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Refreshing Interlude Ends
MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 7, 1885, Camp Turley was abandoned. Without a backward look the pilgrims filed out, George Sevey in the lead.
They climbed from their wagons and looked with mingled emotions at the place that marked the end of their pilgrimage. The low black hills skirting both sides of the river were friendly. The timber-covered mountains outlined against the western sky behind them offered strength, and the long, level valley, free of mesquite, or sacaton or boulders, promised productivity if there was sufficient water. For the first time they felt rooted, that they owned the soil on which they stood-that they had at last found "the place." Already in their minds was a picture of the homes they would build, and the community they would create. If only a kind Providence would multiply the waters to bless the soil, they would build and build well.
Committees appointed to prepare winter quarters decided that dugouts were most feasible for temporary use, and before the day ended a row of spacious holes lined the riverbank. It didn't take long to make these first shelters-a little digging with pick and shovel, a few swings with their axes and the cottonwood limbs for a ridgepole and support were cut and the stripped branches draped over to make a shed in front. Each family moved into a dugout, built a fire in the foreground, made a bed against the back wall, and was at home in comparative comfort. Families from other camps swelled the number until the row of dugouts along the riverbank extended half a mile.
With families sheltered the next step was to plan the township, place families permanently and allot field property to each one. Details for this move and for public welfare were worked out by the men in regular and special priesthood meetings. At the first special meeting Senor del Campo, the agent from whom land purchases had been made, repeated his offer to sell them all the land they wanted and promised water concessions. Del Campo also suggested that someone go to Mexico City to legalize the land trade and have documents properly made out and stamped. Alexander F. MacDonald was selected by unanimous vote and a committee appointed to raise funds to defray his expenses.
While waiting for MacDonald's return three important committees were named. Committee number one was to lay out the townsite with drawings to indicate the division of land for the town proper and for the fields adjoining it. Boundaries for individual fields were to be indicated and the streets enclosing each city block were to be marked. Elder Teasdale assisted this committee and by January 10, 1886 the job was completed. "First time I ever helped lay out a townsite," he said as he complacently viewed lines and markings on the paper. "A new experience for me, and one of which I shall write President Taylor."