To the Pioneers and Citizens, and to the
Officers and Members of the Sabbath
Schools:
My Dear Friends: Forty-one years
ago this day I passed through Emigra-
tion Cañon with President' Brigham
Young. He was taken sick on East
Cañon Creek, and I made a bed for him
in my carriage. When we came upon
the bench I turned the side
of the vehicle to the west so that he
could obtain a fair view of the valley.
President Young arose from his bed
and took a survey of the country be-
fore him for several minutes. He then
said to me, "Drive on down in[t]o the
valley, this is our abiding place. I
have seen it before in vision. In this
valley will be built the City of the
Saints and the Temple of our God."
I drove down to the encampent al-
ready formed by a portion of
our company, who had cut a
road through the quakingasp groves
of timber which were in the bed of
the cañon and come in ahead of us.
We arrived in the encampment at
half-past eleven of the morning of the
24th of July, 1847. The brethren had
already turned out City Creek and irri-
gated the dry and barren soil, being
the first irrigation ever performed by
any one in these mountains in this age.
They had also commenced to plough
some ground, and that noble pioneer,
William Carter, whose circumstances
prevent his meeting with the pioneers
today, broke the first ground and laid
the first furrow. The plowshare that
performed the work is on the stand to-
day. On my arrival in camp, before I
ate my dinner, I planted two bushels
of potatoes in the ground broken up.
President Young commenced to re-
cover from his sickness the hour he
entered the valley. On a day or two
following our arrival, a remarkable in-
cident occurred.
While President Young was walking
with several of the Apostles on the
higher ground northwest of our en-
campment, he suddenly stepped out,
stuck his cane into the barren ground
and sagebrush, and exclaimed, "Right
here will stand the Temple of our
God." We had a peg driven down and
it was nearly in the middle of the
Temple as it stands today, which Tem-
ple was built without any regard to the
spot designated by President Young at
the time.
On the 26th, we went to the
top of a high point on the
north of the city, which Presi-
dent Young named "Ensign Peak."
We also visited the Hot and Warm
Springs. On the 27th we drove to the
West Mountains and visited the Salt
Lake, President Young being the first to
dip his hand into the briny water. We
walked dryshod to the Black Rock and
took a bath in the Lake. Afterwards
preparations were made for laying out
the city, and I with other brethren as-
sisted President Young in laying out
the ground and streets with chain and
compass. We laid out a block of ten
acres upon which to build a Temple,
and city lots of one acre and a
quarter, and streets eight rods wide,
all of which has been published by his-
torians.
President Young left Winter Quar-
ters on the seventh day of April, ac-
companied by seven other Apostles and
other men, all told 143 men and 3
women. The Apostles were Brigham
Young, Heber C. Kimball, W. Wood-
ruff, George A. Smith, Willard Rich-
ards, Orson Pratt, Amasa Lyman and
Ezra T. Benson. Parley [P.] Pratt and
John Taylor arrived soon after, lead-
ing companies of families. Orson
Hyde remained at Kanesville. We trav-
eled the first 500 miles without any
grass. With the exception of a little
grain we fed our animals, they lived
entirely on the bark of cottonwood
limbs and saplings, which they
gnawed from the trees we would
lay before them for their night's
meal. This company of 143 men
traveled 1030 miles, making their
roads and building their bridges. In
one instance we had to form a guard
of a wedge shape for three days and
nights to keep our company from being
trampled to death by an enormous
herd of buffalo that had gathered from
the mountains and were migrating in
a solid body to the plains below. The
herd was judged to be sixty miles in
length, and numbered not less than
one million. They were traveling east
and we were traveling west. We were
three days passing though the herd,
and we all breathed freer when we
were clear of them. No other class of
men will ever witness the same scene
again upon the face of the earth.
Brother Wm. C. A. Smoot, sen., got
his horses loose and mixed with the
herd, and it was with great difficulty
that we obtained them again.
Notwithstanding our first care was
to secure an abiding place, a home for
the people, we did not lose sight
of other important matters. President
Young contemplated at that early day
the building of a railroad across the
continent, and we marked out the
route which we thought the national
road would take to unite the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans.
Brothers Orson Pratt and Erastus
Snow entered the valley two or three
days before the body of the pioneers;
but where are those men today, and
where is President Brigham Young and
the Apostles who accompanied him?
All are in the spirit world mingling
with the martyred Prophets where
they can plead for their brethren. Not
one of them living today except my-
self, and but few of the pioneers re-
main. We have buried a whole quo-
rum of Twelve Apostles since we en-
tered these valleys of the mountains.
The remnant of Zion's Camp, Mormon
Battalion and the Pioneers number but
very few today. Those of us who re-
main will soon pass away, but our
posterity live and are numbered in the
Primaries, the Sabbath schools and
the Mutual Improvement Associa-
tions, and are this day assembled in
this great Tabernacle to celebrate the
arrival of the Pioneers into this great
American Deseret, which today
through the blessing of God and the
labor of the Pioneers is blossoming as
the rose.
This company of pioneers spent
about a month in this valley during
which period we erected what is
known as the Old Fort, surrounding
three sides of the ten-acre block, with
an adobie wall about ten feet high on
the outside, and the east side with log
cabins. We also arranged for this fort
to have four entrances, one on each
point of the compass.
Most of the Pioneers returned to
Winter Quarters where they arrived
in the fall, making a jorney of over
two thousand miles, besides the labors
performed while here in building a
fort, laying out the city and exploring
the adjacent valleys.
I wish to say a few words to the
members of the Sabbath Schools and
to all who are assembled in this Tab-
ernancle today to celebrate the arrival of
the Pioneers into this valley. It is not
wisdom for me to occupy your time
with a long address upon an occasion
of this kind, but I have referred to a
few incidents of our peculiar journey
into this barren desert, that you may
keep in mind the toil, the care and the
harships which your fathers endured
in laying the foundation of the Zion of
our God which is to be established in
the mountains of Israel, in fulfillment
of the blessing of the old Patri-
arch Jacob pronounced upon his pos-
terity that should be fulfilled in the
valleys of the everlasting hills in the
latter-days. And upon the heads of
the rising generation of the Latter-
day Saints rests the responsiblity of
building up the Kingdom of God upon
the foundations which their fathers
have laid. And also of building up a
State in which shall dwell virtue, tem-
perance, industry, frugality and hon-
esty; a State which will do honor to
the American government, where
wholesome laws shall be administed
in equity and justice to all of its citi
zens according to the letter and spirit
of the Constitution given by inspira-
tion of Almighty God to our fore-
fathers.
I feel to say to our children, Honor
your father and your mother and your
God, that your days may be long and
prosperous in these valleys ol [of] the
mountains which the Lord your God
hath given unto you.
That God may bless you all, and en-
able you to fulfill the object of your
creation here on the earth to the satis-
faction of yourselves and your Crea-
tor, is the earnest desire of your friend
and brother,
WILFORD WOODRUFF.