Extracts
From a Letter to Prest. Brigham Young.

On the Muddy, 200 miles from Parowan,
Sunday, May 28, 1854

I am well and feel well.  The company are well and cheerful, and well agreed.

I have been six miles up the creek to an Indian village.  I gave the old Chief a new shirt, and br. White the interpreter and myself went with him, without arms or guard.  We saw about 150 Indians, men, women and children at their wickeups, mere shades of poles and straw.  Our camp was full at the same time, and we could see them among the meadows and hills in every direction.

We saw about 40 acres of wheat mostly in one body.  Much of it was ripe, and some of it was cut and stood in shocks; it was as high as my shoulders, and some of it measured to my nose.  I also saw handsome gardens of beans, melons, corn, broom corn, etc., arranged in beautiful rows, with little ditches for water between each row, and large ditches at proper distances.

The land was good.  Weeds and thistles grow in the uncultivated part as high as my head on a horse.  There are hundreds if not thousands of acres.  The meadows are extensive for mowing and pasturage.  Wire grass, red top, canes, milkweeds, thistles, willows, &c., are the prevailing vegetation.  The water is extremely handy for irrigation, and it never is higher or lower, being fed wholly by springs.  There is any desirable amount of water power, and stone quarries.

All around the Eden, is one vast dreary desert.  The Indians tell of other lands in other valley, and wheat.  I suppose 2000 souls could be centered here, if a settlement, mill, and trading post could be established.

P.P. Pratt

[Deseret News, July 27, 1854]
[Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 28, 1854, 1]

[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, July 2006]

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