The Great Salt Trail

The Great Salt Trail

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Title: The Great Salt Lake Trail
Author: Colonel Henry Inman
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5718] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 14, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF8
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE GREAT SALT LAKE TRAIL ***

This eBook was produced by Michael Overton.

THE GREAT SALT LAKE TRAIL
By COLONEL HENRY INMAN
Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army Author of _The Old Santa F?? Trail_, Etc.
And COLONEL WILLIAM F. CODY, a�?Buffalo Billa�
Late Chief of Scouts
Etext Edition edited by MICHAEL S. OVERTON
1898 (original edition), 2002 (Etext edition)
See PUBLICATION INFORMATION at the end of this Etext for a more complete bibliographic listing of the original source.

PREFACE.

There are seven historic trails crossing the great plains of the interior of the continent, all of which for a portion of their distance traverse the geographical limits of what is now the prosperous commonwealth of Kansas.
None of these primitive highways, however, with the exception of that oldest of all to far-off Santa F??, has a more stirring story than that known as the Salt Lake Trail.
Over this historical highway the Mormons made their lonely Hegira to the valley of that vast inland sea. On its shores they established a city, marvellous in its conception, and a monument to the ability of man to overcome almost insuperable obstaclesa���the product of a faith equal to that which inspired the crusader to battle to the death for the possession of the Holy Sepulchre.
Over this route, also, were made those world-renowned expeditions by Fremont, Stansbury, Lander, and others of lesser fame, to the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and beyond, to the blue shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Over the same trackless waste the Pony Express executed those marvellous feats in annihilating distance, and the once famous Overland Stage lumbered along through the seemingly interminable desert of sage-brush and alkali dusta���avant-couri?��res of the telegraph and the railroad.
One of the collaborators of this volume, Colonel W. F. Cody (a�?Buffalo Billa�), began his remarkable career, as a boy, on the Salt Lake Trail, and laid the foundations of a life which has made him a conspicuous American figure at the close of this century.
It is not the intention of the authors of this work to deal in the slightest manner with Mormonism as a religion. An immense mass of literature on the subject is to be found in every public library, both in its defence and in its condemnation. The latter preponderates, and often seems to be inspired by an inexcusable ingenuity in exaggeration.
Of the trials of the Mormons during their toilsome march and their difficulties with the government during the Civil War, this work will treat in a limited way, but its scope is to present the story of the Trail in the days long before the building of a railroad was believed to be possible. It will deal with the era of the trapper, the scout, the savage, and the passage of emigrants to the gold fields of Californiaa���when the only route was by the overland traila���and with the adventures which marked the long and weary march.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. Proposed Exploring Expedition across the Northern Part of the Continent in 1774a���Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Expeditiona���The Expedition of Lewis and Clarkea���Hunt's Tour in 1810a���March of Robert Stuart eastwardly.

CHAPTER II.
THE OLD TRAPPERS. Captain Ezekiel Williams' Expedition to the Platte Valley in 1807a���Character of the Old Trappera���The Outfit of his Mena���Crosses the Rivera���Immense Herds of Buffaloa���Death of their Favourite Hounda���A Lost Trappera���A Prairie Buriala���A Wolf-chase after a Buffaloa���An Indian Lochinvara���The Crow Indiansa���Their Country a���Rose, the Scapegoat Refugeea���The Lost Trappersa���A Battle with the Savages.

CHAPTER III.
JIM BECKWOURTH. General W. H. Ashley's Trapping Expeditiona���Jim Beckwourth's Storya���Two Axea���Kill Fourteen Hundred Buffaloesa���The Surrounda���Expedition is divideda���Boats are builta��� Green River Sucka���Indians murder Le Brachea���Beckwourth meets Castenga.

CHAPTER IV.
CAPTAIN SUBLETTE'S EXPEDITION. Captain William Sublette's Expedition in 1832a���They meet Nathaniel J. Wyeth's Partya��� Arrive at Green River Valleya���Attacked by Indiansa���Antoine