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Show HUMOR SAID INDIANS, MORMONS WOULD DESTROY CORINNE CITY Telegraph Operator Goes Awry And Calls In Gentile Army; Indians Driven Afield By Stan Andersen Professor of Journalism, U.S.A.C. Every time you take the "high out of Brig, gear highway north ham City, through Bear River another page of City, you flip onto a history soundlessly down story that beats all the movies youll ever see. seventy-fou- r It lies under summers. half-mil- e you get within about a or where it happened when D. S. church which is the forgotten reason it all happened. About 600 why church members including them were he reason when the story flared through the national press in the fall of 1875. Six hundred Mormons and a big town namA ed Corinne thats what made the story. It started in Corinne, there where the pleasantest of farm houses sun themselves now. That fall the old Corinne the Gentile city serving up hard liquor and talk was just starting downward in its rocket-likpassage across Utah leaves. Born with a golden spike in its mouth six years earlier, it was still a lusty city of maybe 15,000 people-hut it had upon it the imprecation of no less a man than had told 3 Beai 8 sugar beet crop will soon be harvested. To be sure it pened at all, you have to go hap talk a while with one of five people w'ho were there and still remember. One of these is Moroni the lean, bright man 'whose farm the eyed old arrogant cesses just north the Bridger plaque. He rememof bers it because his hands got sore shucking corn one awfully weed-growJim the you pass, Sour remLhberWU Bridger monument thats stood cause theh north few a miles road the that by rlsegt,10rl rbi"tSbu0n0ckhthfm 1dd f!ed from No in Corinnes 17. for River years. Bear of to day would marker, however, testifies rubbed cows in Bear I where this story took place -SSh "" tr west of the monument, in the of Portage. It was a reasonable predicts flat, quiet fields where another They're all members of the The prophet knew that the Ut n n Mor-tense- e ErCitvt0 1 I Corinne Mam Streep At Time Of Indian Threat Northern railroad, then starting out of Ogden toward Montana, would take over the mule-traibusiness that was Corinnes lifeblood. Corinne that year was a boom town doomed, or a good town in the making, depending on how you look at it. n Perhaps because there was real danger to their economic security in 1875, the citizens of Corinne were jittery about their At any physical well-beinrate, they were quick to get excited the night of August 10, when two men galloped Into town shouting that a great band of Indians was making ready to attack the city from the northwest. Nobody went out to see, it appears, but this was said: An Indian squaw had warned white friends to leave and escape the massacre! A Mormon girl employed by a Gentile family had received a warning to flee the city before tomorrow! The Indians and the Mormons were in alliance to destroy Corinne! That night the city appealed to the governor of the territory for protection. Troops were on their way from 'Fort Douglas at dawn. Nothing, says B. H. Roberts In his history of the church, did so n much to feeling outside of Utah as the frantic reports which Corinnes telegrapher sent out before the anti-Mormo- ... and quick Quality food, service in clean surroundings invite appetites home-cooke- Hardly recignizable as the main street of Corinne as it stands today is this picture taken at about the time a telegraph operator went awry and called in a gentile army from Ft. Douglas in Salt Lake City to fight Indians who were harmlessly harvesting the crops nearby. At one time Corinne was a city of 3.000 population and the railhead for freighting of supplies and return of ores from the mines to the north and west. Today its a progressive and friendly country town of some 500 people. 5 travel-sharpen- at the d, ed Gem Cafe. Youll like our burgers, made of fine ground round steak, seasoned and cooked to a turn. Youll rave about our home-mad- e pies. And whatever you choose from our menu, you cant go wrong. It hits the spot. Its good food. Open from 4 A. M. to 11 P. M. " Seats 5,000 Ten At A Time" Does on a your vacation fun depend smooth-runnin- g car? If so, then Utah oil products and our thorough and reliable service are what you need. Come in for complete service. Well take care of every detail Ben Slagowski, Owner of your cars . servicing, with finest Utah Oil products and quick courteous service. Soft s Drinks OPEN UNTIL 9 P. M. CAFE "QUICK, UTOCO irv Reeders UTOCO Service One Block South of the Tabernacle on Main Street ' Roberts cites as evidence this excerpt from the front page of the Sacramento Record Union. So much is certain .that If the Gentiles of Utah are in danger and help Is wanted, a call for volunteers in California will be responded to by 24,000 armed men Inside of twenty four hours; and, if these volunteers should go. to Utah and find hostilities in operation, we should be sorry to have to answgV for the consequences of theiT indignation. If Corinne is attacked by the Indians, let Brigham Young see to it that Salt Lake does not smoke for the outrage. No Californians, it turned out, needed to come rescue Corinne. The men who did U. S. soldiers found Indians with weapons camped north ol Corinne all right, and they found them allied with Mormons. But the weapons were reapers. The Indians were just starting to harvest the first crops they had ever planted, crops cultivated by Mormon methods. By August 14, the Omaha Herald could report: The Corinne telegrapher sur as he rendered as gracefully could yesterday on the Corinne conspiracy. That interesting individual and the gangs of which he is the mouthpiece would do well to go and hang themselves. (Continued on following page). soldiers got there. |