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116 Utah Historical Quarterly (Santa Clara) then continued west through the narrows of the Virgin River without the benefit of modern highways and nearly lost several horses in the quicksand there. Smith passed the Salt Caves further south and took some salt with him to California.~1 A second group of trappers left Santa Fe late in 1826, traveled west along the Gila to the Colorado River, and trapped upstream. In March 1827 they reached the Mojave villages (near Needles, California), wiiere a skirmish resulted in deaths to the Indians. Later that party divided into several groups. T h e James Ohio Pattie group probably crossed the Colorado River to the north side and turned east over the Shivwits PlateauMount Trumbull area, and on east. However, Pattie's account is difficult to follow at times. 22 A third group was led by Thomas "Pegleg" Smith. His party crossed the Colorado and appears to have trapped up the Virgin River into the St. George area. Apparently there was a confrontation with the Indians, since the party burned some Indian granaries and fields. Smith and his men continued north and eventually returned to Santa Fe.2" Later that summer Jed Smith again trekked south to Utah's Dixie for a second trip to California. T h a t time, however, he turned up the Santa Clara River and crossed the Utah mountains close to the present route of U.S. Highway 91. One "narrows" escape had been enough. O n the lower Colorado River, Smith and his men were ambushed by the hostile Mojave who were seeking revenge for their losses to the other trappers earlier that spring. 21 Several of Smith's men were killed, forcing the survivors to walk to California. California continued to dominate both Mexican and American interests in the Dixie area. In the fall of 1829 Sehor Antonio Armijo led an expedition from New Mexico to California by way of northern Arizona, the Crossing of the Fathers, the Rio Virgin at St. George, and the lower Colorado River. 2 " His expedition, in effect, opened the Old Spanish Trail. During the next decade and a half annual caravans regularly 11 Maurice S. Sullivan. The Travels of Jedediah Smith (Santa Ana, Calif.: Fine Arts Press, 1934), pp. 70-75. " J a m e s Ohio Pattie, The Personal Narrative of James Ohio Pattie of Kentucky, ed Timothy Flint, in Reuben Thwaites, Early Western Travels. 1748-1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1905), pp. 131-40. ~:1 Sardis W. Templeton, The Lame Captain: The Life and Adventures of Pegleg Smith (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1965), pp. 5 5 - 5 8 . •4 Dale L. Morgan, Jed Smith and the Opening of the West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1952), pp. 237-40. ""LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Old Spanish Trail: Santa Fe to Los Angeles ...Including Diaries of Antonio Armijo and Orville Pratt (Glendale Calif.: Arthur H Clark Co., 1954), pp. 155-70.