Published by Utah State University Press, Fort Limhi: The Mormon Adventure in Oregon Territory, 1855–1858 by David L. Bigler chronicles the dramatic and ultimately ill-fated attempt by Brigham Young to establish an outlying Latter-day Saint mission in the remote wilderness of present-day Idaho. The book details the missionaries' grueling efforts to construct a fortified settlement along the Salmon River, cultivate relations with the local Bannock and Shoshone tribes, and build an expansive intermountain empire. Through meticulous archival research and pioneer journals, the text reconstructs the compounding pressures of geopolitical tension, cross-cultural friction, and a violent 1858 raid that forced the colony's sudden abandonment. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the mission exposes the friction between utopian religious expansion and indigenous territorial sovereignty; the enterprise failed not merely due to logistical isolation, but because Mormon colonizers fundamentally underestimated native resistance to having their ancestral homelands converted into a foreign ecclesiastical buffer zone.

1800-1899, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Missions Idaho Lemhi County History 19th century, Fort Lemhi (Idaho) History, Frontier and pioneer life, Frontier and pioneer life Idaho Lemhi County, HISTORY United States 19th Century, History, Idaho Fort Lemhi, Idaho Lemhi County, Indians of North America Missions, Indians of North America M

1. Sound an alarm
2. To the remnants of Jacob
3. A piece of ground for a preacher
4. Of grasshoppers and reformation
5. A gathering place for Israel
6. Gov. Brigham coming on
7. One of nature's ladies
8. The Mormon rebellion
9. The devil is at work among the Lamanites
10. The hills were black with Indians
11. Ten men and four gallons of whiskey
12. A time to every purpose
13. From a camp of U.S. troops
14. Conspiracy or coincidence? Epilogue Appendix A: A comprehensive list of missionaries, family members, and hired hands who served at Fort Limhi from May 1855 to April 1858 Appendix B: Members of Brigham Young's company to Fort Limhi in April-May 1857, as recorded by James W. Cummings, Clerk of the camp Appendix C: A report of Brigham Young's expedition