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 Hist. Utah. 17

meeting, directed Orson Pratt'* to take the strong- est of their number and cut through the mountains into the valley, making roads and bridges as they went. After crossing what were designated as Big and Little mountains, the party, consisting of some forty -two men having twenty-three wagons, encamped in Emigration Canon. ^®

Thus the saints are reaching their resting-place. Their new Zion is near at hand; how near, they are as yet all unaware. But their prophet has spoken ; their way is plain; and the spot for them prepared from the foundation of the earth will presently be pointed out to them. The great continental chain is penetrated. In the heart of America they are now upon the border of a new holy land, with its Desert

^* ' Voted, that Orson Pratt take charge of an expedition to go on and make a road down the Weber River.' Jlisf. B. Young, MS., 1847, 97. O. Pj-attwaa appointed to take 23 wagons and 42 men, and precede the main company. Church Chron., 65. Erastus Snow says, in a discourse on the Utah pioneers, delivered in the tabernacle July 25, 1880: ' I well remember, as we called at the wagon to bid the president good-by, Brother Willard Richards. . .asking if he had any counsel to give to guide our movements. . .Resting his elbow on the pillow with his head in his hand, he spoke feebly, ..." My im^Dressions are," said he, "that when you emerge from the mountains into the open country you bear to the northward, and stop at the first convenient place for putting in your seed." '

'^ ' The emigration route previous to 1847 was via Laramie through South Pass to Big Sandy River. Then to avoid a desert stretch, down the Big Sandy to its junction with Green River, and across, then up Black's Fork to junction with Ham's Fork, and thence up Black's Fork to Fort Bridger. The Mormons here took the road made Ijy Hastings and the Donner company in 184G, bearing almost due west, crossing Bear River, down Echo Canon to junction with the Weber. The Mormons here chose the Donner trail, which passed up the Weber southerly from Echo about twelve miles, then westerly into Parley's Park, then across the hills northerly to the head of Immigration Canon, then into the valley. As the Donner company iiad passed over this route more recently than any other, it seems to have been followed as probably the best, and was usually travelled for many years. In 1847, when the Mormons entered the valley, there were three wagon routes into it. The first, down Bear River from Soda Si^rings, through Cache Valley— Capt. Bart- lett's route in 1841, followed by Fremont in 1843; the second, Hastings' California emigration through Echo and W^eber canons in 1846; and the third, the Donner route of 184G, described. The Mormons found a plain road into a fertile, unoccupied country;. . .its isolation alone was the cause of its non- occupation.' McBride's Route, of the Mormons, MS. This manuscript, to which among other favors I am indebted to Judge McBride, throws fresh liglit on the question of passes and routes in early times. The author, one of the first to enter Utah, was second to none in ability and position at a later