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The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide: Being a Table of Distances from Council Bluffs to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake
Book by Clayton, William
107 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 7, 2019
A great reference guide to the trail. I only wish this existed for the California and Oregon Trails.
March 22, 2020
I love old maps and road trips, so this fascinating road trip guide written in 1848 was a huge favorite! Written by an LDS pioneer during the era of my ancestors’ 1000-mile religious pilgrimage across the American plains, it is surprisingly entertaining. “The author feels a delicacy in saying much in favor of ‘the Guide,’ but is well aware that, when its merits have been tested by experience, no person will repent of having purchased it.” Clayton is such an enthusiastic recorder of this wilderness experience that the reader can’t help poring over it.
As the pioneer wagons left Nebraska in the spring of 1847, Clayton tediously counted each revolution of the wagon wheel to determine miles covered. He noted 360 revolutions constituted a mile and then invented the “roadometer” – a wooden gear that could measure the revolutions for him. Clayton’s guide included detailed mileage between each important landscape feature: “Mile 211: Deep Dry Creek no timber on it. Mile 213: Creek or slough, south side the road. Plenty of willows and grass, but doubtful for water.” If you were traveling across the plains, this information was critically important. Where to camp? Where to water your oxen? Where to find wood for your fire? Where to cross the river?
The book, as re-published, includes two modern essays about the Clayton guide. These writers do a fascinating job of describing all the maps to which the pioneers had access before beginning their journey and how limited they were. “Obviously they were acquainted with Irving’s Astoria, Fremont’s Reports and maps, and with Hastings’ book….” There were apparently three maps of the west hanging on the walls of the Nauvoo Temple as the pioneers planned their journey into parts unknown. Everything about this process is so brave to me: leaving a city you built from scratch, piling into primitive wagons with all you own, heading for a desolate western valley, and not knowing exactly what was over the next ridge. But Clayton’s guide could tell you: “Ancient Bluff Ruins, 419 miles from Winter Quarters, 612 miles to Great Salt Lake City, visitors must be cautious on account of the many rattlesnakes lurking round, and concealed in the clefts of the bluffs.”
As the pioneer wagons left Nebraska in the spring of 1847, Clayton tediously counted each revolution of the wagon wheel to determine miles covered. He noted 360 revolutions constituted a mile and then invented the “roadometer” – a wooden gear that could measure the revolutions for him. Clayton’s guide included detailed mileage between each important landscape feature: “Mile 211: Deep Dry Creek no timber on it. Mile 213: Creek or slough, south side the road. Plenty of willows and grass, but doubtful for water.” If you were traveling across the plains, this information was critically important. Where to camp? Where to water your oxen? Where to find wood for your fire? Where to cross the river?
The book, as re-published, includes two modern essays about the Clayton guide. These writers do a fascinating job of describing all the maps to which the pioneers had access before beginning their journey and how limited they were. “Obviously they were acquainted with Irving’s Astoria, Fremont’s Reports and maps, and with Hastings’ book….” There were apparently three maps of the west hanging on the walls of the Nauvoo Temple as the pioneers planned their journey into parts unknown. Everything about this process is so brave to me: leaving a city you built from scratch, piling into primitive wagons with all you own, heading for a desolate western valley, and not knowing exactly what was over the next ridge. But Clayton’s guide could tell you: “Ancient Bluff Ruins, 419 miles from Winter Quarters, 612 miles to Great Salt Lake City, visitors must be cautious on account of the many rattlesnakes lurking round, and concealed in the clefts of the bluffs.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews