218 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



The emigrants should not be subjected to the exactions which are made of them at this and several other place s 

 on the route. The Mormons and others who charge tolls, should be repaid their outlay, and travelers relieved from a 

 tax which many are ill able to pay. 



With great respect, your obedient servant, 



A. S. Johnston, 

 Colonel Second Cavalry. Bvt. Brig. Gen. U. S. A.,Comd'g. 



It will be noticed that in the above report General Johnston recommends that the 

 Government re-imburse the Mormon people for the outlay they have made in the con- 

 struction of a portion of my route from Fort Bridger to Camp Floyd, and that it thus 

 be relieved from the heavy toll which is now exacted upon it. This portion extends- 

 for a distance of 12 miles up the canon of the Timpanogos from its mouth, and the 

 work was executed in the early part of the year 1858, before I explored and opened 

 the route all the way through to Fort Bridger, in the fall of that. year. 



In order to ascertain the cost of the said turnpike, I addressed the following letter 

 of inquiry to the Hon. W. H. Hooper, Delegate to Congress from Utah: 



Washington, December 6, 1859. 



Sir : Believing that it would be expedient to have the road fr 



the Timpanogos River, entirely free from toll, I respectfully ask for 



Company would sell out its interest in the turnpike portion of that ro 



asked is not unreasonably large, I can recommend to the Department i 



I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Mr. Hooper's riphj* 



House ok Representatives, 



Dear Sir: On the 6th of last December I received a letter from yon, making inquiry as to the amount the Tiiu- 



mation, I stated to you in my reply that I would write to Utah upon the subject and learn whether the company were 

 willing to sell, and upon what terms. From Utah, in answer to my communication on this subject, I learn that, by 

 action of the last legislative assembly, the canon-road became the property of the Territory ; that there was expended 

 in the construction of said road eighteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven dollars and sixty-one cents, 



i~l-,.U7.i;i.) and for labor in locating tho road and >up.-rvi>ing the expenditures thereon, one thousand dollars, ($1,000,) 



Should the Government wish to purchase the canon-road at the before-nam i . aiJ( i uiake the 



requisite appropriation for so doing, doubtless the Territory will be v. f or that sum. 



I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



WM. H. Hooper. 

 Capt. J. H. Simpson, 



Topographical Engineers. 



Having now presented some of the grounds for the following estimate, I am pre- 

 pared to submit it, premising that as the turnpike portion referred to in Mr. Hooper's 

 letter has been, a great deal of it, excavated from the solid rock, and includes an excel- 

 lent bridge over the Timpanogos, I do not consider the amount expended by the Ter- 

 ritory in its construction extravagant.f 



* The original transmitted through Bureau of Topographical Engineers, August 2, I860, to Hon. Secretary of War. 



tThe details of the routes— at what points they should be improved, and the nature of the improvements— will 

 be found given in my journal of explorations above; and in my ivp ,rt of I j.-ivinb.-r ■_•-, I -.>, t, ■<„■,.. -ial Johnston, of 

 my exploration and opening of the new route from Camp Floyd to Fort Bridger via Timpanogos Canon and White Clay 

 Creek. This] n. Ex. Doc. No. 40, 35th Cong., 2d Seas. 



