Speaking of Bear Lake he says: "We found this to be a large valley. The soil is good and the water is sufficient to irrigate it all and there is abundant timber. It is a great stock range and the lake is the finest in Utah. It is about thirty miles long and ten miles wide through the middle. It is said that in many places a line two hundred feet long fails to reach the bottom."
Elder Woodruff was a fisher, and of course tells the story of the trout in that region: "Great numbers of trout ran in the streams from the lake. They ranged some of them from ten to twelve pounds in size. The boatmen sometimes killed them with clubs and sometimes caught them with nets."
On the return home, he said: "An accident occurred which came near costing Geo. A. Smith his life. A man by the name of Merrill put a loaded rifle in the carriage. The gun rested on the seat by Brother George A. While he was thus riding, the wheel struck a rock. Brother Smith threw his body on the upper side of the carriage to balance it, and at that instant the gun went off. The ball went through the buffalo-robe by him, passed by his side and went through the wagon behind him. It was a providential escape from death."
"On May the 24th we drove to Logan where President Young spoke on the doctrine of the plurality of wives. He said that there were but few elders in the Church that would receive the exaltation they were looking for in that order. It would be given to many more women than men. There are but few men that enter into that law that keep it."
On date of June 5th Elder Woodruff makes record in his journal of the drowning of Matthias Cowley. Elder Cowley was a nephew by marriage to Apostle Woodruff, and had come from the Isle of Man to Nauvoo when thirteen years of age. Later he emigrated with his parents to Salt Lake Valley. Elder Woodruff secured a number of men and a boat and went in search of the body, which, however, was not recovered until a week later.
Early in July Elder Woodruff accompanied President Young on a trip to Provo, where they preached under the bowery to a congregation of some three thousand persons. While there, Elder Woodruff records that a messenger came from Salt Lake stating that the Governor had placed a provost guard in the Church storehouse opposite the Temple Block. The Governor intended to put the city under martial law. A guard of one hundred men accompanied the President and party home. They found his home guarded by two hundred and fifty men.
This annoyance created a good deal of agitation among the Saints, and Elder Woodruff says that on the 12th of July he spent most of the day getting singers to the petition to remove the soldiers to the outside of the inhabited portions of the city. The leaders had learned during their early experience that one of the means that the enemy had used to drive out the Saints was to create some sort of a conflict by aggravating the leaders. It was hoped that some kind of retaliation would be resorted to that would bring them into conflict with the civil authorities. It was so easy to style such a conflict a rebellion. The next step, of course, would be martial law. The Saints and leaders, however, were on their guard constantly, and took every precaution to keep down disturbances.
It would not be possible in a biography of this character to follow Elder Woodruff in his travels to the various counties throughout the Church. Towns were multiplying rapidly. The Saints were coming into the Valleys by the thousands. The pioneer work of extending the borders of the Church was already beyond the personal supervision of the leaders. On his return from one of these visits he said that he had budded four hundred and nineteen peach trees in the old Fort block, where the pioneers had early located. On this block Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards were ordained apostles, on Feb. 12, 1849. The block is now owned by the city, and held as a park.
On the 18th of August a visit was made to Heber City. Elder Woodruff described the Hot Springs, located at Midway, and the peculiar formation around them. He said that about twenty of them were filled with water. In some instances the water was running over the top. Some were about fifteen feet in depth, and some apparently bottomless. On one they sank a weight one hundred and twenty-five feet and found no bottom. He spoke of the rattle-snake den, and the fact that between four and five hundred rattle-snakes had been killed in a single day. In the spring they appear on the outside and form into a bunch that would almost fill a bushel. They tie themselves together in knots with their heads sticking out in all directions for defense. The country around the craters is apparently hollow, as indicated by the sounds caused by the rumbling of wheels.
Soon after their return from Heber City, September the 1st, a tour of the southern part of the Territory was made, and extended as far as St. George and Santa Clara. These visits fired the hearts of the Saints and gave rise to an ambition to make the desert blossom as the rose. At Fillmore Elder Woodruff made a careful note of the splendid condition of the apple orchards. He also stated they held a party there that evening in the stake house, but President Young broke it up because of the confusion and disorder in the house.