--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Ivins, Anthony W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 6 published: 1916-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Anthony W. Ivins, "Traveling Over Forgotten Trails," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 6 (April 1916): 512–515.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1906unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1906unse start_page: 512 end_page: 515 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1906unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Traveling Over Forgotten Trails Traveling Over Forgotten Trails BY HON. ANTHONY W. IVINS //—A Desert Tragedy Attack by hostile Indians was not the only clanger which con-fronted the early pioneers of Southern Utah and south-easternNevada. The country which they were sent to reclaim was adesert, roads were well nigh impassable, and feed for live stockand teams was exceedingly scarce. Medicine and proper medicalattention were not obtainable, and consequently many lives werelost from accident and disease which, under present conditions,might have been saved. Tn no part of the south did this condition prevail to a greaterextent than in the Muddy valley. It was a country of rocksand sand, ninety miles from St. George, the nearest settlement,and that only an outpost of civilization, and could be reached onlyover one of the most difficult roads on the continent. The southern route to California bore south-west from CedarCity to the Mountain Meadows, and from there six miles south-east to Cane Springs, from which point it passed on to theMagotsa and Santa Clara, which it followed to the present site ofthe copper smelter at Shem, where it turned south to Camp.Spring, the only water between the Santa Clara and BeaverDams, on the Rio Virgen,. twenty-five miles away. From the1 'caver Dams the road followed the Rio Virgen sixty miles to thepresent site of St. Thomas, on the Muddy, crossing the river asmany as forty times. It was a dangerous road, and often impassable, because ofthe treacherous quicksands which prevailed in the river bed. Toreach the Muddy valley by any other than the river route, it wasnecessary to leave the main road twelve miles North of the BeaverDams and strike off to the west, over a desert country, to theUpper Muddy, at West Point, a distance of sixty miles withoutwriter, except at certain seasons of the year when the scant rainfall filled shallow pockets in the rocks, at the To-quop (Tobacco)Wash, about half way across the desert. In order to avoid the difficult river route, and make thedesert road passable, Erastus Snow, who was in charge of thesouthern settlements at the time, sent men to sink a well at apoint on the Reaver Dam Wash, which would reduce the distancebetween water to fifty miles, over a desert where, in the sum-mer, the heat was almost unbearable. TRAVELING OVER FORGOTTEN TRAILS 513 Among the people who went from Salt Lake to assist in thereclamation of the Muddy valley, and who located at St. Thomas,at the junction of the Muddy with the Rio Virgen, were JamesDavidson, his wife, daughter, Maggie, and son, a boy twelveyears of age. They were from Scotland, without experience inpioneer life, but with that faith which characterized the mem-bers of the Church in those early days of its history, willinglyundertook the task assigned them. On the 9th of June, 1869, James Davidson, his wife and son,left St. Thomas, in company with other travelers, to go to St.George. Their conveyance consisted of a light spring wagon,drawn by a single horse.' The vehicle was so shrunken by thearid atmosphere that before the family reached St. Joseph, twelvemiles up the valley, a tire "ran off" one of the wheels; and theywere obliged to stop until it could be reset. This was done by THE LAY OF THE ROUGH DESEkT COUNTRYThe cross to the upper right locates the boy's grave their son-in-law, B. F. Paddock, and they started to overtake theirtraveling companions, who had left them and gone on. Paddock,who was an experienced frontiersman, warned them not to at-tempt to cross the desert alone, but to return home, or wait atSt. Joseph for other company, unless they overtook the partyin advance. They did not reach St. Joseph until the following-day, and remained there Thursday night, one day behind thepeople with whom they had expected to travel. On Friday morn-ing, heedless of the warning received, they started on alone. In June and July, the heat on the deserts of Nevada andArizona is almost' unbearable. During the day the sand androcks, exposed as they are to the scorching sun, become so hotthat the heat can be seen rising in waves. Nor does the nightbring relief. The unfortunate traveler who is caught on one oi 514 IMPROVEMENT ERA these desert wastes without water has little chance to survive.With the exception of an occasional lizard, which scuttles over theburning sand from one cactus bush to another, there is no signof living thing. The birds, even the crow and coyote, those scav-engers of the desert, seek the few water courses in order to sustainlife. During the night, on the 12th of June, a horse, famishingfor water, came staggering in to the camp on the Beaver DamWash, where a party of men were at work on the well referred to.I le was watered and fed by the men at the camp, and the follow-ing morning William Webb, one of the well-diggers, went back onthe road, in the direction from which the horses had come, andthere, only half a mile from the camp, with a canteen and onegallon keg lying near found the body of a boy, so swollen anddistorted by the heat that recognition was impossible. A gravewas dug, and there on the desert the body was interred, a head-board, without inscription, marking the spot. The following Thursday morning, four days after the inter-ment of the body, Lorenzo Young, traveling from St. George tothe Muddy, arrived at the well, and, hearing the story of the boyand horse, pressed on over the desert road, his knowledge offrontier life suggesting that a tragedy had been enacted. Uponarriving at the rock pockets he found that the boy had passednear them, but being ignorant of their existence had gone on to-ward the well. Five miles farther west, he found the bodies ofthe parents, lying together on a bed they had made under adesert palm, over which a blanket had been spread to shield themfrom the sun which had slowly burned out their lives. To Lo-renzo Young the whole tragedy was revealed. Leaving St. Josephalone, they had traveled to within five miles of water where thetire had again "run off" the wheel which had then broken down.Helpless, alone, with their meager supply of water exhausted, theboy had mounted the horse, and with the keg and canteen gone toseek a fresh supply; he had missed the water in the pockets, andhad heroically struggled on to fall exhausted within sight ofhis goal. The suffering from thirst, the anguish of the parents forthe welfare of their son, the despair of the boy as he struggled on,knowing that the lives of his parents depended upon his effort'will never be told. They cannot be, for no one but them couldfeel it. No beast or bird had disturbed the bodies, but their condi-tion precluded the possibility of their removal, with the means athand, so men were sent out to bury them where they died. The road is never traveled now, it is one of the forgottentrails, but the two graves, on opposite sides of the desert, one TRAVELING OVER FORGOTTEN TRAILS 515 covering the remains of the parents, the other the boy, are mutewitnesses of the dangers to which the pioneers of the Muddyvalley were constantly exposed. The Life that Counts (Selected) The life that counts must toil and fight;Must hate the wrong and love the right;Must stand for truth, by day, by night—This is the life that counts. The life that counts must hopeful be;In darkest night make melody;Must wait the dawn on bended knee—This is the life that counts. The life that counts must aim to riseAbove the earth to sunlit skies;Must fix its gaze on Paradise—This is the life that counts. The life that counts must helpful be;The cares and needs of others see;Must seek the slaves of sin to free—This is the life that counts. The life that counts is linked with God;And turns not from the cross—the rod;But walks with joy where Jesus trod—This is the life that counts. A. W. S.