The pioneer band of the Mormons consisted of 143 men, three women (wives of Brigham and Lorenzo Young and H. C. Kimball), and two children. They took with them seventy-three wagons. Their chief officers were Brigham Young, Lieutenant General; Stephen Markham, Colonel; John Pack, First Major; Shadrack Roundy, Second Major, two captains of hundreds, and fourteen captains of companies. The order of march was intelligently arranged, with a view to the probability of meeting Indians who, if not dangerous to life, had little regard for personal property. The Indians of the Platte region were notorious thieves, but had not the reputation as warriors of their more northern neighbors. The regulations required that each private should walk constantly beside his wagon, leaving it only by his officer's command. In order to make as compact a force as possible, two wagons were to move abreast whenever this could be done. Every man was to keep his weapons loaded, and special care was insisted upon that the caps, flints, and locks should be in good condition. They had with them one small cannon mounted on wheels.
The bugle for rising sounded at 5 A.M., and two hours were allowed for breakfast and prayers. At night each man was to retire into his wagon for prayer at 8.30 o'clock, and for the night's rest at 9. The night camp was formed by drawing up the wagons in a semicircle, with the river in the rear, if they camped near its bank, or otherwise with the wagons in a circle, a forewheel of one touching the hind wheel of the next. In this way an effective corral for the animals was provided within.
At the head of Grand Island, on April 30, they had their first sight of buffaloes. A hunting party was organized at once, and a herd of sixty-five of the animals was pursued for several miles in full view of the camp (when game and hunters were not hidden by the dust), and so successfully that eleven buffaloes were killed.
The first alarm of Indians occurred on May 4, when scouts reported a band of about four hundred a few miles ahead. The wagons were at once formed five abreast, the cannon was fired as a means of alarm, and the company advanced in close formation. The Indians did not attack them, but they set fire to the prairie, and this caused a halt. A change of wind the next morning and an early shower checked the flames, and the column moved on again at daybreak. During the next few days the buffaloes were seen in herds of hundreds of thousands on both sides of the Platte. So numerous were they that the company had to stop at times and let gangs of the animals pass on either side, and several calves were captured alive.* With or near the buffaloes were seen antelopes and wolves.
* "The vast herds of buffalo were often in our way, and we were
under the necessity of sending out advance guards to clear the track so
that our teams might pass." Erastus SNOW, "Address to the Pioneers," in
Mo.
At Grand Island the question of their further route was carefully debated. There was a well-known trail to Fort Laramie on the south side of the river, used by those who set out from Independence, Missouri, for Oregon. Good pasture was assured on that side, but it was argued that, if this party made a new trail along the north side of the river, the Mormons would have what might be considered a route of their own, separated from other westward emigrants. This view prevailed, and the course then selected became known in after years as the Mormon Trail (sometimes called the "Old Mormon Road"); the line of the Union Pacific Railroad follows it for many miles.
Their decision caused them a good deal of anxiety about forage for their animals before they reached Fort Laramie. It had not rained at the latter point for two years, and the drought, together with the vast herds of buffaloes and the Indian fires, made it for days impossible to find any pasture except in small patches. When the fort was reached, they had fed their animals not only a large part of their grain, but some of their crackers and other breadstuff, and the beasts were so weak that they could scarcely drag the wagons.
During the previous winter the church officers had procured for their use from England two sextants and other instruments needed for taking solar observations, two barometers, thermometers, etc., and these were used by Orson Pratt daily to note their progress.* Two of the party also constructed a sort of pedometer, and, after leaving Fort Laramie, a mile-post was set up every ten miles, for the guidance of those who were to follow.
* His diary of the trip will be found in the Millennial Star for
1849-1850, full of interesting details, but evidently edited for English
readers.
In the camp made on May 10 the first of the Mormon post-offices on the plains was established. Into a board six inches wide and eighteen long, a cut was made with a saw, and in this cut a letter was placed. After nailing on cleats to retain the letter, and addressing the board to the officers of the next company, the board was nailed to a fifteen-foot pole, which was set firmly in the ground near the trail, and left to its fate. How successful this attempt at communication proved is not stated, but similar means of communication were in use during the whole period of Mormon migration. Sometimes a copy of the camp journal was left conspicuously in the crotch of a tree, for the edification of the next camp, and scores of the buffaloes' skulls that dotted the plains were marked with messages and set up along the trail.