The Journals of George Q. Cannon, Volume I

To California in '49

Book Notice

The Journals of George Q. Cannon, Volume I: To California in ’49, edited by Michael N. Landon (Deseret Book and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1999)

As California gold miner, missionary to Hawaii, Apostle, European Mission president, personal secretary to Brigham Young, editor of the Deseret News, Utah’s delegate to Congress, and counselor to four Church presidents, George Q. Cannon occupied an unparalleled position from which to view the historical events of nineteenth-century Mormonism. By keeping a personal journal in which he recorded his daily events from 1849 to 1901 (with only occasional lapses), Cannon produced a first-person account that, according to Richard E. Turley Jr., should be considered one of the “best extant records of Latter-day Saint history during the second half of the nineteenth century” (xiv). Long unavailable to researchers and Church members, Cannon’s journals are being published by Deseret Book in conjunction with the Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As the first volume in the series The Journals of George Q. Cannon, this book provides a verbatim reproduction of Cannon’s journal during his overland trip to California in 1849. Cannon traveled to California as part of a group of men who were called by Church leaders to mine for gold. Spanning from October 6 to December 9, the journal includes Cannon’s trip through central and southern Utah, an account of an ill-conceived “shortcut” that took the travelers from the main trail and proved nearly disastrous, and Cannon’s description of his travel along the Spanish Trail to California. Editor Michael N. Landon, a historian and archivist at the LDS Historical Department, has ably provided historical context for each of the major portions of Cannon’s trip; Landon has also painstakingly culled material from the journals of Cannon’s contemporaries to briefly describe his activities between December 1849 and September 1850, a period of nearly ten months that Cannon did not describe in his journal. In transcribing the work, the editor has held to the highest level of editorial standards, ensuring the volume’s continued use as a primary source for future researchers. The book’s explanatory text and descriptive footnotes connect the Mormon experience on the trail to California with that of other Americans traveling west to find their fortunes.

In addition to providing the text of the journal, the book is illustrated with photographs of major points of interest along the trail and with portraits of many of Cannon’s traveling companions. Five modern maps and five period maps provide a visual description of the trail. More than two dozen photographs of historical documents related to the California journey have been included as well. The only glaring omission from the ancillary materials is a map showing the entire journey from Salt Lake City to California. As it now stands, readers can get the full picture only by piecing together the various maps of smaller geographical areas. For readers who might want to retrace Cannon’s footsteps, a geographical register provides a day-by-day rendering of the journey in modern terms, including highways and other landmarks. The editor has helpfully compiled a biographical register containing information on the members of Cannon’s company and the people they met along the way. Landon offers readers a particular service by juxtaposing Cannon’s journal version of the journey with a recollection of the trip that he published twenty years later in a series of articles for the Juvenile Instructor. Lengthy excerpts from this 1869 account appear in the footnotes and provide details omitted from the original account, showing that in the intervening years Cannon had developed a new perspective on the meaning of certain events. Reading the two together provides a unique vantage point to understand the processes of memory and the construction of historical narrative.

When published in full, The Journals of George Q. Cannon will make a significant contribution to the study of both Mormon history and the history of the American West in the nineteenth century. This volume stands as the harbinger of wonderful things to come from the continued publication of Cannon’s journals.

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