The party then proceeded up the Virgin River via Washington, Toquerville and Virgin as far as Grafton. From here it retraced its steps to Toquerville and then started homeward via Harmony, Cedar City and Parowan, arriving in Salt Lake City on June 8, 1861. The Cotton Wave It was this trip to the Virgin River settlements that convinced Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders of the wisdom of pushing the settlement of Utah’s southland. The outbreak of the Civil War may have clinched the argument. When it became apparent that the cotton supply from the southern states would be cut off, the decision to advance the Dixie settlements with a view toward cotton culture was strengthened. By this time moreover, there was sufficient evidence from settlers and the experimental farm to prove the practicality of cotton as a staple crop. During the summer of 1861, plans were laid for more extensive colonization. Heretofore, the settlements had been outposts of Iron County. Now the region was to come into its own as a separate colony with the central settlement to be located in the valley above Tonaquint, and to be named St. George. At the general church conference in Salt Lake City on October 6, about three hundred families were “called” to the Dixie Mission to accelerate the cotton industry. Many of these people were abruptly informed of what awaited them when they heard their names read out, but most of them responded with good will. The families were carefully selected in such a way as to insure balanced communities: farmers, businessmen, educators, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, entertainers; all in the proportions needed.[47] The colonists got under way in November with Apostles George A. Smith, Erastus Snow and Orson Pratt, as leaders. Towards the end of the month the vanguard stood at the forks of the road west of Toquerville at the parting of the ways up and down the river. The leaders had already traveled upstream looking over possible locations, going through the settlements of Virgin, Grafton, Adventure and up both forks of the Virgin River into Zion and Parunuweap canyons, investigating the agricultural lands along the way.[48] How far they went up Zion Canyon is unknown. Erastus Snow later reported that ten miles above Grafton the mountains closed in, leaving but a narrow gorge, through which the east fork of the Virgin forced its way, allowing no room for the passage of man or beast. His factual report indicated no wonder at the marvels he must have beheld. The sense of awe awakened today by such inspiring spectacles of nature’s handiwork appears to have been largely lacking in the hard-working pioneers who spent all their energy in wringing a meager existence from the wilderness.