238 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
Then it was a desert covered with stunted sagebrush and grease- 
wood, except in places where the mountain streams furnished a sup- 
ply of water. 
The train runs along through the valley, with good farms on 
both sides and the bare walls of the mountains as a background, 
until it reaches the next station, Midvale, which is 
Midvale. 
Populat 
Denver ish tifles 
the junction point of branch lines running to 
lara tion A. BG feet. Bingham, 14 miles to the west. 
209. 
idvale is a 
large mill and lead smelter built for the codiiegeia 
of some of the ores of the Bingham district. This 
smelter is known as the smokeless smelter, for it was one of the 
first smelters to recover and utilize the substances contained in the 
tion canyons to the Salt Lake Valley. 
Orson Pratt, Cosi Snow, and some 
others were sent ahead and entered 
the valley of the eek Salt Lake July 
21. They explored some parts and on 
the 23d staked off land and turned the 
k onto Fags worl 
under 
Brigham Young, decdton on mid 24, 
and it is out of respect for him and 
the main company that this aay is 
_ as Utah’s natal day. * 
ake Ci e t 
s made abo where the 
Knutsford building [Auerbach’s de 
pa ent store] now stands at the 
co f Thi th [Broadway] 
0 rd 
and State — on the banks of City 
Creek. At a conference held 
on aadaed 22 it was aides to eall a 
town Great Salt Lake Cit 
Wilford Woodruff says in tite peters 
“We have laid out a city 2 miles 
square and built a fort of hewn 
ber and of sun-dried bricks or adobe. 
rods which ve ith 
blockhouses.”’ [This was called Old 
Fort and stood on what is now known 
as Sixth Ward Square, or the park 
near the Denver & Rio Grande Western 
nitense road station, now called Pioneer 
re.] 
maces the first company, headed by 
Brigham Young, left for the Rocky 
Mountains, extensive preparations 
im- | grants 
were made for others to follow. The 
‘First 
e 
aes se 19. ry ae end of the year 
some 4,000 people had settled in the 
valley of the gaat Salt Lake. 
“One of the saddest episodes in the 
history of Utah is the story of the 
a 
River points en route to 
How to bring ae gies the plains 
was a problem. There was 
not enough money to provide trans- 
to ed handonres and have the emi- 
push them across the erat 
with a cow or two for every 
persons. ] 
“The plan was put in operation in 
the spring of 1856 and worked ceed for 
tart 
Iowa City to Salt Lake City, drawing 
