Brigham Young, the LDS Church's second president, forayed through Bingham County in the late 1850s, crossing at Ferry Butte on his way to visit the Fort Limhi (now Lemhi) mission that began as an LDS outpost in 1855. A figure more important to the non-LDS crowd in southeast Idaho accompanied him--Lewis Shurtliff, who would preside over the American Falls Canal and Power Company in the late 1890s.
Shurtliff, an unmarried Mormon, had already passed through the area in August of 1855 with a companion, outfitted with three thousand pounds of Salt and other provisions intended for the Limhi Mormons, who were having a hard time. Their load proved to be on the heavy side for the untrained oxen, so required them to halve it at the hills between Bear River and Malad, then carry the unloaded provisions up the hill for the oxen and then repack them. At Malad, they traded their young oxen for an ill-paired but efficient lanky longhorn steer and a low slung brindle, who served them better the rest of the way(Henderson, W. W. The Salmon River Mission, editor and extractor of L.W. Shurtliff journal, Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 5, January 1932, Number 1).
The two Mormon men went down Bannock Creek to Fort Hall, where they met Captain Grant, the Hudson Bay's former outpost agent who remained at the abandoned post to conduct his own trading business. They spent a day with Grant, then crossed at Ross' Butte (now Ferry Butte) on their way to Market Lake and eventually the Limhi mission. Once there, Shurtliff served as Indian interpreter, and in the spring of 1856 was instrumental in what was claimed to be the first irrigation project in Idaho, Oregon or Washington at the Lemhi.
In August Shurtliff headed back to Utah with his former boss, Nathaniel Leavitt, with the mail. The party encountered hostile Indians, took a swim with their belongings in the Snake, and counted themselves lucky to reach Grant at Fort Hall. They faced similar problems on the journey to Ogden, but being wiser now knew how to deal with hostiles. By October, a return trip to the Limhi mission was underway with provisions, the mission's crops having failed and thus requiring help.
January of 1857 saw Shurtliff making a return trip to Utah with the mail, reached Malad nineteen days later on February 9. His trip back to Limhi in late April the next year included the LDS President Brigham Young, with Shurtliff serving as the rear guard in the "Brigham Young Company". The water being high in the Snake, they crossed on the Ferry at Ross' Butte before going on to Limhi. Once there, Young remarked that the Limhi group may have been better served by stopping and settling at the Snake River valley.
The Salmon River Mission closed down in 1858, and Shurtliff would go on to serve as Bishop, Weber Stake President, Weber County Commissioner, president of Ogden's first street railway, state legislator, judge, and after his stint as President of the American Falls Canal and Power Company, would be appointed as Postmaster for Ogden.
Henderson, W. W. The Salmon River Mission, editor and extractor of L.W. Shurtliff journal, Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 5, January 1932, Number 1
You can read more about Shurtliff's many trips to the Limhi mission at https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/volume_5_1932/s/59706
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