Bed & Breakfast Inns and Ranches of Wyoming

The Oregon and Mormon Trails followed the route of the Sweetwater River, winding by Independence Rock and Devil's Gate toward South Pass.  In the fall of 1856, this stretch of trail proved tragic for two groups of Mormon emigrants led by Edward Martin and James Willie.  They had come from Iowa on foot, pushing their belongings in handcarts and their goal was Salt Lake City.  Although other handcart companies had successfully walked the trail earlier that year and more would do so the following year, these two groups of 500 people each started their journey too late to make it over the mountains before winter.  Severe blizzards came in October, catching Martin's company just days after they crossed over the Platte at Fort Caspar.  The emigrants were already exhausted and malnourished, and lacked warm clothing and bedding.  In nine days of miserable travel, fifty-six people died.  Willie's company, several weeks ahead of them, was overwhelmed by the snow and ran completely out of food just east of what is now South Pass City.  Although a rescue train from Salt Lake City eventually brought help to the two handcart companies and two wagon trains trailing even further behind, 67 people in Willie's company died, and about 145 of Martin's company.

Martin's company was in such bad shape when it reached Devil's Gate that rescue leaders emptied out the wagons from the wagon trains and used them to carry the handcart survivors.  Twenty men from the rescue party volunteered to spend the winter watching over the unloaded belongings from the wagon train.  They were left a few crackers and 75 skinny cows which they were supposed to eat only as a last resort.  Wolf packs immediately began to decimate the cattle, destroying 25 head in the first week, so the men butchered the remaining cattle.  The meat was gone long before spring, however, and the men were soon tempted to eat the carcasses of the approximately 100 wolves they had shot and stacked near their cabins.  Instead, they survived six weeks on the boiled cow hides left over from the butchering.  When food was the leanest, they boiled and ate their worn out moccasins and even the buffalo skin they were using as a door mat.  An old pack saddle was simmering in the pot for supper when Mormons carrying mail and supplies arrived.  The men did survive, however, and were able to travel back to Utah with the emigrants' belongings in early spring.

For a listing of pioneers who came over the Mormon Trail, check out this LDS site.

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