this Via Mala's miseries. The line received from the United States government upward of half a million of dollars per annum for carrying the mails, and its contract had still nearly two years to run.
There remained, therefore, the central route, which has two branches. You may start by stage to the gold regions about Denver City or Pike's Peak, and thence, if not accidentally or purposely shot, you may proceed by an uncertain ox-train to Great Salt Lake City, which latter part can not take less than thirty-five days. On the other hand, there is "the great emigration route" from Missouri to California and Oregon, over which so many thousands have traveled within the past few years. I quote from a useful little volume, "The Prairie Traveler,"[1] by "Randolph B. Marcy, Captain U.S. Army. "The track is broad, well worn, and can not be mistaken. It has received the major part of the Mormon emigration, and was traversed by the army in its march to Utah in 1857."
The mail-coach on this line was established in 1850, by Colonel Samuel H. Woodson, an eminent lawyer, afterward an M.C., and right unpopular with Mormondom, because he sacrilegiously owned part of Temple Block, in Independence, Mo., which is the old original New Zion. The following are the rates of contract and the phases through which the line has passed.
- Colonel Woodson received for carrying a monthly mail $19,500 (or $23,000?): length of contract 4 years.
- Mr. F. M'Graw, $13,500, besides certain considerable extras.
- Messrs. Heber Kimball & Co. (Mormons), $23,000.
- Messrs. Jones & Co., $30,000.
- Mr. J.M. Hockaday, weekly mail, $190,000.
- Messrs. Russell, Majors, & Waddell, army contractors; weekly mail, $190,000.[2]
Thus it will be seen that in 1856 the transit was in the hands of the Latter-Day Saints: they managed it well, but they lost the contracts during their troubles with the federal government in 1857, when it again fell into Gentile possession. In those early days it had but three changes of mules, at Forts Bridger, Laramie, and Kearney. In May, 1859, it was taken up by the present firm, which expects, by securing the monopoly of the whole line between the Missouri River and San Francisco, and by canvassing at head-quarters for a bi-weekly which they have now obtained and even a daily transit, which shall constitutionally extinguish the Mormon community, to insert the fine edge of that
- ↑ Printed by Messrs. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1859, and Messrs. Sampson Low, Son, and Co., Ludgate Hill, and amply meriting the honors of a second edition.
- ↑ In the American Almanac for 1861 (p. 196), the length of routes in Utah Territory is 1450 miles, 533 of which have no specified mode of transportation, and the remainder, 977, in coaches; the total transportation is thus 170,872 miles, and the total cost $144,638.
