A Mystery Of The Desert

A MYSTERY OF THE DESERT.

In the early settlement of Iron County, President Brigham Young requested that a party of men be sent from Parowan in search of manganese ore, having been informed that a deposit of it was to be found in Southern Utah. Accordingly, a party of fifteen men, led by David Lewis, a brother of that old veteran Tarleton Lewis, left Parowan, taking with them pack horses to carry the ore, should they be so fortunate as to find the mine from the vague description of its locality given by the Indians.

The outfit of this company of prospectors was very simple; each man carried a gun, a lariat and a canteen, and a single blanket and a sack of crackers, tied on the saddle behind him. After several days' travel in a southerly direction into those vast and dreary deserts, the party one day made a singular discovery. In a level, sandy plain they saw at a distance what seemed a cemetery, with numerous gravestones or monuments; but their surprise at so unexpected a sight was much increased upon a nearer approach, which revealed something entirely different. They saw three circles, one within the other, composed of numerous blocks of cut stone about a foot square, and about two and a half feet long, cut with mathematical accuracy, and which had been originally placed about a foot in the ground and at a uniform distance apart. These three circles were exact in figure, were several yards from each other, and the stones composing them were placed with their flat surfaces facing the centre. In the centre of all stood a small stone cairn, circular in its base, a perfect cone, and about four feet high. The blocks forming the circles, and the stones forming the cone, had been brought a considerable distance, as no rock in place was to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. For a while a silent wonder filled the minds of the lookers on, and many were the surmises as to when this work was done, by whom, and for what purpose; but to all, one thing seemed plain: it must have been made to perpetuate some important event, or the place of deposit of something of great value.

Deciding to investigate, they carefully removed the stones comprising the cairn, and about a foot beneath the surface found the top of a stone box. As this box was almost an exact counterpart to that in which the plates of the Book of Mormon were found by the Prophet Joseph Smith, it merits a particular description. A stone about two feet square and six inches thick formed the bottom; four flat stones standing upon edge formed the sides; and a stone, similar in size and shape to that forming the bottom, was placed upon the top as a cover or lid. All these stones were skillfully cut and finished, with sides, faces and angles, geometrically exact, and, as cut together, each point of junction or seam was perfectly tight. The lid was carefully raised, but no treasure met their expectant eyes—the box was entirely empty. But the under surface of the capstone was a surprise. It was covered with hieroglyphics beautifully cut, which, could they have been interpreted, would doubtless have given the key of explanation to this mystery of the desert. The box had evidently been made to contain something of great value which had been subsequently removed; and as it so closely resembled that from which Joseph Smith took the plates near the summit of Cumorah, may at one time have held a similar treasure, which Mormon may have removed for safety when his people were driven northward by their swarming foes. The only difference between the boxes, it will be noted, was this: that while that upon Cumorah had a lid whose upper surface was in its rough, natural state, this in the desert had been made flat, and its under side was beautifully engraved, which was not the case with that upon Cumorah, so far as the writer understands.

As these rough mountaineers stood silently around this relic of the dim, mysterious past, the pervading spirit of the place filled their souls with a solemn awe. They felt that they stood upon ground that was hallowed indeed, and that they looked upon a receptacle that had once contained something, perchance, of infinite worth, something holy; placed there, and again removed by one of the ancient saints—perhaps by the hand of the great prophet Mormon himself, or by that of his son Moroni.

After some consideration, it was decided to take the lid with them to President Young, and it was loaded upon one of the horses for that purpose; but it was found too heavy and difficult to be transported so great a distance in that manner, and it was determined to leave it. Brother Lewis made as exact a copy of the hieroglyphics as he could with his limited means, upon a sheet of paper, and then the stone was carefully replaced, the stones piled over it as before, and the company departed, feeling that here was evidence strongly confirming the story of Cumorah, as told by the great prophet of the last days. It may be here mentioned that of the squared blocks composing the surrounding circles, some still stood upright, some were leaning, and many had fallen where they had stood.

After an absence of eighteen days, the party returned to Parowan with several hundred pounds of the manganese, which, with the copy of the engraving made by Brother Lewis, was taken to President Young. The writer examined the copied hieroglyphics which, as well as he can remember at this date, resembled very much some of those found in Palengue and Copan, in Yucatan, by Stevens and Catherwood, many years ago.

In regard to the removal of the former contents of the box, the student of the Book of Mormon will remember the charge of the venerable prophet of the Nephites to Mormon when the latter was a youth; that when a certain time should come he should go to the hill called Shim, and remove thence certain holy records there deposited; and how, some years later, when the Nephites were no longer able to retain possession of their country, and were about to retreat northward before the victorious Lamanites, Mormon went to the hill Shim, as he had been directed by the prophet, took up the records and carried them away in his retreat.

It is not probable that the Nephites made a steady and continuous retreat before their foes. No doubt they at times beat back their enemy, and gained a temporary advantage and respite for one or more years, enabling them to raise a little sustenance for their overmatched and half famished host. Indeed the traditions of the Pah Utes, of Utah, as related to the writer many years ago, freely corroborate this idea. Such a temporary halt, illusive to the hopes of the Nephites, would have given abundant opportunity for the making of such a box for the bestowal of their records, which, when again obliged to flee, they would of course remove and take with them. Who can say to the contrary? Could these silent stones of the desert speak, how eloquent might be their tongues, and how intensely interesting the story they could reveal. But for generations have they stood as to-day they stand, silent, mysterious and unspeakable.

An incident which occurred in the early history of Iron County, may be appropriately mentioned in this connection. Walker, the great Utah chief, halted a few days at Parowan while traveling northward, returning from one of his customary raids in the Colorado River country, undertaken for the purpose of procuring captive Indian children to be sold by him to any who would purchase. He obtained these child prisoners by suddenly attacking a village of some of the river tribes, killing men and women, and saving alive such children as would be marketable. The writer met him one day in Parowan, and as I was personally known to him, he stopped me, united a little sack or pouch at his bosom, and took from it two pieces of metal, one of which was nearly twice as large as the other. He held them in his hand for my inspection. In appearance they closely resembled bronze or copper, but were evidently discolored by age. From their weight there might have been a portion of gold in their composition, and I wished to scrape the surface with my knife so as to expose the true color of the metal, but this the chief would not permit, seeming to hold them in reverence. Each of them had hieroglyphics beautifully cut or stamped upon their surface. Walker asked if they were money, adding that he knew where he could get more, if they were of any value. All endeavor to learn from him the exact locality where he had found them was ineffectual, except to learn that it was near the Colorado River, and as the writer understood from him, in a cave.

The writer fully believed then, and does still, that these were veritable specimens of ancient Nephite coin, their evident age as well as their inscriptions clearly pointing to a remote past Indisputably they were made by none of the present inhabitants of America; and as the Lamanites were so inferior to the Nephites in all the arts and sciences, including metallurgy, there is nothing at all improbable in the idea that some Nephite had once possessed them as part of his earthly treasure. If, as Walker intimated, he had found them in some cave, it is easily to be believed they were taken there by some hunted Nephite who hoped in its dark recesses to escape the bloody hand of a merciless foe, but who never left the cavern alive.

We have the promise that in a coming day the secrets of the past, now so shrouded in the veil of silence and gloom, will be revealed, until then we must wait.

Santiago.

(Contributor, vol. 11 (November 1889-October 1890), Vol. Xi. July, 1890. No. 9. 342.)