The Road to "Fortune": The Salt Lake Cutoff

The Road to "Fortune ": THE SALT LAKE CUTOFF

BY L. A. FLEMING AND A. R. STANDING

INTRODUCTION

Both of us have had a lifelong interest in western history. This has led us along paths where information about the Old West can be obtained. These byways have included talks with a few remnant pioneers we knew in boyhood, or with first generation descendants of pioneers; reading numerous printed journals, books, and magazine articles on western history; personal visits to many places connected with pioneer events; and enjoying many days finding and retracing hundreds of miles of western trails, from Chimney Rock in Nebraska to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, by pickup truck or on foot. Each bit of information obtained fanned our zeal to learn more and added to our appreciation of the hardy, courageous people who made the history.

Our major objective in writing about old trails is to describe where they can be found and to record data about them that is rapidly being lost. As we have hunted for the trails, we have been amazed and alarmed by the scarcity of accurate information, considering the relatively short time since they were in almost daily use. Most of the people who had first-hand information have passed away, and the few who are now living will not be with us long. The trails can still be found, but like memories of them, they are growing dim. It is regrettable that much more was not recorded about all old trails while knowledge was fresh and accurate.

We are frequently asked how we find the exact location of a trail. There are several signs that help to identify it. Our first approach is to find and consult local people who can give us information. Often the old roads are still visable, either because the soil was so compacted or eroded by heavy use that vegetative growth is not sufficient to cover the rut marks, or because occasional use since pioneer days has retained the roadbed. Another method of identification is a more robust growth of sage or other brush along the sides of the old trails. The road dust, mixed with the manure of the thousands of animals that traveled the trails was blown into windrows along the route. This created a more favorable habitat for plant life, and the additional plant growth resulted in more deposition of organic matter, which in turn increased soil fertility and moisture-holding capacity. Under such conditions the location of old trails can sometimes be seen several miles away.

In places the pioneers rolled rocks out of the roadbed, and the rows of rocks still clearly mark the trail. Old dugways can occasionally be found, but these are rare as the pioneers usually chose to go straight up and down, even very steep hills, rather than perform the work required to construct dugways and risk overturning the top-heavy wagons. Sometimes the worn-down roads became water channels which developed into deep gullies.

A very useful sign is wheel marks on rocks in the roadbeds. The iron tires of the wagons rubbed off on the rocks. These bits of iron in turn rusted, and the resulting brown stains became a permanent part of the rock. Wherever a wagon passed over hard rock it remains plainly visable even after more than a hundred years. These stains do not show on lava rocks, but chipping and scratching of lava rocks by the turning, slipping wheels can still be detected. When ruts, depressions, or changed plant growth are no longer evident, rock stains faithfully indicate where the roads were.

Sometimes the location of old roads are verified by the finding of artifacts such as oxen shoes, square nails, broken dishes or household utensils, hardened bits of leather, or pieces of iron from the wagons.

We used most of these signs in locating the Salt Lake Cutoff, which is the subject of the following narration.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SALT LAKE CUTOFF

When a party of men with saddle and pack horses under Samuel J. Hensley headed north from Salt Lake City in early August 1848, they did not realize they were about to make history. The event was mentioned in a letter dated August 9, 1848, from Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, and John Smith to Brigham Young, who was en route his second trip West. The letter stated, "Ten of the U. S. troops under Captain Hensley lately arrived in our valley on their way to California; they tried the Hasting's route, but the desert was so miry from heavy rains that they have returned and gone on by way of Fort Hall."

Captain Hensley was not new to the West. He was a member of the Joseph C. Chiles party of 1843 and was one of the horseback group that traveled with Chiles from Fort Hall down the Snake River and across southeastern Oregon into California. In California he worked for John A. Sutter, of Sutter's Fort fame, participated in the Bear Flag Revolt, and served as an officer in John C. Fremont's California Battalion. He returned to the East and testified at the court-martial of Fremont of November 1847 to January 1848. He was passing through Salt Lake City on his way back to California when he drew the attention of the Mormons.

Hensley's party did not go to Fort Hall, but forded Bear River about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City and rode west along the general route of U.S. Highway 30 by present Snowville, Utah. Here he joined the California Trail from Fort Hall in Emigration Canyon just south of the City of Rocks.

On Sunday, August 27, Hensley met a party of discharged Mormon Battalion men who were traveling up the Humboldt River en route from California to Salt Lake City. The meeting was recorded by Henry W. Bigler in his diary.

. . . Laid by at 3 p.m. the camp came together at Addison Pratts tent and held prayer meeting, just as meeting was over Captain S. Hensley and Company of ten on packs came up we were informed by Capt. H. that it was not more than 380 miles to Salt Lake by takeing a certain route that he had found and had just come he gave us a way bill saying the route was a good one and easy to be found saveing at least 8 or ten days travel as it was our intention to go by way of Fort Hall. Mr. Hensley had got defeated in attempting to take Haistings Cutoff and had turned back by so doing discovered this new route and found it to be much nearer than Hasting's. . . .

The Salt Lake City-bound company decided to follow Hensley's route. The party consisted of 45 men and one woman, wife of William Cory, 17 wagons, 150 horses, and about the same number of cattle.

The night of September 14, the group camped at Granite Spring just east of Granite Pass on the west side of Junction Valley. The next day as they journeyed eastward from Junction Valley, they saw two "towering" rocks on their left that dominated a rocky ridge which forms the south boundary of the famous City of Rocks. Addison Pratt, a member of the group, named these rocks the "Twin Sisters," and they are still so called.

Here the party separated from the road to Fort Hall, which passed northward over the ridge into the City of Rocks, thence via present Almo, Elba, and Malta, then down Raft River to the Oregon Trail along the south side of Snake River, and up this trail to Fort Hall. Instead, the returning Battalion men began a new wagon road, going eastward down Emigration Canyon about six miles to Raft River where they camped.

According to the diary records of Bigler and Pratt and a narrative of the trip prepared by L.D.S. Church Historian Andrew Jenson from material contained in the journal of Azariah Smith and perhaps other journals, on September 16 the party went down Raft River 10 miles and "encamped again on Cajnes [Cassia] Creek" in a "notch in the mountains," according to Jenson, and "on the Cazier [Cassia] a large stream abounding in trout," according to Pratt. The various spellings then used for Cassia Creek actually apply to Raft River. Present Cassia Creek heads above Elba, Idaho, and flows eastward into Raft River near Malta. The "notch in the mountains" is clearly the lower Raft River Narrows, about nine miles below and east-south-east from Almo, Idaho.

On September 17 Henry Bigler stated, "At this camp we left the Cashier it turning and running north while our course was east over and through sage brush for 10 or 12 miles and campt on the side of a mountain where there was plenty of cedar timber." The Raft River turns northward at the lower end of the Narrows. For this date the Jenson narrative stated, "The company traveled 10 miles further in an easterly direction and encamped on a spring at the point of a mountain." Pratt recorded:

Leaving this stream we followed a pack trail [probably Hensley's] that led through an ascending valley and encamped toward evening on a mountain stream which came down from the hills and sank in the ground near the place of our encampment. But judging from the course of the dry bed below us it empties in to Casier Creek in times of high water. In the evening I went up the stream and cought some beautiful trout.

This camp was undoubtedly on Clear Creek near present Naf. The ascending plain and indicated distance traveled fit the topography quite well.

As there is some confusion and uncertainty about the route of the Salt Lake Cutoff between Clear Creek and Emigration Canyon, some discussion is merited here. Some of the local people and some historical writers think the main road went west from Clear Creek by Stanrod, hugging close to the foothills of the north side of the Raft River Mountains and southwest to present Yost. Probably some of the users of the Salt Lake Cutoff did travel to Emigration Canyon by way of the Yost area, for marks of an old road along this route can still be seen. A footnote on page 255 of West from Fort Bridger adds to the confusion by stating that "the road, from the first crossing of the Raft River took a nearly east course for the notch." If taken literally this would place the road about three miles south of the Narrows, but the author probably intended to describe the route through the Narrows.

The preponderance of evidence indicates that not only did the returning Mormon Battalion members go through the lower Narrows, but also that this became the main route. As one emerges from the mouth of Emigration Canyon looking eastward, one sees comparatively smooth terrain southeastward to the meadowed country around and below Yost, and comparatively easy travel northeast to the Raft River Narrows. But between these points, directly east of Raft River, there are many ridges and canyons that would make travel difficult. The Mormon Battalion group probably crossed Raft River about where they first reached it, then kept south of it to avoid following its complete swing to the north and went on a direct course to the upper end of the Narrows. Here the group must have crossed to the north side, as the river crowds against a steep hill and talus slope on the south side through the Narrows. They had to recross to the south side at the lower end of the Narrows. This accounts for three crossings of the Raft River mentioned by several people who traveled the route later.

In his book Alonzo Delano relates an interesting and enlightening experience in this area in 1849. He tells of a large number of trains traveling together, of the trains consuming all the grass causing thousands of cattle in late season companies to perish, and of the roads being lined with deserted wagons. His party went by way of Fort Hall and Elba. The night of July 22, they camped about a mile north of the pass between Elba and Almo. In his journal for July 23, he records that after crossing the dividing ridge

We saw a large basin, surrounded by high mountains, the road apparently running around at their base, to avoid, as we thought, marshy ground in the valley, and from which a pretty creek took its rise. From the place where we stood we could see a line of dust all around the basin, with wagons moving on the opposite side. It seemed as if the road led out between a gap in the mountains to the southeast, in the direction which the creek ran, for we could trace its course by the willows. At a point nearly opposite, we judged the distance to about twelve miles; and as it was the intention of the train to reach that place about noon and halt I thought I could save six miles travel by walking straight across, which I concluded to do.

When Delano reached the road on the opposite side of the valley, he came to six wagons "standing near the roadside." He discovered that rather than his route leading through the "gap in the mountains to the southeast," the Salt Lake Cutoff came up through it, and the occupants of the wagons told him that "this is the route from Salt Lake and we came that route." He learned that the Fort Hall road his train was following "turned off from the basin through a narrow gorge which we could not see, and the Salt Lake road, with its flying dust and moving trains, gave us the impression that our road was there."

Rather than retrace his hike across the valley, Delano continued on the Salt Lake Cutoff to its junction with the Fort Hall road south of the City of Rocks, where he was reunited with his party after they emerged from the City of Rocks.

From a study of Delano's account, it is evident that the wagon trains on three sides of the valley consisted of those on the Salt Lake Cutoff going up Raft River on the east side, then turning west across the south end of the valley to Emigration Canyon. The wagon trains on the Fort Hall road passed across the north and west side of the valley as far as the "narrow gorge" leading west from Almo to the City of Rocks.

To resume the trek of the discharged Mormon Battalion group, on September 18 they traveled around the foothills to Emigrant Spring where they camped. The following day they went east across Curlew Valley by Pilot Springs, and camped on Deep Creek about five or six miles west of Snowville. On September 19 they traveled east along the north side of Deep Creek which they forded near its bend about two miles southwest of Snowville, and went on along the general route of Highway 30 to a "spring in the mountains" as reported by Jenson, or according to Pratt, "a cold spring situated in a deep valley between two high mountains and though the spring is a large stream it sinks in the valley not more than a quarter of a mile from its source." The spring became known as Hansel's Spring.

A footnote on page 258 in West from Fort Bridger states "Hansel Spring is not seen from the present highway" and indicates it is located in Hansel Valley some distance south of the highway. From the description it is felt that the spring near Highway 30 at the Ward Ranch headquarters five miles southeast of Snowville, is Hansel's Spring. A township plat printed in 1856 places Hansel Spring at the Ward Ranch. The Mormon Way Bill to the Gold Mines gives the distance from "Hansells Spring to Deep Creek Crossing" as six miles, which is the approximate mileage from the spring at the Ward Ranch to Deep Creek Crossing. Hansel Spring later became known as Dillie Spring, after a former owner of the ranch on which it is located.

September 21, 1848, found the returning Battalion men camped at Blue Springs, about three miles north of Howell, Utah, and on the west bank of the Malad River the next day. They had trouble crossing the Malad, for on September 22 Pratt wrote, "A hard days journey brought us to Malad Creek which we on account of its mud and steep banks found difficult to cross. The water was also deep and some of the wagons capsized in crossing."

Bigler recorded for September 23,

This morning in crossing the Melad we broke down a wagon the crossing was very bad the stream was narrow and not very deep but the bottom was very soft and muddy in comeing out on the opposite side passing on for 6 or 7 miles we came to Bear River the fording of which was good in consequence of breaking down we made but a short drive and campt on the east side of Bear River.

Addison Pratt wrote

We crossed the [Bear] river which was low at the time and the crossing good. The bed of the river is about fifty yards wide and the banks high. In the spring of the year it is a most formidable stream with a strong current. After crossing Bear River, we traveled six miles and encamped by some springs where we found plenty of grass for our stock.

Andrew Jenson said,

The company crossed the stream on which they had camped during the night. One wagon broke down but the brethren repaired it and traveled about four miles and encamped. At this point the company found some wagon tracks leading to the Great Salt Lake settlements.

Either the estimates of miles traveled varied considerably or some groups traveled further than others before camping.

The Battalion men camped in the vicinity of Brigham City September 24 and reached Ogden the following day where "they encamped at Captain Brown's settlement on Ogden River" and stayed over a day. Camp was established near Farmington on September 27, and the group reached Salt Lake City September 28.Thus was the Salt Lake Cutoff begun. The Mormons were not the first to travel with wagons from their crossings of the Malad and Bear rivers to the new Mormon settlement at Ogden. In 1843 John C. Fremont and his party came west via Soda Springs, turned south down Bear River, then west near the north end of Cache Valley, and crossed over the mountains to the Malad River. Fremont's "camp equipage, and provisions were transported in twelve carts, drawn each by two mules, and a light covered wagon, mounted on good springs had been provided for the safe carriage of instruments, with its 12 pound howitzer." Fremont states,

Descending to the bottom of Bear River we found good grass for the animals, and encamped about three hundred yards above the mouth of the Roseaux [Malad] which here marked its junction [with Bear River] .... Among the useful things which formed a portion of our equipage was an India rubber boat, eighteen feet long .... The Roseaux being too deep to be forded, our boat was filled with air, and in about one hour all the equipage of the camp, carriage and gun included, ferried across.

Fremont traveled down the west side of Bear River to "a delta which formed the mouth, and then

. . . returning about five miles up the river we were occupied until nearly sunset in crossing to the left [east] bank, the stream, which in the last five or six miles of its course is very much narrower than above, being very deep immediately at the banks, and we had great difficulty in getting our animals over .... The people with the baggage were easily crossed in the boat and we encamped on the left bank where we crossed the river.

Fremont and his party then traveled down the east side of the Great Salt Lake City to a few miles south of present Willard, Utah, near the Hot Springs then southwest to the Weber River. After several days exploration of the lake, during which he visited Fremont Island, he went north along the base of the Wasatch Mountains and on September 13 "encamped on Bear River, immediately below a cut-off, the canyon by which the river enters the valley bearing north by compass." For September 14 he recorded, "About four miles from this encampment the trail led us down to the river, where we unexpectedly found an excellent ford." The party then traveled up the Malad River en route to Fort Hall.

The wagon tracks which the discharged Mormon Battalion party saw on the east side of Bear River on September 23 were made the previous March by the two wagons of Hazen Kimball, one Pollock, and one Rogers, who traveled from Salt Lake City to Fort Hall to join emigrant parties on their way to California. The three men were dissenters from the Mormon Church.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SALT LAKE CUTOFF

The route of the Salt Lake Cutoff surely had been used by Indians long before the arrival of white men, and probably early trappers had made unrecorded use of it. Peter Skene Ogden traveled over part of it between Snowville and the Bear River Valley in 1828-29. Credit is due Captain Samuel J. Hensley and his companions for being the first known group to use the route as an integral part of the road to California, and for being instrumental in starting its use as a major wagon road. Credit for opening the road for wagons and making first use of it belongs to the group of discharged Mormon Battalion members en route to Salt Lake City in 1848. The immediate benefit was considerable reduction in the time and distance the Fort Hall route would have required. The longrange benefits were tremendous.

In the spring of 1849, the great California gold rush began en masse. Those who traveled up the Platte and Sweetwater rivers had several choices after going through South Pass. Some headed west over the Sublette Cutoff to reach the Bear River a few miles northwest of Cokeville, Wyoming, and then down the Bear River to Soda Springs. Others went to Fort Bridger and then northwest to reach Bear River a few miles west of Sage, Wyoming, and on to Soda Springs either via present Cokeville or possibly around the west side of Bear Lake. Those who reached Soda Springs traveled onward either by way of Fort Hall to Raft River, or by Hudspeth Cutoff, opened in 1849. The Hudspeth route went west through present Arimo, Idaho, Hawkins Basin, and the Sublette Mountains to join the established California Trail on Raft River near Malta, Idaho. Those who reached the Malta area, either by way of Fort Hall or the Hudspeth Cutoff, had a choice of going west up Cassia Creek to Elba and then south to Almo, or staying along Raft River to unite with the Salt Lake Cutoff at the lower Raft River Narrows.

Many of those who went to Fort Bridger followed the Donner-Mormon Trail through Echo and East canyons to Salt Lake City, and then used the Salt Lake Cutoff. A very few followed Hastings Cutoff across the Salt Desert, and some who arrived in Salt Lake City late in the season went on to California by way of southern Utah.

Estimates of the number of emigrants who traveled by various routes to the Humboldt River and over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California in 1849 vary from 22,500 to about 40,000. George R. Stewart, who probably has made the most conservative and most accurate calculations, estimates there were 21,500 people with 6,200 wagons plus another 1,000 people traveling with riding and pack animals for a total of 22,500 in 1849. He estimates in addition, there were 40,000 draft animals pulling the wagons plus about 20,000 riding animals, packhorses and mules, milk cows, and "oxen driven along as spares or to be slaughtered for food," which adds up to a total of 60,000 animals.

Mr. Stewart estimates that the migration over the California Trail totaled about 45,000 in 1850; only 1,000 in 1851; 52,000 in 1852; 20,000 in 1853; 12,000 in 1854; only a few hundred in 1855; 8,000 in 1856; 4,000 in 1857. He sums up as follows,

The covered wagon migration is a folk movement of considerable size and of definite historical significance. Down to 57 (the last year for which statistics are at present available) the summation of annual figures indicates that more than 165,000 people crossed to California. The number of animals must have approached a million.

By the middle of June 1849, the first of the gold seekers arrived in Salt Lake City. The hardships and suffering of most of the emigrants were tremendous. Most of them started the journey with more goods than their animals could haul. The loss of animals through death and straying and abandonment of broken-down wagons forced discarding of goods. Salt Lake City, being the only settlement along the trail, aside from Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, and Fort Hall, immediately became an important place where goods could be sold or traded, food and clothing purchased, and where worn-out animals could be traded for fresh ones in condition to travel. All this resulted in an economic boom in the Salt Lake Valley. A prominent historian recorded,

Among the causes that led to the prosperity of the people of Utah at this period was the migration of Gold seekers to California. Hundreds of emigrants turning aside to Salt Lake City, wearied and dispirited, their cattle worn out and their wagons broken were glad to exchange them together with their tools, household furniture, and spare clothing, for provisions and pack animals at very low rates. Many were glad to remain during the winter, and work their livelihood. Though reports were freely circulated to the contrary, there is sufficient evidence that as a rule they were kindly treated and not a few abandoned their search for gold to cast in their lot with the saints.

Horses, harnesses, carriages, wagons, etc. were bought of eager emigrants at one fifth of their cost in the states.

The Mormon people saw the hand of providence in the situation, for Heber C. Kimball had prophecied that "states goods would be sold in the streets of Great Salt Lake City cheaper than in New York and that the people should be abundantly supplied with food and clothing." This prediction was fulfilled with the advent of the gold seekers eager to reach the Pacific Coast.

. . . Impatient at their slow progress, in order to lighten their loads, they [emigrants] threw away or "sold for a song" the valuable merchandise with which they had stored their wagons to cross the Plains. Their choice, blooded, though now jaded stock, they eagerly exchanged for the fresh mules and horses of the pioneers, and bartered off, at almost any sacrifice, dry goods, groceries, provisions, tools, clothing etc. for the most primitive outfits, with barely enough provisions to enable them to reach their journey's end.

It has been estimated that about 10,000 gold seekers passed through Salt Lake City in 1849. Parley P. Pratt, a Mormon leader, wrote that hundreds of people arrived daily to stop and refit. The percentage of California-bound emigrants who passed through Salt Lake City apparently increased year by year. George Stewart stated that "much of the later California migration went that way."

Besides the migration to the gold fields, people went to Idaho and Oregon to settle, many of whom used the Salt Lake Cutoff. There was much use of the Cutoff and road down the Humboldt River for various purposes, by Mormons going to and from California and by the settlements in the Carson Valley in western Nevada. It became an important trade route.

When the railroad to California was completed on May 10, 1869, overland travel by wagon and pack train decreased, but did not stop completely for many years. With the completion of the railroad, some of the wagon trains left the Salt Lake Cutoff near Snowville and went southwest through Park Valley and Lucin to the Humboldt. A road was opened south of the Great Salt Lake via Fish Springs in 1859, which took much travel away from the northern route. Stage and freight routes were established from Kelton, Utah, to Boise, Idaho, to Dallas, Oregon, and other northwest points. The days of pioneer use of the Salt Lake Cutoff passed away, and people now travel in comfort at high speeds over a modern highway where emigrants once trudged their weary way.

THE ROUTE OF THE SALT LAKE CUTOFF

After emerging from Emigration (and later Parley's) Canyon, the western trail led west and north through Salt Lake City. Between Salt Lake City and Farmington, the route was close to the old highway through Bountiful and Centerville. Immediately north of Farmington, approximately where the Utah State University Experimental Farm is located, the emigrant road wound westward near the base of the bluff on the north side of the golf course and near the remains of the old Eli Manning store. It went southwest to about the present location of Shepherd Lane, then west approximately a mile, and then northwest about a halfmile along Shepherd Lane to where it crossed Baer Creek. From this point the old road does not follow an existing road for several miles. The emigrant road from Farmington almost to Plain City was located to avoid the sand hills, or sand delta, deposit of Lake Bonneville and the wet ground just below the terminus of the sand. This was accomplished by making the road along the foot of the sandy bluff and at the upper edge of springs, sloughs, and marshes.

The old road intersects Gentile Street about four miles due west of Layton, where a present road turns off to the northwest. From this point the old road is on the location of what is designated as Old Bluff Road, to its intersection with the West Point Road, about a mile west of the town of West Point. The old road continued northnorth-west beyond this point along the base of the bluff for about a mile, but there is no present road along its location.

Fortunately, the marks of the old road can still be seen where it crossed the present location of the Clinton Road. It crossed at right angles about two-tenths of a mile east of the Hooper Canal. The old road is no longer visible where it crossed the Clinton Road, but can be seen beginning about two-tenths of a mile north, and thence on north for about one-third of a mile. This is across an alkali, greasewood flat that apparently has never been cultivated.

Another of the few places where the marks of the old emigrant road have not been obliterated by cultivation in this area is located about twotenths of a mile north of the corner of 5900 West and 4000 South, and then about 90 yards west in a field owned by Vern G. Taylor, who resides at this corner. The old road is a little west of due north of Mr. Taylor's house and may be recognized as a depression through the field. Before this area was so intensively cultivated, the marks of the old road were plainly visible at other locations. From this field the old road continues on north-northwest about two-tenths of a mile to Hastings Spring, which now flows west a short distance in a covered pipe before reaching its outlet in a slough.

John M. Belnap, born in 1883, has lived in the Hooper area all his life and has made a detailed study of its history, including the location of the old emigrant road. He furnished information that a large area southwest of the Weber River to the shore of Great Salt Lake was granted to Captain William H. Hooper as a herd ground in 1854 before the area was settled. Years ago, John F. Stoddard, one of Captain Hooper's cattle herders, told Mr. Belnap that he had seen many wagons passing over the old emigrant road in this area on their way to California and Oregon.

From Hastings Spring the emigrant road made a gradual curve northeasterly intersecting 4700 West about halfway between 3250 South and 2550 South. It went through the Hyrum Hadley farm at 3133 South 4700 West, across the Walker Slough to approximately 1400 South, then generally north to Plain City. The exact spot where the trail crossed the Weber River has not been ascertained, but it was probably near the present bridge on the road from West Weber to Plain City, about a mile south of Plain City.

A ferry was built here at an early date. John Belnap learned that the ferry operated somewhere between the old Skene home near the Four Mile Slough and the old Pioneer Road, southeast of Plain City and the Blair home in the West Weber area.

The emigrant road went through or near the present site of Plain City and then northeast on the approximate location of the "North Road" to Hot Springs. From Hot Springs the road generally stayed along the foothills of the Wasatch Range to Collinston, Utah, passing by various springs along the way. The springs provided water for livestock and were popular camping spots for the wagon trains. Included in the springs were Cold Spring, now partially covered by the highway (about seven-tenths of a mile north of the Weber-Box Elder County line) ; Marsh Spring, just west of the highway (two and six-tenths miles north of the Weber-Box Elder County line and about a mile and a half south of Willard) ; and the Wight Spring (about two and a half miles north of Willard). A short distance west of the highway, at the north end of the town of Perry, is Porter Spring. It is located on the property of Isaac A. Young. Here, according to Mr. Young, may be seen a segment of the original road as it passes the spring.

From Porter Spring the emigrant road ran almost through the center of Brigham City to within a few blocks north of the courthouse, and then turned northeast to pass the Wright and Rees Spring along the foothills. The old road is shown on the 1856 township plat. It still can be seen along the foothills. The trail turned northwest through the present William Kotter farm. Mr. Kotter said that an old road passed just below the Kotter home, but its marks have been obliterated by cultivation. No doubt the road went along the foothills rather than where the present road is located, to avoid marshy ground north of Brigham City.

From the Kotter farm the old road followed the approximate location of the highway from Brigham City and Honeyville, Deweyville, and Collinston. It passed by Harper Spring, located just north of the Harper Ward Chapel; Cold Spring, at the south outskirts of Honeyville; Dewey Spring, at the south end of Deweyville; along the foothills past the upper Barnard Spring; and near the present site of the Collinston schoolhouse and store. The trail turned diagonally northwest to the point where the present Collinston-Fielding Road starts down the dugway to Hampton's Bridge at the Bigler Ranch. The old road crossed the present canal location about 100 yards south of the canal bridge. Evidence of the road can be seen in the sagebrush halfway down the dugway just above the present road and a few feet east of the fence which parallels it. The old ford was located about where the bridge now spans Bear River.

For many years the road has turned northwest at the north end of the bridge and gone up the dugway to the south end of Fielding, Utah. The original road, however, went a little east or north across the river bottoms, dodging the sloughs, to ascend the bluffs north of the river about a mile east of the present road into Fielding. From the top of the bluff, the road went north-north-west to the southwest edge of present Plymouth, Utah. From here a road ran up the Malad River Valley en route to Fort Hall. The Salt Lake Cutoff went west to Rocky Ford across Malad River, which is about two miles west of the south end of Plymouth and can be reached by a county road.

Most writers generalize about the Salt Lake Cutoff by stating that the emigrants turned west after crossing the Bear River. Evidence indicates that they continued north-north-west seven or eight miles to utilize the excellent Rocky Ford across the Malad River. This does not mean they traveled that much further, for it would require three or four miles to reach the Malad going due west from the Bear River crossing. As has been pointed out, it was very difficult to cross the Malad with wagons; it was well worth a few extra miles travel to avoid trouble. The site of Rocky Ford was much used by Indians. Doubtless they had used the ford for centuries, and since the ford at Hampton's Bridge was a good crossing over Bear River, there was probably a well-used Indian trail between the two fords that invited use by early emigrants. The 1856 township plat for this area, and other early maps, shows an "Old Salt Lake Road" from Hampton's Bridge on Bear River to the west side of present Plymouth, but no roads leading west to cross the Malad below Rocky Ford. This suggests that no such road existed when the survey was made in 1855 or 1856, but this is not conclusive proof. It is probable that the Bartleson-Bidwell party crossed the Malad at Rocky Ford in 1841 after entering the Bear River Valley from the Clarkston, Utah area over the ridge north of the gorge through which Bear River flows from Cache Valley. The party mentioned passing a hot spring, which Dr. David Miller identified as the Udy Hot Spring. This spring is only a mile or two below Rocky Ford. For August 18 John Bidwell recorded,

Traveled but a short distance, when we discovered that a deep salt creek [Malad] prevented our continuing near the [Bear] river. In ascending this stream in search of a place to cross it, we found on its margin a hot spring, very deep and clear.

It seems logical that in their search for a place to cross, the party would discover the Rocky Ford, as it is the only tolerable place to cross the Malad River in this area, and they probably found an Indian trail leading to it. Local residents know of no other place the Malad River could be forded with wagons.

From three sources the location of the emigrant road from Rocky Ford southward to the vicinity of Garland and then southwesterly to Point Lookout has been established. The 1856 township plat shows the location of a road in existence at that time. Thomas E. King, who was reared on a farm north of Garland and whose father was one of the first settlers, remembered where there was a road in existence when he was a boy. Ruts, tire marks on rocks, and other signs substantiate the road location. The road went south from Rocky Ford to a spring at the former Alex Toponce Ranch, approximately six miles north of Garland. It passed along the hillside about a mile and a half west of the Garland business district, and about an eighth of a mile west of the Pierce Airport, by a stock water-tank. It intersects an existing road located three to four miles southwest of Garland.

At first thought one may wonder why the old road was so far up on the hillside, but it is a direct route to Point Lookout Ridge and much of it is about the same contour. The route passed by several springs, and the soil is gravelly and firm and provided good traveling conditions when valley soils were muddy or loose and dusty.

There were other routes between the Brigham City area and Point Lookout. Three other fords across Bear River are known. Adolph M. Reeder, a local historian at Brigham City, is informed on the Corinne Ford located about a mile up river from Corinne, just above an island in the river. He believes his father was the first to use this ford in 1862 and doubts that loaded wagons used it.

The desirability of a crossing at or below the site of Corinne was recognized in the years of immigrant travel as well as now, for in a letter to the War Department from Benicia, Calif., August 25, 1855, Captain Rufus Ingalls wrote as the fruits of his travel through this area with Steptoe's command during the summer, "The road should cross Bear river below the confluence of the Malad. Had we crossed there, more than 20 miles traveling could have been avoided .... But what was abstractly desirable was not physically practicable.

Another ford across Bear River was located about 200 or 300 yards upstream from the bridge on the road from Honeyville to Bear River City. Channel changes make this appear improbable now. The 1856 township plat shows a road meeting the Malad River and a bridge indicated. At the upper end this road probably intersected the road from Rocky Ford to Point Lookout Ridge. None of the older local residents remember the bridge, but at the point indicated there was an old ford which is clearly remembered by Amos A. Iverson, on whose farm the ford is located. Mr. Iverson says the ford was used to some extent until about 1895. When he first came to this locality, the land had not been cultivated, and a road went from this ford through the sage and brush southeast to the ford across the Bear River west of Honeyville. There is an area of sandy soil at the top of the bluff east of the Malad River ford on the Iverson farm that was much used by Indians as a camping ground, so they probably had used the ford long before the advent of white men.

The third old ford across Bear River is about two and a half miles east of the Elwood schoolhouse. The road going east on the north side of the schoolhouse leads to this ford. It passes through the Keith Fridal Ranch and goes down a narrow ridge between a large bend in Bear River. There is a concrete block bearing the inscription "Boise Ford, 1853," partially hidden in the willows, marking the place where the road entered the river. Evidence of the old road can be seen leading up the hill on the north bank. No doubt this road joined the emigrant road between Honeyville and Deweyville. It has not been learned where the users of this road crossed the Malad River going west.

The emigrant road from Point Lookout followed along the general route of U.S. Highway 30 to the vicinity of Snowville. It passed Blind Spring, which is in a deep gulch just south of the highway about five miles northwest of Point Lookout Ridge, where the highway bends west. A short distance west of the pass into Blue Creek Valley, the emigrant road bears to the left and can be seen where it passes over the foothills about due east of Blue Springs. Blue Springs can be reached by going north from Howell, Utah, about three miles or by leaving the interstate highway at the valley exit and going west eight-tenths of a mile and then south half a mile.

From Blue Springs two branches of the Salt Lake Cutoff were traveled to Rattlesnake Pass into Hansel Valley. From Rattlesnake Pass the old road went south of U.S. Highway 30 and followed around the base of the hills to Hansel [Dillie] Spring at the Ward Ranch. It passed south of Snowville. Marks can be seen where the trail crossed the road from Snowville to Locomotive Springs, about one and three-tenths miles south from where this road leaves Highway 30. From this point the old road went eastward across the fields to the foothills at the north end of Hansel Mountain. It can be followed west to the ford across Deep Creek just above the bend. The emigrant road continued west along the north bank of Deep Creek to the location of the Rose Ranch about six and a half miles west of Snowville.

From the Rose Ranch the Salt Lake Cutoff went west across Curlew Valley in a direct line to Pilot Springs. The marks of the trail can still be seen. An existing road to Pilot Springs goes south from Highway 30 about 16 and three-tenths miles west of Snowville, along the east side of a fenced experimental range. About nine-tenths of a mile south, a road turns off southwest, and it is eight-tenths of a mile along this road to Pilot Springs. From Pilot Springs the emigrant road can be seen both east and west.

The old road goes along the side of a later road westward from Pilot Springs. It is one and nine-tenths miles to a gravel pit and the highway to Park Valley. This is about two and one-tenth miles southwest from where the Park Valley road leaves Highway 30, and near mile post seventy-three. The emigrant road continues on westward, but at about two-tenths of a mile it forks — one branch going northwesterly to Cedar Springs and the other west-south-west to Emigrant Spring. From Emigrant Spring it is a little west of north about two miles to Cedar Spring, where the two branches rejoined.

The Cedar Spring is located up the canyon about a mile and a half southwest of the old Cedar Creek town and stage station. If a stream flowed from the spring, as it probably did, emigrants would not have needed to go all the way to the spring for water. Cedar Creek townsite is eight-tenths of a mile south of Highway 30 along a road which leaves the highway four miles southeast of Strevell. Emigrant Spring is two miles south of Cedar Creek, then west up the canyon about a mile.

From Cedar Spring the emigrant road wound through the junipercovered foothills to Clear Creek, following fairly close to a road now in use. The old road can frequently be seen near the present road. It crosses the road up Clear Creek about one and eight-tenths miles south of the road from Strevell to Naf and goes on west by the old Naf schoolhouse, then northwesterly to the Raft River Narrows. It can be seen where the trail crossed the present road about one and one-tenth miles west of the Naf store. The emigrant road can also be seen where it crossed a road that goes north-north-west from Stanrod to the Raft River, about three and one-tenth miles north of the place this road leaves the Naf road and about one and one-tenth miles south of its junction with the road up Raft River from Highway 30 near Bridge, Idaho.

The emigrant road can be seen again above the Raft River Narrows, south of the road from Almo to the Narrows. It continues on west-northwest to the upper ford of Raft River at the present Durfee Ranch. It is easy to find where it leaves the Durfee Ranch headed southwest toward Emigration Canyon. The trail crosses the road that goes south from Almo about three and eight-tenths miles south of the corner where a road turns east about a mile south of Almo. The old road crossing is about one-tenth of a mile north of the place where a road now in use turns off southwest toward Emigration Canyon.

What was probably a branch of the Salt Lake Cutoff goes west from Clear Creek, keeping close to the edge of the foothills south of the present road from Naf to Stanrod. Its marks can still be seen. The trail passed by the Stanrod Cemetery and the Sandy Barnes Spring about a mile northeast of Stanrod. A mile north and a mile west of Stanrod the old road and present road come together near a spring. For about two miles west of here the old road was very near the one now in use. It then turned southwest along the old road to Yost, while the present road turns northwest by the Stacey Ranch. The old road drops into the Yost Valley, almost a mile and a half north of Yost. About a half-mile west of this point, along the present road from Yost to Almo, the dim marks of an old road can be seen going northwest. An old road goes due east from the mouth of Emigration Canyon to Raft River, then down Raft River about a half-mile to an old ford, then east up the hill that borders Raft River. At the top of the hill this road turns southeast up a gently sloping plain directly toward the old road going northwest from Yost. This could have been an emigrant route.

The junction of the Salt Lake Cutoff and the Fort Hall road can still be found. The junction is in a field about due south of the Twin Sisters and south of the present road and the fence that parallels it. The old Fort Hall road crossed the ridge on the south side of the City of Rocks about a mile east of the Twin Sisters, then turned southwest through a patch of junipers and sage, down through a field planted to crested wheat grass where the ruts of the old road can still be seen, across the road from the City of Rocks and over a low, juniper-covered ridge, across the present road to Junction Valley, and into the field where it joins the Salt Lake Cutoff. The deep ruts of the California Trail can be seen going west where they finally fade in the distance crossing Junction Valley and over Granite Pass.

Following along the Salt Lake Cutoff, the stream of emigrants joined the river of California-bound travelers who were seeking their fortunes in the gold mines and golden sunshine.

For full citations and images please view this article on a desktop.