The Saints
heard Benjamin L. Clapp preach from the Winter Quarters stand. More volunteers were asked to go to St.
Joseph to retrieve goods left there by Bishop Newel K. Whitney. Twenty‑one teams were volunteered.
Brigham
Young submitted to the congregation a draft of a proposed tabernacle for Winter
Quarters. The site for the mill had
recently been moved further downstream.
Men were asked to volunteer to work on lengthening the mill race.
Major
Thomas H. Harvey, Superintendent of Indian affairs, along with Robert Mitchell
and Mr. Miller visited with Brigham Young.
Mr. Harvey reported that he had received letters from Washington D.C.
from the Indian Department. (See
September 2, 1846.) These letters
stated that the Mormons should leave the Pottawatomie Indian lands, on the east
side of the river, by spring. Harvey
wanted Brigham Young to move the people off the land during the winter. Harvey also did not like seeing the Church
on Omaha lands and asked to know why they stopped at the Missouri River. Brigham Young patiently explained that the
U.S. government asked for their best men to serve in the Mormon Battalion. It was impossible for them to move these
families because of the shortage of men.
Also, Colonel James Allen, representing the government, agreed with
their plan to stay on the lands.
President Young bluntly told the men that they would not move from
either side of the river this winter.
Major Harvey asked how long they expected to remain where they
were. President Young replied that they
would stay until they were ready to go.
Major Harvey, somewhat frustrated, asked how long that would be. President Young replied, “it might be two,
three, or four years.” He made it clear
that the Saints “would not be neither drove or pushed.” Major Harvey acknowledged that the Saints
were too strong to be forced off of the land.
After the
meeting, Brigham Young reported this visit to the rest of the Council. Willard Richards explained why others did
not meet with the Indian Agents.
“Indeed, I know not that any member knew of their presence until they
were absent, except, [President] Young.”
Elder Willard Richards was asked to write to Major Harvey, requesting
copies of these letters from the government.
William Clayton would be sent to fetch them.
Wilford
Woodruff was able to sit up in bed for the first time since his terrible
accident. (See October 15, 1846.)
Joshua S.
Holman, age fifty-two, died. He was the
husband of Rebecca W. Holman. Hannah
Smith also died. She was the daughter
of William and Elizabeth Smith. A son,
David L. Rolf, was born to Samuel and Elizabeth Rolf.
Almira
Angell, age three days, died. She was
the daughter of Truman O. and Polly Angell.1
The camp
discovered several cattle missing and was delayed until after noon. Finally, after the animals were found, the
company continued their journey. The
day was bright and pleasant and the company traveled eight miles to the head
waters of the Weldon Fork of the Grand River, north of Garden Grove.
In the
morning, Colonel Cooke became frustrated with his officers because they could
not follow any of his orders correctly.
He wrote, “A dumb spirit has possessed all for the last twenty‑four
hours. . . . All the vexations and troubles of any other three days of my life
have not equalled those of the said twenty‑four hours.” He was frustrated because he ended up making
all the arrangements himself to retrieve some cattle back at Socorro. “My attention is constantly on the stretch
for the smallest things. I have to
order and then see that it is done.”
Daniel Tyler wrote: “We found
the judgment of Colonel Cooke in traveling much better than that of [Lt.]
Smith, in fact, it was first‑class.
He never crowded the men unnecessarily.”
The
battalion was called together before their march and it was announced that
Adjutant George P. Dykes was appointed to be the new commander of Company D.2
The
enlisted men (outside of Company D) were very pleased to see this change. Henry Standage wrote: “Very glad of this change, for Lieu. Dykes
had been working against the interest of the Battalion all the way.” Others saw this reappointment as a way to
cheat Nelson Higgins out of his officer’s pay.
The
battalion marched fourteen miles. They
encountered some difficult, sandy hills and later camped in a grove of
cottonwood in present‑day Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
During the
evening, Lt. Smith brought three hundred sheep into the camp. Henry Bigler wrote: “They were a scrubby looking lot of
sheep.” Colonel Cooke commented, “I
found [them] to be very poor‑‑about half of them lambs, almost
worthless.”
Missionary
Addison Pratt went with a group of Saints to Temarie to dedicate a new meeting
house that they had been working on.
There, he met Elder Benjamin Grouard, who had been using his joiner
skills for two weeks working on a pulpit for the new house. They administered the sacrament, ordained a
number of brethren, and confirmed eleven new converts who had been baptized
during the week by Elder Grouard.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 435‑36; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:94; Bennett, Mormons at the
Missouri, 1846‑1852, 105‑06; Cooke, Exploring Southwestern
Trails 1846‑1854, 83‑4; Tyler, A Concise History of the
Mormon Battalion, 184‑85; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The
March of the Mormon Battalion, 180‑81; Yurtinus, A Ram in the
Thicket, 228‑30; “Thomas Bullock Poor Camp Journal” in Bagley, ed., Pioneer
Camp of the Saints; Ellsworth, The Journals of Addison Pratt, 294
Hosea
Stout met with his subdivision to divide the group’s hay according to the
amount of labor put into making the hay.
Eleanor
Pack Bosley, age thirty-one, died. She
was the wife of William B. Bosley. Anna
Arrowsmith also died.
After
traveling a short distance, the company came across a bridge that was in
terrible shape. They decided to stop
and fix it before taking the wagon across.
They continued on until the late afternoon and found a camp with plenty
of wood and water.
Governor
Ford and his two hundred troops were still in Nauvoo, allowing the “Jack‑Mormons”
to return to their homes. The mob held
a meeting in Carthage and passed resolutions that as soon as the State troops left,
the “Jacks” would again be expelled ‘less tenderly than before.’ These
resolutions were published in the Warsaw Signal and Quincy Whig.
The Mormon
Battalion reached a bend in the Rio Grande where it started heading to the
southwest. Mountains surrounded the
bend. It was reported that the road
ahead was good, but there would not be water for nearly eight‑five
miles. They crossed the river and saw
hundreds of merchants’ wagons. Near the
river bottom, they saw a herd of many thousand sheep. Lt. Smith was sent to try to purchase some, to make up for the
poor sheep he had bought earlier.
Colonel
Cooke received discouraging word from Antonine Leroux, a guide for General
Kearny. He reported that the Battalion
should not follow the route Kearny took.
Instead, they should take a more southerly and lengthy route where the
roads should be better. This meant that
they had about twelve hundred miles to travel.
When they reached a fork in the road, they found a sign left by Kearny
pointing to the south that said simply, “Mormon Trail.” The guide also mentioned that the battalion
was not fitted out even half as well as General Kearny was. This worried the Colonel. From the Rio Grande, it was about four
hundred miles to the Gila River. This
portion of the journey would cover much unexplored territory. Colonel Cooke sent his guides to search out
the plains ahead.
The
battalion marched about eleven miles and camped in an open grove on the river
bottom. This camp was near the present‑day
towns of Tiffany and Valverde, New Mexico.
Colonel Cooke described the landscape:
“For the last twenty‑five or thirty miles the timber on the fine
wide bottoms of the river has been quite a striking feature in the landscape,
otherwise picturesque, with lofty mountains in every direction, blue from
distance or haze and capped with snow fields.”
Daniel
Tyler wrote: “We saw a number of
Mexicans, mounted, with spurs ten to twelve inches long and rowels one to two
inches long. These were a source of
wonder to us, being the first of the kind we had ever seen.”
The
detachment had labored the past two days crossing the high 7,881-foot Raton
Pass. They had killed several wild
turkeys which provided a great dinner for the weary, sick soldiers.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 449; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier, The
Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861, 208; Cooke, Exploring Southwestern
Trails 1846‑1854, 85‑7; Tyler, A Concise History of the
Mormon Battalion, 185; Yurtinus, A Ram in the Thicket, 230‑32;
“Thomas Bullock Poor Camp Journal” in Bagley, ed., Pioneer Camp of the
Saints
Brigham
Young attended Joshua Holman’s funeral.
The Council wrote some letters to Orville M. Allen and the leaders of
the Mount Pisgah and Garden Grove settlements.
The brethren advised them to find good locations for the poor Saints in
those settlements, where they would be nearer to places where supplies could be
obtained. The supplies near Winter
Quarters were expensive and many men were traveling east towards the Des Moines
River to get provisions. Rather than
increasing the demand for supplies at Winter Quarters, it made sense for the
poor to stop in other places.
Additional teams were sent to St. Joseph, Missouri, for the goods left
there.
The
Council wrote a letter to Indian Agent, Major Thomas Harvey, under the
signature of Alpheus Cutler. The letter
authorized William Clayton as a trusted messenger to obtain copies of the
instructions to Major Harvey from Washington D.C. Major Harvey was assured that the Church supported the
government. This loyalty was shown when
the battalion was raised. By obtaining
copies of these instructions from Major Harvey, the brethren said that they
could continue to act in concert with the feeling of the government.
Wilford
Woodruff was able to dress for the first time since his serious accident of the
previous month.
A son,
Frederick Flake, was born and died. He
was the son of James M. and Agnes H. Flake.
Albert
Merrill’s family was having great difficulty away from Winter Quarters. His wife was very sick on this day and his
infant son died. He wrote: “He starved to death. His mother’s milk failed and the cows dried
up. Our sugar and delicate food gave
out and, there not being anything to have for love or money, it perished for
good.”
After the
company moved out of their camp, it was discovered that someone had been
careless and that the prairie had been set on fire. The company traveled
fifteen miles to the Thomson fork of the Grand River. The location was excellent with plenty of wood and good
water. Captain Orville Allen issued a
strong lecture that night, warning the camp against setting the prairie on
fire.
John M.
Bernhisel returned to Nauvoo after traveling to many cities in Illinois seeking
for relief for the Saints who had been driven from the city. He had been frustrated because many
expressed sympathy for the treatment that the Mormons had received, but were
still too prejudiced against them to provide relief. Nevertheless, he was able to collect about $100. He reported to Brigham Young, “Brother
Heywood and I visited the different encampments . . . for the purpose of
distributing to the most destitute, and we found some very destitute indeed,
and quite a number afflicted with chills and fever. The whole number of families now encamped over the river probably
does not exceed twenty; but they must all be removed before the cold weather
set in.”
The night
had been very cold with a heavy frost.
Word came to Colonel Cooke about hostilities between the Mexicans and
Americans. Santa Anna had been
installed as president and gave an inaugural address that referred to the
“audacious and perfidious Americans.”
There was unease among the very wealthy merchants in the area and there
was suspicion of a conspiracy to rise up and throw off the American rule. Several hundred Mexican soldiers were
rumored to be marching north from El Paso to support this uprising. Colonel Cooke discounted the rumored
conspiracy, since he considered the priests and wealthy merchants as
cowards. But Colonel Cooke was still
concerned and called the battalion together to be inspected, to make sure every
man was prepared to go into action.
The
battalion marched on for fourteen miles.
They passed over some bad bluffs with heavy sand. Their camp was established on a high plain,
covered with dead grass. Colonel Cooke
described the area:
This
district, entirely unoccupied, has the great superiority to that above (so
thickly inhabited) of forests covering perhaps one‑fourth of the bottoms;
and the mountains also, covered with cedar, are very near. . . . We passed
cactus plants ten feet high and saw a specimen of an extraordinary variety ‑‑
a bush of many small stems bearing long thorns and also the unusual fruit,
covered with a full allowance of the minute prickers.
Thomas
Dunn was glad to be in an area less inhabited.
“For many of the battalion were sinking into a bad spirit going among
the Spaniards in attending to their parties and with bad characters. But now we are out from among them and we
had better times and I hope they may continue unto the end.”
In the
afternoon, Private James Hampton died unexpectedly. When it was learned that he was dying, the battalion halted for
twenty minutes. After his death, his
body was placed in a wagon. Levi
Hancock wrote: “Thus we lose one here
and one there no man has a chance to ride unless they report themselves to the
Doct as sick and then the next thing is calomel and what to do I know not. I am called upon daily to lay hands upon the
sick.”
Colonel
Cooke reduced rations. The enlisted men
complained among themselves. Some men
believed that Colonel Cooke was doing this to raise his name in the world. They felt he wanted to boast that he
performed the trip with fewer provisions than any other man.
The
detachment followed the south bank of the Purgatorie for eight miles across
high plains. Abner Chase died of fever
and chills. He was buried in a
beautiful grove along the south side of the river.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 437‑38; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:94; Cooke, Exploring Southwestern Trails 1846‑1854, 87‑9;
“Levi Hancock Journal”; “Private Journal of Thomas Dunn”; Yurtinus, A Ram in
the Thicket, 232‑35, 272; Tyler, A Concise History of the Mormon
Battalion, 184‑86; “The Journal of Robert S. Bliss,” The Utah
Historical Quarterly, 4:76; “Albert Merrill, autobiography,” typescript,
BYU, 4; “Thomas Bullock Poor Camp Journal” in Bagley, ed., Pioneer Camp of
the Saints, Nov 3, 1846
William
Clayton started for Trader’s Point to take the letter written the day before to
Major Thomas Harvey. Brigham Young and
Heber C. Kimball crossed the river to see Brother W.W. Phelps.
To the
west of Winter Quarters, the prairie burned and approached the city, causing
great concern. When the fire reached
the bluffs above the settlement, it died down and was extinguished. Elder Wilford Woodruff, recovering from his serious accident of the
previous month, wrote:
I this day
for the first time went out of the waggons with the assistance of two
persons. I was enabled to walk to my
tent and also to Sister Benbow’s waggon where she lay very sick. Br and Sister Benbow had been with us
several days. Sister Benbow was exceedingly
low when she came. Hardly expected she
would live. Mrs. Woodruff used every
exhertion to nurse her up that she might recover.
The
Woodruff’s little son, Joseph was also very sick.
Hosea
Stout, while feeling quite sick, went into the grove on the west to cut some
house logs. This was the first work he
had accomplished toward building his family a home.
A son,
Ezra Leonard, was born and died. He was
the son of Truman and Ortentia Leonard.3
The
company arose at 5 a.m. on this cold morning when ice was seen on the
stream. Captain Allen marched on ahead
to reach Mount Pisgah in order to purchase corn of the cattle. The rest of the company started later
on. After just one mile, they discovered
that again the prairie was on fire.
Thomas Bullock suspected arson from a disgruntled member of the camp.
The company arrived at Mount Pisgah, but continued on across the river where
they set up their camp for the night.
A
daughter, Rosetta Adeline Snow, was born to (future prophet) Lorenzo and Mary
Goddard Snow.4
A
daughter, Emily Dorcas Emmett, was born to Moses S. and Catherine Overton
Emmett.5
Little
Malinda Allison Kelly died. She was the
daughter of Private Milton and Malinda C. Kelly. The Kellys went to Pueblo as part of the first sick detachment
where their daughter was born. Sadly,
Private Milton Kelly would also die in a few days.
The mob
held a meeting at which they demanded that the “Jack‑Mormons” sell out
their property to them at a certain price or they would be expelled anyway.
During the
night, George P. Dykes, the officer of the day, passed two men on guard
duty. Dykes was generally despised by
the battalion and these two men refused to salute him. In the morning, Dykes reported the incident
to Colonel Cooke who thought the two men should be shot for disrespect. Instead, they were tied cross‑handed
to the rear of an ox wagon and forced to march the entire day in this
manner. Bitter feelings toward
Lieutenant Dykes increased because of this.
William Hyde wrote, “The present prospect seems to be that indignant
feelings are arising in the bosoms of many of the Battalion in reference to the
course Lieutenant Dykes is pursuing, which will hardly ease.”
The
battalion had a difficult eleven‑mile march over stony hills and sandy
roads. Colonel Cooke recorded, “The
last three miles of road were excessively bad‑‑many steep ascents,
with loose stone and sand.” The march
took seven to eight hours, included very hard work, pushing and pulling
wagons. Brother Thomas Woolsey returned
to the battalion. He had been with the
first sick detachment that marched to Pueblo from the Arkansas River. He and nine other men had been told to
return to the battalion after escorting their families to Pueblo. Brother Woolsey reported that Colonel
Sterling Price had given permission for these men to remain with their families
in Pueblo. He also reported that
General Doniphan and his regiment was on the march, about ninety miles behind.
The
battalion camped near a large adobe‑colored pyramid shaped rock about
thirty feet tall which some thought was the ruins of an old Nephite
structure. Colonel Cooke wrote a
description: “On a little hill which juts
into the camp stands a large rock of square proportions above thirty feet high,
inaccessible in any part; it is a sandy conglomerate and precisely the color of
the adobes; has a striking resemblance to the ruins of a church or other large
building.” A rumor was circulating that
a company of Mexican soldiers was on the way to engage the battalion.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 438‑39, 449; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:94; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861,
208; Cooke, Exploring Southwestern Trails 1846‑1854, 89‑91;
Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion,
181; Yurtinus, A Ram in the Thicket, 235‑38; “The Journal of
Robert S. Bliss,” The Utah Historical Quarterly, 4:76 “Thomas Bullock
Poor Camp Journal” in Bagley, ed., Pioneer Camp of the Saints, Nov 4,
1846
Brigham
Young helped Willard Richards put up his house. In the afternoon rain fell on the settlement for two hours. Wilford Woodruff’s son, Joseph, continued to
be dangerously sick. Elder Woodruff was
able to walk to his tent alone without the aid of a staff.
Indian
Agent, Thomas Harvey, allowed William Clayton to copy the communications from
the war department in Washington, D.C. regarding the Mormon’s stay on Indian
lands. Major Harvey sent a letter back
with Brother Clayton. Major Harvey mentioned
that he had seen for himself the extensive settlement being built with included
a mill. He wrote: “No white persons are permitted to settle on
the lands of the Indians without authority of the government. Your party being Mormons does not constitute
the objection, but the fact of your being their without authority of the Government.”
Hosea
Stout spent the day cutting and hauling logs.
He became very cold and wet. In
the evening, Marshal Horace Eldredge came to get Brother Stout to help him with
a domestic problem. A Brother Beers had
kicked his wife out of the tent and wanted to drag his family away against
their will. They went to the Beers’
tent but found it calm and Brother Beers was sleeping. They decided to let the matter rest until
the morning.
A son,
George Angell Davis, was born to David V. and Caroline Angell Davis.
Captain
Allen raised the camp before daylight for an early start, but he was having a
terrible problem getting the brethren to follow his leadership. Animals were lost again and the brethren
delayed going to work. Thomas Bullock
wrote: “All the preaching and talking
of the Captain profiteth nothing. The
brethren will not go, but had rather stand with their hands in their pockets
and let all the Oxen stand idle waiting to be hitched up. The delightful weather is allowed to pass
unused and let slip without making the most of it.” They finally started their journey and traveled six miles over
the rolling prairie and camped on the east side of “Mormon Grove.”
The
morning was stormy. Colonel Cooke
decided to rest the men and the animals after seventeen straight days of
marching. The men spent the day washing
in the Rio Grande and patching clothes that were worn out.
Colonel
Cooke described his camp:
My camp is
surrounded by a singularly broken and wild country. In the small open space near the mouth of a dry creek, lofty and
irregular hills and bluffs jut in on three sides, and on the fourth is a narrow
cottonwood bottom; and a high mountain rises from the opposite bank of the
river, and their blue and white tops are visible in every direction. These hills are covered with the dry yellow
grama grass and are dotted with cedars.
In the
evening Colonel Cooke mustered the soldiers and inspected their arms in case a
battle with the Mexicans would soon be necessary. Two shots should be fired as an alarm if Mexicans were seen
approaching.
John D.
Lee and his small company continued their journey back toward Winter Quarters,
bringing with them the pay of the battalion.
They were having great difficulty traveling because of poor mules. As they were journeying this day, they came
across five mules with ropes. “This was
the ram caught in the thicket as 3 of our mules were about past traveling, the
5 just made a change all around which when we had done we thanked the Lord for
this peculiar manifestation of his good will & went on our way rejoicing.”
Thomas L.
Kane continued to give support to Saints.
He wrote a letter to Brigham Young stating that he was about to obtain
official sanction for settling on the lands of the Omahas.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 439‑40; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:94; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861,
208; Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 1846‑1842, 107; Cooke, Exploring
Southwestern Trails 1846‑1854, 90‑1; Yurtinus, A Ram in the
Thicket, 238‑39; Brooks, John Doyle Lee, 103; “Thomas Bullock
Poor Camp Journal” in Bagley, ed., Pioneer Camp of the Saints, Nov 5,
1846
It rained
during the night and into the morning.
George D. Grant returned from the rush bottoms to the north. He had traveled over 250 miles up the river.
William
Clayton returned from Trader’s Point with the letter from Major Harvey. Brigham Young directed that a reply be sent
under the signature of Alpheus Cutler, the president of the High Council. The brethren tried to again explain why they
were staying on Indian grounds.
The cause
of our stopping here was because our men were called into service by the U.
States, and had it not been for this fact we could more easily have been at the
foot or over the mountains than to have been where we are. . . . Most of the
fifteen hundred wagons now in camp will be off next season, for we are more
anxious to be off than any people are to have us. You must also be aware that if [the Mormon Battalion] does not
return, before the time originally appointed, that their teams may be compelled
to tarry another season.
The letter
was closed with an assurance of loyalty towards the country. “It is well known to you, Sir, and to the
U.S. that we have been driven from their borders, and yet have enlisted in her
defense, and what can be a greater proof of friendship than for a people to lay
down their lives for their country.”
William
Clayton reported that the Pottawatomie Indian’s had received $43,000 from the
government, towards payment for their lands.
Major Harvey refused to pay three Mormon Indians who had been adopted by
the Pottawatomie tribe.
Brigham
Young wrote a letter to Omaha Chief, Big Elk.
George D. Grant was appointed to take a barrel of gun powder and about
one hundred pounds of lead to the Omahas, to be used for their buffalo hunt. This act of kindness was meant to improve
relations between the two people and to help put a stop to the killing of
cattle by the Omahas. President Young
also offered to have someone repair guns for the tribe if it was needed
In the
afternoon, members of the Twelve and High Council traveled up the bluff and met
on a point overlooking the north end of the city. They discussed what to do with many rebellious men who were
breeding discontent in the Camp of Israel.
It was unanimously decided to have the Law of God put in force to deal
with them.
Henry Pearson,
age sixteen, died of dysentery. He was
the son of Ephraim J. and Rhoda Pearson.
David L. Rolfe, age five days, died.
He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Rolfe. Hyrum Brigham Noble, age one, also died. He was the son of Joseph B. and Mary Beman
Noble.
The
company continued their journey in the morning. They had to ascend a very steep hill that gave them
difficulties. Soon they reached the
last branch of the Grand River and made their camp for the night.
The Nauvoo
Trustees wrote a letter to Brigham Young reporting the arrival of Governor Ford
and his troops to the city. The
Trustees had not been having any success selling the Church property. “We wish to sell and wind up our business
and leave this country; we believe there are some of the worst characters in
and about Nauvoo.” They reported that
the Seventies’ library was packed up as well as the stereotype plates for the
Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants.
They explained why Almon W. Babbitt had sent some of the rescue teams
back to Winter Quarters. They felt that
the remaining poor could better be taken care of by the Trustees.
William
Pickett observed that Governor Ford went on a spree during the evening with the
mob. First, he attended a supper given
by the mob leaders to welcome him to the city.
“They are his daily companions, and drinking with them from groggery to
groggery is his only occupation at present.”
The “Jack‑Mormons”
held a meeting to consider the mob’s proposition to buy out their Nauvoo
property. It was resolved that they
would keep their property, even at the risk of being driven from the city.
The
battalion marched eleven miles over gravel bluffs, up and down many hills, in
warmer weather. The men had to make a
wagon road for more than a mile around a bend of the river. William Coray wrote: “How the Colonel expects to get to
California crossing this river through the sand I cannot imagine, but he is our
leader and follow him we will, life or death.”
They
camped near the location where General Kearny had a month earlier, left his
wagons, taking pack mules for the rest of the journey. Daniel Tyler wrote: “The prospect before us from this point was
anything but encouraging. Besides what
we had previously endured from hunger and having to help our worn‑out
animals pull the overloaded wagons, we now had before us the additional task of
having to construct a wagon road over a wild, desert and unexplored country,
where wagons had never been before.”
The road
ahead did look difficult, especially on half rations. Robert S. Bliss recorded:
“We are cheerful & happy notwithstanding we have to carry our guns,
accoutrements, napsacks, canteen, haversacks, & push our waggons all day
over hills which are not few nor far between & we expect will [be] greater
difficulties when we leave this river to cross the mountains.” He also wrote about the wildlife in the area. “We can see large bear tracks & plenty
of Beaver signs; Bro. [Elijah] Freeman brought to camp wood cut by the beavers
6 in. through & this was not half
so large as they construct their dams with.”
The thorny
cactus and bushes started to be a problem.
Guy M. Keysor explained: “The
shrubbery covering the hills is mostly green and beautiful and much of it is
very thorny. Though they are strangers
to me by name, by sight they familiarize themselves much faster than I
wish. The familiarity and annoying
acquaintance they make with my legs every day keeps my clothes in rags and
often penetrate the skin.”