In this 1951 home movie, the Bakers gather with family and friends for a barbecue near the site of the former Mormon Mill Colony in Burnet County. In 1851, Lyman Wight led 20 Mormon families to found their own colony in Texas. The group broke away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in protest of Brigham Young’s leadership. The first colony, which members called Zodiac, settled near Fredericksburg on the Pedernales River. Flooding and financial woes, however, forced the group to move to Hamilton Creek, where they established Mormon Mill. Per the name, the colonists built a three-story mill building and a 26-foot waterwheel. At its peak, the site supported a population of about 250. Facing heavy debts and local resentment, Wight abandoned the colony in 1853, leading most of the group to Bandera County.
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