Bottoms, Madsen

We've read many histories and biographies that mention "the bottoms".  There is a great need to document more thoroughly the little community that came together along the Sanpitch River west of Mt. Pleasant.

Of all the histories that I have read, the best description is the one made by Pearle Madsen Olsen as she describes the home and surroundings of her grandmother Wilhelmina Kraus Madsen.  Wilhelmina was a plural wife of Niels Peter Madsen.  Wilhelmina was also one of the survivors of the ill-fated Hodgett's Oxteam Company at Devil's Gate, Wyoming.

For two years Wilhelmina and her children lived on the Bottoms homestead in a small cabin.  It was required that they do so to secure their claim to the property.  After the two years were up they returned to Mt. Pleasant.  However, Niels Peter had hired Aaman Jacobsen to build their permanent home in the Bottoms.

Although the new home was not as grand as some that had been built in up-town Mt. Pleasant, Wilhelmina loved her surroundings.  She loved the "unobstructed view of the mountains. (The view of Horseshoe Mountain is wonderful from that vantage point), the surrounding hills with their daily display of shading and the magnificence of sunrise and sunset coloring  never failed to inspire her.  Standing in the dew of meadow grasses she would tune her ears to the low, soft crying tones of wild life while she breathed her being full of the moist and mixed fragrances of the meadows"

"The tiny, purple blossoming ground cover plants and the tall grey-green thistle plants with lovely blossoms in pink to purple shades dressed the landscape and touched her life with beauty in their season.  And at dawn she often watched the gulls circling above raw furrows while glints of the rising sun silvered their wings".
(Those tall grey-green thistle are now considered a noxious weed and all property owners are given the charge to get rid of it as it will take over the area).