The Great Salt Lake Trail
Inman, Henry, 1837-1899
English
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THE GREAT SALT LAKE TRAIL
By COLONEL HENRY INMAN
Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army
Author of _The Old Santa Fe Trail_, Etc.
And COLONEL WILLIAM F. CODY, "Buffalo Bill"
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 Fe, 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-courieres of the telegraph
and the railroad.
One of the collaborators of this volume, Colonel W. F. Cody ("Buffalo
Bill"), 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.
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