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Show 148 due west along the southern edge of the Escalante Desert in hopes of establishing a direct route west. The attempt proved impractical however. In a short time, the company reached the point where it was to leave the California road and strike west. It was about three miles from Pinto Creek and eight miles above the Mountain Meadows that the expedition turned off the established road. Less than nine years ago, Asahel Bennett stood at this same juncture and made the fateful decision to proceed to California over an untried route. Now he was about to travel the same road but for reasons he could have never imagined in 1849. The company called this Bennett's Trail, and for several days they were to follow in the tracks of the Forty-niners. Camp was made on Shoal Creek a few miles west of present-day Enterprise, Utah. Some time after midnight, two men rode into camp with an express from Parowan. Samuel Lewis and Barnabas Carter carried the letters from Calvin C. Pendleton and other authorities. Pendleton, President Dame's counselor in the stake presidency of Parowan, sent news that Jesse N. Smith, hfarius Ensign, Bans Mortensen and three others from Parowan would not be coming to aid in the expedition. Some of the men were absent in Salt Lake City forwarding teams for the evacuation, and, for the same reason, it was impossible to raise the required teams. Colonel Dame and others used this opportunity to send letters back to the settlements. Over the next two days, the expedition advanced up Shoal Creek Canyon in a westerly direction. The canyon began as a wide open bottom land, but it soon necked down to a narrow defile. After three miles of rough going, the canyon opened up again into a beautiful valley of wire grass about one hundred yards wide. The weather was not beautiful, however. The 28th was a bad day for travel. A cold rain drove the explorers into camp at 1 P.M. after only eleven miles. Camp was made at Nephi Springs, so named for the interpreter, Nephi |