REVIEWS

A Classic Reprinted

West from : The Pioneering of ated and available to students. Immigrant Trails across , 1846-1850. Because the original edition printed Edited and with an introduction by J. fewer than 1,000 copies, the book has Roderic Korns and Dale L. Morgan; long been out of print. Finally, and for- revised and updated by tunately, two very able historians, with and (Logan: Utah the support of the Crossroads Chapter State University Press, 1994). of the Oregon Trails Associa- tion and Press, Reviewed by Melvin T. Smith, were enlisted to revise and update the Ph.D., Mt. Pleasant, Utah. original work. Bagley and Schindler ac- WHEN PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY IN 1951 knowledge their debt to Morgan for his as volume 19 of the Utah Historical own beginning revision efforts. They Quarterly, this book made a major con- obtained the actual copy that Morgan tribution to understanding the his- had "worked" on. tory of overland routes traveled west The book discusses, briefly, the from Fort Bridger to California. No Bartelson-Bidwell wagon route of other work since has superseded it. 1841, and John C. Fremont's expedi- One primary option for emigrants had tions of 1843 and 1845. He made the been to continue north and west along first crossing of the Salt Lake Desert the route to the vicinity route in the fall of 1845 on his trip to of Fort Hall, and then take the Califor- California. However, Lansford W. Hast- nia branch to the southwest, catch the ings promoted it as an emigrant route. Humbolt River, and find passage The editors see him as both dishonest across the Mountains to and downright irresponsible. their California destinations. Routes Included in this work are excerpts across the Salt Lake Valley and the salt from various journals, letters, and re- desert sought to eliminate the extra ports of several travelers over these miles of this northern route "dog leg." routes between 1846 and 1850. The original book resulted from The "Journal of " the "field work" of Roderic Korns, (21 May-June 1846) reports on the , and Charles Kelley. Hastings-Hudspeth trek from Sutter's They shared freely their interests for Fort to Fort Bridger. This party traveled locating routes through the Wasatch with horses and mules, as Fremont's Mountains, as well as their knowl- expedition had the previous fall, and edge of historical documents and arrived in good time and condition. sources that could be recovered. It The "Journal of Edwin Bryant" was a remarkably competent team ef- records the Bryant-Russell trip from fort: however, Korns died before the Fort Bridger (17 July 1846), south of work was completed, and the task of the to Mary's River in committing it to paper fell to Dale Nevada (8 August 1846), also on Morgan who was anxious to ensure horses and mules. They were the first that Korns's work would be appreci- to "choose" the .