are very pleased to announce that Utah Westerners, Patrick Hearty and Joseph Hatch, will discuss their recent book on the Pony Express stations in Utah. They will share their research in both the literature and in the field, on the stations across present-day Utah which served the historic mail service we call the Pony Express. They will describe the locations, and what is known about the structures, and also tell some of the stories from that fascinating episode in our western history. Dr. Hatch will talk about obtaining modern photographs of each site, as well as researching historic photographs, and how a comparison of the old and new confirms our conclusions as to station locations
Pat Hearty was raised in Grantsville, Utah, and much of his youth was spent on his grandfather’s cattle ranch. He has retained a love of history and ties to the Old West that he learned there.
As an elementary school student, he was captivated by the book, The White Indian Boy, about a young Grantsville boy, Nick Wilson, who was enticed to leave his home and join the Shoshone Indians when offered a pinto pony to be his own. Nick returned home after a few years and later became one of the 1860-1861 Pony Express riders. One might wonder if Pat might not have done the same thing in his early years, with a similar promise of a pony of his own.
He graduated from BrighamYoungUniversity with degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is currently employed as a chemist for Battelle Memorial Institute, working at Deseret Chemical Depot.
Pat has been a member of the National Pony Express since 1978. He has been president of both the National organization and Utah Division of the Pony Express, and is currently a Re-ride Trail Captain in Utah, and the National Trails Liaison. He is a charter member of the Oregon-California Trails Association. He lives in Grantsville, with his wife, Linda, and his little band of horses.
Joseph Hatch was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, but there was always a horse for him in Heber City, Utah, where his father was born. All eight of his great grandparents and three of his great- great grandparents were pioneers to the Great Salt LakeValley before the completion of the railroad in 1869. Most or all of them came west before the Pony Express of 1860-1861 came through Great Salt LakeCity.
Joseph is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the MoranEyeCenter of the University of Utah, where he serves as senior consultant to the Moran Eye residents in the general eye clinics at the Salt Lake Veteran’s AdministrationHospital.
Joe’s interest in still and movie photography began in his pre-teen years. He has made several Super-8 sound movies plus an early Regular-8 silent western melodrama that he co-directed and filmed when he was 17 years old with Don Smith, a life-long friend.
He spent many summers of his youth in nearby Heber, Utah, where he rode his horse everywhere. He enjoyed horse club activities, including tie-down calf roping, while serving in the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas. He enjoys cattle roundups, trail rides, and horse pack trips into the Uinta Mountains and Yellowstone.
Joe has been a member of the National Pony Express Association since 1997, and he currently serves as a Re-ride Captain in the Utah Division of the National Pony Express Association. He is a member of the Utah Westerners
Joseph lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, Annette
October Announcement for the Utah Westerners
PARLEY P. PRATT: THE APOSTLE PAUL OF MORMONISM
MATTHEW J. GROW
After Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt was the most influential figure in early Mormon history and culture. Drawing from his recent book, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (Oxford University Press, 2011—see review below), co-authored with Terryl Givens, Matthew Grow will speak on Pratt’s life in early Utah Territory, including his leading role in the exploration of southern Utah; his two missions to California and a mission to Chile which helped orient the church towards the Pacific Rim and Latin America; and the dynamics of his large polygamous family.
Matthew J. Grow is Director of Publications at the Church History Department of the LDS Church and a general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers. He was previously an assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana. The Pratt biography received the Best Book Award from the Mormon History Association. His earlier book, “Liberty to the Downtrodden”: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer, also received MHA’s Best Book Award as well as the Evans Biography Award from the Mountain West Center at Utah State University. Grow also co-edited with Gregory K. Armstrong and Dennis J. Siler Parley P. Pratt and the Making of Mormonism (The Arthur H. Clark Co., 2011). He has published articles in several scholarly journals on various topics. After graduating from BrighamYoungUniversity, he received a PhD in American History from the University of Notre Dame.
Utah Westerner speaking at the Marriott Library
John McCormick and John Sillito will be speaking about their new book, A History of Utah Radicalism: Startling, Socialistic and Decidedly Revolutionary, on Sunday, September 16th at the Marriott Library, University of Utah at 3pm.
Best known today for its conservatism, Utah actually has a long tradition of radicalism stretching back more than a century. In many ways, Utah radicals have been part of national patterns. In the 1890’s Utahns, like their counterparts across the country, sought to build a Populist Party and a viable union movement. Of particular importance is the Socialist Party of America, which reached a peak of political influence in the first two decades of the twentieth century–in Utah and nationally–as over one hundred socialists were elected to office in Utah towns. While little known today, Utah’s radical past helps us gain a fuller picture of the state’s diverse past.
John McCormick and John Sillito will draw on their recent book A History of Utah Radicalism: Startling, Socialistic and Decidedly Revolutionary, published by Utah State University Press. McCormick and Sillito are also the editors of A World We Thought We Knew: Readings in Utah History published by the University of Utah Press.
John S. McCormick earned a Ph.D. in intellectual history from the University of Iowa. He is currently dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Salt Lake Community College. He has published books and articles in a number of areas, including political history, urban history, historic preservation, and the built environment. His books on Utah history include The Gathering Place: An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City.
“John Sillito is emeritus professor of libraries at Weber State University and currently teaches there as an adjunct in the History Department. A native of Salt Lake City, he has degrees in history and political science from the University of Utah. He is the editor of History’s Apprentice: The Diaries of B. H. Roberts, 1880-98. His writings have appeared in such journals as the Utah Historical Quarterly, Sunstone, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
September Announcement for the Utah Westerners
A LEGACY OF VENERATION: RIVERS I HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED
STEPHENIE AMBROSE TUBBS
Each summer Stephenie Ambrose’s mother and father, historian and bestselling author, Stephen Ambrose, would pack up their five children and take them on “grand adventures” centered on specific historical events. They spent most of every summer on the road, car camping and traveling across the Great Plains while Stephen researched his latest book. They canoed and hiked entire swaths of America and learned what it meant to live from campground to campground like pioneers heading west.
Stephenie will detail some of the highlights of those memorable trips and the lessons she learned along the way. She particularly enjoys engaging younger audiences (she’ll make an exception in our case) in getting out of doors and in recognizing their personal roles in preserving and protecting special places for their children and their children’s children. National Historic Sites and Trails, National Parks, National Monuments and Wildlife Refuges all depend on a strong network of supporters and advocates if they are to continue to be maintained. She sees that our job is to teach our children how to venerate places and river systems. She feels strongly that we must convey to them what it means to be good stewards and how they are part of the legacy of taking care of the roots of our story as Americans.
Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs holds two degrees in history from the University of Montana and has written and spoken extensively on local and western history, the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Trail, and conservation and preservation of wild spaces in the West. Following in her father’s footsteps, Stephenie became a sought-after expert on the Trail and the Corps of Discovery. During the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2003-2006) she traveled the entire trail speaking about various aspects of the expedition.
She was a researcher for Stephen Ambrose’s three-volume biography of Richard Nixon and went on to become a respected author in her own right, writing The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery and Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and Other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail (with Clay Straus Jenkinson). (See reviews that follow).
Stephenie currently serves as Co-Chair of the Lewis and Clark Trust, serves on the Board of the Montana Preservation Alliance and on the Advisory Council for the American Prairie Reserve.
For months we have been waiting with anticipation and excitement for this evening with Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a popular and respected speaker and author and be sure to invite a guest.
Utah Westerner in the New York Times
The New York Times recently wrote an article based on Utah Westerner, Ken Cannon’s research. You can read the article here:
Utah Westerners win Westerners International Book Awards!
Rod Miller has won the 2011 Fred Olds Poetry award for his book ‘Things a Cowboy Sees and Other Poems’
David Bigler and Will Bagley’s work ‘The Mormon Rebellion: America’s First Civil War, 1857-1858’ received second place in the 2011 Co-Founders Best Book Work.
Nice work gentlemen.
Utah Westerners and the 60th Annual Utah State History Conference
The Utah Westerners will be sponsoring a panel at this year’s Utah State History Conference on Saturday the 22nd at 1:30. The session is titled ‘The Chinese in Utah’ and features UW members John Eldredge, Gary Kimball and Walter Jones. Brad Westwood will moderate. More information can be found here:
http://history.utah.gov/historical_society/annual_meeting/index.html
August Announcement for the Utah Westerners
2012 Short Summer Excursion
“Show and Tell” Program –
Western and Early Utah Materials from the Church History Museum and Library
We are returning to the LDS Church History Library by popular demand after a very successful 2010 program. The focus will be on Western and early Mormon Utah.
Glenn Rowe, Bill Slaughter, Peter Crawley and Paul Geddes will guide members throughout the evening. Brad Westwood will act as wrangler for the evening.
A sampling of what will be shown:
- List of recorded brands [Salt Lake City? 1850?], 20 p. The first brand book printed in American, issued serially a 4-page sheet at a time, beginning in Feb 1850.
- Rules and regulations for the emigrants on board the ship [New York? 1846?]; Broadside. Issued February 4th 1846, prior to the sailing of the Brooklyn, bound for California.
- California Star, v. 1-2 1847-1848. Sam Brannan took his New York press on the Brooklyn, undoubtedly intending to use it to publish a Mormon newspaper in California. On January 9th he issued the first number of the California Star—the first newspaper in San Francisco, the second in California.
- General epistle from the Council of the Twelve Apostles [St. Louis, 1848], 8 p. 25.1 cm; unopened sheet, crisp and clean. Dictated by Willard Richards to Robert Campbell on December 16th–17th, 1847, and printed in 3000 copies at the St. Louis Republican in January 1848; this epistle recounts the journey of the pioneer company to the Salt Lake Valley.
- William Clayton. The Latter-day Saints’ emigrants’ guide (St. Louis, 1848), 24 p. John Taylor’s copy of the most famous, and best, of all the early overland guide books, tabulated by Clayton on the return trip from the Salt Lake Valley to Council Bluffs.
- 50¢ Great Salt LakeCity printed bank note, 20 Jan 1849. The first instance of printing in the Great Basin, struck off by Brigham H. Young and Thomas Bullock on a small press made by Truman O. Angell.
- Chief’s blanket, acquired by Jacob Hamblin trading with Navajo; one of the earliest blanket styles known.
- Colt revolvers, a gift by Samuel Colt to Brigham Young.
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