The Plains States and the West: Art Across America : Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920 0789200635, 9780789200631

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nPRIN COUNTY FREE LIBRBRY

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31111Q1SQ54239

3E

V

Arthur King Peters

EN TRAILS WEST

W...ri^

^

E^V E N

S

TRAILS

WEST BV A The

r

t li II

r

King Peters

first book of its kind, Seven Trails West

explores the major routes that linked the eastern

United States to the Far West: the

trail

blazed by

the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon-California Trail, the

the

Mormon

Trail,

Pony Express, the Transcontinental Telegraph,

and the Transcontinental Railroad. Seven Trails West

Ft.

**^_

Hall

5°'^^

Prcymontory

Summit

Independence Rock

River

_i"^Springs

Devil's

Gate

/

»

many stories in one: the men and women (some of

tells

epic tale of determined

them famous

\

trailbreakers,

some

little

lures that attracted these pragmatic

known); the

dreamers to the

West; and the ordeals and disappointments they

overcame along the way. Abundantly

illustrated

with a far-ranging selection of archival photographs, paintings, and documents, this

handsome

volume also features clear maps of each of the

trails

and striking color photographs of the challenging terrain traversed

With

its

by the emigrants.

vivid prose

and illuminating

illustra-

tions. Seven Trails West offers the general reader a

thought-provoking overview of the western

trail

network that bound an immature nation together

and provided an armature for l?v

later

development.

turns a dUfiir!iing and inspiriting account, this

^•v3?'' t^'^.V

;

V^

Taos '

(continued on backflap)

•

Ft. Uilion

SantrfFe

Rabbit Ears,

!

^

^'

/

^ ./"Wagon Mound

i

;lVlccE^frEH

bEVEN -—*--*_^ The

„ I

3 111101605 4239

RAILS

VV ts

Lewis and Clark Expedition

•'"'•• — The Santa Fe Trail **"* .^ The Oregon -California Trail -•"-**—-' The Mormon Trail oODooooo The Pony Express '"*"•"-*-*-»' The Transcontinental Telegraph The Transcontinental Railroad

^

To«Tl

Rendez\-ous Site

Landmark

t'" v^^'

^^-r'^-feCttTTiof Independence

yh>^

Fort

Pass

SEVEN

TRAILS W

E

T

P

Arthur Kin^ Peter

V

E

N

TRAILS W

E

S

Abbeville Press

Publishers

New York

London Paris

1

w To MY WIFE, Sarah, with whom CROSSED THE MISSISSIPPI IN 1946

i

hirst

NORTH FROM BERTHOLD PASS, 18^4. Photograph by W. H. Jackson. Back cover: TH¥. JOSEPH HENRY BYINGTON FAMILY, "a mormon family," near calls FORT, UTAH, l86j. See page 90. Pagesj-j: STAMPEDING BUFFALO, rud. See page 4$. •Pa^a^-j: DONNER LAKE AND RAILROAD SNOW SHEDS, n.d. Photograph by A. J. Ruiiell. See page 212.

fren/i«.'fr.-

Stepagey!.

•

Editor; Nancv Gnibb

First edition

Designer; Molly

10 9 8 7 6 5

Shields

Production Editor: OwenDu^an Production Manager; Richard Thomas Picture Editor: Paula Trono Map Designer: Claudia Carlson

copyright conventions.

3.

—West (U.S.) — History —jgth century. —West (U.S.) —History— 19th century. Telegraph —West (U.S.) — History — rgth century.

Group, 488 .Madison

4.

West

.\dobc Caslon and

F591.P425

system, without permission in writing

publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Abbe^^lIe Publishing '

•-:iiie,

inn

New York, N.Y. ioo;2. The te.\t of this book was

7.

Printed and bound in

Hong Kong.

I

set in

ISBN r-55859-;S2-4 I.

utilized in any f.^rm

or b^ anv means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by retrie\'al

2

cm.

p.

No part of this book may be reproduced or

any information storage and

3

Includes bibliographical references and index.

—

© 1996 Arthur King Peters. Compilation including selection of text and images — copyright © 1996 Abbe\Tl]e Press. All rights reserved under mtcmational Cop)Tight

4

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION D.\TA Se\en trails West / Arthur King Peters.

&om the

2.

Trails

Transportation

97> .02

(U.S.)

—Description and

travel,

i.

Tide.

1996

— dc20

95-39095

CONTENTS Introducrion

1

2

3

4 5

6 7 8

7

CLARK EXPEDITION MOUNTAIN MEN and the Fl R TRADE The SANTA FE TRAIL 55 The OREGON-CALIFORNIA TRAIL S5 The lewis and

•

ii

^^

•

•

The MORMON TRAIL 117 -^5*^^ The PONY EXPRESS 147 The first TRANSCONTINENTAL The FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL •

'

•

Coda

Notes

—^-^—

2^1

234

itir

Acknowledgments Chronology ofthe

«

•

Trail Associations

Trails,

•

Selected Bwlicgraphy

237

1800-1890

239

Index

245

241 •

242

TELEGRAPH RAILROAD •

•

173

195

^m

'-^^'^

THAN SlX-ni--Fn-E -itARS. FROM No\-EMBER when Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific

Is LESS 1805,

17,

Ocean, to May lo, 1869, \vhen the Golden Spike was pounded home, Americas western frontier leaped two thousand miles from the Mississippi River to the westernmost edge of the continent. impressively, in that short inter\-al the

nolog\- of the Industrial Revolution

Even more

awesome tech-

was apphed

to

nearly two- thirds of the American continent, which, at the turn

of the nineteenth

the creak of a

nor

felt

wagon wheel

centur>-,

had never heard

or the crack of a

rifle,

the blade of plow or ax. Great and terrible

things were suddenly asked of the \-irgin land riches

1

J\

1

rv

O

13 l_

OT

I

O

]\

seemed

The

trails

leled the north

as inexhaustible as

across the table-flat prairie at first paral-

and south banks of the Platte and North

Platte Rivers. This conglomerate

ridor of western expansion, RivTer

whose

dimensions.

its

formed the major cor-

known as

the Great Platte

Road, before leading to high passes

Rockies

in the

or Sierra Ne\-ada where unwar\' emigrants such as the unluck)Party,

Mormon

and

handcart companies, the Dormer

e\-en the

experienced explorer John C.

Fremont were trapped by sudden

many lives. The

trails

blizzards that cost

did not foigi\-e mistakes, but

for a Jedediah Smith, a Jim Bridger, a Susan Magoffin,

a James Chtnan, or a Jean Baptiste Charbonneau,

even the danger held a certain fasdnarion.

Some trails

half-mUlion Americans turned west on the

benveen 1800 and

voluntar\-

1870, constituting the greatest

mass migration

gration differed, but

in histor)'.

Motives for emi-

most pioneers, with the exception

ECHO CANYON-, UTAH,

rS6;:

Pimtngrapi iy Ciaris

K

Cartrr.

of the get-rich-quick gold rushers, were ordinar\' folk in search of a better

A profile of the trail com-

life.

plex and the critical role is vital

to be.

for an understanding of

Such an over\'iew

—

quickl\- stretched

present-day

played in this migration

it

how America came

trails

—

reflects the

The

national identity.

tion, the

of frontiers, the

Adantic coast and the others in between,

final

one the

moving ever

first

was,

with

four

trails

blazed by the explorers, fortune

Santa Fe, the Oregon-California, and the

Mormon Trails

many

farther west. In 1800

proved, at a heavy cost, that the con-

Three others

a special place in the trail pantheon: the

the

first

Transcontinental Telegraph, and the

Transcontinental Railroad, which constituted

Une traced on the landscape by the Mississippi and

of a

Missouri Rivers, with the major jumping-off^ place at Saint Louis

— then

the frontier

was more than

a village with just three streets. a

Une on the map

distin-

guishing "civilized" from "primitive" America.

an

unknown

Pacific

—

By

1870,

Golden Spike ceremony completed the

Transcontinental Railroad, that the western frontier

Out of the

frontier's

it

first

can reasonably be said

had ceased

to exist.

seedbed grew the

trails

that

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP, UNITED STATES AND

TERRITORIES. By

was

a vast region

twice the size of the eastern United States.

Al|;fe-

It

land of unfathomed opportunities lying

between the Mississippi and the

after the

But

Published by MathrmDripps,

i8j6, seven decades after the appearance

New and

i8-j6.

ofArrowsmith and Lewis's

Elegant General Adas 0/1804 (seepage

Mississippi West

development

I

was stiil only on

to come, as the vast

Nl KODl

14), the trans-

the threshold of the

blank areas on

CTION

this

booming

map confirm.

deser\'e

Pony Express,

the frontier's border was the roughly north-to-south

new

SURVIVORS l8j2.

killed more Indians than -white bullets.

The i8jy smallpox epidemic ravaged the leaving only thirty-one

survivorsfrom a tribe ofsixteen hundred.

and pioneers of the Lewis and Clark expedi-

tinent could be crossed overland.

being the

Pacific,

MAti'DA'Si,

Mandan tribe,

seekers,

in fact, a succession

Opposite:

OF SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC,

Diseases introduced by the Europeans

Utah, California, and

national development.

continuing reexami-

die. It

New Mexico,

nation together and fashioned the armature for later

nation of our western roots in America's quest for a

America's western frontier was born to

tendrils

from Missouri and Nebraska to

Oregon, forming a network that bound the growing

presented in this book

through highlights of people, places, and events along seven major

opened the trans-Mississippi West. Their

first

trails

order that enabled speed of communication

and transport. After thev had been opened

—

all

in the

Pictured here are tivo ofthe lucky ones.

but also white by whites, and Indian by Indians.

A

when

devastating clash of cultures was inexitable

the

western European- Americans encountered Paleolithic Native Americans

who had not vet invented

the wheel,

written language, textiles, glass, or metallurg)'. IneWtable, too,

was the culminating white

would come

that

farther

down

the

"\-ictor\-,"

trail, at

but

Wounded

Knee, South Dakota, in 1890. Fortunately for students of the western

trails,

manv

emigrants kept diaries and journals and later «Tote reminiscences describing their treks west. Merrill

Mattes, patriarch of western-trail

and

fied

classified over three

ments, and

many more doubdess

in dusr\' attic trunks

niscences, often

histor\',

has identi-

thousand such docustill

and scattered

wrinen long

await discover^

archives.

after the faa,

The remimust be

read with discrimination, but one can onlv mar\-el at the steadfastness of the diarists, often

voung women,

who faithfiillv permed their accounts in a clattering covered

wagon

or by a campfire at the end of an ex-

hausting day, conscious that thev were making

They have

The

left

trail

histor\-.

us an evewitness heritage bevond price.

experience in itself changed the emi-

To judge from their indi\idual accounts, it impelled many of them to shuck off their out\vom European attitudes and wap, juist as thev abandoned grants.

cherished household possessions crossing the deserts.

For some, the course of a single decade coiintT}'

had changed

irrevocablv:

America was now one Blood was

spilled

— people recognized from sea to

that the sea,

nation.

on

ever}'

tion.

one of the seven

trails,

hardships amounted to a purifica-

to enrich a \-ision of the ing,

and not simplv Indian blood bv \vhites and \\ce versa

trail

Even today the simple

trail

testimonies continue

West that, sometimes

inspir-

sometimes disturbing, remains deeplv imbedded

in the nation's conscience

and

in the world's percep-

tion of us as Americans.

I

NTRODL CT ON I

,^55Si^

The American

trails west began in Paris.

After two frustrating years of negotiation limited primarily to the acquisition of American rights in the

New

Orleans area,

Thomas Jefferson's

agents in Paris

were astounded bv Napoleon's sudden decision all

to sell

the French landholdings west of the Mississippi

River to the United States, a strategic

move aimed

at

thwarting the English. Accordingly, at Paris, on "Deux

an onze de

Prairial

May

22, 1803), the flourish

AND

as

of Napoleon's unexpected

lock to America's western frontier.

At

^

Republique Fran9aise" (which

signature on the treaty of sale turned the kev in the

THE LEWI

la

from the postrevolutionary calendar

translates

C"^

T

ARK

EXPEDITION

states

the stroke of a pen, the size of the United

more than doubled, yielding what

central third of the country

miles

—

at a cost

is

now the

— some 909,000 square

of about four cents an

the acquisition of this vast territory,

acre.

With

whose exact

boundaries were not even clear at the time, the ican frontier

made

Amer-

a giant leap over the Mississippi

River and across the Great Plains to the Rockies.

From

that

the Pacific

moment became

on, a grand sweep of migration to inevitable, bridging the rest

continent, although

it

of the

would take three more genera-

tions to accomplish.

Jefferson had not yet concluded the Louisiana

Purchase Treaty when, in January 1803, he convinced

Congress

to secretly give

Captains Meriwether Lewis

and William Clark $2,500 the circumstances

for their historic (and

somewhat

illegal)

under

mihtary mission

great falls of the MISSOURI RIVER, MONTANA. igyy.

Photograph by

David Muench.

to the Pacific

Ocean. Never mind that the purchase

from France was a

still

up

in the

air,

that Spain claimed

huge landmass west of the Louisiana Territorv, and

that British

and Russian

Pacific

ocean

ble water

When

interests in the Pacific

several

to the Pacific: the fabled

Northwest Passage that

prompted him

some of the diplomatic

most

direct

& practica-

this continent for

niceties.

in

finally

June 1803, Lewis had

months making

reached

alread\-

spent

& such principal stream of

as,

it,

by

course and communication with the waters of the

The Corps of Disco \erv —

WEsTBo

•

bv

1S03-6 Fort

^

Lewis

Part)',

return trip

Town

•

Clark

Part)',

return trip

Landmark

A

Pass

X

Louisiana Purchase, 1803

The Lewis

.\nd Cl.\rk

I

ND

(62

X

x

.?/* in.

^ cm). Muse'e Conde,

Cbantilly, France.

(rjjS-lSdoj.

Expedition

his

and

own

it

was through

this connection,

backed

outstanding mihtar\' record, that in 1801

Rembrandt Peak

PORTRAIT OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON, Oil on canvas,

Meriwether Lewis's family were old friends of Thomas Jefferson,

Ocean

""*•-•

PORTRAIT OF BONAPARTE, 1ST CONSUL,

48. 8 cm).

Tacifu

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, ^"*—-.^ Lewis and Clark Part)-

Franfois-Pascai-Simon

logistical preparations for

his

newlv formed Corps of Discoverv "to explore the Alissouri River

left:

Gerard (ijyo-lSjy).

Opposite, right:

In a personal order

and

Opposite,

his expedition.

to circumvent

to Lewis, the president directed the captain

12

offer the

lead to rich trade with the Orient. This geo-

poUtical temptation

it's

may

iSoj. Oil on canvas. 24V4

dreamed of finding

would

.

news of the purchase

Washington

water route from the Mississippi

.

the purposes of commerce."'

Northwest had vet to be resolved. Jefferson had long a

.

communication across

23% x /pK

rfoo.

in.

(fS/ x

White House Historical

Association, Washington, D. C.

iitMiM,.^kt^ltJmlri'tUsW~44*^1

/^f: 'ti

T

i>i.^Tf/>0!l/iV

Photograph by Randall A. Wagner.

band

do

earlier estimates.

to

for

This improvement was due mainly

William Clayton

— company and

clerk, musician,

author of

shuck corn,

director of the Saints' band,

in return

The Latter-day Saints' Ernigrants' Guide

later

(1848).

After

Near present-day Casper, Wyoming,

advance party camped on the swollen close to

two companies of Oregon-

bound Missourians who needed

a

way

to cross over

before the river rose any farther. Rejoicing that man's

extremity

God's opportunity, the Saints used their

is

large leather boat, whimsically called the

"Revenue

Cutter," to transport the travelers' loads to the far side.

For

this service they received

commodity,

usefiil

out to $7.50

less

payment

in flour, a

especially at a price that

per

pound than

Laramie, where they could

To

built a

ORSON PRATT,

trans-

Mor-

Orson Pratt, scientific

Salt

the

wagons

coming up

across

—

all

night in the chill water to get

for a

good

fee.

rapidly from the rear.

Mindfiil of others

Young

left a

crew

charge of the ferry operation and continued on his

in

way

with a heavier pocketbook and a heart no doubt made Ughter because his profit had been paid by Missourians,

whose

state

On

had

earlier cost

pain.

the north side of the Platte River, near Fort

Laramie, the Saints

126

him such

TiiK

left a

mileage sign penciled on

Mormon Tkail

1880.

Mormon Apostle and

advisor to Brigham Young,

took celestial observations for the

Pioneer

huge ferry from cottonwoods planked

together and worked

c.

Photograph by Charles W. Carter.

the going rate at Fort

sell it for a profit.

port the 108 wagons themselves, the resourceful

mons

most

worked

Company

Lake

Valley.

en route to Great

would perish

in the worst disaster in the histor)- of

Left:

There was ample time on the long

trail for

the

Mormon leader's

thoughts to turn to his several wives.

Clan', a relatively

new

when neer

bride

he had married

him

Winter Quarters. He had

Jr.),

Lake

Thefamous

Mormon

him

sent her a long, and for his first

wheel,

it gave

had

to

rotations per mile, Cla}ton decided there

from

\ear he led the

Lake

be an easier wav and invented the odometer, a

lade abed and thought a grate deal

one of the best famelyes that eney

me with

count the revolutions and measure the mileage cov-

ever had on earth.

ered each day. According to his calculations. Fort

good and mind

Laramie was

543'/^

mUes from Winter Quarters. By

the time thev reached South Pass, the Pioneer

Com-

.

due hope the children

I

mother when

there

I

am

man will

son Joseph vou must not go away from home and

Brigham

also

must

would

stay at

when

How due you

home.

come home and

sapose

On

one of mv children destroyed by the Indens?

way

to

land's natural

South Pass the Saints marveled

wonders;

Chimnev Rock,

at the

the slender

last

heaven hke the finger of God; Independence Rock;

on

had

De\al's Gate,

where even the sober Saints

briefly turned excursionists,

climbing the Gate's

steep walls, roUing rocks off the top, and firing guns to laugh at the echoes.

The

place

was more apdy

named than thev could have imagined

at the time.

A few years later at that ver\' spot scores of Saints The Mormon Trail

I

pray this

rock spire that soared up from the plains, pointing to

and then

be

My

gon.

pany had traveled 818% miles from Winter Quarters. the

.

.

should hke

I

due think the Lord has blest

to sav to you. ... I

system of wooden cogs attached to a wagon wheel, to

feele

may not be

we saw

I

the case.

buffalow for the

a chase after

.

.

first

.

On

time.

find I

Saturday

They went

them, the got 4 old ones and

5

We

calfs

which has made us plenty of meat.

shall

have to cross the Piatt River here on acount

of feed.

The

prairie

side of the River

is all

.

.

.

burnt over on the north

— the Pawneas have gone ahead

of us and burned.

.

.

ivagor.

A rare early photograph of

Brigham Young, taken

My dear Companion Partner in Tribulation. I

a

trail west.

week out:

Winter Quarters

its

to

thefirst accurate mileage

reading on the

Opposite:

pm April 20, 1847 Pioneer Camp of Israel 95 miles

counting

roadometer,

by William A. King. Although only a

9 o'clock

walking behind a wagon wheel for days, laboriously

City.

simple system of cogs attached

waited for him back in

hv express courier

Saints, Salt

aid of Orson Pratt and probably built

in the Pio-

his third wife. Mar}' (mother of his

sons Joseph and Brigham,

tender, letter

184-;.

designed by William Clayton -with the

whom

she was sixteen, traveled with

Companv;

ROADOMETER,

Church ofjeius Christ of Latter-day

western migration.

.

— Brigham Young^

Valley.

in 184J, the

Mormons

to

Great Salt

A month later Young revealed a different side of his nature, bUstering his company with

a

tongue-

lashing penitently noted in their journals by Bullock,

WUford Woodruff. Even

Clarton, and

brief extracts

from Woodruff's account give a sense of the fire-andbrimstone it

st^'le

that

Young adopted when he

felt

necessair:

I

am

about to revolt from travelling with this

camp any I

further with the spirit they

had rather

now

possess.

myself among the savages

risk

\vith

men that are men of faith, men of mighri' prayer men of God, than to be with this whole Camp when thev forget God & turn there hearts ten

to follev

For

& wickedness.

.

.

.

A week past nearly the whole camp has

been card placing, chequres

& dominoes have

& & hoeing down. ... If these things are

occupied the Attention of the brethren dancing

Xigering

suffered to

go on

it

wUl be but

a short time befor

vou wiU be fighting knocking each other down

& taking

life

&

it is

high time

it

was stoped.

.

.

.

What

did you do

Zion,

& find A resting place for the Saints whare

when aou went

the Standard of the

reared

to seek out

Kingdom of God would be

& her banners unfiirled for the nations to

gather unto? [Did] vou spend

A good deal of

vour time in dancing pitching quate. Jumping

wrasdeing Sec? Yes. Yes. Did you play Cards, dice, checkers

you do with

& dominoes? O! Yes. What Could

^'ourself?

Why you would

shrink

& men

from the glance of the eyes of God Angels even wicked men.

Then

are

vou not ashamed of

The Mormon Tr\ii

'

129

yourselves for practicing these things? Yes vou are

cut through the rough canyon forests the year before

& you must quit

by the westbound Donner

it.^

Pratt's party

Young then renew

their covenants

humble themselves and

to

by

moral and

phere, a

new

advance party cleared the

as a

slashing their

sermon had admin-

spiritual catharsis,

"we had emerged into a new element,

some of their

branches to make a makeshift corduroy road for the

wagons. Canyon Creek was crossed eleven times in

where

his

men

firearms for buckskin clothes

before continuing on the final one hundred miles to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

of Bridger, however

Bear River

— about

—Young and

at

days out

with

ill

wagon

real torture. Chills

and

to leave

Woodruff noted

Kimball called an emergency meeting

Orson

On July 17 is

at

searching out the

last section

Till;

trail.

had been

On July 24,

carriage,

Canyon "This

is

trail

down

into

Mo KM ON Tk.ml

and

for a

home

a

of the Pio-

on

cleared at once,

dam and

irrigation

planted in pota-

still

in

Woodruff's

mouth of Emigration

to the first

first

into the valley,

five acres

Brigham Young,

to gaze for the

time on the

tradition, the ailing leader

the right place. Drive on!"

declared the next day, Sunday, July

New

Zion.

announced,

Heber Kimball 25,

"We

have

reached the promised land." Eight days after entering the vallev the

Reed's Cutoff, had been

built

was brought

According to

which he

the

Ground was broken and

vary

crops, while the

of the

and Erastus Snow were Company to make their way

Heber

advance party took the lead in

the vallev; part of the

toes.

"one of the

which could be found."*

Pratt

21, 1847.

as

and pleasant places

ditches

with their aihng leader. Pratt's

for the Saints

valleys

and within forty-eight hours

urged sending an advance party to the valley in search

rest stayed

most beautiful

July

truly a wild

he saw Salt Lake sparlding in the distance

and was moved to describe the view

swept

Young

in his journal: "Br.

hill,

is

having climbed to the top

22,

travel in

poorly this morning," and on the eighteenth

first

of the

On July

made

Woodruff's carriage.

of a suitable place to plant the

looking place!"

fevers

Young, interspersed with waves of dehrium, and he

was unable

ment, confided to his journal, "This

neer

was marked by bhnding headaches and by

a

and wagon covers were shredded by the

heavy brush. Clayton, in something of an understate-

Colorado tick

to be

Fort Bridger, the

sharp pains in the spine and joints that a jolting

five

several others fell

Probably picked up

affliction

Only

the time they crossed

mountain fever (now thought fever).

feet tall

new atmos-

After leaving South Pass, Young headed the

traded

of boulders and stumps,

and fiUing the swampy canyon bottom with willow

single day,

to Fort Bridger,

trail

way through willows twenty

through which a

society."

company southwest

traversed in sixteen. For several days the

to

hands

raising their right

pledge. Clayton recorded that the istered a

Donners had

upon the Twelve, the High

called

and the Elders

Priests,

Party. In only sLx days

covered the thirty-six miles that the

Mormons had

consecrated the land,

blessed the seeds, broken fift\'-three acres of ground,

and planted

forty- two

of those acres with potatoes,

corn, buckwheat, oats, and beans. In addition to the

dam and

irrigation ditches, they

acre temple plot

of Salt Lake.

— not

a

had

laid

in a

1,032 miles

hundred days and

man, woman,

or chicken had perished

out a forty-

a survey for the fiiture

The company had come

Winter Quarters ably

and begun

cit)'

from

— remark-

had promised. Under the circumstances,

tor

Latter-day Saints.

Bv

the beginning of August 1847

inhabited the

new

some 450 people

settlement in Great Salt Lake Val-

Later that same

Young's horse, which had been shot by accident).

ley.

Young had indeed

Twelve, and others

led his people to their land, as he

seemed

"sustained" as Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the

child, horse, mule, ox, cow,

on the journey (except

it

only fitting that during the winter of 1847-48 he was

month Young,

left

the Council of

the valley to return to

Winter

SALT LAKE TEMPLE SQUARE, /%.

Photograph by Charles W. Carter

Afterforty years of construction, the grc.

Mormon Temple towers

over Temple

Square in Salt Lake City, as

it

nears

completion at the turn of the century.

k

'A

Tuf Mf)RMoN Tram

By

Quarters, leaving behind only three hundred Saints to

continue the intensive farming and building before the early

mountain winter

from

a

camp twenty

young wife Clary,

set in.

Writing on September

8

he had

left in Salt

Lake

Young commented with

Valley, the generally formal

unusual warmth: "You have been a grate comfort to

me

this

summer.

with

in carriages to greet the

a lone child I

of it. ...

I

would often

of bread, melons, and cakes. Captain

some of

ride out

new

arrivals

who had walked

Brass

Pitt's

play for dancing and singing by

the weatherbeaten, trail-weary newcomers.

though

even

all,

One woman

barefoot every step of the way,

left it

seemed

to

so she could enter

who

Zion with

dignity. Frederick

in a pleasant land

The Mormon W

saw reminded me of you and your

goodness to one

citizens

then put on the shppers she had carried the entire trek

very lonesome after vou

everything

Mormon

Emigration Canyon, bringing with them generous

Saint,

I felt

capital over the

on horseback and

Band would

My Dear Brigham me I was

Mormon

thousand having died on the way. Emi-

many

gifts

brimming with

tenderness, housewifely soUcitude, and local news:

...

six

the Apostles, and

at

miss your society." His nineteen-

I

year-old wife replied in a long letter

Trail,

grants were given a joyous welcome. Brigham,

miles east of South Pass to his

whom

1870 a total of eighty thousand Saints had

trekked to the

feels herself quite

r

From

unworthy

put your clothes away and every thing

Piercy's

to Great Salt

Back

east. President-elect

James Buchanan,

me

you wished

aire

your clothes

sits

on

you

to as soon as

when

they need

it

left. I

your

a shelf beside the looking glass

be dismrbed.

.

.

ever attend you

May heaven's

.

is

it

wLU

little

shall

some two thousand

not

and reUgious authority in the hands of Brigham

choicest blessings

torians as the Big

Taylor,

a

filled Salt

company back

TH

V.

to

City.

to the valley that

\l

ORMON

treated

behavior as tantamount to rebellion, Buchanan

dispatched twenty-five hundred troops to stamp

Mormon

his-

TRA

five

year,

was

would

regret.

Several thousand Saints were at Big

I

L

Canyon, Utah, on July

anniversary of their entry into Zion, well galloped in with

this

response.

Cottonwood

24, 1857, celebrating the tenth

John

and

when

Porter Rock-

news of the advancing army. In

Young quickly mobilized

the

Nauvoo Legion,

or militia, and assigned harassing missions to

and

it

a politically motivated decision that he

out. It

thou-

Young himself led

same

time he stayed, never to leave Utah again.

132

Mormons

this

led by Parley Pratt,

Lake

high-handed way

Clara C. Young'

known

Company,

at the

Washington's emissaries to Utah. Choosing to view

Yours affectionately

and John Young. By the end of 1848

sand residents

Young, and

with a westbound group of

Saints,

of civil

at the concentration

at

the prayer of your friend

trails

polygamy,

desk

Returning to Winter Quarters, Young and his party unexpectedly crossed

the political winds in 1856-57, detected public outrage

Mormon

his guerrillas,

Piercy.

1853.

Route from Liverpool

Lake

Valley,

/.Sjy.

sniffing Piercy's

else

Hawkins

SALT LAKE CITY IN ,\

Lot Smith

who promptly burned down

Fort

view of Salt Lake City only

six years after

people

Brigham Young and his

had entered the valley.

The Mormon T k

\

1

1,

i

v

Supph' and Fort Bridger, stampeded thousands ot armv cattle,

and

set fire to the prairie grass

armv supply wagons. (This enormous

depredation caused

last

financial losses to Russell,

Waddell, the Tabernacle,

later organizers

and sevent>'-two

Majors and

of the Pony Express). In

Young announced

nor a fence, nor a

grass or hay, that

nor

tree,

wLU burn,

be

commanded

Mormon

ten vears before

tion

Although not

a shot

was

back east

criticized

on

his

cap in

Battalion he had

their epic

had been as a

followers, however,

left

march

to

fired,

the expedi-

clumsy poUtical

it

proved

a

his

godsend.

The Mormon community prospered from

not have to carry out this threat

immediatelv because, caught by

selling provisions to the

that

pulled out to go

his

troops one hundred miles short

army

had come to suppress them,

and when the troops

bad weather. Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston wintered

through town, one

George Cooke, doffed

San Diego.

of our enemies."^ Young did

in reach

the\' filed quieth'

maneuver bv Buchanan. For Young and

a particle ot

[will]

As

Philip Saint

a respectfiil salute to the

a scorched-earth poUcy,

thundering: "Not one building, nor one foot of lumber,

the other side. officer,

finally

home

in i860,

a four-million-dollar auction

The next when Johnston planned enter the city. Young with-

armv

and equip-

of Salt Lake City.

of

spring,

ment enabled manv Mormons

to

drew

thirtv

to live for

thousand

the foundation for several

two months along the

and dugouts, while

deserted Salt Lake City,

family fortunes.

Mormon

Once

again,

ingenuity had turned

adversity' into opportunir\'.

in a

Nauvoo

legionnaires were posted in house:

m.\ss.\cre at

stuffed with straw, poised to send

Mountain Me.adows

Zion up

in flames at a

word from All that anniversan,-

their Prophet.

But the

political

Buchanan backed

Mormons in

June

1858,

off and extended a pardon to the

good behavior. Consequendy,

when Colonel Johnston marched

his

troops into Salt Lake City (guided by Peg-leg Smith

and Jim Bridger), he kept on marching

134

Till-:

Mormon

Tk,\il

—

summer

of 1857,

Brigham

Young's Saints lived under the threat of extermina-

winds had shifted again.

in return for

f.

7*701.

Though peace-loving people by precept,

when persecuted the Mormons could fightfire with fire- The Sons of Dan.

an enforcement group within the to profit considerably, laying

Mormons

Prove River bottoms in lean-tos, tents,

supplies

ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL,

right

on out

tion by the U.S.

Army. As Colonel Johnston's troops

advanced on Salt Lake City, reviving ugly memories of earlier militia kiUings of Saints in souri, tensions

had mounted

Memories of slaughter

rose

in the

Illinois

and Mis-

Mormon

redoubt.

up from the ashes of the

were sometimes called on

church,

to retaliate

against hostile Gentiles. Orrin Porter

Rockwell, frontiersman once shot

and Danite,

and wounded Lilbum

ex-governor of Missouri.

Boggs,

past, inflaming

Mormon

hearts and

moning dark thoughts of atonement

At restive,

minds and sum-

their fortified

for such atrocities.

dren walked in front, a detachment of the Iron Count)'

the same time, local Indians were

becoming

Militia brought

covetously eyeing the livestock and arms of

nal, "Halt!"

emigrant trains passing through Salt Lake Cirv before turning south to pick up the California Trail. trains

—

Two

and

— grew

Mormon

up the

Mormon

utes, followed

settlers aUke.

exact figures remain

When

Lee

Smith; and the Mormons, desperatelv conserving food

Indians,

Young burst

and two

trials to

he would rather feed than

said

the emigrants but were driven

guidance by the

them

Mormon

When

off.

trains;

whom Young

fight, finallv

to let the Missouri Wildcats

and the Fancher

train "go in peace"

and sent

his friend

John Lee

to

calm the Indians. Although more Indian attacks lowed, the

Mormons

appeared.

asked for

Young counseled

fol-

refused to help the emigrants,

fell

on the

few min-

a

monument marking that of one

unknown.

Brigham Young, reporting

had been perpetrated

solely

by the

into tears. It took twenty years

bring Lee to justice, by which time

most of the other witnesses and

attacked

setders.

official

later lied to

that the slaughter

Indians,

Lee's prearranged sig-

and Indians

by the hollow silence of death, deepened

brandished a gun that he claimed had killed Joseph

The

chil-

nvent\~three died and seventeen children sur\-ived.

The

emigrants had poisoned a well; one Missouri Wildcat

surly fistfights erupted.

and

hundred forn- emigrants attacked, one hundred

particu-

two

Women

Mountain Meadows tragedy records

the

Provocations proUferated: the Indians claimed that the

in case of war, refijsed to sell supplies to the

file.

At

rear.

settlers

by shame and horror. The

numbering some i6o men, women, and children (reports vary as to the actual figures)

in a single

emigrant column. The carnage lasted onlv

the Missouri Wildcats and the Fancher Train,

larly abrasive to natives

camp

He was

participants

finally convicted

by

a

had

dis-

Mormon jur\',

taken back to the scene of the massacre, and executed

by

a

Mormon

firing squad.

Today, a centurj' and a half later, what remains

important about the massacre is

not so

villains

much

at

Mountain Meadows

the identity of either the victims or the

but rather the recognition that

it

was

a tragic

leaving the two trains to huddle fearfully in an en-

instance of religious zeal and discipline run amok.

campment

horrifj'ing episode

at

from Cedar fiirious

Mountain Meadows,

Cin.',

thirty-five miles

holding the Indians

at bay.

The

conscience of the

of September

The

haunts the

Mormon community to

this day.

emigrants threatened to return from California

someday and

assassinate

Brigham Young

— an

act that I

The H

.\ .n

dc

could have led to a devastating holy war.

At

ii, 1857,

this point John

Lee was induced

to enter into a

treacherous conspiracy- between the Indians and

of the other

Mormon

safe passage, the

setders.

some

Lured by an assurance of

unarmed emigrants ventured out of

Mormon Trail traffic the church expanded

.a

rt

Comp

.a

.m e

s

increased greatly after 1849, its

missionar}' activities

lished the Perpetual Emigrating

when

and estab-

Fund (PEF). This

transportation organization assisted poorer converts

Thi-

Mdrmon Tr

\ii

136

I

Thi-;

Mormon Tkail

who wished

New Zion bv providNew

to emigrate to the

ing low-cost ocean passage from Liverpool to

New York.

Orleans, Boston, or

newcomers

usually continued

bv

and

to

1887, a critical infusion

The Mormon C.C-J. Christensm.

PIONEERS, 11

X

trom Liverpool to

HANDCART

longest of any

/poj. Oil on canvas,

75 in. (2-/.^ xjS.i cm).

Museum of

Church History and Art, Salt Lake

City.

Chrtstensen painted a cheery picture of the

Mormon handcart pioneers on

way to

their

—

often barefoot

—

hauling a three-hundred-pound cart -was so

trail

tives chartered ship after ship

Cirv,

grueling an ordeal that one in ten

emigrants perished along the -way.

Lake

Valley.

of those years stretched

Salt

trail

New Zion between 1849 and into the Mormon melting pot. Lake

Citv,

making

it

all

the

bv

way

far the

west.

tionably the

most desperate, the most committed,

and the most impressive. Predominantlv church converts

from Scandinavia and England, thev were often

destitute victims of the Industrial Revolution a

who saw

golden opportunity- in the church's offer to pav their

passage to America at nine pounds sterling a head,

provided they signed a contract to pay

it

back through

labor once thev reached Great Salt Lake Valley.

many no doubt Rio Griffiths

felt

—

a forty-one-year-old

4, 1851. "I this

acquaintance

I

(with

my

widow of some

sailed out

of Liverpool

day took leave of every

could collect together; in

probability never to see

now

Still,

the same pangs recorded by Jane

means and experience, who on January

selves at the

them again on

children) about to leave

all

human

am for-ever my earth. I

a

America." Eighteen years and

many

North

tribulations later.

tally

and stationed them-

and load the emigrants.

captain designated for each company.

routine at sea Saints

was

awakened

The new

also rigorously controlled: the

and

to a bugle at 6:00 a.m.,

bells

clanged at various times, calling them to morning and

evening prayer and to the tasks shared by

men and women were

Unmarmen often

all.

segregated; the

sleeping on deck while cabins were occupied by women

and children. Meals were prepared b^ the passengers in relays, each shift leaving the galley spodess for the

next.

The

discipline

and cleanliness of Mormon ships

during the crossing gready reduced the incidence of

compared with that among other

disease and death

Mormon

travelers,

and

emigrant

vessels.

ships

became models

for other

Crossings were often erdivened bv

marriages and births, but sometimes darkened by death

and burials

at sea.

Jane Griffiths, on February

noted sadly in her journal that her

had "breathed

his last"

and that

22,

litde son, Josiah,

his

body was "com-

mitted to the deep, nearly a thousand miles from land, there to remain give

up

its

till

the

word goes

dead, then shall

I

have

forth for the sea to

mv child

again.

.

.

.

Elder Booth conducted the service in Long. 44 '/14 west, Lat. 25713 north."*

At Liverpool

Native Land, in order to gather with the Church of Christ, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, in

docks to

Passengers were divided into groups of one hundred,

with

ried

Of all the emigrants who traveled west on anv the Mormon handcart companies were unques-

Zion. But in reality the thousand-

mile trek onfoot

Trail

long pipeline from Liverpool to Salt Lake

Iowa

some rwenrv-six thousand English and

European Mormons

Utah

was highly organized. In England church representa-

rail to

or the cheaper handcart, to Great Salt sent

The

in

life

my grasp."''

New York

Iowa, or Florence, Nebraska, and then on bv wagon,

The PEF

bubble that has burst in

as "a

Transport from these

coastal cities varied, but out of Boston

the

an embittered Jane Griffiths described her

lin

in the spring ot 1856

Aposde Frank-

D. Richards busded around the docks overseeing

the departure of one ship after another,

Tn K

M(iR

M(i \

T

all

K

\

loaded with

I

1

— church converts. Passengers destined to become the three handcart companies to cross into

first

already shipped out, and

now he was

fourth and fifth companies, but sending

was

a lapse that

to

them

off late

provoke the gravest consequences

other end of the sLx-thousand-mile journey. In

at the

New York, Apostle John Taylor awaited ers,

Zion had

dispatching the

eager to hurry

them by

train to

the

Iowa

newcom-

Citv',

where

a

the carts to spell their flagging husbands, and one sevent\'-three-year-old

woman

in

Handcart Company

Number Three walked all the way. The first three companies left Iowa 1856

and arrived

at Salt

Lake

in late

City in June

September

—

speedy journey of just under four months. But such an easy crossing was not to be the fate of the fourth and fifth

handcart companies, captained by James Willie

they would be outfitted with supphes and the humble

and Edward Martin,

handcarts that they had so far heard so httle about.

pany was

late getting to

Iowa

outfitted,

and

reaching Florence, where

The handcart being simply was actuaUv

there

a glorified wheelbarrow,

httle to say

about four feet bv four

feet,

about

a

it:

wooden box

with eight-inch

rode an axle between two large wheels.

Two

ot the fourth nately,

and

were

fifth

all

of seasoned

fitted

wood

(those

with bows

ered milch fijlly

in the rear.

man between

loaded, the

that he all

cow ambUng

cart

When

had

was

— over —

was hauling about four hundred pounds

for

good

conditions on dry, level ground, free of stumps and

the mileage

fell

make

ten to twenU' miles a day, but

off quickly with deep sand or spring

muck underfoot,

or with frequent river crossings.

most handcart companies made

Lake

relatively smoothly.

it

Women

men, women, and children, organized into

The companies' equipment

the shafts could find

nearly fourteen hundred mUes. Traveling under

spirits, and the fifth company left a week The two companies were followed by two oxdrawn wagon trains captained by W. B. Hodgett and John A. Hunt. WiUie's company was made up of 500 later.

units of one

hundred, while Martin's had 576, similarly organized.

a teth-

a cart

kinds of terrain and in every' sort of weather

rocks, a cart could

it

The same held true for company. The fourth company finally

for cart repairs.

and good

Children rode inside on the bundled clothes,

and blankets, and an occasional

com-

was

pulled out of Florence on August 18 with high hopes

and cotton covers, Hke miniature covered wagons.

tents,

it

Martin's fifth

handcart companies, unfortu-

were green), and some were

where

shafts

projecting forward from the box enabled a person

early handcarts

late again

City',

sides, that

walking between them to puU the cart along behind.

The

was held up

respectively. WiUie's fourth

Still,

approximately every

included one handcart for

five people,

for every twenty' people.

and one round tent

Bulk supphes, such

as

the

ninety-eight-pound sacks of flour, were carried in the

ox-drawn wagons and sparingly issued

to handcarts as

needed. Each person was restricted to seventeen pounds

of clothing and bedding; individual food rations were limited to a half-pound of beef (on occasion), one

pound

of flour per day, and some molasses, sugar, bacon, and other items.

The PEF members of the company, for make do with these

the most part paupers, had to

through to Salt

minimal provisions, but other members with greater

often helped pull

means supplemented them with

Thk Mount on Tkail

private supplies.

H.\NDCART STORM,

TB-H. Shnhouse-THE

EMIGRANTS n.d.

IN A

Denver Public Library, Western

History Department. Stenhouse, a

a

Mormon apostate, presented

realistically grim

image ofhandcart

emigrants crossing the plains in winter.

Trouble on the

trail

was not long

in

coming

tor

The extreme dr\'ness wheels of green wood

the fourth and fifth companies.

of the plains made the cart

boot

leatlicr, .soap, jiid finally

ineffectual) lubricants.

the companies near

More

Grand

bacon

as makeshift (and

serious problems awaited

Island, Nebraska,

where

A three-day

shrink and separate, and the dust ground away the axle

a buffalo

shoulders; in desperation, the travelers used greased

search recovered only part of the ox teams, forcing

herd stampeded their

TH

1-;

M

(I

K

cattle.

\i II

N

T

i
-,

Collection, Har-

vard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts:

Young, Ewing, 68 132

Map

Harvard

left;

154 left;

.American Heritage Center, University of

tesy

124-25, 128, 729, 135, 162, 180, 190,

and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma:

203;

Utah State Historical

Lake

Cit)': 100,

95,

n6,

left, 129, 134,

228 bottom; Randall A.

153, 186,

Wagner

Perspective,

127;

Cit}':

Society, Salt

104 top, 121

Wagner,

Cheyenne, Wyoming;

photographed by Tony Walsh,

Cincinnati; 188.

BiTTESROOT

Or^on

^^^*^^

x^

\ \ Green.

\

Independe;

River

Pacific

sGate Promontoo' montor>' Summit

Ocean

/

l

\ ,

B ent's New Fort

%,' Bent's

Old Fort \

c