'Mormonism's Last Colonizer: The Life and Times of William H. Smart' details transition period for LDS

"MORMONISM'S LAST COLONIZER: The Life and Times of William H. Smart," by William B. Smart, Utah State University Press, 319 pages, $44.95.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Uintah Basin was Utah's last frontier of unsettled land. And there were good reasons why: Much of the region was set aside as an Indian reservation and the altitude and soil conditions weren't ideal for agricultural development.

But William H. Smart had a vision of making the basin Mormon country. And when the federal government opened settlement to non-Indians, Smart spearheaded the LDS Church's efforts to colonize the region.

His faithful determination to fulfill his church calling and his dream of settling eastern Utah is the primary focus of "Mormonism's Last Colonizer: The Life and Times of William H. Smart."

But the 319-page biography written by Smart's grandson and former Deseret News editor William B. Smart is more than a history of eastern Utah's early Mormon settlement.

The book, which last year garnered the Mormon History Association's Ella Turner-Ella Bergera Best Biography Award and Utah State University's Evans Handcart Award, is also a fascinating look at beginnings of a transitional period of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when its leaders and members began a new era of assimilating into America and accommodating non-Mormons migrating to Utah.

The author acknowledges that his grandfather was "a man born out of time. His life spanned two eras in LDS history, but he seems to have been committed to the first."

Smart, who took a polygamous wife after his church denounced the practice of plural marriage, approached his calling to settle the Uintah Basin with a "Mormon fortress" mentality of the early era of Mormon colonization.

As president of the Wasatch, Uintah and finally Duchesne stakes, he systematically took control of the banks, newspapers, schools, irrigation companies and other businesses, intentionally marginalizing non-Mormons in the region.

Loyal and devoted to his church and its leaders, Smart rarely made a move without consulting the church's governing First Presidency, to which he had ready access. Church leaders also came to Smart for advice and requests for donations, particularly after he made a considerable fortune as a Cache Valley sheepman.

But Smart never hesitated to share his wealth with the church or its members. His generosity and his devotion to the cause of claiming the Uintah Basin as a Mormon stronghold gradually dissipated his fortune.