This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The resistance to federal control of public lands at times has featured vocal Mormon "patriots" — sometimes in armed revolt.

There was the Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada, and then the armed takeover at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon led by his sons and other self-professed Latter-day Saints claiming their rights to the land — though The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemned the occupation.

The Utah Legislature has professed the feds have no right to oversee land inside Utah and the state Republican Party recently stood up against "overzealous" federal rule, resolving not to recognize same-sex marriage and rejecting federal education decrees.

So with this frenzy growing in Utah and surrounding states, particularly in the outback and sometimes led by fundamentalists who meld their religious fervor with their rights as citizens, a publication from Wisconsin sent my way was interesting.

It was from the January 2016 edition of The Clark County Press, published by the Neillsville Area Chamber of Commerce, which contains a compilation of news items during the past two centuries in that rural community.

The report included notices from 1881 that a storekeeper put up a partition, separating the oyster saloon from the other part of his shop; that people of Shortville and Sherwood were eager to secure a direct mail route from Scranton to Neillsville, and that Mrs. G. Wesenberg of the Shortville area had it rather lonely that winter, with her husband away working in the woods and she left caring for the livestock.

Then there was a rather lengthy item about a group of Mormons who came into the Black River country in 1841. The newcomers bought a stake in a sawmill south of Black River Falls and announced plans to log that winter in an area where Jacob Spaulding had laid claim.

"The Mormon elder told his followers that the wilderness was the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and that no gentile claim should be respected by the saints," the news account said.

"After the Mormons had started their logging, Spaulding went up the river with a body of armed followers. He left his men in the background and went ahead to see what was happening. He found that the Mormons had cut about 100 of his trees."

When Spaulding told the elder they were trespassing, he was informed he had no authority there because, well, it was the Lord's turf.

Spaulding gathered armed supporters and drove away the Mormons, the report added. But word was sent to Nauvoo — then the Illinois-based headquarters for the LDS Church — for 60 men and 100 guns to fight the "gentiles."

Spaulding turned to the U.S. Army for help and, alas, the Mormons backed off.

Did some genetic thread travel from that group of Mormons in Wisconsin in 1841 to the Western territories later settled by Brigham Young and his followers and onto today's generations in Bunkerville, Nev., eastern Oregon and the desert landscapes of Utah?

You have to wonder.