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Show EAGLE GATE SIGNIFICANCE. The Tribune has been asked' a question ques-tion that arises out of curiosity on the part of thoe who arc uninformed in' the matter as to tho significance of the Eagle Gate situated at the head of State street. Indeed! wc have received sevcrd inquiries- along this lino, and now having certain authoritative information infor-mation at hand wc shall ijuike 'a reply which.it is hoped will prove satisfactory satisfac-tory to all inquirers upon, this s'ubj.ect. Jn- the very early days of Utah it was impossible for teams to get up into what is known as City Creek canyon except by passing up thattstreet and through the point now marked 1)3' tho Eagle, Gate. As is well known, the official of-ficial residence, of. Brigham Young ,was situated at that point, and was then and, is now known as the Bfe Hive house. At that lime there was much timber cut in the canyon for fuel, fencing, and buildnig purposes. 'A thought struck President Young as ho saw the numerous numer-ous loads of wood and timber coming down out of tho canyon, and that thought seems to have inspired the greater portion of a sermon which he preached in the old tabernacle on October Oc-tober H, So2, as we find it recorded in tho .Journal of Discourses, volume 2, pages 209 to 220. Brigham upbraided tho elders for going up into the canyon can-yon and sort of pre empting lo themselves them-selves certain patches of limber, and quarreling and lighting with others who undertook lo encroach upon ihcm. A man. for instance (as Brigham described tho situation) would cut a rond to a natch of timber, and then some other fellow would make uso of thai road and cut. timber out of that particular patch after tho road-builder had gone to the trouble to niako it accessible. Numerous Numer-ous quarrels and lights resulted, and Brigham referred lo those iu the sor-r mon alluded to. He therefore proposed ;i plan which would insure better regulation regu-lation and incidentally bring a modicum of profit to someone whom it is unneces sary to name. After ripping tho elders to metaphorical shreds on account of their bickering and fighting. President Young said (see pages 217 and 21S): I have talked long enough upon this mailer. The motion Is. that wo. as "the Church of Jesus Chi 1st of Latter-day Saints, in the capacity of a. General Conference Con-ference assembled, and embracing the whole community in the midst of the mountains, recommend, and give it as our-opinion, that (be best method of disposing dis-posing of the kanyons Is to put thorn in tho hands of individuals to make good roads in them, and obtain their pay by talcing toll from those who use the roads, at a gate .eroded for .lhat purpose at the mouth of each kanyon. Now. sisters. I want you to vote also, because women are- the characters that rule the ballot bo. If you are jn favor of this motion, as Latter -day Saints, signify it by tho uplifted hand. (Unanimous. "Let the judges In the county of Great Salt Lake take notice, and govern themselves them-selves accordingly. The same thing I say lo the Judges or any other of the counties of the' Territory, Take notice and govern yourselves accordingly. Put these kanyons into1 the hands of individuals indi-viduals who will make good roads in them, and let them take loll from the inhabitants that go there for wood, limber lim-ber and poles,' Now this is my order for the Judges to take due notice of; it does not come from the Governor, but from the President of the Church: vou will not see any proclamation In "the paper to this effect, but il Is K more declaration of the President of the Conference, And so it came about that the "Eagle Gate was originally a toll gate, at which each man hauling wood; timber or poles from City Creek canyon paid every third load over to the woodpile of Brigham Young. Brigham never built a foot of road in that canyon that was not 'paid for out. of -the public funds extorted from the people either as gcil- orai taxes, or poll .tax. contributions or church donations lo what were then called the " jmblic'works " but ho took the toll of -every third load of wood, timber or poles at the toll gate which he setup near his official residence, and near which he had a private saw mill for the purpose of reducing it to the forma desired by himself.' The other canyons were i rented similarly. In fact, tho Territory was divided into principalities, princi-palities, at tho head of each of which was a favorite apostle; and all took toll from tho people upon the uatural resources of those apostolic domains. ' Again, thq president, of t,he church, and the Mormon conference, having made the determination' noted, it waH then easy enough to enforce the, provisions provi-sions of a grant curlier bestowed under legislative ordinance. In the record of the proceedings of tho legislative assembly assem-bly of the Territory of Utah. 1S55, chapter VJL, we find the following: "An ordinance concerning Cltv Creek Kanyon. Bo It ordained by the General Assembly of the State of Descret: That. Tirlirhnm Vniinc hnv flw. enln ,.nni.nl r City f reek and Katiynrj; and tbnt he pay Into the public treasury "the' sum of live hundred dollars therefor-Approved therefor-Approved December fith; 1S50, - It seems that although, the ff'Slafo of Dcserct" had conferred. thi3 special fa-vojupon fa-vojupon Brigham, the elders tool: no notice of jl until tliej' wore bound to its observance under edict of tho church president and church conference . It. is known that all t-jio natural resources' of the Territory, were thus parceled out to ecclesiastical , favorites, but ito is not known thut Brigham ever paid info the public treasury J hat fivo hundred dollars, dol-lars, even' though ho had absolute control con-trol of the" waters of City creok and was minster of all the other resources with which the canyon n bounded. Suclf is" tho story of tho ErtgleGa"te, which was erected upon the site of the old toll gate. |
