William Heap’s cabin in Zion Canyon in 1870, on the west side of the river at the mouth of Emerald Pool Side-canyon. Marion Heap on his father’s lap, his mother standing by the cabin. Photo by courtesy of Marion Heap.
Silver Reef, famous Southern Utah mining camp, during its hey-dey in the ’70’s. Photo by courtesy of Mark Pendleton.
Washington Cotton Mill (1866 to 1899), a reminder of the Cotton Mission. Courtesy Mark Pendleton.
The next day he drove to Tonaquint at the junction of the Santa Clara and the Virgin. This was the strategic point at which Jedediah Smith’s two trips had forked in 1826 and 1827; where Parley P. Pratt’s exploring party had turned homeward on January 1, 1850; and where John D. Lee’s party on February 3, 1852, had halted in the exploration of the Virgin River. After Brigham Young left Tonaquint, a settlement of twelve families, he stopped his carriage near the center of the valley in which St. George was later located. As members of his party crowded around him, he seemed to envision the future. On his left, running north and south, was a black ridge. Three miles to the east was a parallel black ridge. Fronting him two miles to the north was a red sandstone bluff running east and west, down the face of which were streaks of vivid green vegetation marking springs or streams. The Virgin River behind him made the fourth side of the square. According to Bleak, Young prophesied: “There will yet be built between those volcanic ridges a city with spires, towers and steeples; with homes containing many inhabitants.”[46]
The party then proceeded up the Virgin River via Washington, Toquerville and Virgin as far as Grafton. From here it retraced its steps to Toquerville and then started homeward via Harmony, Cedar City and Parowan, arriving in Salt Lake City on June 8, 1861.
The Cotton Wave
It was this trip to the Virgin River settlements that convinced Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders of the wisdom of pushing the settlement of Utah’s southland. The outbreak of the Civil War may have clinched the argument. When it became apparent that the cotton supply from the southern states would be cut off, the decision to advance the Dixie settlements with a view toward cotton culture was strengthened.