Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 41

Gold Dan: or, The White Phantom of the Great Salt Lake by Albert W. Aiken

This serial opens in spring 1869 near the Great Salt Lake as the transcontinental railroad approaches completion. A secret gathering on Antelope Island brings together the Danites—"Destroying Angels" enforcing Mormon authority—along with Elder Gideon Biddeman, who accuses John Clark, the Danite leader also known as Duke of Corinne, of betraying oath by sparing an emigrant during the Mountain Meadows massacre. Clark vehemently denies the charge. Though Biddeman accepts Clark's denial, he assigns him new tasks: investigate whether Gold Dan, a troublesome Gentile critic of the church, still lives in Corinne (a band member claims Dan died months earlier on the Montana trail), and stop unauthorized prospecting for precious metals northeast of town. Biddeman then requests Clark's private assistance arranging his marriage to Polly Pickles, a female doctor on Bear River.