Book Review: The Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail by Linda Thompson, Rourke Publishing Co, Vero Beach, Florida, 2005.

Ths book is part of a juvenile series, Expansion of America.  Santa Fe Trail is different than the Oregon, Mormon or California Trails in that it was mostly a commercial trail rather than an immigrant trail.  It started in independence Missouri and ended in Santa Fe New Mexico.  For the most part it followed Native American trails, which in turn followed animal trails.  However use of the trail was limited by politics.  When the area was controlled by Spain the government insisted all products go through the Port of Vera Cruz, so tariffs could be collected.  The journey from Vera Cruz to Santa Fe was 2000 miles.    The Spanish soldiers would arrest any traveling from the United States and confiscate their goods.  This included beaver pelts.  As a result products were very expensive in Santa Fe.  When Mexico won its independence in 1821 this all changed.  William Becknell established the first trading post in Santa Fe with goods from America.  he is credited with being the father of the Santa Fe trail.  The merchants and those transporting good were able to make significant profit.  Transport was by horse, mules, ox carts and ox drawn wagons.  

The Santa Fe Trail was also important during the Mexican American War as a way to transport troops and supplies.

Biographical Book Review: Charles Lindbergh: American Hero of Flight

 The People to Know Series, Charles Lindbergh: American Hero of Flight by Virginia Meachum, Enslow Publisher's Inc., Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, 2002.

This is a very good biography and tells many things about Charles Lindbergh that I did not know.  Of course it starts with his early days, and how he got into flying.  He was working as a mail pilot when decided he could fly across the Atlantic, which we all know he did becomeing the first person to do so.  

I did not know he was such a prlific author.  He won a Pulitzer for his book Spirit of St. Louis.  His wife Anne was also an author and pubished many books.  Before WWII he took an isolationist position and struggled to keep America out of the war.  A speech he gave in this regard was considered by some to be racist.  Lindbergh did serve in whatever way he could during the war.  He was not in active combat but was allowed to fly a few missions when he was a consultant.  His knowledge of aviation was very valuable.  He taught how to get better fuel mileage from the planes.

  He worked for TWA and Pan Am in establishing plane transportation work.  For TWA it was mostly across the U.S. and for Pan Am it was international flights.  

When he was older he worked to protect the environment and was on the board of the World Wildlife Fund.  

He was also a scientist and worked on an artificial heart.

The part that makes this book difficult to read is the kidnapping and murder of his son.  Charles jr was a year and a half when he was kidnapped for ransom.  The criminal who kidnapped young Charles apparently dropped him off the ladder and he fell on his head which killed him.  He still collected the ransom.  It was good to know that the man did not have the intent of killing the baby.  Lindbergh partially blamed this on the terrible amount of publicity and lack of privacy from his life of fame.  They lived in England for a time as a result.

Johann Daniel Bommeli AKA Daniel Bonelli

 Johann Daniel Bommeli was born in Switzerland, 25 Feb 1836.  His family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1854.  After joining the church he changed his name to Bonelli and went by his middle name instead of his last name.  He served for a short time as a missionary, and attracted many converts.  However he was ordered out of the country for preaching to the Swiss people.

He immigrated to America in 1860.  He traveled on the ship George Washington.  He traveled with the James Darling Ross Company.  This was a down and out company where the church sent a wagon team to collect the incoming saints.  He traveled with the wagon company from Florence to Utah.  He had to learn how to handle an ox team.

The Swiss Saints were assigned to southern Utah.  Brigham Young indicated the single members should marry before they headed south.  He had met Ann Haigh on the trip, on the ship or in the wagon company.  They were married in the Endowment house in Salt Lake City 25 Oct 1861.  

In southern Utah they were tole to raise figs, grapes, sugar cane and tobacco.  A group of saints from there were called to settle along the Muddy River.  From there they settled in St. Thomas along the Colorado River.  This is where the Virgin River flows into the Colorado River.  It is now covered with Lake Mead.  Daniel established a far raising fruit trees.  He also planted many cottonwood trees.  When Brigham Young visited in 1870, he turned around and called the country desolate and decided the saints should move back to Utah.  He may have been influenced by flooding in addition to heat in the area.  There was also confusion about what sate they were in and whether they had to pay taxes to Nevada.  Daniel Bonelli and his wife did not leave while everyone else did.  He said he did not leave the church, the church left him.  Others later moved to the area and the town of St. Thomas was established as well as Overton, upstream.  Daniel Bonelli established a ferry across the Colorado River.  He is credited with naming Temple Bar along the Colorado River thinking it looked like the Mormon temple in Salt Lake.  He passed away in 1903 due to a stroke.  He was buried in St. Thomas.  When Lake Mead flooded the area his grave was moved to Mountain View Cemetery in Kingman Arizona.

He is the father of George Bonelli who built the Bonelli House in Kingman which is a living history museum in Kingman.  It in on the list of National Historic locations.

Book of Mormon External Evidence: Documentary Review: Hidden in the Heartland (2016)

This is a series of ten episodes over two seasons.  It starts each episode with the statement that if you peel back the archeology of the Americas you just might find the Book of Mormon.

Episode 1: Who Are the Mound Builders.  This episode points out that the time line of the Hopewell Mound builders matches the timeline of the Nephites of the Book of Mormon.  hey start in as early as 600 B.C. in Florida and then disappear in upstate New York in 400 A.D.  There are significant number of sites which include religious sites, burial mounds, and fortifications.  There are up to a million mound sites in North America, but many have been destroyed, plowed under, or not yet identified.  Wayne May, Rod Meldrum.

Episode 2: The Origin of the Central American Model.  How did we become convinced that the Book of Mormon took place Central America.  This points back to an article in the Times and Seasons which was edited by Joseph Smith.  However questions exist as to his actual involvement of this article.  This is compared to his and Oliver Cowdery saying things happened in North America.  Jonathan Nelville

Episode 3: Manifest Destiny.  This presents the claim that the U.S. government and the Smithsonian Institute under the direction of John Wesley Powell deliberately destroyed evidence or called any evidence outside the narrative fraud.  Any artifact before Columbus had to be fake.  This was to justify the concept of Manifest Destiny and the idea that the Native Americans were savages.

Episode 4: Hebrew in America.  Artifacts with Hebrew have been discovered in North America.  The Bat Creek Stone was discovered and thought to be ancient Cherokee.  However a linguist turned it up side down and said it is ancient Hebrew.  Scholars consider it a fake.  The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is claimed by some to be the ten commandments in Hebrew.  Again this is refuted.  There is another Decalogue stone with the ten commandments written on all sides of it in Hebrew.  Lastly there is a mound which was recorded but then destroyed, which shows a menora and an oil lamp.

Episode 5: The Great Earthquake of 1811-1812.  Centered around New Madrid, Missouri along the Mississippi River there were a series of earthquakes which created events which mimic the destruction in the Book of Mormon at the time of Christ's death.  There was darkness, the Mississippi flowed backwards, lakes were drained and lakes were formed, there were sand geysers, there was fire and cities destroyed.

Episode 6: America the Covenant Land.  George Washington talked about America as the covenant land, and Abraham Lincoln checked out the Book of Mormon from the Library of Congress.  Joseph Smith had been assassinated while running for president on an abolitionist platform 16 years prior to Lincoln being president.  Tim Ballard explains the idea of America being a covenant land.

Episode 7: The Kinderhook Plates.  Joseph Smith was presented with some plates people said they found in a mound.  Joseph Smith at first glance said they were authentic; however he never translated them.  These plates disappeared, but once has since been found.  However this plate does not match any of the etchings made of the plates.  It is now said to be a great hoax.

Season 2

Episode 1: Crossing the Seas.  It has now been shown that ocean travel was possible using ancient means.  Phillip Beale constructed a boat using ancient tools and materials after the pattern of the Phoenicians.  He was able to circumnavigate Africa; however in his journey he almost landed in America, close to Florida.  He later did travel to America from the Mediterranean.  

Episode 2: The 2-Hill Cumorah Theory.  This episode confronts the impracticality of the Book of Mormon taking place in Meso America, but the plates being found in the Hill Cumorah in New York.  This movie documents that people have taken artifacts from the Hill Cumorah area for years and years.  Bucket loads of arrow heads and other artifacts have been hauled away.  There is a book store in Palmyra with a small museum of artifacts.  

Episode 3: Archeoastronomy.  In this episode we see comparison of the mounds to Stone Henge, which has been shone to have astronomical properties.  The same is true of the mounds, incuding the Serpent Mound.

This series is narrated by Scott Christopher.  It is available on LDS Scriptures.  I really enjoyed this series.  Of course a true testimony comes through the Holy Ghost and applying Moroni's promise.  However it is good to know that evidences to the Book of Mormon are more and more prevalent

Joseph Fielding Smith Doctrines of Salvation: Book 3 chapters 11-12: A Prophet Testifies of the Book of Mormon

 Doctrines of Salvation Volume III. Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, Compiled by Bruce R. McConkie, 1956.

Chapter 11: Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon

Chapter 12: A Voice from Cumorah: Witnesses of Book of Mormon

In this chapter the first point made is that a testimony of the Book of Mormon comes through real intent, faith, prayer and the witness of the Spirit.  Even if we had the gold plates those who are natsayers would still be naysayer and there would still be contention.  The Lord said we would provide as many witnesses as seemed good.  WE have 12.  Four who saw angels and 8 who only touched and saw the plates.  Through the Spirit all men may be witnesses.  He also provides witness that Cumorah amongst the Nephites and Ramah amongst the Jaredites and the Hill Cumorah where Moroni gave Joseph Smith the plates are in fact the same hill and Ripliancum or the many lakes and waters refers to the Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes.  He then refers to early brethren who verify this: Oliver Cowdery with Joseph Smith's approval, David Whitmer, Joseph Smith in the Glad tidings from Cumorah section of the Doctrine and Covenants.  The story of Zelph as reported by Heber C Kimball indicates northeast U.S. was Nephite territory.  

The Legend of Mount Timpanogos: Native American Legend

 Growing up I heard the story of Mount Timpanogos differently that what is being presented on the internet.  The mountain traditionally was the territory of the Uintah Utes, who have since been moved to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to the east.  I heard (probably from my father who spent considerable time with the Ute Native Americans as they were the topic of his thesis) that Chief Timpanogos died on the mountains and the mountain took his shape as witnessed by the one side of the mountain looking like a war bonnet.  His wife also died on the mountain and the other side of the mountain took her shape.  She is harder to see but with imagination you can see her.  Of course the heart of Timpanogos in the Timpanogos Cave is a symbol of their undying love.

Now as I read there is no indication there ever was a Chief Timpanogos.  Instead there is a story that comes from about 1920 from a BYU professor Eugene Lusk "Timp" Roberts.  There was an annual hike to the top of the mountain and he told this story as part of a day before the hike at the Timp Hike bonfire.  So if the 1920 story is a work of fiction or a legend he had heard I do not know.

Timpanogos is the name of the god of the mountain.  For some reason he had become angry and caused a drought to come upon the land.  The fish dried up in the waters.  The medicine men tried everything they could to appease the god.  But Timpanogos wanted the sacrifice of a maiden.  As the maidens took the stones, Timpanogos touched the stone picked by Utahna, the most beautiful maiden and daughter of the chief.  All were heart broken; but in order to appease Timpanogos, the chief determined to sacrifice his daughter.  Four braves took her to where the waters bathed the feet of Timpanogos.  She was to climb into the mountain and find the Great Spirit of the mountain.  She had to travel alone for only she could walk on the sacred ground.  She dutifully climbed the mountain.  As she traveled she passed a strange tribe that was dancing.  She thought it odd they should trample the sacred ground.  She skirted around them.  Red Eagle, a brave of the tribe followed her.

She made it to the top and could see the cliffs descending away from her.  She thought she could see her people and hear their desperation.  When she got to the top, Red Eagle followed.  She chanted a cry of appeal and sacrifice.  Just as she was ready to throw herself to Timpanogos Red Eagle spoke to her.  

She was confused and thought he the Great Spirit.  She threw herself at his feet.  She accepted him as a god, and followed him down the mountain.  He lead a different way then their ascent.  He came to a mountain wall, but spied a bear leaving a cave and lead her into the cave.  The great wonders in the cave convinced her he was a god.   He would leave the cave  nd hunt game and bring back berries from high in the mountain.  She wondered how he nneded to eat if he were a god.  But it seemed he hunted without weapons.  One day he was attacked by a bear, and grabbed his bow and arrow from a bush.  The bear wounded him before he could kill it.  She nursed him back to health, but in his fever revealed he was not a god.  

She realized she had been deceived.  She prepared herself her her final sacrifice.  One day when Red eagle returned from hunting the cave was empty.  Red Eagle realizing what was happening hurriedly ascended the mountain.  He he got to the bottom of the glacier he saw her on the top of the mountain.  He yelled to her but his yells were carried by the wind.  He saw as she leaped from the cliff and her mangled body came to rest not far from him.  He gathered her up and took her back to the cave, no longer leaving to hunt or take food.  He joined her in death.  Timpanogos accepted their sacrifice, took their hearts and made one of them which still resides in the cave.  The mountain took the shape of the maiden Utahna.  What looks like a head dress is in fact her hair coming off her neck.

Jerry Tarkanian "Tark the Shark" at UNLV

At the UNLV stadium Thomas and Mack Center, is a statue of Jerry Tarkanian chewing on a towel, and his history at UNLV in the background.  The Aggies use to have a hard time with them as they played in the same league.  His UNLV team went to four final fours and won the championship in 1990.  His history is available in the pictures.  He ended his career as the winningest coach in history.

history in general

History with UNLV