Lee was a member of the Danites, a fraternal vigilante organization. The Danites were first organized in Caldwell County, Missouri, during the Mormon War. Lee was also an official scribe for the Council of Fifty, a group of men who provided guidance in practical matters to the church, specifically concerning the move westward out of the established areas United States in the east to the Rocky Mountains. After Smith's death, Lee went with Brigham Young and other Latter Day Saints to what is now Utah, and worked towards establishing several new communities there. Some of those communities included Lee's Ferry and Lonely Dell Ranch, located near Page, Arizona. A successful and resourceful farmer and rancher, in 1856, Lee became a United States Indian Agent in the Iron County, Utah, area, where he was assigned to help Native Americans establish farms."[Lee] became the local bishop and the Indian agent to the nearby Paiute Indians." PBS.org, John Doyle Lee (1812–1877) In 1858, Lee served a term as a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature, and following church orders in 1872, Lee moved from Iron County and established a heavily used ferry crossing on the Colorado River, where the site is still called Lee's Ferry. The nearby ranch was named the Lonely Dell Ranch and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, together with the ferry site.
