"resumed our journey [ ] halted at a small stream 6 3/4 miles then went on to Muddy Creek and camped [ ] distance of 6 1/4 miles"
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Today they are going to take a route off of the Oregon Trail.
When they left Fort Bridger, they came to the point where they turned off the Oregon Trail going south/southwest and took the trail that was called the Hastings Cutoff. They got as much information about it as they could at Fort Bridger. They start following the old Donner Trail that had been partially blazed only one year before these pioneers got here. They knew about the Donner's fate. Most emigrants had gotten the news of them. The Oregon and California bound people were glad to stay on the trail north into and across Idaho and on to Oregon because they knew the Hastings Cutoff was the mistake the Donner Party made. But the Mormon pioneers also knew a few things. They knew that they were not going as far as the Donner/Reed party did. And they also knew that they were getting very close to their destination. They also appreciated the blessing that they will have that trail to themselves and will not run into other wagon trains on the way. Getting close must have sounded wonderful to these tired people and animals.
The Donner party was not far from the pioneers, the book "111 Days to Zion" notes".
The fate of these people was on Wilford Woodruff's mind. Brannon had said to the pioneers that their party included people from Clay County and Independence, Missouri who had made threats about what they were going to do to the Mormons in California. So, they set out on their ill-fated journey ... "with that spirit in their hearts."
Whatever the Donner's felt about the Mormons, they unknowingly did them an incredible favor by deciding to tackle that route when, just one year later, the pioneers had a small broken trail to follow into and out of Emigration Canyon right in to the Salt Lake Valley. Admiration and thankfulness must be given to those people. Those blessed Donner/Reed people have forever been thanked silently by the Mormon pioneers.
