| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.3 | The History Cooperative

*Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight's Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845–1858.* By Melvin C. Johnson. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2006. 231 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95, cloth; $21.95, paper.)
Often overlooked in histories of the early Mormon Church are stories about remote Mormon splinter groups of the nineteenth century that played a substantial role in settling the West. Melvin C. Johnson provides such a story, depicting the remarkable journey of maverick apostle Lyman Wight, the "Wild Ram of the Mountains," personally appointed by Joseph Smith to convert the Southwest. Johnson's expert documentation, comprised of scores of letters, news articles, and journals, is extensive, thoughtful and entertaining, providing readers with a heretofore unknown, untold Mormon experience.	1
From 1845 to 1858, Wight built up Zion in a most peculiar place—the hill country of West Texas—establishing a successful mill industry and the first Mormon temple west of the Mississippi. Part of the kingdom-building enterprise included the establishment of plural marriage, temple ritualism, and economic communitarianism, all of which rankled local Texans. Wight also provided the Southwest with a necessary buffer against the angry displaced Comanches.	. . .

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