Log Cabin
|
by Brian Thayne
|
|
One cannot go to this place without being awestruck, by the grandeur of the place, near 2 National Parks, Bryce and Capitol Reef and at the entrance of the Grand Staircase National Monument, but also, awestruck by what the people that lived here must have been made of. Of course, we know that they were Mormon pioneers that moved here for various reasons, but primarily because they were 'called'. The town itself got its name from George Q. Cannon, and the present town of Cannonville (which swallowed up the town of George) is also named for that leader (one of the 12 apostles of that time.) But why him out of the other 11? Did Cannon have something which endeared him particularly above the others? Specifically for this group of pioneers? The landscape, though beautiful, is also harsh, fiercely cold in the winter, unbearably hot in the summers, rock and sand, sand and sandstone, even now it is remote, but it is just a few hours by car to larger populations, how much more remote it must have been then when it was days of travel just to get to Cedar City. I think the reason the town died is obvious, the river is pretty much dried up now and probably was then as well. So I, like the thousands of tourists that pass by every year am awestruck by the sheer beauty of the land, but I am more 'awestruck', by the people that tried to make this harsh environment their home.