An Offensive Odor

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East of South Pass was an area known as the Alkali District. This area was difficult for the pioneers to travel through because of the odor. What was the cause of the odor?

a.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Dead livestock from drinking bad water

b.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Rotting organic material in the water

c.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Sulfur springs

d.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Pioneers not willing to wash

Yesterday’s answer:

D   $20,000

From the life of Sam Brannan:   Mindful of Brannan’s financial success, President Brigham Young advised him, “If you want to continue to prosper, do not  forget the Lord’s treasury, lest he forget you; for with the liberal, the Lord is liberal. And when you have settled with the treasury, I want you to remember that Brother Brigham has long been destitute of a home, and suffered heavy losses and incurred great expenses in searching out a location and planting the church in this place. He wants you to send him a present of twenty thousand dollars in gold dust, to help him in his labors. This is but a trifle when gold is so plentiful, but it will do me much good at this time.”

When Apostles Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich visited the California Saints, they asked for the tithes. Brannan who had invested the money in personal and “common stock” ventures, replied: “I’ll give up the Lord’s money when he [Brigham Young] sends me a receipt signed by the Lord, and no sooner.”

. . . .Severely wounded during a violent property dispute at Calistoga, he suffered permanent partial paralysis of his left side. Two years later, Brannan’s enchantment with dancer Lola Montez, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, and others resulted in divorce, which forced Brannan to liquidate his holdings. Increased drinking eventually precipitated total collapse of his financial empire.

He traded his last $1.5 million in Mexican war bonds for 1,687,585 acres in Sonora, but was unable to colonize the arid, Indian-infested region and returned to San Diego—deserted by his Mexican wife, penniless, and wracked with arthritic pain.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 22.