The Old Emigrant Road

This was the road that got emigrants to California without killing them. From Salt Lake City it ran north and west to the City of Rocks in Idaho, where it joined the main California Trail — a route that skirted the hills and sand and kept feed and water within reach of the livestock. It was the sensible answer to Hastings Cutoff, the shortcut whose desert crossing had helped doom the Donner Party in 1846. Captain Samuel Hensley pioneered this safer line in August 1848, and returning Mormon Battalion men soon followed his advice down it.

What the plaque says

The Old Emigrant Road started at Salt Lake City, Utah, and ended at the City of the Rocks, Idaho, where it formed a junction with the California Trail. This road was also known as Bluff Road, Old Traveled Road, and the Salt Lake Cutoff. It was established as the most practical way to reach the California Trail from Utah because it avoided hills and sand, and provided feed and water for the livestock. Hasting’s Cutoff, the alternate route, had proved impractical for wagons and livestock. This Old Emigrant Road was used for many years by local residents as it was the easiest way to travel to the various communities in the valley. The road was first used by Captain Samuel Hensley with ten men, August 1848. Upon his advice, Mormon Battalion members returning from California also traveled this road. This contingent of forty-five men and one woman, with seventeen wagons took this trail on their way to Salt Lake City. In 1849-1850 an estimated 22,500 gold seekers followed this northern route to the California gold fields. From 1852 to 1857 homeseeking emigrants with their families used this road on their way to Oregon and California.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill Aerospace Museum — 6.6 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Antelope Island State Park — 11 mi
  A rugged island in the Great Salt Lake with free-roaming bison
• Lagoon Amusement Park — 11 mi
  A beloved family amusement park operating since 1886
• Ogden Union Station — 11 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex

More markers nearby

• Syracuse First Social Center — 0.8 mi
• Clinton — 4.8 mi
• Layton Veterans Park — 5.3 mi
• First Post Office in Roy — 5.5 mi