A History of Box Elder County

Trappers, explorers, goldseekers

CHAPTER 3 TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS W.it h the coming of European fur trappers, exploration par­ties sent by the federal government, and the hordes of avaricious forty-niners, the history of Box Elder moves from prehistory onto the stage of history-written history, for that is the defining factor which separates prehistory from history. There are no first-hand accounts. History, then, requires language, not only spoken, but written. The presence of a written record, and the recording of events, makes his­tory. The ancient ones who lived off the land and migrated with the seasons, from the marshes and desert's fringe to the lush high-moun­tain valleys, the people whose clothing was of rabbit skins, whose feet were shod with reeds and buffalo hocks, whose weapons were made of obsidian and flint and jasper, who ate grasshoppers and crickets, ricegrass and pickleweed, and who lived in caves and wickiups kept no written records, as far as we know. They kept-nor left-no his­tory we can decipher. They were pre-historic. The first non-Indians to record their impressions of parts of Utah were the Spanish friars, Dominguez and Escalante, who trav­eled through as far north as Utah Lake in the summer of 1776. While 44 HISTORY OF Box ELDER COUNTY the Spanish did not enter present-day Box Elder County, the area was recognized as Spanish territory in the 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty between the United States and Spain. That treaty defined the bound­aries of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and set the northern boundary of Spanish territory as the 42nd parallel-the present northern boundary of Utah's Box Elder County. The boundary remained unsurveyed and undefined, creating a contested land in northern Utah as American, British, and New Mexican fur trappers entered northern Utah in the 1820s. The British, primarily under Peter Skene Ogden-who led sev­eral expeditions for Hudson's Bay Company and left his name on a river, mountain, valley, and city south of Box Elder County-fol­lowed the streams down from Oregon as far south as the Weber River. Another Hudson's Bay Company trapper, Donald Mackenzie named the Malad River when he and his companions became ill from eating tainted beaver meat while encamped on the river.1 New Mexican trappers came north primarily from Taos via the San luan, Colorado, Green, Duchesne, and their tributary streams. Americans came west from St. Louis by way of the Missouri River. In the winter of 1824-25, James Bridger was selected to settle bets about the course of the Bear River. The trappers knew the upper Bear (the Shoshoni sag-wy-og-way) through Wyoming, Idaho, and the Cache Valley, from trapping the beaver-rich streams which fed into it. They did not know the Bear River below Cache Valley, the pe-og- wa, the part of Bear River which did not have lush beaver-bearing streams. Bridger followed the river from Cache Valley into present day Box Elder County and southward to the mouth of the Bear River where it entered the Great Salt Lake. Bridger concluded that he had reached an arm of the Pacific Ocean because of the salty water he found.2 He is credited with being the first American to see the Great Salt Lake; however, Etienne Provost, a fur trapper of French extrac­tion from Taos, New Mexico reached the south end of the Great Salt Lake in the fall of 1824 after he lost eight men in a fight with Snake Indians on the Jordan River. During the winter of 1825-26, fur trap­pers were forced out of Cache Valley because of heavy snows. They divided into two camps, one under John Weber which wintered on TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 45 the Weber River, the other, probably under Jedediah Smith, wintered on the Bear River near its mouth. After breaking camp in late February 1826, Jedediah Smith took his men around the head of Bear River Bay and across the Bear River Mountains to explore the u n k n o w n county n o r t h and west of the Great Salt Lake. The p a r t y reached the n o r t h end of the lake where four men, James Clyman, Louis Vasquez, Moses (Black) Harris, and Henry G. Fraeb, spent twenty-four days in bull boats sailing to the south end of the lake in search of beaver-laden streams. Meanwhile, Jedediah Smith crossed into eastern Nevada, then made his way to the 1826 rendezvous in Cache Valley by an unknown route.3 Having explored northwest of the Great Salt Lake in the spring and early summer of 1826, Jedediah Smith decided to explore the region south and west of the lake at the conclusion of the 1826 ren­dezvous. Known as the Southwest Expedition, the year-long sojourn took Smith south through the center of Utah to the Virgin River, then on to California, and back across the Salt Desert in time for the 1827 rendezvous at the south end of Bear Lake. Both legs of the t r ip took Jedediah Smith through part of Box Elder County. George Brooks, editor of t h e Jedediah Smith diaries, concludes that Smith went through Box Elder Canyon and Sardine Canyon at the beginning and end of the year-long journey. Smith records in his diary at the end of the journey: July 1st 25 Miles North along the shore of the Lake [Great Salt Lake] Nothing material occurred. 2nd 20 Miles North East made our way to the Cache. But just before arriving there I saw some Indians on the opposite side of the creek. It was hardly worth while as I thought, to be any wise care­ful, so I went directly to them and found as near as I could judge by what I knew of the language to be a band of the Snakes. I learned from them that the Whites, as they term our parties, were all assembled at the little Lake, a distance of about 25 miles. There was in this camp about 200 Lodges of Indians and as the[y] were on their way to the rendevous I encamped with them. 3rd I hired a horse and a guide and at three O Clock arrived at the rendezvous. My arrival caused a considerable bustle in camp, 46 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY for myself and party had been given up as lost. A small cannon brought up from St. Louis was loaded and fired for a salute.4 The fur t r a d e c o n t i n u e d until the streams were depleted of beaver, and the stylishness of beaver hats declined. Many former fur trappers became guides for government exploring expeditions and some of the first overland emigrants from the east. The Bidwell-Bartleson Party The first overland emigrant party to California was the Bartleson-Bidwell Party in 1841. The party spent nearly two weeks crossing t h r o u g h Box Elder C o u n t y d u r i n g their history-making journey. The p a r t y of sixty-one persons left Missouri in May 1841 and followed the Oregon Trail along the N o r t h Platte River to the Sweetwater River, through South Pass, a n d on to Fort Bridger. West of Fort Bridger, they struck the Bear River and followed it n o r t h to Soda Springs where about half the company decided to follow the known route on to Oregon while the others stuck with their original goal of California. With nine wagons, they headed south along the Bear River traveling without any guide or compass and crossing into Utah near present-day Clarkston on 16 August 1841. Historian David Bigler describes their activities and route into and across Box Elder County. Intending to rest in Cache County while several men sought directions at Fort Hall, the party mistakenly crossed the low range just north of the Gates of the Bear to arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley near present Fielding. After fording the Malad River oppo­site Plymouth, they continued south through the future towns of Garland and Tremonton until, desperate for water, they headed east to strike the Bear River, just south of Corinne. The party then headed northwest, intersecting its own trail, to skirt the north end of the Great Salt Lake, find the Mary's River now the Humboldt), which, it was then believed, flowed from the lake to the Sacramento River, and follow it to California. They crossed the Promontory Mountains on the route of the later transcontinental railroad and passed just north of Kelton to rest at Ten Mile Spring near the base of the Raft River Mountains. Crossing Park Valley to the south of the present town, they TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 47 came on 11 September to Owl Spring, just north of Lucin, where Kentuckian Benjamin Kelsey abandoned his wagons and put his wife and baby on horseback. Two days later, the emigrants were the first of many to arrive at Pilot Peak on the Utah-Nevada border and find relief at the fresh-water springs at its base.5 John Bidwell, who kept a diary of the journey, offered one of the earliest written descriptions of Box Elder County. The diary entries for 13 through 27 August 1841 follow. F. 13th. Traveled about 10 miles in a southerly direction. It was the intention of the company to stop and hunt in cash [sic] valley, which is on bear river 3 or 4 days travel from its mouth. S. 14th. Left the river on account of the hills which obstructed our way on it, found an abundance of choke cherries, many of which were ripe, road uncommonly broken, did not reach the river, distance about 14 miles. S. 15th. Continued our journey over hills and ravines, going to almost every point of the compass, in order to pass them: The day was very warm-the grass had been very good, but it was now very parched up; having come about 15 miles, we encamped on a small stream proceeding out of the Mountains at no great distance from us. But we were surprised to see it become perfectly dry in the course of an hour, some of the guard said there was plenty of water in it about mid night. M. 16h. This morning there was abundance of water in the lit­tle stream and it was running briskly when we left it. If the water was not supplied by the melting of the snow in the mountains, it was really an interesting spring, found an abundance of choke cherries, very large and exquisitely delicious, better than any I ever eat before, distance traveled, 12 miles. T. 17th. Traveled about 16 miles; saw a large smoke rising out of the mountains before us. It had probably been raised by the Indians, as a telegraph, to waran the tribe, that their land was vis­ited by strangers. We were unable to procure any fuel this evening, we therefore slept without fire. The Indians, found in this region, are Shoshonees, they are friendly. W. 18th. Traveled but a short distance, when we discovered that a deep-salt creek prevented our continuing near the river. In ascending this stream in search of a place to cross it, we found on 48 HISTORY OF Box ELDER COUNTY its margin a hot spring, very deep and clear. The day was very warm and we were unable to reach the river, encamped on this salt creek and suffered much for water, the water being to salt we could not drink it, distance 15 miles. T. 19. Started early, hoping soon to find fresh water, when we could refresh ourselves and animals, but alas! The sun beamed heavy on our heads as the day advanced, and we could see nothing before us but extensive arid plains, glimmering with heat and salt, at length the plains became so impregnated with salt, that vegeta­tion entirely ceased; the ground was in many places white as snow with salt & perfectly smooth-the mid-day sun, beaming with uncommon splendor upon these shining plains, made us fancy we could see timber upon the plains, and wherever timber is found there is water always. We marched forward with unremitted pace till we discovered it was an illusion, and lest our teams should give out we returned from S. to E, and hastened to the river which we rached in about 5 miles. A high mountain overlooked us on the East and the river was thickly bordered with willows-grass plenty but so salt, our ani­mals could scarcely eat it; salt glitters upon its blades like frost. Distance 20 miles. F. 20th. Company remained here while two men went to explore the country, they returned bringing the intelligence that we were within ten miles of where the river disembogued [sic] itself into the great salt lake, this was the fruit of having no pilot-we had passed through cash valley, where we intended to have stopped and did not know it. S. 21st. Marched off in a N.W. direction, and intersected our trail of Thursday last, having made a complete triangle in the plain. At this intersection of the trails, we left a paper elevated by a pole, that the men, returning from Fort Hall, might shun the tedious rounds we had taken. Found grass and water which answered our purpose very well, though both were salt. Distance ten miles. S. 22nd. This morning a man (Mr. Bralaski) returned from the Fort, and said the reason, why he came alone, was, the other men had left him, because he was unable to keep up with them; he hav­ing a pack horse laden with provision. He had seen the paper at the intersection of the trails, and was guided by it to the camp, the oth­ers were undoubtedly going the rounds of the triangle, sure TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 49 enough, they came up in the afternoon, having gone to the river and back, no pilot could be got at the Fort. The families, that went into Oregon, had disposed of their oxen at the fort and were going to descend the Columbia River with pack horses-they in exchange, received one horse for every ox, their wagons they could not sell. They procured flour at 50 cents a pint, sugar same price and other things in proportion, near where we were encamped here, were a few Hackberry trees. M. 23rd. Started, bearing our course west, in order to pass the Salt Lake-passed many salt plains and springs in the forenoon, the day was hot-the hills, and land bordering on the plains, were covered with wild sage. In passing the declivity of a hill, we observed this sage had been plucked up, and arranged in long minows, extending near a mile in length. It had been done by the Indians, but for what purpose we could not imagine, unless it was to decoy game. At evening we arrived in full view of the Salt Lake, water was very scarce. Cedar grows here both on the hills and in the valleys, distance 20 miles. T. 24th. Cattle strayed this morning to seek water-late start- day was warm-traveled about 10 miles in a W. direction, encamped where we found numerous springs, deep, clear and somewhat inpregnated with salt. The plains were snowy white with salt. Here we procured salt of the best quality. The grass, that grew in small spots on the plains, was laden with salt which had formed itself on the stalks and blades in lumps, from the size of a pea to that of a hen's egg, this was the kind we procured, it being very white, strong and pure. W. 25th. Remained here all day. T. 26th. Traveled all day over dry, barren plains, producing nothing but sage, or rather it ought to be called, wormwood, and which I believe will grow without water or soil. Two men were sent a head in search of water, but returned a little while before dark unsuccessful. Our course intersected an Indian trail, which we followed directly north towards the mountains, knowing that in these dry countries, the Indian trails always lead to the nearest water. Having traveled till about 10 o'clock P.M. made a halt, and waited till morn­ing- distance about 30 miles. F. 27th, Daylight discovered to us a spot of green grass on the 50 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY declivity of the mountains towards which we were advancing. 5 miles took us to this place, where we found to our great joy, an excellent spring of water and an abundance of Grass-here we determined to continue, 'till the route was explored to the head of Mary's River and run no more risks of perishing for want of water in this desolate region.6 The expedition reached California in early November, nearly six months after leaving western Missouri. John C. Fremont The first major exploration of Box Elder County under the aus­pices of the central government, was led by the colorful, controver­sial John Charles Fremont. Fremont made five expeditions to the West between 1842 And 1849. It was on his second expedition in 1843 t h a t he past t h r o u g h Box Elder County, explored p a r t of the Great Salt Lake, a n d named the geographical area the Great Basin. Fremont's maps were used were used by t h e M o r m o n pioneers of 1847 and his favorable report about the region was well-received by Brigham Young.7 Fremont's second expedition left St. Louis in May 1843. By September 1 t h e p a r t y had reached a stream which Fremont called the Roseaux, or Reed River.8 The Roseaux is what we now know as the Malad River. O n that date Fremont notes that The morning was squally and cold; the sky scattered over with clouds; and the night had been so uncomfortable, that we were not on the road until 8 o'clock. Travelling between Roseaux and Bear rivers, we continued to descend the valley, which gradually expanded, as we advanced, into a level plain of good soil, about 25 miles in breadth, between mountains 3,000 and 4,000 feet high, ris­ing suddenly to the clouds, which all day rested upon the peaks. These gleamed out in the occasional sunlight, mantled with the snow which had fallen upon them, while it rained on us in the val­ley below, of which the elevation here was about 4,500 feet above the sea.9 Fremont's account continues, noting that "The country before us plainly indicated that we were approaching the lake, though, as the ground where we were travelling afforded no elevated point, nothing TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 51 of it as yet could be seen; and at a great distance ahead were several isolated mountains, resembling islands, which they were afterwards found to be."10 After describing the grass, brush, and shrubs, Fremont notes that they camped about 300 yards above the confluence of the Roseaux and Bear rivers.11 After studying the river, Fremont decided to explore it from its surface. He notes, "Among the useful things which formed a portion of our equipage, was an India-rubber boat, 18 feet long, made somewhat in the form of a bark canoe of the northern lakes. The sides were formed by two air-tight cylinders, eighteen inches in diameter, connected with others forming the bow and stern. To lessen the danger from accidents to the boat, these were divided into four different compartments, and the interior space was sufficiently large to contain five or six persons, and a considerable weight of baggage."12 Fremont embarked in his technological marvel, along with Basil Lajeunesse, "Thinking that perhaps in the course of the day we might reach the outlet at the lake."13 He notes that, at that time, Bear river "was from sixty to one hundred yards broad, and the water so deep, that even on the comparatively shallow points we could not reach the bottom with 15 feet."14 After floating down the river for "five or six hours," they "came unexpectedly upon several families of Root Diggers, who were encamped among the rushes on the shore, and appeared very busy about several weirs or nets which had been rudely made of canes and rushes for the purpose of catching fish."15 These were the Shoshoni. Fremont wrote: "They had the usual very large heads, remarkable among the Digger tribe, with matted hair, and were almost entirely naked; looking very poor and miserable, as if their lives had been spent in the rushes where they were, beyond which they seemed to have very little knowledge of anything."16 After making acquaintance with the startled Indians, Fremont promised to send men to trade with them, and paddled off down the Bear. The heavily-loaded boat moved slowly, and the day ebbed without having found the river's mouth. Fremont and Lajeunesse beached their craft, cached the supplies "in the willows."17 They climbed the bank and discovered, by their trail, that their companions had passed by earlier in the day. After following the trail for about fifteen miles they " . . . caught sight of the camp-fires among clumps of willows just as the 52 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY sun had sunk behind the mountains on the west side of the valley, filling the clear sky with a golden yellow."18 At three o'clock in the morning, Fremont sent several men and horses for the boat. They returned in the afternoon, bringing with them "a small quantity of roots, and some meat, which the Indians had told them was bear meat."19 That afternoon they went about three miles farther down the river, but found further travel impossible, on account of the spread­ing out of the water in the miry delta. There, they camped for the night. The next day the exploring party retraced their steps for about five miles, crossed the river, and camped. On the fifth, they headed for one of the island mountains about twelve miles to the south but were prevented from reaching their goal by the mud. They turned eastward following a well-beaten path along the shore of the lake to the hot springs at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains near what is now the boundary between Box Elder and Weber counties. "In about seven miles from Clear creek [probably Willard] the trail brought us to a place at the foot of the mountain where there issued with con­siderable force ten or twelve hot springs, highly impregnated with salt. In one of these, the thermometer stood at 136°, and in another at 132°.5; and the water, which spread in pools over the low ground, was colored red."20 From there, Fremont and party went south, launched their India-rubber boat on Great Salt Lake, and explored Fremont Island, where Kit Carson carved his famous cross on the island's highest point and Fremont lost the cap for his telescope. On 12 September, however, Fremont and company were back in Box Elder. The previous morning, they had breakfast on Yampah and suppered on kamas, no better fare than the poor Indians, "but a cup of good coffee still distinguished us from our digger acquaintances." On the twelfth, they came north past "the hot salt-springs" and camped on the creek at the mouth of Willard Canyon. There they had "a supper of sea-gulls, which Carson killed near the lake."21 On the thirteenth they continued north, through Bear River Valley, probably following a beaten trail. They crossed Box Elder Creek, and mention is made of North Lake. In the afternoon they came upon "five or six hot springs gushing out together, beneath a conglomerate, consisting principly of fragments of a grayish-blue TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 53 limestone, efflorescing a salt upon the surface. The temperature of these springs was 134°, and the rocks in the bed were colored with a red deposite, and their was common salt crystallized on the margin." This was the spot now known as Crystal (or Madsen) Hot Springs. That night they camped on the Bear River. The company was low on food, and consequently low in spirits. An expected rendezvous with a supply group had not materialized. On the fourteenth the men "looked so forlorn, that I gave them permission to kill a fat young horse which I had purchased with goods from the Snake Indians, and they were very soon restored to gayety and good humor." Fremont and his German cartographer, Charles Preuss, were made of differ­ent stuff than the men of their cohort. Fremont records that "Mr. Preuss and myself could not yet overcome some remains of civilized prejudices, and preferred to starve a little longer; feeling as much sad­dened as if a crime had been committed."22 The next day they purchased a small quantity of food from some Snake Indians, and later acquired an antelope from another Indian for a small quantity of gun powder and some balls. That night word came of their supply train, which they met the following day with its good supply of flour, rice, dried meat, and small amount of butter.23 Resupplied, the explorers turned northward, into the Snake and Columbia river drainage leaving both the Great Basin and Box Elder behind in their ambitious sweep of the great American West. Howard Stansbury The next of the government explorers to enter Box Elder history was Howard Stansbury, who gave his name-as did Fremont before him-to one of the Great Salt Lake islands. Stansbury's exploration does not follow immediately in a strict chronology of the county's history, but is grouped with Fremont and the gold-seekers here. Stansbury was seven years older than Fremont, and was com­missioned in 1849 to survey Great Salt Lake and explore the sur­rounding region in the wake of the discovery of gold on the American river in northern California. One of his assistants, First Lieutenant John W Gunnison, became prominent in the history of Utah but died at the hands of Indians in Millard County in 1853. In addition to exploring the Great Salt Lake, Stansbury was 54 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY instructed to help improve transportation in the region, first by try­ing to establish a better wagon road between Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City, a n d second by accessing potential transcontinental railroad routes in the West.24 In September 1849 Stansbury's p a r t y came from Cache Valley down Box Elder Canyon. Here is his description of the canyon, before it was improved for travel: The pass or gorge through which this little stream [Box-elder Creek] rushes down the mountain to the plains below is steep, rugged, and very narrow, being in places scarcely passable for mules. I had hoped it would afford a passage over the range for wagons, but this I soon found to be impracticable. Descending this wild pass for about two miles, we reached the lake valley, and repaired to our camp on Bear River. In crossing the Wahsatch range at this point, the lower hills on the eastern side were composed of broken conglomerate. Large boulders of serpentine were met with on the surface, and also altered sandstones and limestones. Ascending from Cache Valley, the dark limestones were found cropping out, but the surface was so completely covered with vegetable soil that no section could be obtained. The limestones seemed to form the summits of the high­est elevation of the range, but as we passed through the deep gorge of Box-elder Creek, this could not be positively ascertained. No trap was observed, but large boulders of granite were seen in the sides of the pass. The rocks had been so much worn, and the sur­face was so covered by fallen masses, that no section of the strati­fication was visible.25 On 20 October Stansbury and company t u r n e d "more to the southward, with the intention of doubling a lofty promontory that puts into the lake from the north, and forms the western boundary of the Malade valley. In about a mile [from the emigrant road] we came u p o n three or four beautiful springs of clear, bright water: they were gushing out from a rocky point, (of dark limestone and coarse argillaceous sandstone, with a dip of about 20° to the east,) and unite to form a branch which runs southward some miles, and then sinks in the sand, before reaching the lake. The water was, however, warm, brackish, and entirely unfit for drinking."2 6 He had apparently TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 55 reached the springs at the head of Salt Creek, on the eastern end of Bothwell. Stansbury and party then t u r n e d south, down the length of the Promontory peninsula, around the point, and n o r t h up the western side. They encamped at P r o m o n t o r y Point, a n d Stansbury r h a p ­sodized. The evening was mild and bland, and the scene around us one of exciting interest. At our feet and on each side lay the waters of the Great Salt Lake, which we had so long and ardently desired to see. They were clear and calm, and stretched far to the south and west. Directly before us, and distant only a few miles, an island rose from eight hundred to one thousand feet in height, while in the distance other and larger ones shot up from the bosom of the waters, their summits appearing to reach the clouds. On the west appeared several dark spots, resembling other islands, but the dreamy haze hovering over this still and solitary sea threw its dim, uncertain veil over the more distant features of the landscape, pre­venting the eye from discerning any one object with distinctness, while it half revealed the whole, leaving ample scope for the imag­ination of the beholder. The stillness of the grave seemed to per­vade both air and water; and, excepting here and there a solitary wild-duck floating motionless on the bosom of the lake, not a liv­ing thing was to be seen. The night proved perfectly serene, and a young moon shed its tremulous light upon a sea of profound, unbroken silence. I was surprised to find, although so near a body of the saltest water, none of that feeling of invigorating freshness which is always experienced when in the vicinity of the ocean. The bleak and naked shores, without a single tree to relieve the eye, pre­sented a scene so different from what I had pictured in my imagi­nation of the beauties of this far-famed spot, that my disappoint­ment was extreme.27 We note from Stansbury's description that the Shoshoni living on the Promontory were living much as their prehistoric ancestors. The explorers came upon "a brackish spring, where there had been a camp of Indians the night before."28 There "a quantity of some species of seeds they had been beating out lay in small heaps around, and I found an old water-bottle they had left in their haste. It was inge- 56 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY niously woven of a sort of sedge-grass, coated inside with the gum of the mountain pine, by which it was rendered perfectly water-tight."2' The expedition turned west across Rozel Flat, then continued north, and turned northwest across Salt Wells Flat. They then trav­eled north to Cedar Hill, and north of it turned west, and went across the Curlew Valley, picking up the route of U.S. Highway 30 as it goes through Park Valley and Rosette. Stansbury's company then turned south (as does Highway 30), and followed generally the route of the highway east of the Goose Creek range to Lucin, and then west into what is now Nevada. Parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the Great Salt Lake, and the territory around both were extensively studied scientifically for the first time from September 1849 to August 1850 by Captain Howard Stansbury from the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers. He, like other travelers before who ventured across the Great Salt Lake Desert, found the western sections of Box Elder County dry and difficult to traverse. Commenting on the dryness of the desert, Stansbury, at his camp located northwest of the Great Salt Lake, wrote, "The poor ani­mals [his caravan of mules] presented this morning a forelorn appearance, having been now without a drop of water for more than twenty-four hours, during eighteen of which they had been under the saddle, with scarcely anything to eat."30 Along with his report, Stansbury, like Fremont before him, left a detailed map of the topography along his route, and drew in the route itself. Stansbury's survey and map were too late for Brigham Young, were immensely valuable as a survey and a report on the water, geology, flora, fauna, and indigenous inhabitants of a large segment of Box Elder. The Salt Lake Cutoff As news of the discovery of gold in California spread eastward, eager Argonauts came from all parts of the country, across the Great Plains, across the Rocky Mountains, following the trails used by Oregon, California, and Mormon pioneers. The California Trail divided at Fort Bridger. A northern route led from Fort Bridger to Fort Hall, then down the Snake River and up Goose Creek to the headwaters of what is now called Mary's River until it joined the TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 57 Humboldt, then along the latter stream to its sinks. The northern trail then took its course along the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe across the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into California. The southern trail left Fort Bridger and followed the route of the Mormon pioneers to the Great Salt Lake. From there the trail bore south along the foot of the mountains until it met the Spanish Trail near Cove Fort and followed it to its terminus at Los Angeles. There were several "cutoffs," or variant trails, some usable during certain seasons of the year, and some little more than death-traps, like the Hastings Cutoff, the route of the ill-fated Donner-Reed party across the Great Salt Lake Desert. There was, among the trails, a route north from Salt lake City through Box Elder County to Fort Hall, and then west (or east) along the Oregon and CaliforniaTrail. This road to Fort Hall was the route pioneered by Hazen Kimball, an early defector from the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City.31 Another trail, known as the Salt Lake Cutoff, was opened by Captain Samuel J. Hensley and ten soldiers under his command in August 1848. Hensley and his men left Salt Lake City in early August and traveled north through Box Elder County and across the Bear River on a course parallel to present-day Interstate 84 to Snowville, then west to join the California Trail from Fort Hall in what is called Emigration Canyon, at a place called the Twin Sisters, just south of City of Rocks, Idaho. On Sunday, 27 August 1848, about ten days after leaving Salt Lake City, Hensley met a group of the returning Mormon Battalion members who had come up the Humboldt and Mary's rivers on their way to Great Salt Lake City. The battalion boys had intended to go first to Fort Hall and then south to Salt Lake City, but Hensley described the route he and his men had just followed, wrote out a waybill for the eastbound travelers, and indicated that by following the shortcut it would save the men at least eight or ten days.32 Although Hensley's name was not applied to the cutoff, it was remembered as Hansel and applied to the Box Elder County land­marks of Hansel Valley, Hansel Spring, and the Hansel Mountains. After leaving Hensley, the battalion members traveled two more days and met a large company, forty-eight wagons, under the com­mand J. B. Chiles. Chiles had traveled the West before, in 1841, pio­neering the route to Fort Hall via Fort Bridger, then northwestward 58 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY along the Snake River to Ft. Boise, then crossing the present-day California border at Goose Lake, and following the Sacramento River south to Sutter's Fort. Upon being informed of Hensley's discovery, Chiles told the Mormon Battalion boys that there was a cutoff that was shorter yet, and gave them directions to the projected cutoff.33 The Mormon travelers sent scouts ahead to find Chiles's route. Nine days later the main group encountered their scouts near the head of Mary's River. Chiles's fabled cutoff had been a figment of the old explorer's imagination. The boys then decided to follow the route described by Hensley.34 On 15 September they reached the place where Hensley's cutoff separated from the trail north to Fort Hall. That spot was the small valley dotted with spires of wind-eroded granite, a surreal landscape of fantastic shapes called Cathedral Rocks. At the point where the new cutoff left the old road was a notable landmark, mentioned by Hensley, a pair of tall rocks which one of the men, Addison Pratt, gave the name "the Twin Sisters."35 From Cathedral Rocks, now more commonly called the City of Rocks, the Salt Lake-bound Mormon Battalion boys descended east to the site of present-day Almo, Idaho, then followed the Raft River (called by them Cajnes or Cazier Creek), through the narrows east of Almo, then southeasterly to the site of Naf. Battalion members made Hensley's trail into a road, crossing the present-day Idaho-Utah border just south of Naf, then following just south of the route of Utah highway 42, past Cedar Springs, Emigrant Springs, and Pilot Springs across what is known as the Rose Ranch. The cutoff passed south of Snowville to Hansel Spring, where the highway passes the Hansel Mountains.36 Following a route necessary for wagons, oxen, and horses, the road continued to the next source of water, Blue Spring, then past Blind Springs to the site of Garland. From there the trail went north to the only good wagon crossing of the Malad River at Rocky Fort, west of Plymouth, then southeast through Fielding to the best ford of the Bear River, later known as Hampton's Ford. From there the road followed Hazen Kimball's track along the route of present State Highway 69, from spring to spring to the north end of what became Box Elder settlement. Where the Kotter farm is now located, the road turned east to meet Rees Spring and avoid the marshy country below the foothills. From there the TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 59 road t u r n e d west a n d traveled along what is n ow Brigham City's Main Street, becoming U.S. Highway 89 south of town. The road fol­lowed the springs to secure water for men and animals.37 At Cold Spring, near the Box Elder-Weber county line, t h e route of the Salt Lake Cutoff t u r n s west, along a line which follows the springs and avoids the sand and the marshes, t h r o u g h Plain City, Hooper, and Syracuse, then curving east to meet U.S. Highway 89 at the Utah State University Experimental Farm near Farmington. The road then went along the foothills past Bountiful into the Salt Lake Valley. The Hensley Cutoff became one of the major routes to the gold fields, in fact, the major route for summer travel. It also became the route many Mormon missionaries traveled to San Francisco to take sail for their fields of labor, particularly in the Pacific islands. In 1849 an estimated 45,000 emigrants made their way over the California Trail. Of those, historian Brigham D. Madsen concludes that almost all of the 15,000 who went via Salt Lake City also used the Salt Lake Road.38 Migration to California continued at a rapid pace with more than 165,000 people and nearly a million animals cross­ing the California Trail between 1849 and 1857. Of those California-bound immigrants, a substantial number passed through Box Elder County en route to their Eldorado.39 ENDNOTES 1. lohn W. Van Cott, Utah Place Names (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990), 242. 2. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc., 1964) [originally published in 1889 in San Francisco], 19-20. 3. Dale Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953), 179-87. 4. George R. Brooks, ed., The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah S. Smith (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977), p. 197; Fred R. Gowans, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (Layton, Utah: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., 1985), p. 13. 5. David L. Bigler, "Bartleson-Bidwell Party," in Allan Kent Powell, Utah History Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994), 33. 6. lohn Bidwell, A Journey to California, 1841: The first emigrant party to California by wagon train, the Journal of John Bidwell (Berkeley, CA: The Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1964), 11-12. 7. Herman ]. Viola and Ralph E. Ehrenberg, "Introduction" to John C. 60 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY Fremont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988), xii. It was not Fremont's maps or descriptions which brought the Mormons west, nor did they cause Brigham Young to choose the area. They helped him map his route, and showed him mountains, lakes, and rivers, but the decision to come to "the Rocky Mountains" was made by loseph Smith, before his martyrdom in 1844. It was a part of the development of loseph Smith's theological king­dom, not only Brigham Young's, to settle among the Native Americans in the southwest. See Andrew Karl Larson and Katharine Miles Larson, eds., Diary of Charles L. Walker (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1980), 522, 524; Ronald W. Walker, "Seeking the 'Remnant': The Native American During the loseph Smith Period," Journal of Mormon History, 19 (Spring 1993): 1-33. 8. Fremont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 146. 9. Ibid., 147. 10. Ibid. These would have included Little Mountain, west of Corinne, Fremont Island, and perhaps Little Mountain west of Ogden, and Antelope Island. 11.Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid., 148. 16.Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid., 149. 20. Ibid., 150. 21. Ibid., 158. 22. Ibid., 159. 23. Ibid., 160. 24. Don D. Fowler, "Introduction," in Howard Stansbury, Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988),. xi. 25. Stansbury, Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, 97. It is for that reason that pre-historic (and historic) natives tended to make the jour­ney from Cache Valley to Box Elder Creek via Flat Bottom Canyon, the first defile north of Box Elder Canyon. There is a well-marked trail emerging from Flat Bottom canyon on the Bonneville bench, and descending on a northerly slope, down the face of Wellsville mountain, toward a spring TRAPPERS, EXPLORERS, GOLDSEEKERS 61 nearly at the base of the hill. This trail was used, not only in prehistoric times, but in early settlement days, and particularly by Brigham City men who had been "called" to work on Logan temple in the 1880s. The route for them to Logan by foot was via Flat Bottom canyon on Monday morning and back on Saturday, according to local legend. 26. Ibid., 98-99. 27. Ibid., 101-2. 28. Ibid., 103. 29. Ibid., 103-4. 30. Ibid., 106. 31. L. A. Fleming and A. R. Standing, "The Road to 'Fortune': The Salt Lake Cutoff," Utah Historical Quarterly, 33 (Summer 1965): 257. 32. Ibid., 250, quoting "West from Fort Bridger" in Utah Historical Quarterly, 19 (1951): 250. 33. J.B. Chiles gave the east-bound Mormon Battalion members a "way­bill" listing the route, the landmarks by which it could be followed, mileages, and noting springs, rivers, and sources of feed for animals. 34. George R. Stewart, The California Trail (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962), 202-4; Fleming and Standing, "The Salt Lake Cutoff," 250-51. 35. Fleming and Standing, "The Salt Lake Cutoff," 204. 36. As often happens as trails become roads and place names are con­ferred by chance, Samuel Hensley has not been accorded the recognition he deserves. His route, which became the main route to California during the Gold Rush, traveled by tens of thousands of emigrants, became known as the Salt Lake Cutoff. Although his name was conferred on a spring, a range of mountains, and a valley, by the time it was written down, it had become Hansel Valley, Hansel Mountains, and Hansel Spring (also called Dillie Spring), short shrift given to the route's pioneer, Samuel J. Hensley. 37. One of the prominent springs in southern Box Elder is Porter Spring, just west of the tiny town of Perry. Not only was it one of the impor­tant springs along the Salt Lake Road, it bridges the gap between the nine­teenth and twentieth centuries in an interesting, entrepreneurial way. In the 1850s LDS apostles Charles C. Rich and Amasa Lyman were sent to California to reclaim tithing funds collected by renegade Mormon adven­turer Samuel Brannan. They took along as their guide, no doubt-bodyguard, and probable enforcer, Orrin Porter Rockwell. Rockwell had been to the California gold fields and knew the territory. After their return, Rockwell realized that money was to be better made off the gold seekers than in the gold fields. Accordingly, he homesteaded on the spring which bears his name, making it a "recruiting" place for men and animals. It was the north- 62 HISTORY OF BOX ELDER COUNTY ernmost of the springs along the Salt Lake Road which had both plenty of water and plenty of grass. Travelers to the gold fields could stop a while, fat­ten their horses, oxen, and milk cattle (for a price, collected by the enter­prising Rockwell) and then head out across the desert in much better con­dition. It is interesting that, in the 1970s, Porter Spring was purchased by lay Call, descendent of Mormon pioneer Anson Call, and owner of Flying J. Mr. Call built his dream house on the edge of the pond at Porter Spring, and it serves today as his private "recruiting" place, a home in an edenic spot with a considerable heritage. [See J. Kenneth Davies, Mormon Gold (Salt Lake City: Olympus Publishing, 1984); Howard M. Carlisle, Colonist Fathers, Corporate Sons: A Selective History of the Call Family (Calls Trust, 1996), 190. 38. Brigham D. Madsen, ed., Exploring the Great Salt Lake: The Stansbury Expedition of 1849-50 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), 173, note 42. 39. L. A. Fleming and A. R. Standing, "The Road to 'Fortune': The Salt Lake Cutoff," Utah Historical Quarterly, volume 33, number 3 [Summer 1965], p. 258 and George R. Stewart, The California Trail (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962), 231-232, 319.