Utah Historical Quarterly
Since 1928, when the first volume of the Utah Historical Quarterly was published, the best scholarship on Utah history usually finds its way into the pages of UHQ.
The journal is filled with articles, memoirs, annotated primary sources, book reviews, and photos.
UHQ is published four times yearly and sent to members of the Utah State Historical Society.
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CURRENT ISSUE: Volume 80, Number 2 (Spring 2012 Issue)
ARTICLES
Conflict and Fraud: Utah Public Land Surveys in the
1850s, the Subsequent Investigation, and Problems with the Land Disposal System
By Thomas G. Alexander
Hammering Utah, Squeezing Mexico, and Coveting Cuba: James Buchanan’s White House Intriques
By William P. MacKinnon
The Utah Batteries: Volunteer Artillerymen in the Spanish-American and Philippine American Wars, 1898-1899
By Brandon Johnson
Saving Their School: The 1933 Transfer of Dixie College as an Indicator of Utah’s Changing Church
and State Relationships
By Scott C. Esplin
IN THIS ISSUE
Questions of who owns the land, how it is to be distributed, and how
ownership can be maintained are issues that have marked Utah’s history,
and, it can be argued, all history from the earliest days. In our Spring
issue, land and geography serve as dominant themes.
When settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847, all the land
south of the 42nd Parallel, today Utah’s northern border, was Mexican territory.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, transferred Utah
and the rest of the American Southwest to the United States. But Utah did not
legally exist until the federal government created the Utah Territory in September
1850. Before private citizens could obtain legal title to the newly occupied land, a
public land survey was required. For Utah, that survey began in July 1855.
However, the individuals charged with conducting the survey soon became
involved in political controversies that threatened their work, even their safety. The
motives, competence, and loyalty of those early federal surveyors, administrators,
and clerks were often challenged. Our first article for this issue describes the
problems and disputes that marked the early land disposal system in Utah.
Our second article addresses another aspect of land ownership as it relates a
fascinating tale of President James Buchanan’s designs to acquire Cuba. Even before
the beginning of his term as United States President in 1856, Buchanan had expressed a desire to acquire Cuba from Spain. That sentiment was shared by many
other American citizens who sought to acquire Cuba for the purpose of expanding
American slavery and who believed it a part of the nation’s Manifest Destiny to
acquire the land that divine providence had intended for the United States.
However, the way to Cuba began in Utah then followed into Mexico but ended
short of the intended goal.
Buchanan’s desire for Cuba could have been fulfilled nearly a half century later
as the United States entered the Spanish-American War in 1898 to expel Spain
from Cuba. Although Cuba was no longer associated with the expansion of slavery,
it had another value in what has been described as an era of Imperialism as more
powerful nations sought to acquire territorial possessions for economic reasons. To
illustrate America’s noble intent, Congress passed the Teller Amendment indicating
that freeing Cubans from Spanish oppression was its sole goal and the United States
would not take possession of the island. However, half a world away the Philippine
Islands, which had been under Spanish rule since the sixteenth century and not
mentioned in the Teller Amendment, became the scene of further military action.
In the Philippines, United States soldiers, including volunteers from Utah, fought
first against Spanish forces and then their own Filipino allies.
Our third article describes the involvement of Utah soldiers in the conflict.
Our final article for this issue brings us back to Utah as politics, economics, religion, and education mixed together to give a most interesting account of the transfer of Dixie College, founded in 1911 by the LDS church as the St. George State Academy, to the State of Utah. While the epicenter of the conflict was in Utah’s Dixie, the shocks spread throughout the state to such diverse communities as Cedar City, Ephraim, Price, and Ogden. The integration of Dixie College into Utah’s higher education system has proven a wise decision made by political leaders during the Great Depression. Today, Dixie State College is a keystone in the economic growth and the enhanced cultural life of southern Utah.
BOOK REVIEWS
Robert Silbernagel. Troubled Trails:The Meeker Affair and the Expulsion of Utes from Colorado
Reviewed by Robert S. McPherson
Nathaniel R. Ricks, ed. “My Candid Opinion”: The Sandwich Islands Diaries of Joseph F. Smith 1856-57
Reviewed by Ronald G. Watt
Claudia L. Bushman, ed. Pansy’s History: The Autobiography of Margaret E. P. Gordon, 1866-1966
Reviewed by Linda Thatcher
J. Edward De Steiguer. Wild Horses of the West: History and Politics of America’s Mustangs
Reviewed by Kent Petersen
Veda Tebbs Hale. “Swell Suffering”: A Biography of Maurine Whipple
Reviewed by Lyman Hafen
Phillip L. Fradkin. Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife
David Roberts. Finding Everett Ruess: The Remarkable Life and
Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
Reviewed by Gary James Bergera