Appendix 1: Mormon Way-Bill and Advice to Emigrants

(Table of Distances from Salt Lake City 1851)

From Temple block, G. S. L. City to Willow Creek	25 ⅝
To summit of dividing ridge between Utah and Salt Lake valleys	4 ⅞
To American Creek	9 ¼
To Provo River and fort	11 ½
To Hobble creek, good feed	7 ¼
To Spanish Fork, good feed	6
To Peteetneet, good feed	5
To Salt Creek (several small streams between) good feed	25
To Toola creek ford, no wood, good feed from this to the Sevier, the road is sandy passing over a high ridge	18 ⅝
To Sevier river, feed tolerable and willows for fuel	6 ¼
To Cedar creek, the first stream south of the Sevier, good feed and wood, road rather mountainous and sandy	25 ½
To 4th stream south of Sevier, crossing 2 streams, good feed, wood	17 ½
To Willow flats, the water sinks a little east of the road	3 ⅝
To Spring, good feed and water	25
To Sage creek, wood, feed poor	22 ¼
To Beaver, good feed and plenty of wood	5 ⅛
To North Kanyon creek, in the Little Salt Lake Valley, good feed, no wood, the road rough and steep for 6 miles	27 ¼
To 2nd stream, good feed and wood	5 ⅜
To 3rd stream, good feed and wood	6 ¾
To Cottonwood creek in Iron County, good feed and water	12 ⅞
To Cedar springs, good feed, etc.	9
To Pynte Creek, feed good about one mile up the Kanyon	23
To Road Creek, this is a small rivulet flowing down the Kanyon of the divide, road rough, feed good	9
To Santa Clara, road descending and rough, poor feed, from this point to Cahoon pass, look out for Indians	16
To Camp springs; 1 ½ miles before you come to this spring you leave the Santa Clara, feed good	17 ⅛
To Rio Virgin, crossing over the summit of the mountain dividing the Santa Clara and the Virgin, road good, feed poor	22 ⅞
Thence down the Virgin, crossing it ten times, feed good down the river	39 ⅛
To Muddy, the road ½ a mile very steep and sandy, good feed	19 ⅝
To Los Vagus, good feed, &c, water is sometimes found at the distance of 23 miles from Muddy 2 ½ miles west of road in holes; also some grass about one mile from road	52 ⅝
Thence up to Vagus, good feed	5
To Cottonwood springs, poor feed	17
To Cottonwood grove, no feed, feed and water can be found 4 miles west, by following the old Spanish trail to a ravine—thence travel to the left in the ravine one mile	29 ¾
To resting springs, good feed and water, lay by and rest your animals for the desert	21 ¾
To spring of pure water, left of the road which follows into the Amagoshe [Amargosa] or Saleratus creek; let no animals drink the saleratus water	7
To Salt Springs, no fresh water, poor feed	14 ⅛
To Bitter springs, good road, but poor feed	38 ¾
To Mohave, good road, good feed	30 ¾
To Last ford of Mohave, good feed all the way up the Mohave	51 ½
To the sumit of Cahoon pass	17
To Camp west of Cahoon pass, road bad down the Kanyon	10
To Coco Mongo ranche	11 ½
To Del Chino ranche (Williams)	10
To San Gabriel river	19 ⅜
To San Gabriel Mission	6
To Pueblo De Los Angelos	8 ¼

Advice to Emigrants

We would recommend emigrants who have cattle to shoe them, and we would advise, not to take them further on the route than Fort Hall, or Great Salt Lake, but exchange them there for others, or horses. It is useless for men to start from either of these places with worn out cattle, as they never will get them to their journey’s end. Thousands of cattle and horses were sacrificed, because emigrants knew no better last year. The road from the States to Salt Lake or Fort Hall, is comparatively a railroad to the one from thence to California. We would recommend no man to overload his wagon with tools, etc., for spade, shovels, picks, etc., can be purchased cheap in California. Throw away your old yokes, chains, boxes, etc., for you will do so before you cross the desert, no wagon should have more than 800 lbs. with three yoke of cattle.

We wish to impress on the minds of the late emigrants, the danger they are exposed to, if they do not get over the Sierra Nevada mountains, before the 10th of October. Snow falls from the 1st to the 10th of that month, and after it has fallen some days, it is impossible for wagons to overcome the snow; and it will be fortunate for them if they succeed to get over themselves.

Pack animals are the best all the time, and single men had by all means better pack. Hard bread is the best to take from either of these places; also dried beef.

Clothes can be bought in Sacramento and Stockton, as cheap as in the States, and it is useless for men to overload themselves with such articles, to regard their movements, when, if they can get to good diggins which will average from $8 to $16 per day, they can secure all they want, and the kind that is the most useful, with one or two days’ work.

Men carrying ploughs, anvils, gold washers, stoves, or any other article of weight, may as well throw them away, or dispose of them; as it is perfectly useless to wear out their cattle, and at last leave the cattle, and goods between this and California.

After the emigrant settles on his winter diggins, he had better secure provisions enough to last him until April; together with pickles, vinegar, etc. as a preventive to the scurvy.

Emigrants had better not dispose of their animals when they are poor, but place them in good hands on ranches; as a poor horse or ox will not fetch over $10 or $15, while a fat ox or horse is worth $100.

Source note: LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Journals of Forty-Niners—Salt Lake to Los Angeles, 1820–1875, The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series, 1820–1875, vol. 2. (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1954), 321–24. A copy of the Way-Bill is in the William Robertson Coe Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.