in the face of a mean old man i learned the price
some paid for this valley
he was the angry   bitter child of pioneers
     (second generation)
and he hated the land for not being Eden
and sought to spite the Lord by remaining barren himself
     and angry at his life

 he wasn't alone

many of the bitter were religious men who loved God nearly as much as their parents had loved Brigham but
resented His command to settle the Big Horn Basin:

...to stake out sloping farms that lurched into gullies and rivers
...to grub sagebrush and drain bogs and plough alkali and slip-scrape a generation of canals

and fruit had to be trucked from Utah, and winters were sharp and sullen.
Wyoming was far from the Temple so the elders came to visit     but not to stay.

not all   of course   were like that
some prayed and mountains were moved and water was delivered    and
with water the alkali grew sugar beets.
   then hay
   then milk cows....
      with water they managed apples (but not peaches)
      corn and peas eventually   and so a cannery
      and cattle ranches  and sheep          and oh, there was oil
(oh yes, for some in Wyoming there was oil  -- banishment became a blessing)

but for the bitter there was only the dirt and toil, and their crops brought them no joy 

as for the children?   the third generation?
     neither oil nor alkali nor banishment nor blessing nor the Lord but only
     out -- we've gone into cities where workers wear ties and the earth is hidden from view

except for a few who have stayed
   who have found what Brigham and God knew was waiting here

 gullies and rivers and sagebrush and bogs
and husbands and wives
and skies to eternity,
and kids who will -- most of them -- leave the country