Mormon History
Fools Looking For Gold - 1851
Daily Missouri Republican – June 10, 1851
[News from the Great Salt Lake]
We have a letter from a correspondent at Great
Salt Lake City, dated the 20th April. The mail from the United States had not
then reached there, having been out sixty one days, if it left on the first of
March.
About the 10th of April, a company of fifty Mormons, composed of the principal
men, Governor Young among them, started for Iron county, or Little Salt Lake.
They were on an exploring expedition to the different valleys at the south. It
was generally believed that there was much gold near the Little Salt Lake, some
specimens having been found, and this is probably one of the objects of the
expedition.
The Indians were giving the Mormons and the emigrants much trouble, by stealing
and running off their stock. A large party started about the 10th of April in
search of the Indians and to regain the stolen animals. On the Tooelee Valley,
one of the company, an emigrant, was shot by an Indian and killed. His name was
Lorenzo Dow Custer, from Ohio, and a wife and two children are left behind him.
They had stolen four of his horses. On the 19th, one of the company returned to
Great Salt Lake City, with information that five of the Indians were captured;
and for stealing their horses and refusing to tell where the remainder were
encamped, they were shot. The party were determined to follow the Indians to
their encampments.
Money is represented as beinf scarce, in the hands of a few, and not in
circulation. Wheat has gone up to $4 per bushel. A much larger amount of
merchandize is expected at that place than there is money to buy, unless gold is
found in Iron county, by the company which has gone to seek it.
The health of the citizens of Salt Lake City was good. An enumeration of the
inhabitants was in progress, and it was supposed that the nineteen wards of the
city would average two hubdred persons each, or say 4,000 in all. About 1,000
emigrants have left that place for California and a great many Mormons had gone
South to settle the different valleys.
The expenses attending the troubles and difficulties with the Indians are very
heavy -- the writer estimates them at not less than $50,000 since he has been
there. To call out fifty or one hundred men, at a time of the year when every
man should be at work on his farm, is no small loss to the community.
In a second, or supplemental epistle to the church, it is stated that Messrs.
Miles Beach, of St. Louis and Blair, of Texas, have opened an establishment for
the manufacture of sugar from the beet root.