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UTAH'S DIXIE HISTORICAL SITES
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| SUP VISITS JEFFERSON HUNT MONUMENT | OLD SPANISH TRAIL MAP | JEFFERSON HUNT MONUMENT | JEFFERSON HUNT ROUTE |
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| FOR EDUCATED COWS AT THE MONUMENT | DR HEATH SHOWING TRAIL RUTS | OLD SPANISH TRAIL RUTS | 49ERS ILL FATED ROUTE |
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Jefferson Hunt, Bad Judgement, The 49ers and the Mormon Battalion
by Dr. Steven H. Heath
Those familiar with the story of the Death Valley 49ers and Jefferson Hunt*s decision to search for a shortcut at Beaver Creek into the Escalante Desert in October, 1849, have wondered how Hunt, an experienced frontiersman, could have taken a wagon train with hundreds of people into a region he had not explored. The decision led to the desertion, near present-day Newcastle, Utah, of 100 of the 107 wagons. Their subsequent trek is part of the epic story of the Death Valley 49ers.1
Hunt had successfully followed the southern route twice before: from Great Salt Lake City to San Bernardino in the fall of 1847, and from San Bernardino to Great Salt Lake City in the spring of 1848. No explanation for his decision at Beaver Creek was ever given except for "bad judgement."2 An examination of Hunt*s activities with the Mormon Battalion offers a plausible explanation, however.
Hunt was appointed captain of Company A of the Mormon Battalion when it marched from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego during the Mexican War in l846 When the Battalion members were discharged in California in July, 1847, Hunt and most of his comrades returned to Great Salt Lake City by way of Sutter*s Fort, the California Trail and the Oregon Trail. Some stayed in California, while 82 enlisted for another six-month stint.
When Hunt arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in October, 1847, he was "troubled by the obvious lack of food supplies in the valley."4 Even though the second company of Mormon pioneers would bring enough supplies to survive the coming winter Hunt saw major immigration and settlement problems in 1848. He presented President John Smith of the Salt Lake Stake and his high council with a possible solution:
Send a party to California by the southern route described by John C. Fremont in 1844 to purchase cattle, horses, wheat and seeds and return before Brigham Young could bring the main body of Saints in the summer.
Hunt*s proposal was approved. He, Orrin Porter Rockwell and 16 others left for Southern California on Nov. 18, 1847. The only description of this perilous journey was given by John Hunt, the 14-year-old son of Jefferson Hunt.5
In California, Hunt and his party purchased 200 cows, 40 bulls, some mares and pack mules and on Feb. 14, 1848, launched the return journey. Rockwell*s biographer, Harold Schindler, indicates that Hunt and Rockwell had a falling out in San Bernardino.6 This may be so, but the party may have also split up because Rockwell had agreed to lead 25 of the Mormon Battalion re-enlistees to Utah along the route he had just traveled. and Hunt was probably anxious to get the cattle and horses to Utah before the weather got too hot. Rockwell may have also wanted to stay longer to check on the possibility of obtaining the California-Salt Lake mail contract.
Henry G. Boyle, captain of the volunteers, indicated that there were 35 men in the Rockwell company that left San Bernardino on April 12, 1848. The party of 25 Battalion members and 10 men from the Hunt-Rockwell group, arrived in Great Salt Lake City on June 6,1848. Perhaps
the most significant thing about the journey was that they brought the first wagon, loaded with seeds, fruit tree cuttings and other materials over the southern route. Rockwell and his companions drove 135 mules and built a road for their wagon*s precious cargo. Developing a route gave Rockwell opportunity to explore. The Journal History of the Mormon Church records the following concerning the route: "It followed the Old Spanish Trail from Williams* Ranch (San Bernardino), through Cajon Pass, across the Mohave Desert to Las Vegas, up the Muddy Valley and across the Escalante Desert to Beaver Creek and onward to Chalk Creek (Fillmore, Utah); thence to Salt Creek(Nephi) to Spanish Fork River and Timpanogas River (Provo), thence via American Fork to Great Salt Lake City."
If the Journal History is correct in its brief description, the phrase "up the Muddy Valley and across the Escalante Desert to Beaver Creek" could be interpreted two ways. One possibility is that when the Rockwell Party reached the Muddy River it turned north up the Meadow Valley. Somewhere near present-day Caliente, Nev., it turned northeast, crossing the Escalante Desert to Beaver Creek. This route seems unlikely because of the rugged terrain at the north end of Meadow Valley and the importance of getting the wagon to Utah. It is hard to believe that Rockwell risked the loss of his cargo. A more likely possibility is that the Rockwell party followed the Spanish Trail to present-day Newcastle, Utah, then traveled due north across the Escalante Desert to Beaver Creek by passing the route through Cedar Valley, which the Spanish Trail followed. The route north of Newcastle across the desert, though waterless, was more direct and, for a wagon, much easier in dry weather.
It*s impossible to believe that Jefferson Hunt had not heard about the Rockwell party*s success with the wagon. When Hunt was approached by gold seekers in Oct. 1849 to lead them to
California by the southern route, he knew that if one wagon could make it, then a whole wagon train could. Hunt probably also knew about the Beaver Creek short-cut that Rockwell had used. His error at Beaver Creek was one of over-confidence: He thought he could easily find the Rockwell Route across the desert. He failed, and his wagon train spent a very dry week on the Escalante Desert. The decision cost him the confidence of his followers, including Apostle Charles C. Rich, who was headed to California to establish an LDS Church mission there.9
A week later, south of Newcastle, Hunt was left with only seven wagons to lead to California. Fortunately, most of the others, including Charles C. Rich, made their way back to the Spanish Trail and followed or joined Hunt as he led them to San Bernardino.
Dr. Steven H. Heath is a professor of Mathematics at S. U. U.
1. William B. Smart, Old Utah Trails. Chapter VI: "Forty-Niners," pp. 94-102. 2. ihid., p. 96. 3. See B.H. Roberts, The Mormon Battalion — Its History and Achievements Deseret News, 1919, for a history of the Mormon Battalion. 4. Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God. Son of Thunder p. 175. 5. Deseret News, "Startling Story of the First Trip From Salt Lake to Los Angeles," Oct. 7, 1905, p. 27. 6. Schindler, p. 178. 7. H.G. Boyle Tournal typescript, BYU Library pp. 40-41. 1. Journal History, June 5, 1848. 9. Leonard
Arrington, Charles C. Rich, Chapter 1 "l849 Trip to California," pp. 137-152.