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Show Utah Pioneer Trails Wall Around Salt Lake City Brought Pioneers Protection and Controversy Editor's Note: Tlio third in the new Bulletin series on Pioneer History deals with the wall once built around Salt Lake City. Records of the Sons of Utah Pioneers Memorial Foundation furnished fur-nished material for this article. There was once a wall around Salt Lake Cty. It was started in 1S53 and 1854. Records of the Sons of Utah Pioneers Memorial Foundation reveal re-veal that a committee including Albert Carrington, Parley P. Pratt and Franklin D. Richards, City Council members, investigated investigat-ed the proposal. On Aug. 27, 1953, the committee recommended to the City Council that a wall should be built and its approximate approxi-mate location. Two days later, Aug. 29, 1853, Mayor J. M. Grant and Robert C. Campbell, city recorder, re-corder, signed a resolution authorizing au-thorizing construction of the wall. In April of 1854, the Deseret News printed a copy of the Eleventh General Epistle of the LDS Church Presidency to members. mem-bers. In the missive Brigham Young mentioned the City wall. He wrote: 'The City Wall is fast progressing, and it is expected to be finished the present season. Many of the settlements have secured se-cured themselves by forting in; but much remains to be done." The wall that was built and stood many years had as its west boundary the Jordan River. Superimposed upon a present-day map of Salt Lake City, the wall would have enclosed the area bounded by 9th South Street. It ran east slightly beyond9th East; north to South Temple and along N Street to Fourth Avenue; west to State Street; northwesterly along Wall Street to Seventh North and due west to the Jordan River. Only Wall Street named because be-cause the wall ran along its discontinued dis-continued on Page 2) .. of labor. Why? I have potatoes, po-tatoes, flour, beef, and other articles ar-ticles of food which I wish my brethern to have; and it is better bet-ter for them to labor for those articles, so far as they are able and have opportunity, than to have them given to them. They work, and I deal out provisions, often when the work does not profit me ..." That criticism of his efforts to create work for the destitute of the city irritated President Young was mirrored in his further re marks. He told his listeners: "I am not called in question as to what I do with my funds whether wheth-er I build high walls or low walls, garden walls or city walls; and if I please, it is my right to pull down my walls tomorrow. to-morrow. If anyone wishes to apostatize upon such grounds, the quicker he does so the better; and if he wishes to leave the Territory, but is too poor to do so. I will assist him to go. We are much better off without such characters charac-ters ..." Wall Was 'Dobie Twelve Feet High (Continued from Page 1) tance remains to show there was such an enclosure in existence. As to construction of the wall, the original investigating committee com-mittee recommended that the wall ho 12 feet high and six feet thick at the base, tapering to a . width of two-and-a-half feet six feet high and straight on up. Dirt from a ditch to be dug outside the wall furnished the raw material. : In its recommendation the committee com-mittee wrote: "... that it (wall) be made of earth taken from the ditch, which should be properly moistened, mixed with weeds, sagebrush small willows, grass, cane, bullrushes or whatever what-ever of like vegetation is handiest hand-iest ..." There is apparently no evidence at hand on the total cost of the wall but it is known that money for the project was raised through a tax levy. The levy was passed on to residents through the Bishops of the wards. That there was some dissatisfaction dissatis-faction manifested over construction construc-tion of the wall is evident in a later sermon delivered by Brig-ham Brig-ham Young. He expressed himself this way: "... I have very little lit-tle to say to men who are dissatisfied dis-satisfied with my course, or with the course of my brethern. Some have wished me to explain why we built an adobie wall around this city ... I build walls, dig ditches, make bridges, and do a great amount and variety of labor la-bor that is of but little consequence conse-quence only to provide ways and means for sustaining and preserving preserv-ing the destitute. I annually expend ex-pend hundreds andthousands of dollars almost solely to those in |
