then took the road up the Loup Fork to the ford which is 48 miles from the ferry." 28
A party which arrived opposite Fort Laramie June 13, 1850, found that the ferry boat had been sunk a few days previous by some Californians who were on a spree. Rather than risk a crossing they followed the north bank of the Platte to the upper crossing near the Sweetwater. 29 Many met this emergency by using their wagon beds as ferry-boats. The stream was about sixteen feet deep and was very swift, the result was that six men were drowned within a day or so. 30 The expense of ferrying was not in- considerable. Major Cross reports that his expedition paid $4.00 per wagon at the Mormon ferry on the upper crossing of the Platte. 31 Langworthy reports five ferry- boats operating at that crossing in 1850. 32 In the same year the price of ferrying at Green River, on Sublette's route, was $7.00 per wagon. 33
Emigrants of 1853 found that a Mormon had built a bridge across Thomas' Fork of Bear River at the only available fording place in the vicinity. For the privilege of crossing he collected seventy-five cents per team and wagon. At the next stream they found a bridge at the only available fording place which reached only about two-thirds of the way across the stream. The toll there was twenty-five cents per wagon, but that was hardly paid "for service rendered." Some of the emigrants to Oregon listened to the ferryman's story of better grass on the north side of the Snake and crossed the river some
28 William Edmundson, "Dairy Kept by William Edmundson, of Oskaloosa, while crossing the Western Plains in 1850," The Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. VIII, p . 519. 29 Jerome Dutton, "Across the Plains in 1850," The Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. IX, p. 462. 30 Langworthy, op. cit., p. 55 . 31 Report of Major Cross, op. cit., p. 164. s2 Op. cit., p. 67. 33 Thomas W. Prosch, "Diary of Dr. David S. Maynard While Crossing the Plains in 1850," The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1 . p . 55; also Dutton, op. cit., p. 467.
