![]() The desert atmosphere was distorted due to heat waves that shimmered over the sun-baked salt flat, and Pilot Peak seemed to float and hover as the pioneers watched it. ![]() At the base of the mountain is a year-round spring with life-giving, fresh water. It is just west of the present-day border between Utah and Nevada. In the far distance, the emigrants could see Pilot Peak towering at 10,716 feet in elevation. William Eddy, with his wife and two young children, led the caravan, with the bulk of the pioneers in the middle and the heavily-laden Donner and Reed wagons at the rear. To stop on this part of the trail meant a gruesome death by heat and dehydration. It bogged the oxen down as they tried to trudge through the glue-like substance it stuck to the wagon wheels and made them nearly impossible to roll.īy this time the twenty-two wagons in the Donner group had broken into three separate segments as the various families pushed through the desert. There a shallow lake had changed the alkali into a morass of mud and muck. The emigrants moved along reasonably well for several days until they reached the center of the desert. This installment is #9 in a series tracing the experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. The pioneers faced an 80-mile trek across a vast salt flat consisting of a thick crust of alkali so hard the wagon wheels didn't leave a trail. One hundred and sixty-plus years ago this week, members of the Donner Party had entered the forbidding Great Salt Lake Desert. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |