History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

SILK AND LUMBER. 727
at the mouth of City Creek, where a neat brick building
was erected and fitted with machinery for the
manufacturing purposes. Samples of raw silk were
sent to New York, to Florence in Italy, and Florence
in Massachusetts, and were found to be well reeled
and of good strength and quality. Though the industry
is as yet in its infancy, the Mormons are
confident that it will soon develop into a source of
wealth. 24
One of the main drawbacks to the industries of
Utah has been the scarcity of timber for hard and finishing
woods. In the mountains and canons there was
a fair supply of common timber for ordinary use, though
in the valleys and plains there was no forest growth,
sage-brush having been often used for fuel during the
first years of settlement, willow brush for fencing,
and adobes for building. In later times the black
balsam and red pine, indigenous to the Oquirrh and
other ranges, were largely used for posts and railroad
ties, the scrub cedar and pinon pine, found in many
portions of southern and western Utah, being made to
serve the same purpose. Though the people were not
allowed to acquire title to timber-lands, and were even
nominally forbidden to use the timber except on mineral
lands, and then only for domestic purposes, they obtained
all that they needed without even paying stumpage,
except in a few localities. In 1883 there were a
hundred or more saw-mills in operation in various
parts of Utah, the price of building and fencing lumber
generally ruling at from $20 to $25, and of flooring
and finishing lumber $40 to $45, per thousand feet. 25
directors. The other members of the board were Wm H. Hooper, Zina D.
Young, Alex. C. Typer, and M. I. Home. 8. L. ft Contributor, ii. 115. In
1878 $1,500 was appropriated by the legislature for the purchase of machinery.
Snow's A utobiog., MS.; Utah Laws, 1878,56.
24 Forfurther mention of sericulture in Utah, see Id., 115-16; S. L. Dy Tel.,
Dec. 5, 1S68; S. F. Bulletin, July 22, 1868; Sac. Union, Nov. 25, 1868.
25 Hollister's Res. and Attract, of Utah, 18; Utah Gaz., 11. See, for remarks
on the scarcity of timber, Utah Early Records, MS., 20; House Ex.
Doc., 40th Cong. 2d Sess., xxii., p. 504; Beadle's Life in Utah, 461-2; for
extent, character, and statistics of timber-lands, Powell's Lands of the Arid