| OCR Text |
Show CHAPTER XIV THE MEADOW VALLEY FARM While the Dame pack train was wending its way toward Meadow Valley, Barney reached the farm on Snake Creek. He did not stay, however. Instead he appointed David E. Bunnell of Provo to take charge of the mission while he commenced his return home. This part of the expedition is somewhat hazy. In his "Biographical Sketch," written many years, Barney contended, "I took four wagons and ten men and went southeast to the sink of the Beaver dam [Beaver River] and from thence home." Since Bean explored to the southeast eventually striking the Beaver River, it is considered possible that Barney simply attached himself to Bean's company for his homeward trek. There are several factors, however, which indi*- cate Barney may have broke a new trail across the desert. His assertion that he took four wagons and ten men with him is one. Bean had seventeen men with him. But in the report Barney and Bean wrote to Brigham Young from Cave Valley on March 22 they discussed their plans: "...we intend to run two wagon trails across from this neighborhood to the vicinity of the settlements. Col. Dame will make another will make another which will be five trails across tbe unexplored region."2 (Italics mine.) The five trails would be the two westbound routes of Dame and Bean, the eastbound routes of the same, and one other- apparently Barney's. Barney and Bean alleged to Young they would run two new trails themselves. What exact route Barney used is not known at present. Of Bean's movements we can synthesize a little more. Bean had hoped to locate the Beaver company somewhere near the Wah Wah Range. Logic indicates he exited the south end of Snake Valley striking southeast for tbe Wah Wah Range. 232 |
