History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

SALT LAKE COUNTY. 699
While not communists, the elements of socialism
enter strongly into all their relations, public and pri-
vate, social, commercial, and industrial, as well as
religious and political. This tends to render them
exclusive, independent of the gentiles and their government,
and even in some respects antagonistic to
them. They have assisted each other until nine out
of ten own their farms, while commerce and manufacturing
are to a large extent cooperative. The rights
of property are respected; but while a Mormon may
sell his farm to a gentile, it would not be deemed
good fellowship for him to do so.
Salt Lake county contained, in 1883, nearly one
fifth of the population of Utah, the eastern side of
the valley, where the streams of the Wasatch Mountains
are utilized for irrigation, being the principal
farming section; while the western portion, in the
neighborhood of the Oquirrh Range, was but sparsely
settled. In this county were found, with the exception
perhaps of coal, nearly all the minerals that contribute
to the wealth of communities. AJta, the
mining town of Little Cottonwood, contained a considerable
population until the spring of 1878, when it
was almost destroyed by fire. Bingham, about thirty
miles south-west of the capital, was surrounded by
productive mines; and Sandy, where the Bingham
canon and Cottonwood ores were forwarded for sampling,
was a thriving village. 23
Curtis' Dottings, 1S-2S; in 1872, Bonwick's Mormons and Silver Mines, 8-10;
Washim/ton Star, in Deseret News, July 10, 1S72; Oakland Monthly Rev., i. no.
1, IS— lO; in 1871, Buhner's Hound the World, 76-80; Greenwood's New Life,
137-S. 142-4; in 1870, Nordhof'sCal., 40-2; Nelson's Pict. Guide- Book, 19-25;
Kneeland's Wonders of Yosemite, 19-21; Overland Monthly, v. 270-3, 27">; in
1869, Roe's Westward by Bail, 104-12; in 1868, Goddard's Where to Emir/rate,
152-3; Bowies' Pac. Railroad, 40-51; Ludlow's Heart of the Continent, 315-28;
Beadle's Life in Utah, 240-7; in 1867, Hepworth Dixon's New Amer., 133-41;
Me< hire's 8,000 Miles Through the Rocky Mts, 165-6 (with cut); in 1866, Runling's
Across Amcr., 163-6; Life among the Mormons, 8S-97; in 1865, Bowles'
Our New West, 202-3, 206, 219-22 (with cut); Barnes' From Atlantic to Pacific,
54-5: Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi, 347 (with cut); in 1860-2, pp.
577-90, this vol. (with plan).
23 Among other growing settlements in Salt Lake co. at this time were