On this date Editor's note: With the 1997 Sesquicentennial Mormon Trail Wagon Train now in Utah, the Deseret News will run daily historic capsules correlating with the same dates in 1847. July 20, 1847: Some of the most difficult, slowest travel the pioneers had experienced was ahead. The foothills of the Wasatch Mountains and the towering mountains beyond them taxed their endurance to the limit.
Brigham Young remained at the rear in Wilford Woodruff's wagon, still too ill to catch up to the main company, even though its start had been delayed for wagon repairs. The rugged terrain was beginning to take a toll on vehicles.Orson Pratt and his group of advance scouts was ahead, moving slowly not only because of the challenging terrain, but to help improve the path for those following. During the day, Pratt's party climbed Big Mountain.
One of Pratt's men rode back to the main camp, looking for stray cattle. His news that the "road is very rough from here," as William Clayton wrote, was not welcome. When the main group moved out, three more wagons were left behind to accommodate more sick pioneers, including Henry G. Sherwood, Benjamin Franklin Dewey and James Case.
Most of the trail through East Canyon now lies under the East Canyon Reservoir. It followed the bottom of the canyon, where willows often impeded progress significantly. Some growth reached over 20 feet, with a tangle of brush, poplar and birch trees added to the thick willows.
"The road over which we have traveled is through an uneven gap between high mountains and is exceedingly rough and crooked," wrote Clayton, the official camp recorder. Even where the advance party had cut willows down, the stubs would make travel difficult, he predicted. Some of the cut willows were laid over marshy areas to aid travel.
After a challenging seven miles, the main group camped near Big Mountain. Brigham Young's group, having traveled 12 miles, caught up with the wagons left with the sick members of the main camp.