Students should know the following:
Utah
is on the North American Continent. It is divided into three distinct landform
regions, including the Colorado Plateau of the south and southeast, the central
Rocky Mountains, and the basin and ridge region of the northwest, which
includes the Great Salt Lake and numerous salt beds. We live in the Rocky
Mountain region. Lake Bonneville was an ancient lake that used to cover much of
Utah.
Utah
is rich in natural resources. It has long been a leading producer of copper,
gold, silver, lead, zinc, and oil. Utah’s state flower is the Sego Lily and the
state bird is the California Gull. The state tree is the Colorado Blue Spruce.
The five main American Indian groups in Utah are: Shoshone,
Utes, Piautes, Goshutes, and the Navajo. The Goshoutes and Paiutes were desert
gathers, lived in wicki-ips and were nomads. The Shoshones and Utes were nomads
and lived in tepees. The Navajos built permant homes and were farmers.
An American Indian home made of tall poles and animal skins was
a tepee. One made with logs and earth was a Hogan. One made with branches and
brush was a wicki-up. The first people to build permanent homes and farm in
Utah were the Hopi and Navajo Indians. The Fremont and Anasazi people also
lived in Utah. We have learned some things about them from their drawings
called Rock Art. Many Archelogitists have learned many things about American
Indians from finding artifacts about them. An artifact is an object used by people
long ago.
The
first
explorers who came to what is now Utah were Spanish and their names were Father
Dominguez and Father Escalante. They were looking for a route from Santa Fe,
New Mexico to Monterey, California. They didn’t finde it.
After the Spanish explorers came the mountain men. They were fur
traders mainly looking for beaver skins. Once a year mountain men would gather
together in what was called a Rendezvous. One fur trader was named Etienne
Provost. Provo City was named after him.
Gold Rush began in California 1849. Thousands of people came
through Utah on their way to the California gold fields. Some stayed in Utah.
The forty-niners would stop in Utah to repair their wagons, get supplies, and
rest before moving on.
The U.S. Government set up forts in Utah. The first two forts were
Camp Floyd and Camp Douglas. The longest and most costly war between the
pioneers and the American Indians was the The Black Hawk War. Other wars were
the Walker War and the Goshute War.
The Mormons first arrived in Utah in 1847. They left Nauvoo, Illinois
when they began their journey west. Families traveled mostly with others in
groups of wagons called wagon trains. The Mormons planned Salt Lake City. It
was shaped like a big rectangle.
In 1857 the Utah War occurred. The government sent out Johnston’s
army to put down what they thought was a rebellion by the Mormons when there
really wasn’t any rebellion. The first school was opened in October 1847 by
Mary Jane Dilworth. The first university was the University of Deseret.
In the pioneers early building many of their buildings were made
out of adobe bricks. In the spring, the crickets were eating many of the
pioneers crops. The seagulls saved
their crops by eating thousands of the crickets
