Journey to Saint George
Cotton Mission 1861 Utah's Dixie
This painting captures Utah’s stark barren landscape in a beautiful array of bright colors. However, the early pioneer saints who came to start new settlements in 1861 possessed different feelings I am sure. Their minds were on trying to grow crops and build homes in this very hot, wild country.
The prophet Brigham Young called the pioneer saints to settle in Saint George and outlying areas to grow cotton. He knew the saints in Utah would soon be in short supply of cotton because the Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861 between the North and the South. Many of these families who came on the cotton mission of 1861 still live in the beautiful towns they built out of the dust of Utah’s Dixie.
