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Show 122 feet of snow had fallen in the South during the previous week,? and three more inches had been laid down the day before leaving Provo. Notwithstanding the deep snow and mud, Bean kept his men sloshing through the quagmire toward their rendezvous. It took the party one full week to reach Chicken Creek with their heavy wagons, a distance of only sixty miles. Here they found dry ground and feed for the tired animals. Brigham Young, thinking the company was still standing by at Summit Creek, dispatched another letter to Bean on the 24th. In light of his urgent plea of just three days before, this letter seems somewhat difficult to justify. Young wrote: "Owing to the state of the weather and the condition of the roads, and other plans of which you will soon learn, it is deemed best for you all to return to your several homes and get your families and move them up to where you now are, and let those who may have no families also return and assist those who have families, if any such assistance is necessary."" Perhaps Young felt the evacuation of the city was more important than finding the sanctuary at the present time, or that the time could be better spent in helping with the exodus than floundering over useless roads. Perhaps, too, there was an emergency brewing in Salt Lake. Rumor was spreading that Johnston might attempt to push his troops through the passes earlier than anticipated. It was this fear that prompted the officers of the Nauvoo Legion to hold a council in Salt Lake on March 29.10 Perhaps the evacuation of Salt Lake City could not wait any longer. On April 5, 2,000 Mormon militimen were ordered to start east in the morning. It is only speculation that the "other plans" mentioned in Young's letter to Bean were the same as those described above; yet it would seem likely that if Johnston's army appeared threatening, the prophet would hasten the exodus in every way possible-perhaps at the sacrifice of the White Mountain Expedition. As Brigham Young declared on April 3, be was "determined to place the |