Bancroft mentions this claim "for what it is worth," but awards the honor of the discovery of the lake, as the earliest authenticated, to James Bridger, the noted frontiersman who, some twelve years later, built his well-known trading fort on Green River. Bridger, with a party of trappers who had journeyed west from the Missouri with Henry and Ashley in 1824, got into a discussion that winter with his fellows, while they were camped on Bear River, about the course of that stream, and, to decide a bet, Bridger followed it southward until he came to Great Salt Lake. In the following spring four of the party explored the lake in boats made of skins, hoping to find beavers, and they, it is believed, were the first white men to float upon its waters. Fremont saw the lake from the summit of a butte on September 6, 1843. "It was," he says, "one of the great objects of the exploration, and, as we looked eagerly over the lake in the first emotions of excited pleasure, I am doubtful if the followers of Balboa felt more enthusiasm when, from the heights of the Andes, they saw for the first time the great Western Ocean." This practical claim of discovery was not well founded, nor was his sail on the lake in an India-rubber boat "the first ever attempted on this interior sea."
Dating from 1825, the lake region of Utah became more and more familiar to American trappers and explorers. In 1833 Captain Bonneville, of the United States army, obtained leave of absence, and with a company of 110 trappers set out for the Far West by the Platte route. Crossing the Rockies through the South Pass, he made a fortified camp on Green River, whence he for three years explored the country. One of his parties, under Joseph Walker, was sent to trap beavers on Great Salt Lake and to explore it thoroughly, making notes and maps. Bonneville, in his description of the lake to Irving, declared that lofty mountains rose from its bosom, and greatly magnified its extent to the south.* Walker's party got within sight of the lake, but found themselves in a desert, and accordingly changed their course and crossed the Sierras into California. In Bonneville's map the lake is called "Lake Bonneville or Great Salt Lake," and Irving calls it Lake Bonneville in his "Astoria."
* Bonneville's "Adventures," p. 184.
The day after the first arrival of Brigham Young in Salt Lake Valley (Sunday, July 25), church services were held and the sacrament was administered. Young addressed his followers, indicating at the start his idea of his leadership and of the ownership of the land, which was then Mexican territory. "He said that no man should buy any land who came here," says Woodruff; "that he had none to sell; but every man should have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes. He might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of it." *
* "After the assignments were made, persona commenced the usual
speculations of selling according to eligibility of situation. This
called out anathemas from the spiritual powers, and no one was permitted
to traffic for fancy profit; if any sales were made, the first cost
and actual value of improvements were all that was to be allowed. All
speculative sales were made sub rosa. Exchanges are made and the records
kept by the register."—Gunnison, "The Mormons" (1852), p. 145.
The next day a party, including all the Twelve who were in the valley, set out to explore the neighborhood. They visited and bathed in Great Salt Lake, climbed and named Ensign Peak, and met a party of Utah Indians, who made signs that they wanted to trade. On their return Young explained to the people his ideas of an exploration of the country to the west and north.
Meanwhile, those left in the valley had been busy staking off fields, irrigating them, and planting vegetables and grain. Some buildings, among them a blacksmith shop, were begun. The members of the Battalion, about four hundred of whom had now arrived, constructed a "bowery." Camps of Utah Indians were visited, and the white men witnessed their method of securing for food the abundant black crickets, by driving them into an enclosure fenced with brush which they set on fire.
On July 28, after a council of the Quorum had been held, the site of the Temple was selected by Brigham Young, who waved his hand and said: "Here is the 40 acres for the Temple. The city can be laid out perfectly square, east and west."* The 40 acres were a few days later reduced to 10, but the site then chosen is that on which the big Temple now stands. It was also decided that the city should be laid out in lots measuring to by 20 rods each, 8 lots to a block, with streets 8 rods wide, and sidewalks 20 feet wide; each house to be erected in the centre of a lot, and 20 feet from the front line. Land was also reserved for four parks of to acres each.
* Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 178.
Men were at once sent into the mountains to secure logs for cabins, and work on adobe huts was also begun. On August y those of the Twelve present selected their "inheritances," each taking a block near the Temple. A week later the Twelve in council selected the blocks on which the companies under each should settle. The city as then laid out covered a space nearly four miles long and three broad.*