Show by Carlton Culmsee Holy Assassin or frontier hero? Our image of Porter Rockwell can depend on prejudicei planted before our birth But we can be lure that he contributed to Cache Valley progress Idaho activities of Oddly the Northern this enigmatic man in U63 are unknown to most His memorial here is a sandwich named for him by a Logan restaurant "Who's he?" people ask Yet Orrin Porter Rockwell played a useful role in the most celebrated Intermountain battle Whites shuddered at a tale of atrocity that occurred in the opening Sixties Red outlaws seized a lime Cache settler They stripped him On a topped juniper sharpened to a spear they forced him down to die in agony with the point tearing into his vitals Utah-Southe- rn "Port's" errand to Cache Valley gives us a link with national turmoil of the 1860s He knew Civil War in the Atlantic states had drawn US cavalry away froni patrolling frontier trails increasing hazards to immigrants on roads to Utah California and Oregon He must have known the Congress had abrogated all treaties with Indians and substituted a widespread reservation policy Both measures inflamed all red men Naturally they riled Shoshonis and Bannocks in Cache and elsewhere massive stumbling block to wagon trains headed west was the fortified camp on Bear River in northern Cache So strong were the red allies they scorned the meager new hamlets from Franklin south and that huddle of cabins was the settlement farthest north in this region Red men or others committed depredations that prevented further colonization A 8—The Herald JoumalValley Monday Juno 16 1980 - In '82 Indians were charged with stealing a horse herd in Box Elder Raiders destroyed a wagon train and massacred immigrants bound for California They ambushed gold miners from Montana diggin’s at a Bear River ford killed one man wounded others and stole "pokes” of precious dust Although white outlaws some operating under the notorious Henry Plummer the sheriff who “moonlighted" as a holdup man around Bannack Montana left clues to implicate Indians after their killings whites seemed to prefer to believe the red men were guilty Blaming Indians first was an article in the "Code of the West" Colonel Edward Patrick Connor commanding Camp Douglas felt outraged at defiance of his responsibility to routes open He felt and North-Sout- h keep East-Welink between Union states Overland in the interest special and California Mormon Battalion part in conquering California as a dodge to obtain pay and supplies Also weren't they allied at least emotionally with the South by devotion to States' Rights? Fresh from reading Pacific coast publications sensationalizing on the Mountain Meadow Massacre the At the new camp fiery colonel was no Mormon-love- r observers noted his artillery gaped at the Mormon square and Brigham Young's house But Colonel Connor and his troops were new to Utah He longed for a spectacular victory over the Indian' stronghold He had a star in his eye — a general’s star And he was an ardent patriot So what did Colonel Connor do? While planning his" campaign a plan worthy of the redoubtable Robert E Lee he sought the ablest and bravest scout That this man was reputed to be Brigham Young's bodyguard did not deter him Connor picked Porter Rockwell st Another reason he'd found Camp Douglas with his 700 California Volunteers on that bench above Salt Lake City was suspicion of Mormons Hadn't they fled the United States to escape Midwest mobs and settled land claimed till ’47 by Mexico? He'd incline toward discounting the Besides being a skillful tracker a sharpshooter and a man of courage Rockwell had an unusual background for a person often classed as a gunslinger lurking in the Mormon president's shadow: he was a man of varied affairs He managed mail contracts and stage lines Wells Fargo not infrequently sent him out to run down express robbers On his randies at Point of the Mountain and elsewhere he raised stout hardy hones (See Harold |