Location:
Platte River
Distance: 305 miles from Nauvoo

For hundreds of miles, all emigrants who left the Missouri traveled along the Platte River. The Latter-day Saints generally, but not always, traveled along the north side of the river, where they faced fewer chances for unpleasant encounters with westbound emigrants from the states of Missouri or Illinois, all potentially former enemies. The prevailing opinion among Latter-day Saints that the north side of the river was healthier also contributed to its heavy use by Church members. All emigrants, Latter-day Saint and non–Latter-day Saint alike, traveled where feed for stock could be obtained. If it was found in short supply on the side they were traveling, they often would switch to the opposite side. In desperate years, such as 1849, 1850, and 1852, traffic became so heavy along the Platte that frequently all available feed was stripped from both sides of the river. Coupled with the constant threat of cholera, the overland trip along the Platte was at best a deadly gamble.

Levi Jackman

April 23, 1847

"We hav came up the Platte & Loupe fork about 130 miles throug as fine a Countrey as I ever saw. almost entirely level, the finest Countrey for farming that can be with the exception of timber. Cotton wood skirting the river is all the timber to ve found and verrey scarse at that."

(Levi Jackman, Journal, 23 April 1847, HDC.)

Mary Ann Weston Maughan

June 19, 1850

"We were called to bury 2 of our company who died of cholera this morning, a man named Brown and a child. There are more sick in camp. Have been in sight of the Platte river all day. Traveled 15 miles, camped on Salt Creek. Soon some of our company came up with another child dead. They buried it at twilight on the bank of the creek. There are more sick. It makes us feel sad thus to bury our friends by the way. Weather very hot."

(Mary Ann Weston Maughan, Journal, 19 June 1850, HDC.)

Samuel K. Gifford

Summer 1864

"The Cholera also commenced its work in camp and soon we buried a gentile that died of the Cholera and then Peter Shirts' wife died. Then Captain Thomas Johnson called the camp together and said, 'If you will do as I tell you with regard to the water that you use for drinking I will promise you that there shall not more than five die in this camp with the Cholera.' All believed what he said and did accordingly and the strange promise was literally fulfilled, for just five and no more died. While the gold seekers ahead of us and the Saints behind us were dying at a fearful rate. I will now tell you about the water. The Platte water being muddy, there had been wells dug all along the Platte bottom to get clear water. The wells were about six feet deep with steps dug to get to the water. The council was this, to not go near those wells for water but get their water out of the river and drink none without boiling and to fill their churns, teakettles, and everything that they had that would hold water with boiled water to use while traveling. There was in the camp a kind of a fearful looking for the Small pox, as quite a number had been exposed, but no one had it. The Lord had respects to the words of his servant and preserved the camp from further sickness and death."

(Samuel Kendal Gifford, Reminiscences, 1864, typescript, HDC.)

Thomas Steed

1850

"The gold fever prompted many to go to California that summer, by way of the north side of the Platte, so that the feed for animals was all used up. For that reason President [Orson] Hyde advised us to go along the south side. Some of the gold seekers did take the same route. The cholera broke out among them; they were all around us—before us and behind us, although we tried to keep away from them, and many of them died; but our company escaped."

(The Life of Thomas Steed from His Own Diary, 1826–1910 [Farmington, Utah: 1935], 15.)

A.G. Lawrence to the Cleveland Guardian

May 15, 1849, Fort Leavenworth

"The amount of emigration over the Plains is immense, beyond all estimate. It is predicted there will be extreme distress and privation among the emigrating caravans. The average distance the teams travel per day is about 16 miles. There have been more than 20,000 mules, oxen and horses gone forth from Independence alone; from St. Joseph about 15,000; and the whole region at this moment seems like one tented field for miles and miles in all directions. There are more than 50,000 animals on the Plains at the very lowest estimate, and more than nine-tenths are traveling along the same track."

(A.G. Lawrence, 15 May 1849, Forth Leavenworth to the Cleveland Herald, as reprinted in the Millennial Star, 1 Aug. 1849.)

Journal photographs courtesy of Infobases, Inc. [an error occurred while processing this directive]