Show san juan utah by albert R lyman W 8 As a result of this grass valley tragedy in the middle seventies the peace and safety of the people of utah was threatened again from their wild southeast south east corner it was the same old menace dat datt t ing back into the fifties more than twenty years before moreover though nobody knew it then ahn it was to be a trouble spot for fifty years to come yet never again was it to threaten the settlements tle ments of utah in this way for a shock absorber was to be planted near it to neutralize its fury before it could reach far away yet no shock absorber had been provided in the middle seventies no one living in the trouble zone to replace and pacify the wild spirit and something had to be done the me way that crisis was met before any mormon peace makers came to live in san juan became the very fitting type and prelude to the way they had to contain many similar crises after beginning their settlements not only hamblin Hami blin but president brigham young sensed the peril of the situation and though they saw but a frail and flimsy thread on which to hang their hope of averting trouble they hung to that thread and nd hamblin was sent to go alone the long long way to the fuming navajos cavajos and try to dissuade their terrible ones from waging war it was a gleam of hope in a maze of danger but if they could forestall the trouble this thia once they would plant their shock absorber against similar hazards in the future the call to go to the reservation found hamblin sick in bed no difference he crawled out saddled his horse and finding no one waiting to go with him he rode oft off alone it would take him a week or more to reach his destination ti and when he got there he would find himself surrounded by men eager to skin him alive the hair raising perils of hir trip and how he succeeded suo suc ceded at las in convincing the navajos cavajos that the mormons cormons had nothing to do with the murder murde of the three boys is so sa well and so f ully fully told in books that are so easily accessible to everybody who wants to know that it is unnecessary to repeat it here aufice it to say that hamblin set the pace as peacemaker the pace that the san juar juan PI pioneers 10 n had to follow later on in order to survive when peace was established again and the navajos cavajos traveled up among the utah settlements to work and to trade and to sell their blankets and jewelry a plan was set afoot to select a colony and find a place to plant it as near as possible to the trouble zone that the flutes and the nav ajos abos would never have room again to LO doubt that the mormons cormons wanted to be their friends after the death of briga brignati Brig haTi young in 1877 the important p 0 0 eject was kept in mind by his successor john taylor and in 1879 sixty or more farri lies were called to begin a settlement a soon as it could be determined just where the settlement should be A con company pany of twenty five scouts were sent to cross the buckskins and go by way of lees ferry into the navajo country to select the most suitable place these scouts were led by silas S smith and they had with them cattle and other loose animals animal besides their pack horses they also had wagons and two men harriman and davis with their families when they came to the end of the known wagon road at tub city the women and children and some of the cattle waited there tere while the rest of the outfit found a way for a road in the late spring or early summer of 79 they wended bended their way northward out of arizona into utah and came down over the sand hills to the moaning san juan it was a lonesome solitude farther away from nowhere than they had eve een before and yet just accor he river from where they carl cam to it there was ft a lone wh nan ian living in a kind of he had contrived for himself i leftover left over potatoes brown leftover left over cooked potatoes with pimiento green pepper and onion lor for a tasty mealtime meal time combination |