The Elk Mountain Mission: A History of Moab, Mormons, The Old Spanish Trail and the Shberetch Utes

Until now, The Elk Mountain Mission has been one of the lost pages of Utah history. This book, taken directly from the pioneer journals, is the true story of Brigham Young's failed attempt to establish a fort and an Indian mission at the present site of Moab, Utah in 1854 - 1855. The stated purpose purpose was to establish a mission among the Sheberetch Utes, a tribe that would be complete extinct by 1880. A second, unstated and more political purpose was to build a fort and a farm at a key location on The Old Spanish Trail to help protect the early Mormon settlements of southern Utah and to help stop the troublesome slave trade between the Utes and Spanish slave traders from New Mexico. The undertaking became one of Utah's most incredible, but almost forgotten frontier epics.