The Overland Journey from Utah to California

The wagon trail between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles is one of the most important but least-known elements of nineteenth-century western migration, favored because it could be used for travel and freighting year-round. It was, however, arguably the most difficult route that pioneers traveled with any consistency in the entire history of the country, leapfrogging from one sometimes dubious desert watering place to the next and offering few havens for the sick, weary, or unfortunate.

This book is the first history of the complete Southern Route and of the people who developed and used it. Based on extensive research, including many early travelers' accounts, the book discusses the exploration and development of the Old Spanish Trail. Lyman's discussions of relations between the Mormons and the Native American peoples of the region and of the Mountain Meadows Massacre offer fresh and important analyses of these vital aspects of the westward movement.