Keywords
Latter-day Saint colonization, "Utah’s Dixie" cotton cultivation, Civil War, economic independence
Abstract
On October 6, 1861, Brigham Young stood before Latter-day Saints gathered in the Old Salt Lake City Tabernacle and called 300 missionaries on an ambitious undertaking: Over three hundred families would leave their homes and settle in the Utahn southwestern desert; a region that earned the nickname of “Utah’s Dixie” for both its southern location and its punishing heat. Their mission was to cultivate cotton and increase Utahn economic independence from the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Allen Joseph Stout recalled in a personal journal about his experience learning of the call to Southern Utah, “My neighbors reported that they had heard my name called with others to go south on a mission to make new settlements and raise cotton. I was to start right away. I looked and spat, took off my hat, scratched my head, thought, and said, ‘all right.’” Stout, along with his friends and neighbors, settled their affairs and started the journey to Southern Utah Territory to begin one of the most ambitious agricultural experiments in Latter-day Saint colonization history.
Recommended Citation
Beardall, Brielle
(2026)
"From Cotton to Canyons: An Analysis of the Historic Industries of Southern Utah,"
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 55:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol55/iss1/7
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