Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/34

24 AMOS WILLIAM HARTMIAN his fellow travelers was a federal judge who had for years been a minister at a European court. 16 It was with surprise and even a degree of astonishment that on the Sweetwater one station was encountered, conducted by a Mormon convert and his wife, in which "the table-cloth was clean, so was the cooking, so were the children." 17 White women, Indian squaws or half-breeds were not in- frequently found at these stations. Besides the poorly cooked meals, whiskey could usually be procured. For the privilege of traveling over this route with all its advantages, the sum of $175 was charged. 18 So much for the mail and stage-coach facilities from the Missouri to Salt Lake City. Except for the two years beginning in the summer of 1858 and ending June 1, 1860, travel by stage from Salt Lake City to California was impossible and single travelers sometimes accompanied Mormon traders or the mail carrier with his light wagon, or ambulance as they were often called. The mail route east of Salt Lake City followed the emigrant route. So much cannot be said for the route from that city to Cal- ifornia. Some description, therefore, of the new routes opened up now becomes necessary. Until 1858 the mail from Salt Lake City to California was carried over the regular emigrant roads in summer. But when Major Chorpenning secured the contract in 1858, he opened up a shorter route, to the south of Hast- ings'Cut-Off. From Salt Lake City, this route ran through Camp Floyd, forty-three miles to the south, a little to the west of the northern end of Utah Lake. Thence it'ran a little south of west to Fish Springs, about a hundred miles from Camp Floyd. The stage then followed a southwesterly course for a day's journey to Pleasant Valley, on what is now the border between Utah and Nevada. 19 ie Ibid., p . 95. 17 1bid., p . 155. 18 Ibid., p. 8 . 19 Greeley,o^. cit. , pp. 258-265.