nine and sometimes twelve yoke of oxen to each wagon, and even then they were obliged “to stop every few minutes for the cattle to recover breath.” Once, traveling through darkness, they navigated a “deep serpentine ravine” by the illumination of the lightning. For days they waited for yet another river to recede, and on Sunday held their first prayer meeting in eight weeks. “It seems to have put new life into the men,” Jean Rio observed. On June 24 they met a young man traveling from Council Bluffs to Pisgah who imparted the “startling information” that Indians in the near distance were refusing to let Mormons pass through their territory.
Next came a creek seven miles long and too deep to cross, and there was no timber in the area with which to construct a bridge. “Concluded to lay stringers across and draw the wagons over by hand; the oxen could swim over.” The teamsters and bullwhackers—hired hands adept at driving teams— surrounded the animals, shouting and whipping, until the recalcitrant beasts finally entered the water. On June 27 the travelers reached the first farm they had seen in more than a hundred miles, and they were given lettuce and spring onions by its owners. Over the next few days they passed more farms, where Jean Rio purchased butter, milk, eggs, and several cows with their calves for thirty dollars, and a “whole sheep for a dollar.”
Finally, on July 2, the party reached Council Bluffs, where Jean Rio spent two days meticulously restocking her outfit with enough provisions for the remaining trek to Zion. The party then crossed the “Missouri Bottom,” which she described as four miles wide and submerged underwater from the recent heavy rains—“most of the distance the water was running over the axles of the wagons.” On July 5 they reached the main camp, where they convened with their shipmates from England who had been met in New Orleans by church leaders who ushered them to Council Bluffs, as well as several more Saints converging from New York, Ohio, and Illinois. The well-known John Brown, who had traversed the plains numerous times, was appointed captain of the entire outfit of forty-two wagons, with four other lieutenants assigned as sub-commanders of ten wagons each, or “tens.” The leaders organized the emigrants, mediated disagreements, and determined camp locations. Eager to start, having waited several weeks for them, Captain Brown allowed Jean Rio’s party no time to rest before moving out on the final journey. Still, she was so relieved to have joined the large company that a lighthearted optimism overtook her, and the new fear of Indians and other perils as yet unknown temporarily subsided.
CHAPTER SIX
The Crossing
KANESVILLE—ALSO KNOWN AS Winter Quarters, and later called Council Bluffs—had been the command post for Mormon migration west since the spring of 1846. Despite an official treaty between Mormon leader Brigham Young and Missouri officials, hostilities there had escalated, culminating in Young’s announcement to his followers in February 1846 that it was time to “flee Babylon by land or by sea.” That month, thousands of converts then residing in Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio had begun preparations for the trek to a new Zion in the west. Young had dispatched intermediaries to Washington, D.C., to request government approval for the Saints to settle in Oregon Territory. While in the nation’s capital, the Mormon men obtained a copy of John Charles Frémont’s report of his recent explorations. That report, one of the first published accounts about the geography, topography, and Indian tribes west of the Missouri River, was a coveted document to the Mormon leader.
Young had heard tales from other explorers about the land around the Great Salt Lake in America’s immense Great Basin. “Buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, mountain sheep and goats, white and grizzly bear, beaver, and geese [are] in great abundance” in the area, one of his
Next came a creek seven miles long and too deep to cross, and there was no timber in the area with which to construct a bridge. “Concluded to lay stringers across and draw the wagons over by hand; the oxen could swim over.” The teamsters and bullwhackers—hired hands adept at driving teams— surrounded the animals, shouting and whipping, until the recalcitrant beasts finally entered the water. On June 27 the travelers reached the first farm they had seen in more than a hundred miles, and they were given lettuce and spring onions by its owners. Over the next few days they passed more farms, where Jean Rio purchased butter, milk, eggs, and several cows with their calves for thirty dollars, and a “whole sheep for a dollar.”
Finally, on July 2, the party reached Council Bluffs, where Jean Rio spent two days meticulously restocking her outfit with enough provisions for the remaining trek to Zion. The party then crossed the “Missouri Bottom,” which she described as four miles wide and submerged underwater from the recent heavy rains—“most of the distance the water was running over the axles of the wagons.” On July 5 they reached the main camp, where they convened with their shipmates from England who had been met in New Orleans by church leaders who ushered them to Council Bluffs, as well as several more Saints converging from New York, Ohio, and Illinois. The well-known John Brown, who had traversed the plains numerous times, was appointed captain of the entire outfit of forty-two wagons, with four other lieutenants assigned as sub-commanders of ten wagons each, or “tens.” The leaders organized the emigrants, mediated disagreements, and determined camp locations. Eager to start, having waited several weeks for them, Captain Brown allowed Jean Rio’s party no time to rest before moving out on the final journey. Still, she was so relieved to have joined the large company that a lighthearted optimism overtook her, and the new fear of Indians and other perils as yet unknown temporarily subsided.
CHAPTER SIX
The Crossing
KANESVILLE—ALSO KNOWN AS Winter Quarters, and later called Council Bluffs—had been the command post for Mormon migration west since the spring of 1846. Despite an official treaty between Mormon leader Brigham Young and Missouri officials, hostilities there had escalated, culminating in Young’s announcement to his followers in February 1846 that it was time to “flee Babylon by land or by sea.” That month, thousands of converts then residing in Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio had begun preparations for the trek to a new Zion in the west. Young had dispatched intermediaries to Washington, D.C., to request government approval for the Saints to settle in Oregon Territory. While in the nation’s capital, the Mormon men obtained a copy of John Charles Frémont’s report of his recent explorations. That report, one of the first published accounts about the geography, topography, and Indian tribes west of the Missouri River, was a coveted document to the Mormon leader.
Young had heard tales from other explorers about the land around the Great Salt Lake in America’s immense Great Basin. “Buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, mountain sheep and goats, white and grizzly bear, beaver, and geese [are] in great abundance” in the area, one of his
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