Associated Locations:
- St. George, Utah: Gadianton Robbers in St. George
- Rocky Mountains: Lamanites in Rocky Mountains
“The Lord has told Joseph that when we leave here we will go into the Rocky Mountains, right into the midst of the Lamanites.” (Oliver B. Huntington, see full quote and reference below.)
Inspiring Stories
Gadianton Robbers in St. George
“Upon one occasion President Brigham Young was in the Tabernacle at St. George and was speaking on the spirit world. He stated that it was not far from us and if the veil could be taken from our eyes there wouldn’t be either a man, woman, or child who would dare go out of ‘this tabernacle as the spirits of the Gadianton robbers were so thick out there. This is where they lived in these mountains,’ said he.” 1
Lamanites in Rocky Mountains
“My father was living in a good hewed log house in 1840, when one morning as the family all sat at breakfast old Father Joseph Smith, the father of the Prophet, came and sat down by the fireplace, after declining to take breakfast with us. There he sat some little time in silence, looking steadily in the fire. At length he observed that we had been driven from Missouri to this place. He then asked this question, “And how long, Brother Huntington, do you think we will stay here?”
As he asked this question, I noticed a strange, good-natured expression creep over his whole being—an air of mysterious joy.
Father answered, after a moment’s hesitation, “Well, Father Smith, I can’t begin to imagine.”
“We will just stay here seven years,” he answered. “The Lord has told Joseph so—just seven years. Now this is not to be made public; I would not like to have this word go any further.”
The Patriarch leaned and relied upon his son Joseph in all spiritual matters as much as boys generally do upon their parents for temporalities.
There were two or three minutes of perfect silence. Then the old gentleman with more apparent secret joy and caution in his countenance said, “And where do you think we will go to when we leave here, Brother Huntington?”
Father did not pretend to guess—unless we went back to Jackson County.
“No,” said the old Patriarch, his whole being seeming to be alive with animation. “The Lord has told Joseph that when we leave here we will go into the Rocky Mountains, right into the midst of the Lamanites.”
This information filled our hearts with unspeakable joy, for we knew that the Book of Mormon and this gospel had been brought to light more for the remnants of Jacob upon this continent than for the Gentiles.
Father Smith again enjoined upon us profound secrecy in this matter, and I don’t think it was ever uttered by one of Father Huntington’s family.
The history of Nauvoo shows that we located in Nauvoo in 1839 and left it in 1846. 2
- Heber Jarvis, signed April 1st, 1940, Mesa, Arizona
- The Young Woman’s Journal, II, (December, 1890), pp. 124-125; (February, 1891), pp. 225-226; (April, 1891), pp. 314-315; (May, 1891), p. 366; (July, 1891), pp. 466-468; IV (March, 1893), pp. 274-275; (April, 1893) pp. 320-321; (June, 1893), pp. 424-425; Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, comps., They Knew the Prophet [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1974], 63.
