Mentinah

The Menintah Valley is a very different place today than in the days of Hagoth.  In those days the area was forested and a large lake filled much of the valley floor.  They were careful for many generations to take care of the needs of the valley.  For example, when they harvested trees they made sure they planted more.  They knew because of the dry climate that if they didn’t they would lose the forests.  Eventually they violated those practices.  They lost their forests, they lost almost all of their lake, and the land gave out being not able to provide for the overpopulation of the area.  To this day the valley has not recovered.  East of the valley, when one goes over the mountains, there are still many forests which I believe gives a good idea what the valley once looked like.  In the valley today there are scrub oaks on the hills and mountains, sage brush, some willows by the springs and small rivers and other trees the settlers have planted themselves.  But there are no more forests on the valley floor, just a few clumps of trees here and there.  There is only a small pond left of the large lake and it seems to be used primarily for irrigation.  It is very hard to grow food in the valley now for the growing season is short.  The valley is high up and so planting time is later and often frosts take the plants well into the spring where one has to replant.  It seems most farmers have turned to growing alfalfa and raising animals.  I thought it would be fun to show pictures of the valley and the mountains surrounding it.  I have only taken my camera a few times when I have gone down there, so my photographs are from just a few areas.  However, what you will see is very much the same wherever one goes.

These first series of pictures are from Google Earth.  The valley is shaped kind of like a “y.”  At the city of Moroni, the valley splits into two as one goes north.  The left side goes into Fountain Green and if one follows the main road they will eventually go into a canyon through the mountains to the city of Nephi.  Pictures 1, 2, and 3 shows from top to bottom the left side of the “y.”  There is one canyon just south of Fountain Green on the west that I highly recommend people visit.  It is called Maple Canyon.  There are several hiking trails, but what is most interesting is the massive walls of natural concrete.  This canyon is famous for rock climbing.  I guarantee you will be amazed.  Pictures 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 start at Moroni and go to the north on the right side of the “y.”  Pictures 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 start from Moroni and go down the “y.”  I do not know where the Nemenhah called the southern end of the valley.  I suspect the main road going between Sterling and Centerfield is the narrow access into the valley talked about in the Archives (picture 15).  There is also a small access between Sterling and Mayfield (picture 16).  In fact, the Mayfield area is kind of a little valley in and of itself.    When one goes into the Centerfield area it opens up to the west, north and south.  These series of pictures don’t go north, but pictures 17, 18, 19, and 20 continue south.  Down in the Redmond and Salina areas there is a lot of salt.  Many are familiar with Redmond salt; that is where it comes from.  I-70 is south of Salina.  If one goes east on I-70 barely into the mountains, there is a small cave just to the north.  From what I understand, in the past, Native Americans stayed in that cave when they harvested salt.  Apparently, early settlers found a small plate of gold in that cave and so they spent many years carving out caverns searching for more, which they found none.  But it is a fascinating place to explore.  We know the Menintah Valley was named after the salt found at the south end.  I believe this area is what they were talking about.  It is not in what I assumed is the boundary of the valley, but it is at the south end of it.

 Now you have an idea of the valley, let’s look more at ground level.  The best we can figure, the city of Mentinah was where the city of Manti is today.  This next set of pictures is of Manti.  Pictures 21 and 22 is approaching Manti from the north.  The LDS Manti Temple sits on what is known as Temple Hill.  This Temple Hill is important, for there was a prophecy that the settlers would take the floor of the Mentinah High Place (seven lodges) and use those stones in the foundations of their homes.  (The floor of the High Place was all that was left because the rest was made out of wood.)  Apparently this happened here in Manti.  From my understanding the stones were taken from the north side of Temple Hill.  It seems that the separate lodges started from the bottom of Temple Hill culminating at the top.  According to the Mentinah Archives, the Savior came here when He visited the Nemenhah of the Mountains after His resurrection.  Many have seen the Manti LDS Pageant.  In one of the scenes the Savior’s visit to the Nephites is presented.  I think it is wonderful knowing the same thing happened to the Nemenhah of the Mountains on the other side of the hill from where the pageant is seen.  Remember Hagmeni, the son of Hagoth, found Jaradite records and tombs east of the temple and the Nemenhah kept their records with those records for quite some time until Manti, the son of Ougou, was commissioned and built a more suitable place to keep the records.  Picture 23 is the back end of the north side of Temple Hill.  Picture 24 and 25 are views of the Manti Temple on the south side.  This is where the Manti Pageant is performed every year.  Picture 26 was taken on the south end of Manti looking north.  You can see the Manti Temple in the middle of the photograph.  Behind the temple in the distance is a mountain.  To the right of that mountain is the upper left side of the valley where it splits.

 Now we are going to go North of Manti.  Picture 27 is taken south of Moroni looking at the west mountains.  The water is what is left of the lake.  The long barns are turkey coops.  This region is known for turkey farming.  In fact, there are probably at least 15 of those coops in that photograph alone, although most are hard to see because they are in the distance.  As you can see, trees are sporadic and those bush like plants are sagebrush.  The larger the sagebrush the more water is found.  Most areas in the valley the sagebrush is small.  The fencing is typical.  The posts up close are made of metal, but on the other side of the sagebrush there is another fence where the posts are made out of small trees and possibly branches.  Picture 28 is the opposite view from the west mountain looking over the valley to the East Mountains.  On the middle left of the picture you can see the lake and beyond that towards the northeast is Moroni.  Now I like going into the mountains on both the east and west sides of the valley.  On the east side at the foot hills there is a lot of scrub oak.  However if one goes up eventually they get into forests and beautiful vast meadows.  There is a road that goes north and south for the most part on top of the east mountains called Sky Line Drive which I highly recommend.  It is one of the most breathtaking experiences of beauty.  (Note:  Most mountain roads in Utah are closed in the winter.)  Now, I have already mentioned Maple Canyon.  Picture 29 is a very small example of those natural concrete walls found there.  These walls can tower many stories high and often there are washes between the walls.  This natural concrete is common in the surrounding areas of the Menintah Valley.  In fact, behind the Manti temple, behind the quarry on the northeast, there is some interesting rock formations where much of it the rocks are made out of this same natural concrete.  I have two pictures taken that show some of those formations.  The first is picture 30.  You can see some of this natural concrete in the rounder type rocks in the upper right of the photograph.  The long triangle rocks are most likely layered sandstone rocks.  Some have speculated that these are floors to an ancient building, but I don’t think so.  These rocks seem to go quit deep and they are not level.  Rather they follow the slope of the hill.  If one goes closer to the quarry they see it is common for this type of rock to split as it has up and down as well as breaking off in flat sheets being the sandstone is layered.  It is this type of rock that is extracted from the quarry below.  Picture 31 is the famous bowl people talk about behind the Manti temple.  It too was made out of this natural concrete, but the rocks used to form the concrete are not so big.  It seems to me there was a lot of water in this area at one time to carve out such a bowl.  Many have speculated that the Mentinah High Place or some other temple was on this hill.  I don’t know what or if anything was ever built on this hill.  From what I understand it is not the area the settlers took the rocks for the foundations of their homes, so it seems very clear to me this is not where the Menintah High Place once stood.  That is my opinion.  High in the mountains directly west of Manti are beautiful sandstone formations.  Pictures 32, 33, 34, and 35 are some examples of these formations.  Pictures 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40 are some beautiful scenery views near those formations.  Picture 41 is a common sight of rolling hills in the tops of the mountains on the west side of the valley.  I am not sure exactly where picture 42 was taken, but this is also a common sight to see large strips of trees surrounded by no trees on the mountains west of the valley. 

These next set of pictures are some of the lodges we have built.  Pictures 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51 was our council lodge.  We built it in 2005 and our Nemenhah Grand Council was held in it that year.  We were not allowed to have a permanent roof so we made do with what we had.    Here is that same lodge a few years later, pictures 52, 53, 54, 55, and 56.  The Nemenhah of old used the same type of material when they built their lodges and so it is easy to see that it would not take long before it would deteriorate where eventually there would not be any trace that such a building existed.  It is hard to see a place we loved so much deteriorate, but it served its purpose and it is appropriately going back to mother earth.  We have also enjoyed different sweat lodges.  Pictures 57 is the first lodge I went to.  My wife had gone to a lodge six months earlier and had tried hard to get me to go, but when I was a young man I was severely burned and I wanted nothing to do with anything hot.  For my health’s sake, I finally consented and I have loved them ever since.  Picture 58 is another lodge that was in Milburn, Utah.  Remember how the Menintah Valley is shaped like a “y.”  Milburn is in the northeast part of the valley, on the right side of the “y.”  That picture was taken looking towards the west, so it gives a good shot of how the upper part of the Menintah Valley looks today.  Pictures 59, 60, 61, and 62 are more views of this same lodge.  Picture 63 is the lodge we use today.  We have to take the coverings off each time as seen in Picture 64.  This lodge is located in the moutains on the east side of the Menintah Valley.  It is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful location, even in the winter, as you can see in pictures 65, 66, 67, 68, and 69.  Sweat lodges are sacred places to us where we enjoy the Ammonite Ceremony.  There are traditional ways lodges are made, but we have had to use what materials we have had on hand.  We have even used the council lodge as a sweat lodge.  I don’t mean to be disrespectful in showing these pictures, but I know many have wondered what these lodges look like.  I know the Nemenhah throughout the world have their own lodges, but these are some of the ones we have had in the Menintah Valley area.

 I would like to end with pictures from a nature walk Cloudpiler took many of us on a couple summers before he moved out of the area.  These should give you an idea of more of the natural vegetation.  This walk was in the east mountains of the Menintah Valley.  Pictures 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, and 87.

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