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Show 28 Also in 1854, John C. Fremont led his final expedition to the far west. This time he was a civilian representing the interests of the Central Route to the Pacific. After a nearly disasterous attempt to cross the southern Wasatch in mid-winter east of Parowan, Utah, his party was nursed back to health in the town of Parowan. On February 21 he set out to cross the desert west of Cedar City. His exact trail is not known, but it appears that the first part of the journey was identical to the Death Valley company. Fremont avoided the trials experienced by the former company by steering to the north of Death Valley striking the Owens River on the west side of the Basin at about the 37th parallel.10 Later that year, Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe arrived in Salt Lake City on his way to California with two artillery batteries and a company of dragoons. The War Department detained him in Utah to aid in the capture of the murderers of Captain Gunnison and to improve the wagon road through southern Utah. With his work completed in the spring of I855, Steptoe made preparations for his march to California. Apparently unaware of Beckwith's recent survey, Steptoe employed five Mormon scouts to survey the lands west of the Great Salt Lake for the purpose of locating a shorter road to the coast. Although an extensive search was made, the Mormons failed to find a practical wagon road across the salt flats, and Steptoe took leave for California by the traditional route north of the Great Salt Lake.11 But the Mormons received considerable new knowledge of a portion of the Great Basin they were not familiar with. George W. Bean, a member of Steptoe's expedition, would lead a contingent of the White Mountain Expedition within three years. About this time, Howard Egan, a Mormon, Joined those who were interested in discovering a shorter route to California by going south of the Great Salt Lake. Egan was a prominent guide and mountaineer. For some time be had been |
