The Great Salt Lake Trail

Owing to the gold discoveries of 1849, the state of California was born in almost a single day. The ocean route to the Pacific was tedious and circuitous, and the impetuosity of...

In 1863, the Indians of the valley under the leadership of the celebrated Sioux war-chief, Spotted Tail, broke out, and the government determined to chastise them. An expedition...

In May, 1857, I started for Salt Lake City with a herd of beef cattle, in charge of Frank and Bill McCarthy, for General Albert Sidney Johnston's army, which was then being sent...

I remained at Fort Sedgwick during the winter, and early the following spring I returned to Fort McPherson, under orders to report to Major-General Emory of the Fifth Cavalry, w...

The folk-lore of the Blackfeet is very voluminous and full of humour. Of course, as in other tribes, superstition and enchantment make up the basis of their stories; and it will...

From the earliest westward march of civilization, the beautiful valley of the Platte, through which the Salt Lake Trail coursed its way, has been a grand pathway to the mountain...

On the return of Lewis and Clarke's expedition from the Rocky Mountains where they had wintered with the Mandans, a celebrated chief of that tribe, Big White, was induced to acc...

In this story of the Salt Lake Trail, our account would not be complete without including the history of the great “Iron Trail” that now practically, for a long distance, follow...

As early as a hundred and thirty-five years ago, shortly after England had acquired the Canadas, Captain Jonathan Carver, who had been an officer in the British provincial army,...

One of the Old American Fur Company's trappers by the name of Frazier, as often told of him around the camp-fire, was one of those athletic men who could outrun, outjump, and th...

In the spring of 1857 a band of emigrants numbering one hundred and thirty-six, from Missouri and Arkansas, set out for Southern California. The party had about six hundred head...

The majority of old-time trappers and scouts always had an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and adventure. Stories were often told at night when the day's duty of making the round...

Utah was settled in 1847 by a religious community of people generally known by the name of Mormons, but they style themselves, “The Latter-day Saints of the Church of Jesus Chri...

The Otoes, once occupying the region at the mouth of the Platte, were a very brave and interesting tribe. When first known to the whites, in the early part of the century, the c...

In 1812 General William H. Ashley, the head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, travelled up the Platte Valley, which a few years previously had been traversed by Captain Ezekiel...

In 1832 Captain William Sublette,[10] a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and one of the most active, intrepid, and renowned leaders in the trade, started on a trapping...

A little more than half a century ago the many bands of the great Sioux nation[45] hardly knew anything of the civilization of the whites in any part of the continent; none of t...

The tribe of Indians known as the Crows[50] are entitled to the very marked distinction of being the most manly in their conduct in its relation to the whites. The integrity of...

The excitement caused in 1858 by the alleged discovery of gold in the vicinity of Pike's Peak created a fever among the people of the United States, and there was a mighty exodu...

As early as the first decade of the present century, the great fur companies sent out expeditions up the valley of the Platte in the charge of their agents, to trap the beaver a...

Adventures continued—Hunting at Fort McPherson—Indians steal his Favourite Pony—The Chase—Scouting under General Duncan—Pawnee Sentries—A Deserted Squaw—A Joke on McCarthy—Scout...

to the Platte Valley in 1807—Character of the Old Trapper—The Outfit of his Men—Crosses the River—Immense Herds of Buffalo—Death of their Favourite Hound—A Lost Trapper—A Prairi...

Sublette's Expedition in 1832—They meet Nathaniel J. Wyeth's Party— Arrive at Green River Valley—Attacked by Indians—Antoine Godin shoots a Blackfoot Chief—Fight between Whites,...

Pike's Peak—Exodus from Missouri—The Creation of the Overland Stage Route to the Pacific Coast—Messrs. Russell and Jones' Failure— Russell, Majors, & Waddell's Successful Establ...

Atlantic and Pacific—The World-famed Pony Express—Necessity for it —Its Originator—The Firm of Majors, Russell, & Waddell—The Route— Organization—Its Paraphernalia—Daring Riders...

Building of the Union Pacific Railroad—Extract from General Sherman's Memoirs—General Dodge's Description of the Country when he first saw it—Explorations for a Route—Conference...

George P. Belden's Account—Sergeants Hiles and Rolla—Belden and Nelson have an Adventure—Belden maps the Country—Guarding Ben Holliday's Coaches—An Involuntary Highwayman—Captur...

blossom as the Rose—The Mormon Hegira—Pilgrim's Outfit—Curious Guide-posts—The Hand-cart Expedition—Sufferings and Hardships during the Exodus—An Impending War—General Harney's...

on the Route of the Old Trail—Loup Fork—De Smet's Account of a Waterspout—Wood River—Brady's Island—Ash Hollow—Johnson's Creek— Scott's Bluff—Independence Rock and its Legend—Ch...

Great Fur Companies—Fort Vasquez—Fort Laramie—Fort Platte—Fort Bridger—Incidents at Fort Platte—A Drunken Spree—Death and Burial of Susu-Ceicha—Insult to Big Eagle—Bull Tail's E...

their Hatred for the Whites—A Chief of the Brûlé Sioux tells a Story —The Scarred-Arms—Story of the Six Sioux and the Mysterious Woman— The Place of the Death Song—Wa-shu-pa and...

The Lost Children—The Wolf-Man—The Utes—Massacre of Major Thornburgh's Command on the White River—The Great Chief Ouray— Piutes—Their Theories of the Heavens—The Big Medicine Sp...

on the Salt Lake Trail—In Charge of a Herd of Beef Cattle—Kills an Indian—With Lew Simpson—Held up—Attacked at Cedar Bluffs—A Brush with Sioux—The Print of a Woman's Shoe—Captur...

Indians attack the Wagons—Lee offers Protection—Ambushed by Lee— Lee flies to the Mountains—Mormon Church acquitted—Execution of John D. Lee—Temporary Toll-bridges—Indian Raids...

—Frazier and the Bear—An Indian Elopement—The Ogallallas and the Brûlés—Chaf-fa-ly-a—Kit Carson on the Yellowstone—Battle with the Blackfeet—Carson, Bridger, and Baker on the Pl...

in July, 1866—A-ra-poo-ash—Jim Beckwourth in a Fight between Crows and Blackfeet—Beckwourth and the Great Medicine Kettle—The Missionary and the Crows—The Legend of the Blind Me...