Throughout LDS tradition, Mormons have held supernatural expectations of stones, especially white and translucent stones and crystals. In early Mormonism, stones mediated between the living and the dead as well as between the past, present, and future. Early Mormons believed God lived on a planet “like a sea of glass” and “like crystal,” and God created seer stones to preserve the holy language of Eden. These stones were passed down generation after generation, and God transformed the white stones into lanterns to guide the Jaredites from Babel to Cumorah. Centuries later, Joseph Smith used his brown stone to locate his more powerful white stone, buried deep within the earth. Smith used his stone “spectacles,” also called by their Biblical name “Urim and Thummim,” to translate the gold plates into the Book of Mormon. In the future, Smith revealed the earth itself would become a great “Urim and Thummim,” “like unto crystal,” and its inhabitants would each receive their own white seer stone.1In Illinois and Utah territory, a growing number of British Mormons popularized the textual study of astrology and its applied practice through white stones, crystals, and glass. By the end of the nineteenth century, the LDS Church officially condemned “cunning-folk” practices of astrology as well as the unauthorized use of seer stones. At the same time, the church reinforced the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of the Urim and Thummim in the Bible, LDS priesthood, and the celestial kingdom.2James E. Talmage was a third-generation astrologist and second-generation Mormon from England who became an educator, scientist, and apostle (1911) of the LDS Church.3 In the 1890s, Talmage played a key role in the discovery, extraction, and exhibition of the largest-known transparent selenite crystals. As previous studies noted, the crystal exhibits at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Deseret Museum, and prestigious venues across the United States and Europe facilitated the LDS Church “coming out to the world.”4 This article will show the crystals also served a religious purpose for LDS Mormons at home, detailed in transcripts of Talmage's talks at the University of Utah in 1895 and 1896, when Talmage served as university president and Deseret Professor of Geology (funded by the LDS Church).The crystals were discovered in Wayne County, Utah (today's Capitol Reef National Park), by John Ray Young (Brigham Young's nephew) in the late nineteenth century. Following missions to Salt Lake (1847), the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) (1854–1857, 1864–1865), “Dixie” (southwestern Utah) (1861–1864), and Great Britain (1877–1878), Young helped settle Rabbit Valley on the Fremont River, purchasing farmland in Loa. Young was soon forced to flee the area due to his participation in plural marriage, although he continued to consider Loa to be his home.5 Young's first wife, Albina Terry Young, remained in East Loa (Lyman), where their sons dug the city's spring. One day, close to where the Fremont River merges with Muddy Creek, becoming the Dirty Devil River (a tributary of the Colorado River), Young was exploring a ravine where he saw a large mound glistening in the sunlight. It was, in fact, a colossal geode with a gypsum shell and natural aperture. Inside the geode, Young discovered huge, perfectly transparent crystals.In 1891, Young brought samples of the crystals to Talmage at the Deseret Museum. Talmage was the new curator of the museum, succeeding his mentor the late Joseph Barfoot. Young likely brought the crystals in response to widely published advertisements calling for contributions of “animal, vegetable, and mineral productions” of Utah for the museum's display. The beauty of the crystals immediately struck Talmage. He asked Young to procure one for himself for his own personal collection. In addition, he placed Young's donation on exhibit at the Deseret Museum. In the spring of 1891, Dr. Albert Edward Foote, one of America's most famous early mineral dealers, traveled from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City and visited the Deseret Museum. Foote was struck by the crystals as well. As a lifelong collector of minerals, Foote confirmed these were the largest and most transparent selenite crystals on record.6In November 1891, Talmage wrote to Young in Loa, reporting “scientific collectors and institutions in the East” were interested in acquiring the crystals for their collections. Talmage asked Young if he would be willing to ship five to six hundred pounds worth of large pieces. Talmage made a specific request, asking Young to handpick the choicest prism to send to the British Museum.7 Young sent three boxes of the crystals via the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which Talmage received in January of 1892. Thanking Young, Talmage stated his desire to visit the site of the rare selenite crystal occurrence.8In May 1892, Talmage traveled to southeast Utah on official church business of the First Presidency, to investigate purported hieroglyphics and figures on rocks, “seen by the spirit” by church member Llewellyn Harris.9 While he was in the area, Talmage visited Franklin Wheeler Young (John's younger brother) and his family in “the Junction.” Like his older brother, Franklin was raised to become a Mormon pioneer, serving as the youngest bishop in LDS Church history. Young's biographer, Ronald K. Bodtcher, nicknamed him a “Mormon Forest Gump” as Young was on the scene of many important events in LDS history including: The Great Trek West, early missionary work in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the Utah War. Young was best known for settling locations on the American frontier including: Salt Lake, Cache Valley, Bear Lake Valley, “Dixie,” and after 1877, a number of communities along the Fremont River such as Fremont, Loa, East Loa (Lyman), Teasdale, and Blue Valley (Giles). In 1880, Young reported copper thirty miles south of the Fremont River; in 1882, he surveyed the area to build a road along the river from Rabbit Valley to San Juan County; and in 1885, Young settled “the Junction,” what he described as “the Eden of Wayne County,” today known as Fruita. Young “planted the first orchard of apple, peach and other trees, and the first grapevines at that place, just as his father had done with him when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with the first Pioneer Companies.”10“The Junction” or “Eden of Wayne County” was located near Pleasant Creek on the Fremont River, through which Young was able to access the ravine to the geode of the crystals, located eight-to-ten miles southeast. Young took Talmage to the site of the selenite crystal occurrence. Talmage recorded that they struggled to complete the very difficult journey, first through the desert, then ravine, but that the crystals were truly “magnificent.”11 “Having visited the deposit in person, [Talmage] be[came] convinced of the rarity and scientific value of the specimen.”12Upon his return, Talmage submitted a request to the Deseret Museum Committee (of the Salt Lake Literary and Scientific Association of the LDS Church) to file a claim to mine the area. Talmage would later claim that he had wished to preserve the crystals in their natural occurrence, but was concerned about the “vandalism” throughout the area, by which he was referring to Native American petroglyphs and “pioneer graffiti.”13The Deseret Museum Committee approved Talmage's request and he made arrangements with Young and his sons LeRoy and Lorenzo; they agreed to excavate and haul the crystals either to the Fremont River ($250) or railway's end in Salina, Utah (at least $1200). Additionally, Talmage met with mineral dealers: Foote in Philadelphia, as well as mineralogists of George L. English and Company in New York, resulting in offers to purchase the crystals for distribution in museums of note in the United States and Europe.14In August 1892, Talmage requested funding from the Deseret Museum Committee to excavate the crystals with a budget totaling between $1,300 to $1,500. Talmage recommended “that some of the crystals be offered to mineral dealers and others in exchange for desirable specimens for the [Deseret] Museum cabinets . . . that some of the choicest specimens be presented to Museums and scientific institutions of importance of this country and in Europe; such as the British Museum, the U.S. National Museum, the Peabody Museum of Yale, the Museums of Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and other universities of note . . . [and] that good specimens be placed on exhibition at the approaching [1893 Chicago] World's Fair.” Although Talmage's proposal would not offset the costs of mining, he “believe[d] the returns by way of prestige gained, and other specimens received in exchange, will be at last decidedly advantageous and highly satisfactory to the Association.”15 Talmage's request was approved. In September 1892, Talmage announced excavation of the “mineral treasure” would start in October, following the 1892 general conference.16In October 1892, Talmage contracted with Young. Talmage came out on the first day of the dig to take photographs of the crystals in their natural occurrence, marking the start of the long excavation process.17 The haul—from the excavation site, through the desert, and to the Fremont River—proved extremely difficult. More still, the crystals then had to be transported on the new road to the railway's end in Salina, about ninety miles north. Finally, the team completed the excavation in April of 1893. A total of thirty tons of selenite crystals were mined by Young, his two sons, and a team of hired help; prisms measured up to six feet long, and clusters weighed hundreds of pounds. Young recorded in his autobiography, “I received for my services $968, besides which Dr. Talmage and his associates gave me $100 as a token of appreciation for the way I had carried out my contract, of which there were many difficulties unforseen in the intricate undertaking and handling of selenite crystals.”18 The crystals were ready just in time for opening day, May 1, 1893, of the Chicago's World Fair.Talmage wanted to exhibit the crystals wherever “they could do good.” In Europe, especially at the British Museum, Talmage believed the crystals would exhibit “a sample of Utah's production.” In the United States, the crystals would exhibit “what our wonderfull [sic] territory can produce.”19In 1893, Talmage gave a presentation on the crystals and the geological history of Utah at the Royal Microscopical Society of London and was voted in as a fellow of the society. Scientific American published an article reporting on his presentation on the crystals. “After a successful presentation, [Talmage] wrote in his journal of his hope for the good it might do for the Saints that ‘one of the despised Mormons—has been so received.’”20The exhibition of the crystals at the Deseret Museum was an opportunity to serve students and visitors. Talmage planned to professionalize the museum, transforming it from a railroad tourist attraction to a world-renowned institution for public education of natural history specializing in minerals, especially choice crystals. In 1895, Scientific American featured a front-page, full-length article on the Deseret Museum, highlighting the exhibit of the “magnificent selenite crystals” in particular. On the front page, the article introduced the museum, noting “The Deseret Museum [is] a depository of choice and extensive collections in natural history and ethnology. Under the auspices of the Deseret Museum, the wonderful selenite formation in Wayne County, Utah has been worked, and of the magnificent crystals thus obtained upward of fifteen tons have been gratuitously distributed to museums and other institutions of learning throughout the United States and Europe.”21In 1897, Talmage gave a full presentation titled “Remarks Concerning the Occurrence of Huge Selenite Crystals in Utah, U.S.A.” as part of the annual meeting of the prestigious Museums Association, of which the Deseret Museum belonged. He made a presentation using stereoscopic photography and lantern projections of photographs of the crystals. Talmage invited the audience to “glance into one of the well filled cabinets in Nature's own museum,” as he presented on the rare occurrence and characteristics of Utah's selenite.22In addition to his published talks, Talmage's papers show he also gave two talks on the crystals at the University of Utah in 1895 and 1896. Compared to his public talks, the transcripts of the University of Utah talks were unique in that Talmage made explicit references to religion and LDS revelation, encouraging onlookers to study the transparent prisms to see for themselves the evolution of the earth's regeneration, progressing from mud to crystal perfection.“A sea of glass” referred to Revelation 4:6, “Before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.” Moreover, “a sea of glass” referred to Joseph Smith's prophecy recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 130:6–7, “The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass . . . where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.” Exhibiting the crystal prisms, Talmage likened them to “a sea of glass” of the celestial kingdom.23In his 1895 talk, “Crystal Beauties: A Demonstration of Law and Order in the Constitution of Inanimate Matter,” Talmage encouraged students to see the beauty of the crystal “beyond the eye,” mediating between the visible and invisible worlds.24 While he does not elaborate in his transcripts, Talmage previously wrote about crystals in similar terms. In First Book of Nature, Talmage wrote that crystals embodied otherwise “unseen bonds of affinity [and] mathematical accuracy, according to which the forces of the universe operate and cooperate.” Crystals “declare[d] by their very existence . . . a universal tendency of matter to gather . . . in symmetrical order,” as “the earth tends toward a crystalline state.” Moreover, crystals revealed both natural and supernatural truths: “In shaping the crystal . . . the Creator teaches us by example ‘the principles of a perfect geometry.’”25Most interesting, in these talks, Talmage offered discussions on mud, the familiar, earthly material of Utah—and the point of origin of the crystals. Indeed, the largest, most transparent selenite crystals accreted out of the Muddy Creek off the Dirty Devil River. Exhibiting the crystals—with visible traces of sand, clay, and liquid—Talmage insisted “even mud is beautiful,” for “mud tends to purification, crystallization, perfection.”26For Talmage, the crystals offered material proof of Smith's revelation of the regeneration and resurrection of the earth in the latter days. Smith revealed: “This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ's.”27
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Mar 19, 2024
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