AMOXG THE MORMONS. 501 



coveries and settlements in Virginia, Signer Cardenas 

 was simply taking a little vacation trip through Utah. 



But however fabulous that may be. we know of a 

 surety that on July 29, 1776, two Franciscan friars 

 set out from Santa Fe to find a direct route to the 

 Pacific Ocean. In their wanderings they strayed far 

 to the north, where they came across many representa- 

 tives of the Utes, who proved to be a loving, faithful, 

 hospitable people. From their lips the Spaniards 

 heard the first description ever listened to by white 

 men of the region of country containing the present 

 site of Ogden. "The lake," the Utes said, "occupies 

 many leagues. Its waters are injurious and extremely 

 salt. He that wets any part of his body in this water 

 immediately feels an itching in the wet parts. In the 

 circuit of this lake live a numerous and quiet nation 

 called Puaguampe. They feed on herbs, and drink 

 from various fountains or springs of good water which 

 are about the lake, and they have their little houses of 

 grass and earth, which latter forms the roof." 



So the Great Salt Lake makes its entrance into com- 

 paratively modern American history. 



In 1825, Peter Skeen Ogden, accompanied by 

 his party of Hudson Bay Company trappers, pursued 

 his brilliant adventures, and left behind a record which 

 induced the naming of the city after' him. 



In 1841, the country around the spot where the city 

 now lies was held, on a Spanish grant, by Miles M. 

 Goodyear, who built a fort and a few log-houses near 

 the confluence of the Weber and Ogden rivers. 



On June 6, 1848, a man named James Brown 

 came from California with his pockets stuffed with 

 gold dust; nearly five thousand dollars' worth of the 



