Pioneer Day Countdown: July 10, 1847 (Saturday)

As the pioneers entered "mountain country", the path became more rugged, and new obstacles arose.  These obstacles were vastly more difficult than the problems the pioneers had faced in the past.

The Morning:

William Clayton

After breaking camp at 8 a.m., the pioneers travelled around 3 miles, passing a "valley with many cedar trees."  They found a spring with copper-tasting water, which according to William Clayton, "had a singular effect on the mouth" and caused the wet, red soil to "look like blood at a distance."

From the spring, the pioneers had to cross a ridge, which Orson Pratt noted was 7,315 feet above sea level. To get down from the ridge, the Saints had to make the road suitable for wagon crossing.

William Clayton noted, "about halfway down, there was a place over huge rocks, leaving barely enough room for a wagon, but by labor it was soon made possible."

Brigham Young, 1850

Heber C. Kimball

Further down, the pioneers had to use shovels to dig a wider path between the mountain gap.  The most energetic workers of the company, leading by example, were the Prophet Brigham Young and Apostle Heber C. Kimball.  Clayton stated, "they labored hard with a number of others and in about a half hour made a good road."








The Afternoon:

At 1:45, the company stopped to rest.  They stopped near a place described by Thomas Bullock as "Gunpowder Springs", because it bubbled up clear and "tastes like gunpowder and smells like rotten eggs."

Around 3:00, they started their trek again.  Again, they had to climb another ridge, so steep that the teams "had to make a zig-zag road to the top." Going down required the wagon wheels to be locked, and everybody to hike down on foot.

Thomas Bullock

After reaching the bottom of the slope, Bullock described it as "jumping off the roof of a house. It was long, steep and dangerous." Luckily, there were no injuries.

The wagons travelled around the base of the mountain, searching for the easiest path for their oxen teams.  After climbing on more ridge, they finally made camp on the banks of a small stream.  They had travelled 18 miles that day!

"It was a mountainous day's journey," Bullock recounted.

Their camp was just south of present-day Evanston.

The Evening:

Yesterday, Wilford Woodruff had come down with mountain fever, and reported he was still feeling weak from the sickness, however, "the fever had broken and was on the way to recovery."

There was some anxiety throughout the camp, because the company had heard stories regarding the ill-fated Donner party just a year prior.  They were following the same route.  The Donner Party included people from Independence, Mo, who had threatened they would persecute the Mormons in California.  Wilford Woodruff, while pondering the ill-fated Party, wrote, "they set on on their journey with that spirit in their hearts."

Later in the evening, Miles Goodyear, a fur trader/settler in the area, came to visit the pioneer company. Goodyear lived in a cabin near Ogden, and the pioneers had heard about him. He urged the Saints to settle near him, and "gave more favorable report than some we have heard," Clayton said. However, "we have an idea he is anxious to have us make a road to his place through selfish motives."

The Goodyear Cabin next to Ogden Utah Temple

Source: Kimball and Knight. 111 Days to Zion. Deseret News. Salt Lake City, 1978