Aug 9: Lost some cattle.
Aug 11: Still haven't found the cattle.
Feed for the animals was poor through that area due to all the animals that traveled ahead of the them.
Aug 17: Two men from the Salt Lake valley met them to lead them to good feed. They were happy to hear about how well the valley was progressing. They were camped near the North Platte River.
Aug 18: Raining - just made it across the river before it became impassable.
Aug 19: Held a meeting of all members of the 100 wagons for the last time they figured they would be together, due to the leapfrogging of the 50s and the various pacing of travel. They settled some problems among the various 10's.
Aug 21: Cattle bloated from eating so much grass. They fed them lard thinking they had alkali sickness, but the cattle survived. They continued on.
While camped on the Sweet Water River, they sent out hunting parties looking for buffalo.
Aug 26: Final hunters came in with three dead buffalo, the only success of the hunt. Camped that night at Devil's Gate.
Aug 31: Some dissatisfied travelers took off on their own from the fourth and fifth groups of 10s. They weren't seeing eye-to-eye with the others.
Sep 2: Traveling along the Sweet Water they found discarded wagons and other items left by California immigrants. There was much bedding and clothing found.
Sep 6: They traveled through South Pass and camped on Pacific Creek.
Sep 11: Camped on the Green River.
On Sep 16, 1850, they reached Great Salt Lake City after 101 days on the road.
[In my great-grandfather's review of the trip, he said that he never imagined what troubles and difficulties and the hard work required to bring "500 people" across the plains would be. And thirty years' later he was still worried (my word) about 10 of the muskets he had checked out before they left Nauvoo. One of the party had signed for them, but he didn't stop in Salt Lake. Instead he continued on to Provo and my ggpa still had the receipts in 1880.)]
Well, that was the end of the trip across the plains, but not the end of the journal. It continues with his life in the Salt Lake Valley and other places he traveled, sometimes for the Mormon Church and other times for himself, which I won't get into.
Was everyone on the wagon train LDS? Going only as far as SL, they didn't have the Great Basin and Sierras to cross - and being caught in early winter storms like the Donner Party (1846-47).
ReplyDeleteProbably around 90-95% were LDS members. Salt Lake Valley became a resting place for the winter for California immigrants, and there was a fair amount of dissension caused due to lack of supplies in some instances, the Mormons still smarting from the treatment they received back east.
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