I love local history and this time of year, history is in bloom. Mulberry trees—which are scattered all over the Salt Lake Valley and down as far south as St. George—are getting ready to produce fruit this summer that can be used for jam or wine. These historic trees were planted by the first and second wave of white pioneers to the state, who were determined to create a silk economy within the confines of our borders.

Dr. Sasha Coles is writing a book—Nation's Wealth Surrounds a Worm: Mulberry Trees, Silk Cocoons and Women Workers in Mormon Country, 1850s-1910s—and I had the opportunity to hear her give remarks about this web of our past and her research.

During the 19th century, Utahns were looking at many different ways to create money-making industries for their families and their church. Raising silkworms didn't take a lot of capital investment—you could trade or purchase the worms for very little. Male-run households in myriad cultures around the world found that women, children, the elderly and native and enslaved peoples who were too old or too weak could generate capital with this home business. Basically, anyone could be employed doing this business.

Silk manufacturing kept them at home in modest home-factory operations. Plus, it was a self-sufficient industry, not like farming sugar beets, raising sheep for wool, planting cotton or mining silver, gold and iron. This home-based industry didn't rely on imported goods, and Latter-day Saints created an economy by and for its members based on the fibers created by the insect. Silk industry workers (i.e., women and children) planted trees, produced cocoons and invested in an economy "worthy of Christ's Second Coming." And the Saints synthesized cooperation and centralized planning with the incentives and infrastructure that fueled 19th century capitalism.

Leaves of the white mulberry are silkworms' food of choice. Latter-day Saints brought seeds with them across the plains. One home farmer, Pricilla Jacobs, tried to time the silkworm hatching to trees getting their leaves, but complained that once they started eating the leaves it sounded like "rain on the trees" as they kept their creatures in the attic munching on the freshly harvested mulberry leaves.

Relief Societies across the state offered advice on how to keep the trees and worms alive. The trees were susceptible to heat. Worms were kept cool so they wouldn't hatch. One woman put them against her chest to heat up and left services to run home and get them to their food source. The industry was touted as an automatic money maker for investors, but it really wasn't easy to get the final product.

The railroad came to Utah in the late 1800s, and that helped get resources and products in and out of the state. The 1983 Chicago World's Fair had a "Utah Building" that featured silk scarves, thread, upholstered items, drapes and clothing, touting, "See real live Mormon girls making silk!" The industry died off in the early 1900s, despite a 25 cent cocoon bounty authorized by the Legislature to encourage production. But the Saints couldn't compete with Japan's and China's infrastructure and silk mills. Many of the trees died off but some do live on.