The Great Salt Trail

The Great Salt Trail

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Salt Lake Trail, by Colonel
Henry Inman Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure
to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or
redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
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 Fé Trail_, Etc.
And COLONEL WILLIAM F. CODY, “Buffalo Billâ€
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 Fé, 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 obstacles—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 dust—avant-courières of the
telegraph and the railroad.
One of the collaborators of this volume, Colonel W. F. Cody
(“Buffalo Billâ€), 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 California—when
the only route was by the overland trail—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 1774—Sir Alexander
Mackenzie's Expedition—The Expedition of Lewis and
Clarke—Hunt's Tour in 1810—March of Robert Stuart eastwardly.

CHAPTER II.
THE OLD TRAPPERS. Captain Ezekiel Williams' Expedition 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 Prairie Burial—A
Wolf-chase after a Buffalo—An Indian Lochinvar—The Crow
Indians—Their Country —Rose, the Scapegoat Refugee—The Lost
Trappers—A Battle with the Savages.

CHAPTER III.
JIM BECKWOURTH. General W.