?rHE 0\"EELAlSrD EOUTE COUNCIL BLUFPS TO OGDEN. 



87 



Plate XXIV, A, shows a monument (in the center of the group) that 

 is lower than the others and worn to a sharp point at the top. The 

 cap that once protected this ^^witch^' now lies in a gulch at her feet. 



Henefen 



Elevation 5,409 feet. 

 Population 413. 

 Omaha 904 miles. 



The other caps will fall in time — probably after the lapse of centuries — 



and The Witches, like their mythical prototypes, will disappear 



from the face of the earth. 



Near Henefer the first company of Mormon emigrants, for some 



reason that is now hard to understand, left the Overland Trail and 



chose the very difficult route up the creek that enters 

 the Weber from the south. After crossing the moun- 

 tains, they passed down Emigration Canyon to Salt 

 Lake City.^ 

 To the right (north), near Hcncfer station, may be 

 seen a gravel terrace rising 25 feet or more above the level of the road- 

 bed. This was formed by the river at some former stage, probably 

 during the time of high water in Lake Bonneville. (See pp. 97-99.) 

 Although the gravels here are more than 200 feet above the highest 

 terrace of the old lake, it seems likely that the diminished slope of the 

 river during high water then caused the stream to deposit in this part 

 of its course the beds of gravel that now form the sheK on which the 

 railroad is built west of Echo and that form the protecting cap of the 

 bluff at Henefer. 



The Cretaceous rocks which in Echo Canyon dip steeply toward the 

 west under the red beds of the Wasatch group reappear with opposite 

 dip west of Echo, but owing to the, great quantities of gravel that 

 cover the hillsides, derived by disintegration from the older conglom- 

 erates, these rocks can be seen from the train at onl}' a few places. 

 However, the broad, open valley that the route crosses west of Hen- 

 efer is due to erosion of the soft Cretaceous shales. 



Three miles west of Henefer the coarse red puddingstone of the 

 Wasatch beds extends down to the river level, and the broad basin- 



beaten path was a\'oided for two reasons. 



1 



It is possible that a little study of the 

 earlier history of the Mormons may throw 

 some light on this strange procedure. 

 They had been driven from place to place 

 in the States until they had decided to 

 seek a place so far from settled districts 

 that they would not be molested. When 

 this first company, consisting of 140 men 

 and 3 women, started westward in April, 

 1847, one purpose of their leader, Brigham 

 Youn":, was to mark out a trail for the use 



Rather than follow 

 the Overland Trail, which had become 

 fairly well known by this time^ he chose a 

 new and untraveled route that came later 

 to be called the ilormon Trail. The 



of later emigrants. 



First, they wished to avoid their enemies, 

 some of whom they would be sure to find 

 on the older trail and second, they never 

 traveled on Sunday and they made relig- 

 ious worship as much a part of their daily 

 program as the travel itself. In order to 

 avoid trouble, as well as for the sake of 

 being unmolested in their devotions, this 

 first company marked out a new route 

 through 1,000 miles of wilderness. The 

 Mormon Trail parallels the Overland TraH 

 and in some places where a different route 

 was imnracticable joins it, as, for exam- 



am 



passe 



