Pioneer Trek

This calendar shows a few of the daily events that were recorded by members of the first Mormon pioneer company. Their trek began on April 4, 1847, and ended in the Great Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. The calendars in the next three issues of the Friend will continue to tell about some events that occurred each day of that pioneer journey. The Sabbath was on Sunday, but appears on this April 1984 calendar as Wednesday because dates do not fall on the same day of the week each year. Usually the pioneers rested on the Sabbath, but occasionally they moved on because of danger, in order to find a place for the animals to graze, or in order to find water.

April

4	Sabbath
5	First six wagons began journey west (3 miles)
6	Seventeenth Annual General Conference held at Winter Quarters (no miles)
7	Four more groups of wagons started journey (7 miles)
8	Several groups met and waited for others to join them (various miles)
9	Traveled through swamp and prairie (8 miles)
10	No firewood, so went without breakfast (8 miles)
11	Sabbath; completed rafting 72 wagons across Elkhorn River (2 miles)
12	Four men chosen to scout trail ahead (14 miles)
13	Camp blacksmiths repaired wagon wheels and shoed horses (no miles)
14	Rained; Omaha Indians frightened cattle; rested in camp (no miles)
15	All groups of pioneers are finally together (3 miles)
16	Pioneers organized into groups of 10s, 50s, and 100s (3 miles)
17	Very cold; hundreds of cottonwood trees felled to feed teams (7 miles)
18	Sabbath; snowfall; camp rules established (no miles)
19	Good duck hunting; mail brought from Winter Quarters (20 miles)
20	Two hundred fish caught and shared with everyone in camp (20 miles)
21	Pawnee Indians visited (20 miles)
22	Crossed Looking Glass Creek and Beaver River (17 miles)
23	Problems with quicksand when crossing Loup Fork of Platte River (4 miles)
24	Finished crossing Loup Fork; caught sunfish (3 miles)
25	Sabbath; antelope spotted (no miles)
26	Two horses lost; passed deserted Indian village (17 miles)
27	Small skirmish with Pawnee Indians (14 miles)
28	Reached Platte River and followed its course (15 miles)
29	Started early to find place to graze cattle (16 miles)
30	Cold night; used buffalo chips for fire and dug well for water (16 miles)