THE STORY OF MANTI 



A Study in Cause and Effect 



By WILL C. BARNES 



HARDLY had the early Mormon 

 ])ioneers estabhshed themselves 

 in their city on the shores of the 

 (ireat Salt Lake, when their leaders 

 began pushing out exploring parties, 

 with a view to spying out the land 

 about them and locating smaller col- 

 onies of saints wherever the conditions 

 seemed satisfactory. 



With them, possession was the neces- 

 sary nine points, and they could say to 

 new comers not of their faith: "It's 

 ours. We saw it first ; please keep ofif 

 the grass." 



Eventually, the farsightedness of 

 those men who were then at the head 

 of the Mormon church was fully justi- 

 fied. By the time the rest of the west 

 awoke to the fact that Utah was some- 

 thing besides a desert of sage and al- 

 kali, these industrious people had prac- 

 tically covered every available location 

 in the state and, incidentally, had flowed 

 over into a goodly slice of Idaho and 

 northern Arizona. 



Like the old Spanish conquistadores, 

 these churchly pioneers carried in one 

 hand the insignia of their faith, but in 

 the other, instead of the sword, they 

 held the irrigator's shovel — a much 

 more peaceful and civilizing weapon. 

 Down in the Wasatch Mountains in 

 southern LUah. a small exploring band 

 of these disciples of the Church of Jesus 

 Christ of Latter-day Saints found a 

 lovely valley, lying close under the great 

 mountain range, where a rollick\- little 

 stream came dancing out of the hills. 

 Wherever those M(M-mons found land 

 and water lying in close proximity one 

 to the other, there they located a colony 

 and proceeded to wed these two re- 

 sources, whose otTspring are homes and 

 prosperity. 

 532 



The arable land lay right at the mouth 

 of a great canyon, which wormed its 

 way back into the dark forest-covered 

 sides of the mountain. Here they laid 

 out a town, broad as to streets, the 

 lots measured by acres instead of feet, 

 and in the center a "stake" house, such 

 as all well regulated Mormon communi- 

 ties build almost the first thing. 



They named the place "Manti" in 

 honor of one of the ancient cities men- 

 tioned in the Book of Mormon. About 

 the town lay the land — some 6,000 acres 

 in extent — upon which, through irrigat- 

 ing ditches, the settlers carried the 

 water from the creek, wdiile beyond this 

 was one of the best grazing areas in all 

 the west. There seemed no limit to the 

 grass and forage in the mountains. As 

 they prosperetl, their herds swarmed 

 over the range ; they followed the snow 

 as it melted in the warm spring sun 

 when the ground was still wet and soft. 

 They climbed to the very tops of the 

 peaks with their sheep in search of feed, 

 and there they stayed until the snows 

 drove them out in the fall into the win- 

 ter ranges. 



Other herds than those belonging to 

 Manti were driven from distant points 

 to summer in these splendid pastures, 

 and the stockmen were soon fighting 

 for the ranges like wolves about a car- 

 cass. The feed was eaten off by their 

 hungry animals as fast as it grew, until 

 the whole area was swept bare of all 

 its former cover of grass, weeds, and 

 brush, as if a fire had passed over it. 

 l<"inally. the Wasatch Alountains were 

 but a "bed ground" for the stockmen's 

 herds. 



This was the condition when, in 10)03. 

 the government agents went into that 

 region for the purpose of seeing wh.'it 



