The ore deposits of Utah . ossing of the Rio Grande Western reached the valley of Sevier River near its bend, andturning south followed its valley to the head and down theVirgin to a point near its southwest corner. This traffic,which at one time was great, left, however, no trace behindin the form of a settlement, and it was not until the hegiraof the Mormons from the Mississippi Valley in 1847 thatthe present State of Utah received any permanent in-habitants. The earliest recorded exploration of any part of Utahwas a journey by two Franciscan fathers, Escalante andDominguez, from
The ore deposits of Utah . ossing of the Rio Grande Western reached the valley of Sevier River near its bend, andturning south followed its valley to the head and down theVirgin to a point near its southwest corner. This traffic,which at one time was great, left, however, no trace behindin the form of a settlement, and it was not until the hegiraof the Mormons from the Mississippi Valley in 1847 thatthe present State of Utah received any permanent in-habitants. The earliest recorded exploration of any part of Utahwas a journey by two Franciscan fathers, Escalante andDominguez, from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to the shores of GreatSalt Lake, in 1776-77. So far as can be learned, theirroute followed in the main that of the old Spanish trail,and it is not at all improbable that they were the pioneersin laying out the western part of this route to southernCalifornia. So far as known, they were the first white mento visit the eastern part of the Great Basin of Utah. This O R E G ! I \ ON| IDAHO iwjYOMiNG i i ( __. DO N EWMEXICO FiGUKE 11.—Map of Utah showing changes of boundary. journey was not, however, fruitful in geographical discov-ery, excepting the fact that it may have determined theroute of travel between the Spanish settlements of NewMexico and those of California. Between 1832 and 1836 Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, ofthe United States Army, while on leave of absence, en-gaged in the fur trade in the West and coupled with it acertain amount of exploration. He traveled extensivelyover the northeastern part of Utah, including the areadrained by Bear River and its tributaries, and sent abranch expedition, under Capt. Walker, to Great SaltLake, down Humboldt River, and across the Sierra Ne-vada to California, returning by the route of the Spanishtrail. No maps were prepared, and the only informationderived from these explorations is contained in Washing-ton Irvings narrative, which is very scanty and oftenerroneous. The real exploration of Utah began in 1842, when
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectminesandmineralresou
