Trac\masters and Spryte traveling west parallel to old pioneer road, the remains of which are still embedded in the mud of the salt flats.
BY H E N R Y J . W E B B
On August 17, 1962, an expedition (jocularly termed "Expedition Mirage") was conducted across the Great Salt Desert in the wake of the Donner-Reed party. The trail is called the Donner-Reed trail, not because the Donners and the Reeds pioneered the road, but because their unfortunate experiences along it made their names seem paramount to later historians and map makers. Actually the first white men to cross this desert — perhaps the first men of any race, D r . Webb is professor of English at the University of U t a h . Preliminary investigation of the Great Salt Desert and preparation of the trek m a p were m a d e possible by a g r a n t from the University of Utah Research F u n d . Actual cost of the expedition was absorbed by the Thiokol Chemical Corporation. All photographs in the article are courtesy David W . Evans & Associates.
