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49 pages 1 hour read

Riders of the Purple Sage

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1912

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Background

Historical Context: Mormon Migration to Utah and the Utah Wars

The Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, began in upstate New York when John Smith published the Book of Mormon. In an attempt to create the city of Zion, a place where believers can gather freely, Smith moved his congregation from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri, and finally to Illinois. Smith and his congregation struggled with violence between themselves and local non-believers who disagreed with the beliefs of the Mormons. In 1844, Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were arrested and killed, leaving the church without a leader. A fight over succession followed, creating two branches of the church. Brigham Young took control of the majority of the congregation, the group that is known in modern times as the LDS church.

In light of the continuing persecution of Mormons in Missouri and Illinois, Young decided to move his congregation west, to territory that was generally unpopulated, and therefore open to the creation of Zion. Beginning in 1847, Young and many of his followers established farming communities in the Utah territory. In 1852, Mormon leaders became vocal about their beliefs, including their belief in plural marriage, a practice that many non-Mormons found disturbing. This caused tension between church leaders and non-Mormons who traveled through the area. Between 1857 and 1858, during which time Young was governor of the territory of Utah, the Mormons engaged in the Utah War, an unofficial war between Mormon communities and outsiders. Tensions during this time resulted in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857. This massacre resulted in the deaths of 120 members of the Baker-Fancher wagon train who were traveling through the area to California.

Zane Grey uses the history of the Mormon Migration and the Utah War to explain how Jane Withersteen’s father came to establish the fictional village of Cottonwoods near the southern border of Utah. In the opening pages of the novel, Jane explains that the northern settlements of Utah have begun to resist the invasion of non-Mormon settlers and that this sentiment has also invaded Cottonwoods. This creates the setting in which Jane finds herself at odds with church leaders because she has developed friendships and a caretaker relationship with many of the non-Mormon settlers, including her fiancé, Bern Venters and an adopted child, Fay. While the novel opens 13 years after the Utah War, it shows the dominance of Mormon men over Mormon women, and the distrust Mormons still felt for non-Mormon people.

Historical Context: Anasazi: Cave Dwellers of Utah

The Anasazi were Indigenous people who lived in southern Utah during what archeologists call the Pueblo period between 500 and 1300 AD. The Anasazi began as a foraging society, but settled into an agriculturally based lifestyle around 400 AD. During this time, they built homes out of logs and mud, but soon turned to round homes made of stone and wood roofs. The Anasazi developed large communities and grew a variety of items, from corn to cotton, to squash and beans. They also began creating bows and arrows, clay pottery, turquoise jewelry, and cotton clothing.

Between the years of 1050 and 1300 AD, the Anasazi began building cliff dwellings that included apartment houses that consisted of five stories and included hundreds of rooms. These homes would often have luxuries such as corrugated cooking pots and decorated ladles. The Anasazi were innovative in their irrigation techniques, including the use of dikes and terraces. However, a drought settled over the southern portion of Utah in 1276 AD that led to the disappearance of the Anasazi in Utah by 1300 AD. The cliff dwellings they left behind can still be seen today in places such as Hovenweep National Monument and Butler Wash, Utah.

Grey uses the history of the Anasazi cliff dwellings in Riders of the Purple Sage when Bern Venters travels into Deception Pass and follows a rabbit up to a series of cliff dwellings hidden in a place Venters names Surprise Valley. This area is found located up a set of carved steps and behind a perched rock that Venters believes was placed in this location to block off attacks. It is in this place that Venters nurses Bess back to health, where Lassiter meets Bess for the first time, and where Lassiter takes Jane and Fay at the end of the novel.

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