In 1842 Marcus Whitman and A. L. Lovejoy, on their way from Oregon to the United States, passed through Utah from Fort Hall, by way of Uintah, Taos, and Santa Fé. For further information concerning them, and the object of their journey, I would refer the reader to my History of Oregon.
In 1843 John C. Frémont followed the emigrant trail through the south pass, and on the 6th of September stood upon an elevated peninsula on the east side of Great Salt Lake, a little north of Weber River, beside which stream his party had encamped the previous night. Frémont likens himself to Balboa discovering the Pacific; but no one else would think of doing so. He was in no sense a discoverer; and though he says he was the first to embark on that inland sea, he is again in error, trappers in skin boats having performed that feat while the pathfinder was still studying his arithmetic, as I have before mentioned. It is certainly a pleasing sight to any one, coming upon it from either side, from the cover of rolling mountains or the sands of desert plains, and under almost any circumstance the heart of the beholder is stirred within him. A number of large islands raised their rocky front out of dense sullen waters whose limit the eye could not reach, while myriads of wild fowl beat the air, making a noise “like distant thunder.”
Black clouds gathered in the west, and soon were pouring their floods upon the explorers. Camping some distance above the mouth on Weber River, they made a corral for the animals, and threw up a small fort for their own protection. Provisions being scarce, seven of the party under François Lajeunesse were sent to Fort Hall, which place they reached with
