“Citizens of Utah – We are Invaded by a Hostile Force!”
The Utah War
In the late 1850s, disagreements became more frequent between federal officials and Mormons over how the Utah territory would be administered. Tensions became so great that U. S. President Buchanan dispatched 2,500 U. S. Army troops to suppress a reported “Mormon Rebellion.” Brigham Young declared martial law and directed the Mormon Militia to fortify strategic sites between Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Negotiations during the spring of 1858 defused the crisis, and on Thursday, June 24, 1858, “Johnston’s Army” passed this way over Hogsback Summit and entered the Salt Lake Valley unopposed.
Spring Creek Station
During the bitter winter of 1857-58, Spring Creek Station forwarded supplies to 2,000 Mormon Militia who were constructing defensive fortifications in Echo and East Canyons for the impending “Utah War.” Food, clothing, blankets, tents, weapons, and ammunition were dispensed from this commissary site. On October 1, 1857, station commander Colonel Jesse C. Little wrote, “We keep our camp open and a lot of coffee for express [riders] night and day.”
“We resumed our journey up a small stream on Reid’s route [James Reed of the Donner-Reed Party], sending in advance of the wagons a small company to make the road passable. … We traveled about 6 miles, and crossing the ridge [The Hogsback], began to descend another ravine.” – Orson Pratt, July 16, 1847
Utah Crossroads Chapter – OCTA
HU-3.2
This is part of the series of California Trail markers I’ve been documenting on these pages:
“The country west looks rough and mountainous,” wrote William Clayton, describing this panorama of the Wasatch Mountains. Modern historians have dubbed this summit “Heartbreak Ridge” to describe the feelings of many early Mormon Pioneers who crested this ridge. After months on the trail, traveling over 1,200 weary miles, it was heart-wrenching to discover that the most difficult part of the journey still lay ahead. Some people must have broken down and wept. Others gritted their teeth with determination and moved southwest down off Hogsback Summit to challenge the mountains and canyon that lay ahead.
“…arrived [July 19] on the summit of the dividing ridge and put a guide board up, “80 miles to Fort Bridger” … The descent is not very steep but exceedingly dangerous to wagons being mostly on the side hill over large cobble stones, causing the wagons to slide very badly. – William Clayton
On July 20, 1847, Orson Pratt’s advance company made the hallowing descent from Big Mountain and became the first Mormon Pioneers to camp in the canyon below. It was not a popular camping place for large groups because the ravine was narrow, the area in which animals could forage was small, and the spring was not adequate for large numbers of people and livestock.
“Willow Springs,” about 3 miles further down the canyon, was much preferred as a campsite. Good water and adequate forage were extremely important for trail travelers and their animals. Ephraim Hanks selected Willow Springs for the site of his ranch and way station because it possessed these important attributes.
“We travelled to-day about 6 miles over the mountain, laboring diligently upon the road.” – Orson Pratt
This page is to link to the pages for the sites I have documented along the Mormon Pioneer Trail.
(from nps.gov) The story of the Mormon Trail is rooted in the beginnings of a unique American religion. In 1827, 21-year-old Joseph Smith announced that he had unearthed a set of golden plates, inscribed with the tenants of God’s true church. Smith said that he had been directed to the plates by an angel named Moroni, who also had given him divine tools for translating the ancient inscriptions into English. Smith used these to produce new Scripture called the Book of Mormon. In 1830, in western New York, he organized a legal entity that would become The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His followers, who regarded Smith as a prophet, became known as Mormons.
Thousands of converts flocked to Nauvoo, soon making it the largest town in Illinois. Neighbors initially welcomed the orderly, industrious settlers despite their religious differences. But relations gradually soured, with complaints centering on Mormons’ clannish business practices, accusations of theft, their electoral sway, and Smith’s political aspirations. Meanwhile, dissent emerged within the church as rumors leaked of secret plural marriages. After an opposition newspaper publicly accused the prophet and other leaders of polygamy, Nauvoo’s city council and Smith declared the paper a public nuisance and Smith ordered destruction of its press. For that he and others were arrested and jailed at Carthage, Illinois. On June 27, 1844, a mob broke into the jail and murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. Other vigilantes attacked Mormon farms around Nauvoo in an attempt to expel them.
Brigham Young stepped up as Smith’s successor and began planning an orderly, spring 1846 evacuation of some 15,000 faithful to the Great Basin, Mexican-held territory beyond the Rocky Mountains. However, as anti-Mormon violence heated, Young decided to organize a vanguard of church leaders to depart in late winter, hoping that would pacify the vigilantes until the main body of Mormons could start west in April. On February 4, 1846, the first wagons ferried across the Mississippi to Iowa. This group halted after five miles and set up camp at Sugar Creek for a lengthy wait as Young and his associates concluded business at Nauvoo. Meanwhile others, anxious not to be left behind, drifted over to join the Sugar Creek camp. Young’s vanguard company unexpectedly swelled from his intended 1,800 emigrants to around 3,000—many without their own wagons and provisions.
On March 1, 1846, some 500 Mormon wagons lurched northwesterly across the winter-bare Iowa prairie toward the Missouri River. Their route is the Mormon Trail.
Sites are listed in order from east to west as they journeyed across the land –
The main group of Mormon pioneers camped one mile above the mouth of Echo Canyon on July 16, 1847. They were following the 1846 tracks of the Donner-Reed Party who had taken a “new” route to California proposed by Lansford W. Hastings. The next day, the pioneers entered the Henefer Valley and traveled downstream along the Weber River where they camped July 17 and 18. In the hills north of their camp, they offered a special prayer for Brigham Young who was ill.
Leaving Brigham Young and a few wagons in the Henefer Valley on July 19, the main group crossed the Weber River at present Henefer and turned up Main Canyon to Hogsback Summit. From this point, they stood in awe of the distant Wasatch Mountains, yet to be traversed. The Pioneers proceeded down Dixie Hollow, up Broad Hollow, and through present East Canyon State Park to East Canyon Creek. They camped at a spot now underwater, about ¼ mile upstream from the dam.
On July 20, the pioneers went 7¼ miles south up East Canyon. They forded the creek eleven times in one day. The pioneers camped at Large Spring, ½ mile north of present Mormon Flat. William Clayton said, “The last three miles has been the worst road… it being through willow bushes over twenty feet high… it is yet scarcely possible to travel without tearing wagon covers… The road is one of the crookedest I ever saw…” The next day, the pioneers traveled up Little Emigration Canyon to the summit of Big Mountain, the longest sustained climb of the entire trip. The pioneers paused here with heartfelt gratitude, for looking southwest they saw their destination, the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.
The pioneers proceeded down the extremely steep trail off Big Mountain to Mountain Dell, over Little Mountain, then down into Emigration Canyon. The main group camped 2½ miles from the mouth of Emigration Canyon on July 21. The next day they traveled to a campsite near 17th South and 5th East in what is now Salt Lake City. They had arrived! Brigham Young entered the valley on July 24.
From the late 1840s through the 1860s, an exodus of more than 70,000 Mormons passed by here on their way to their “New Zion” in Utah. Starting from Nauvoo, Illinois in February 1846, the first group of at least 13,000 Mormons crossed into Iowa to escape religious persecution, then spent the next winter in the area of present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1847, Brigham Young led an advance party of 143 men, 2 women, and 3 children along the Platte River. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming they departed from the Oregon Trail to head southwest to the Great Salt Lake. Thousands of other Mormons soon followed. Today, a marked 1,624-mile auto tour route closely parallels their historic trek.
From 1856-60, many European converts walked more than 1,200 miles to Salt Lake City pushing and pulling handcarts loaded with 500 pounds of supplies. After 1860, the Mormon church sponsored oxen-drawn wagons to bring emigrants to the “New Zion.”
On 19 July 1847, scouts Orson Pratt and John Brown climbed the mountain and became the first Latter-Day Saints to see the Salt Lake Valley. Due to illness, the pioneer camp had divided into three small companies. On 23 July, the last party led by Brigham Young reached the Big Mountain. By this time most of the first companies were already in the valley and planting crops. Mormons were not the first immigrant group to use this route into the Salt Lake Valley. The ill-fated Donner Party blazed the original trail one year earlier. They spent thirteen days cutting the trails from present day Henefer into the valley. That delay proved disastrous later on when the party was caught in a severe winter storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Mormons traveled the same distance in only six days. Until 1861, this trail was also the route of California gold seekers, Overland Stage, Pony Express, original telegraph line, and the other Mormon immigrant companies, after which Parley’s Canyon was used.
This monument, erected and dedicated 25 August 1984, by South Davis Chapter, Sons of Utah Pioneers, replaces the original plaque erected 23 July 1933, by Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association and the Vanguard Association of the Salt Lake County, Boy Scouts of America
