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GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



time, for three years later the incoming bands of Mormons, instead 

 of following Weber River downstream from the mouth of Echo 

 Canyon, turned up Weber River and were soon in the open valley 

 where Coalville now stands. They continued up the Weber to Wan- 

 ship, where they turned to the west, and after crossing a low, flat 

 divide reached Parleys Park at Kimball. From this point their 

 route practically followed that of the railroad, crossing the summit 

 at Altus and continuing down Parleys Canyon to the Salt Lake 

 Valley. Over this trail came^ the " handcart companies " of 1856 

 and most of the Mormon emigrants who entered the valley prior to 

 the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. 



The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad continues to the 

 southeast from Kimball through a wide flat known as Parleys Park, 

 crosses a divide so low that it is all but imperceptible, and then fol- 

 lows up one of the head branches of Weber River to Park City. 

 Parleys Park is at so high an altitude that the ordinary crops can 

 not be grown satisfactorily, so it is devoted almost exclusively to 

 stock raising. It contains fine fields of hay and pasture, and the 

 surrounding mountains afford ample range. 



The Wasatch Mountains are noted for the brilliancy of their au- 

 tumn coloring, and should the traveler pass this way in the early 

 autumn, after the first week in September, he will doubtless see a 



canyon and then turned to {he right 

 and ascended a tributary stream which 

 heads in one of the high summits of 

 the Wasatch Range. They crossed 

 this summit and descended the north- 

 em branch of what is now known as 

 Parleys Canyon. This they followed 

 until the canyon closed in about them 

 and then they crossed the low ridge 

 on the right into what is now called 

 Emigration Canyon, and this they de- 

 scended to the main valley. The road 

 was so rough and mountainous that 

 it took them 16 days to travel from 

 Fort Bridger to the valley of Great 

 Salt Lake. This delay and the diffi- 

 culty which the party experienced in 

 the desert around the south end of 

 Great Salt Lake caused them to be 

 overtaken by winter in the Sierra Ne- 

 vada, and here the whole party would 

 have perished had they not been res- 

 cued by men sent out from the mining 

 camps of California. At any rate, 39 

 of the 87 persons in the party died of 

 cold and starvation. 



Many have wondered why the Mor- 

 mon pioneers followed this route in- 

 stead of keeping down Weber Canyon 

 and reaching the valley at Ogden. It 

 seems almost certain that they had, 

 while at Fort Bridger, determined 

 upon their future location, provided 

 the soil was found to be suitable for 

 agriculture. As the location was prac- 

 tically decided upon it was only nat- 

 ural for them to take the most direct 

 route, which was evidently the so- 

 called Hastings cut-off, or the Emigra- 

 tion Canyon trail, as it was known in 

 after years. Besides, they knew that 

 the trail was passable, for the Donner 

 party had cleared it out the year be- 

 fore. A glance at the map will show 

 that the Mormon trail is a much 

 more direct route from Fort Bridger 

 to Salt Lake City than the route 

 through Echo and Weber canyons by 

 way of Ogden. Some of the old trail 

 is still visible in Emigration Canyon, 

 which is one of the points of interest 

 about Salt Lake City. 



