Anniversary of the westward migration of a people

This Thursday, July 24, is the 111th Anniversary of when the the vanguard company of the Mormons arrived at their new home, in the Salt Lake Valley. They had traveled from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and followed the Platte River on the north side, and stopped at Ft. Larime. They then crossed Wyoming and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24th. This began the exodus of the Mormons from the east over the next several years. Over the next fifty years, many were began in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, and Mexico.






Here is what the Library of Congress has to say about the exodus of the Mormons:



"Completing a treacherous thousand-mile exodus, an ill and exhausted Brigham Young and fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. The Mormon pioneers viewed their arrival as the founding of a Mormon homeland, hence Pioneer Day. The Mormons, as they were commonly known, left their settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois, and journeyed West seeking refuge from religious persecution. The final impetus for their trek was the murder of founder and prophet Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844."

"Determined to settle in an isolated region, the pioneers made their way across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to Utah. They lost many of their party to disease during the winter months. By the time that they reached Utah, the desolate valley was a welcome sight. Potatoes and turnips were soon planted, and a dam was built. With solemn ceremonies, the settlers consecrated the two-square-mile city, and sent back word that the "promised land" had been found. By the end of 1847, nearly 2,000 Mormons had settled in the Salt Lake Valley."



Whatever you think about the Mormons, this was truly an amazing accomplishment to travel across the plains and build community in such hostile land as the Salt Lake Valley.

Other sources include:

The Mormon Pioneer Trail
The Pioneer Story: The Mormon Pioneer Trial

PBS: The West: Brigham Young

Brigham Young, 2nd President of the Church

Newspaper Archives are Now Available on the Internet

It used to be that if you wanted to have access to the archives of a newspaper, you had to go to a library that had those archives in its holdings. Newspapers were housed in libraries on microfilm reels. This made accessing non-local newspapers difficult.

The Internet is making access to historical newspapers easier. Many newspapers are being scanned and made available on the Internet. Most of the large newspapers, such as the Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times offer searching their newspaper archives, but to get the full text of the article, it costs money. There are other companies who have gathered together a large number of newspapers and scanned them and they are available to be searched for a fee.

However, there are some local towns and also some states that are beginning to put historical archives of newspapers on the Internet that can be searched and viewed and printed for free. I have provided links to many local and regional newspapers that are available for free at the following website: http://www.se.edu/lib/ecollect.htm.
These newspapers are arranged by state, and not every state has newspaper archives freely available.

These digitized newspapers have been scanned in as pdf documents, so they are very clear to read, and can be enlarged or shrunk down as desired. They can also be searched much easier than paper newspapers on microfilm. Articles from these scanned online newspapers can also be printed out. In some cases, entire pages of the newspaper can be printed out.

These newspapers would be great for researching history topics, or to just view the advertising in these newspapers. It is great to have access to more newspapers from the country. There are several that highlight the Civil War period.

Fourth of July

The 4th of July is Independence Day for the United States of America. On this day in 1776, 232 years ago in Philedelphia, members of the Continental Congress completed signing the Declaration of Independence, establishing the United States of America. It took seven long years of war before that independence was a reality, and four more years before a government was established that really united the United States.
The Library at SOSU has many books on this topic, and here is a good internet site on Independence Day: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Independence_Day.shtml.

Are We Running out of Oil?

The amount of oil left in the world is debatable depending on the source that you use. Some people think that we have already or soon will reach peak oil production, and that after the peak has been achieved, that declining production rates coupled with rising demand from different countries of the world, particularly China and India, will cause wars and eventually the end of our way of life. Others say that peak oil production is still 10 to 30 or longer years away and that we don’t have to worry now. One thing is clear, we will eventually run out of oil, and that we need to find an alternative source of energy or our way of life as we know it now will come to an end.

The peak production theory was formulated by M. Hubbert. He said that for any non renewable commidity, when half of that commidity has been produced, then you have reached the peak of production for that commidity, and after the peak has been reached, production will fall rapidly. He predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970, which it did. He also predicted that world oil production would peak at around 2000. Most now feel that the peak has yet to be reached, but some say that it is looming in the very near future.



Come to the Library and see the display on Are We Running Out of Oil?. Also you can go to the Internet Resources by Subject page, at http://www.se.edu/lib/search2.htm, and click on Energy Resources. It has links to oil energy sites, plus alternative energy sites.

Two agencies of the federal government, The Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy http://www.eia.doe.gov/, and the U.S. Geological Service, http://energy.usgs.gov/ contain information about energy. They contain information about petroleum, and other energy sources. Some people say that the information about the amount of oil left in the world is flawed, and that the amount of oil left in Saudi Arabia is less than they report. The Energy Information Administration publishes two reports report each year, called Annual Energy Outlook.http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html and the International Energy Outlook http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html.