Two accounts of Lee's Backbone

Pioneer-reinforced remains of treacherous Mormon Wagon Road on the Lees Backbone Mesa flickr

In a previous post, I talked about the location of Lee's Ferry across the Colorado River. I also mentioned Lee's Backbone, the hill the prioneers had to climb with their wagons after crossing the river going south. Early Arizona pioneer, Jesse N. Smith described Lee's hill, or Lee' s backbone, as follows: "The ascent was bad and the descent difficult and dangerous, the worse road I ever saw traveled with vehicles."

At the time, future LDS Church President, Wilford Woodruff, who visited this area several times, in his diary described the backbone as "The worst hill Ridge or Mountain that I Ever attempted to Cross with a team and waggon on Earth. We had 4 Horses on a waggon of 1,500 lb. weight and for two rods we Could ownly gain from 4 inches to 24 with all the power of the horses & two men rolling at the hind wheels and going Down on the other side was still more Steep rocky and sandy which would make it much worse than going up on the North side. The trip down the backbone and across the river tested one's resolve to continue the trip. As one weary traveler observed, If Mr. Lee had a backbone as bad as that I surely pity him. It didn't seem possible for the horses to pull the wagons up as the road was so sleep and the boulders so big, and it was just as bad on the dugway on the other side. Everyone who ever came over that piece of road had great cause for thankfulness they were not killed."

The Empty Colorado Plateau

What would it have been like to travel from Utah to Arizona in the late 1800s? What if your destination was one of the four small Little Colorado River colonies? It is not difficult to get a feel for the challenges faced by the pioneers. It is only necessary to get a good look at the land surrounding modern-day Joseph City, Arizona.

One way to get an on-the-ground experience is through Google Maps' Street View. Here is a view of the country just a mile or two south of Joseph City on the McLaws Road:


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Of course, you have to imagine there being no road and no telephone poles but otherwise this is a pretty good representation of the way the land looked over 130 years ago.

Pretty discouraging? I should say. Here is a view from Interstate 40 of the present town of Joseph City. Unfortunately, Google hasn't made a drive through Joseph City yet. Use your mouse to look around 360 degrees and get an idea of what it might have been like to arrive in the 1800s:


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Where was the ferry at Lee's Ferry

Remains of the historic Mormon Wagon Road (Honeymoon Trail) on a steep rocky ascent. flickr

Dangerous wagon road used a century ago to arrive at Lees Ferry, the only way to cross the Colorado River. flickr


In my many trips to Lee's Ferry, I had never focused on exactly where the ferry crossed the river. The present road ends in a parking lot and a boat ramp, mostly used by river outfitters to start trips down the Colorado River. The National Park Service brochure describes the location of the ferry as "just upstream from the Lees Ferry Launch Ramp." But the old pictures are not that helpful. One of the landmarks mentioned by many crossing the ferry was "Lee's Backbone," See the pictures above and below.

“Wagon Ruts at Lee’s Backbone” photo by Gary Ladd.

For most travelers on the trail to Arizona this was the worst stretch of road. I thought maybe if I looked at a lot of maps I could find a mention of the location of the ferry. Finally, in a technical publication of the USGS "Map Showing Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology of the Lees Ferry Area, Glen Canyon, Arizona By Richard Hereford, Kelly J. Burke, and Kathryn S. Thompson 200" I found a reference to the exact location of the ferry across the river. It is located a few hundred yards upstream from the boat launching ramp. In the aerial photos, the road shows clearly. Early photos confirm the location. Now I am interested in going back to Lee's Ferry, yet another time to take photos of the actual ferry location.

Pioneer Trails in Northern Arizona

If you know what to look for, aerial views of Northern Arizona still show the old wagon roads winding along the edges of the valleys. Many of the routes now have modern highways, even freeways and Interstates, but the marks of the thousands of wagon wheels are still markedly visible on the desert soils. If you look at a Google Maps view of Lee's Ferry, on the south side of the river, there is a faint mark running up from the river. This is the old wagon road.


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As I pointed out in a previous post, another road, the one crossing the Colorado at Pearce's Ferry is visible just north of the Interstate 40 Freeway and also just north of the Old Route 66. Almost any view of the old road with also show the wagon road sometimes to the north and then crossing to the south. Obviously, the pioneers did not have the ability to bridge washes or climb steep ridges.


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Because of the nature of the desert soils, these marks may be the longest lasting evidences of the pioneer migration into Arizona!

Celebrating the 24th of July

On the 24th of July, 1847 the main body of the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. As stated by President J. Reuben Clark in his address on the 100th anniversary of that same event, "These tens of thousands who so moved and so built were the warp and the woof of Brother Brigham's great commonwealth. Without them Brother Brigham had failed his mission. These were the instruments -- the shovelers, the plowers, the sowers and reapers, the machinists, the architects, the masons, the woodworkers, the organ builders, the artisans, the mathematicians, the men of letters, all gathered from the four corners of the earth, furnished by the Lord to Brother Brigham and the prophet leaders who came after, that he and they might direct the working out of His purposes. These wrought as God inspired Brother Brigham and the other prophets to plan, all to the glory of God and the upbuilding of His kingdom."

Every year of my life we have remembered the pioneers on the 24th of July, sometimes with parties, rodeos, parades, fireworks and cannon blasts, but other years with a simple acknowledgement of the heritage handed to us from these who sacrificed their entire lives to establish outposts in the desert. Let us not forget our heritage!

As President Clark concluded, "So to these humble but great souls, our fathers and mothers, the tools of the Lord, who have, for this great people, hewed the stones and laid the foundations of God's kingdom, solid as the granite mountains from which they carved the rocks for their temple, to these humble souls, great in faith, great in work, great in righteous living, great in fashioning our priceless heritage, I humbly render my love, my respect, my reverent homage. God keep their memories ever fresh among us, their children, to help us meet our duties even as they met theirs, that God's work may grow and prosper till the restored gospel of Jesus Christ rules all nations and all peoples, till peace, Christ's peace, shall fill the whole earth, till righteousness shall cover the earth even as the waters cover the mighty deep. Let us here and now dedicate all that we have and all that we are to this divine work. May God help us so to do."

They of the last wagon

Please take time this glorious 24th of July to remember our pioneer heritage. Whether you have a holiday or another day at work, you can take time to remember those who gave their lives to establish Zion in the tops of the mountains. At the 100th anniversary of the entrance of the pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, On October 5, 1947 President Clark presented his talk titled, "To Them of the Last Wagon."

This talk is available in its entirety here on the Mormon Times. Take time to listen to President Clark's tribute.

A hard looking country

Marble Canyon from New York Public Library

Traveling from Utah to the Northern Arizona Mormon colonies was more than an adventure. Of the few accounts that survive Daniel McAllister's is a study in understatement. This account starts in Salt Lake City in 1876 with teenager McAllister's narrative:
[Spelling as in the original]

Feb. 2: We rolled out at 8 a.m. ox very lame. p.m. ox better we went 18 miles, camped at Smith's on willow creek, got hay there fore nothing.
Feb. 3: We rolled out early traveling 17 miles and camped at Gleasons near Pleasant Grove got our supper for us and hay for our cattle for nothing.
Feb. 7: We reached Levan at dusk. Cattle very tired.
Feb. 19: we travelled 13 miles the last half heavy snow.
Feb. 20: We traveled 5 miles, very heavy snow all day, the snow was from 2 to 3 feet deep.
Feb. 22: We traveled 4 miles some men and teams from Panguitch came to help make the roads the snow very deep.
Feb. 23: Bro. H. 0. Spencer of Orderville and Bro. Fletcher of Mt. Carmel with a lot of other men and teams came to help us out of the snow.
Feb. 25: We traveled 8 miles to Orderville . . . Bro. Spencer told us to make ourselves at home while we staid there.
Feb. 26: We started for Kanab and went as far as the foot of the dugway on our road to Kanab and while going up the dugway we tiped over. I went back to Mt. Carmel for help. I got 3 men to come to help me.
March 3, 1876: we went 26 miles in all that day. The reason we made that big drive was to catch up to Bro. Smith and Allen.
March 5: The 16th Ward boys broke the tung out of their wagon.
March 7: I with some others went down to Soap Creek Gulch to look at the scenery. It was the grandest sight I ever saw.
March 8: I with a lot of others went down to the Colorado to get the first sight of the river, but the river was so far down that we could not get down to the water, a lot of the boys tried to shoot into the water with their revolvers, but couldent do it.
[This is in Marble Canyon about 12 or 15 miles below the bridge.]
March 9: We traveled 8/2 miles to the ferry Lee's' when our wagons was ferryed over the river the wind blew us up stream and grounded us and we had to pull our wagon off the boat onto the shore by hand. The roads were terribal rugh over the mountain. One of the horses give out.
March 17: Went about 9 miles to the Little Colorado . . . The water in the river was very muddy we filled a 7 gallon kettle to settle over night and in the morning there was only an inch of clear water so we had to make the best of it.
March 18: One of Wm. Hardys horses got in the quick sand and got mires, but we got him out all right.
March 23: Nooned at Grand Falls. They were very pretty. Rone Shipman and I night-herded the stock.
March 26: When we drove the stock to water, a lot of them got mired, we had quite a time getting them out.
March 28: We traveled about 5 miles to the ford known as sun set crossing the river was high and we had a hard time to get across.
March 30: We whent about 4 miles to the place designed for a settlement [Allen's Camp].
April i: I have been choping trees down for house foundations to day. This is a hard looking country.

As reported in
Tanner, George S., and J. Morris Richards. Colonization on the Little Colorado: The Joseph City Region. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1977.

Introduction to Joseph City, Arizona

One of the first settlements made by the Mormon pioneers in Arizona was along the banks of the Little Colorado River. The surviving town is now called Joseph City and is located in Navajo County between Winslow and Holbrook right on Interstate 40 or the old U.S. Route 66.

In 1876, four companies were called to go to Northeastern Arizona to settle. Before leaving for their lifelong mission call, forty couples were married. These companies were led by Lot Smith, Jesse O. Ballinger, George Lake (brother of Lydia Ann Lake), and William C. Allen. Smith's camp on the Little Colorado was called Sunset, Ballinger's was called Ballinger's Camp, Lake's camp was called Obed, and Allen's camp was called Allen City (Allen's Camp). Later in 1878 the Little Colorado Stake was organized. Lot Smith was called as Stake President and George Lake was called as a bishop.

Quoting from Regional Studies in Latter-Day Saint Church History:

"The leading teams reached Sunset Crossing on the Little Colorado 23 March 1876; others followed during the weeks to come. They all traveled east the following day to a point about three miles east of present-day Joseph City, where a general council was held. They explored the area and selected town sites. It was decided that William C. Allen should go down the river to a location about one mile east of present-day Joseph City. George Lake would go across the river approximately four miles south of the Allen settlement. Lot Smith moved his group back to Sunset Crossing and selected a spot a little below that crossing. When Jesse O. Ballinger arrived, he selected a locale across the river from Lot Smith's site. The only other occupants of the area were Hopi and Navajo Indians, who were friendly and did not seem to be alarmed at the arrival of their new neighbors. Joseph City was founded officially on 24 March 1876. Because the settlers needed to provide food for themselves from the soil, John Bushman, one of Joseph City's original colonists, plowed ground the day after their arrival. He reported that the land looked salty. Time was precious, and the settlers hastily made preparations for crops. An irrigation ditch was surveyed and a diversion dam established so that wheat could be sowed on April 3, just ten days after their arrival. The colonies received names as follows: George Lake's camp was named Obed; Lot Smith's, Sunset; Jesse O. Ballinger's, Ballinger's Camp. William C. Allen' s camp also took on the leader's name being, called "Allen City." Interestingly, the last name was chosen by a three-year old boy, Frank Cluff, who drew it from a hat instead of the alternate choice, Ramah City. "

Regional Studies in Latter-Day Saint Church History, Arizona. Provo, Utah: Dept. of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University, 1989.

Brigham City Restoration Project

When the Mormon pioneers arrived in Norther Arizona, they first established four small forts or communities. Brigham City (Ballinger's Camp), Obed (Lake's Camp), Sunset (Smith's Camp), and St. Joseph (Allen's Camp). Of these four settlements, only St. Joseph, later Joseph City survive to the present day. There is presently a restoration effort directed at preserving the location of Brigham City. Quoting from the blog about the project:

As a small, but significant piece of church history, located in Northern Arizona, Brigham City was designated by the Arizona Governor's office as part of Arizona's Centennial Celebration in 2012. On July 17, 2006, while visiting Winslow on a Support-Your-Candidate stopover, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano was invited to visit the old Mormon fort located just outside of Winslow on the edge of the Little Colorado River. She liked what she saw and agreed to support the restoration of the Fort as part of the Arizona Centennial Celebration.

An Arizona Centennial Celebration Portfolio, issued from the Governor's office, now includes "Brigham City" as part of the statewide celebration in 2012. Because of this, all donations for the Brigham City Restoration project could possibly be matched by state funds allocated by the state for "Restoration of Arizona's Historical Sites".

Having spent time driving around Joseph City, I think it would be helpful to have a historic map of the locations to visit and see what is left of this monumental pioneer effort. The project is also mentioned on the Winslow City Website.

On the trail to Arizona

In 1877 the Mormon pioneers were well schooled in the ways of settlement. By this time, some of them had relocated by fear, by choice or by missionary call more than once. The instructions on what to take along on the journey were specific. Here is a list of the suggested items:



Click to enlarge image.

Notice some of the items on the list. A "snath" is the shaft of a scythe, which is the metal cutting part. This is not exactly your modern "72 hour" kit, but some of the items would be the same as those in a modern emergency kit. Imagine loading and unloading these items. This is much more than you could get into a modern pickup truck for example. I know from reading about my pioneer ancestors that many of them had far less than this suggested equipment, however, some had considerably more.

Reference;

Tanner, George S., and J. Morris Richards. Colonization on the Little Colorado: The Joseph City Region. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1977.

The tiresome journey through the terrible remoteness

There are few accounts of the early trips across the Northern Arizona desert. David King Udall, an early pioneer in St. Johns, Arizona made the following comment about the trip in his autobiography; [Udall, David King, Ella Udall, and Ida Hunt Udall. Arizona Pioneer Mormon. Tucson, Ariz: Arizona Silhouettes, 1959.]

We reached St. Johns October 6, 1880, having traveled four hundred miles through a wilderness inhabited page 70 mostly by jackrabbits, prairie dogs, and roaming Indians. The Indians were friendly, due largely to the missionary work of Jacob Hamblin, Anthony W. Ivins, Ammon M. Tenney, Andrew S. Gibbons (Utah pioneer of 1847) and his sons, Ira Hatch, Thales Haskell, and others. Most of the country through which we passed was desolate beyond description. Its terrible remoteness was broken a few years later when the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (now the Santa Fe) was built through northern Arizona.

It is likely that the severity of the desert left little time to write, with survival being of the utmost importance. The Tanners left no first hand account of their desert crossing, but a couple of stories about the dangers of the trail were preserved.

At one point all of the party's water was gone and the animals were about exhausted. They decided to have Henry Tanner drive the stock loose until they found water. He had hardly gone a quarter of a mile from the camp when he found plenty of water in the holes of the rocks in a stream bed. While Henry was driving the stock, Eliza drove the wagon. A wind storm came up and several trees were blown across the road which had to be removed before they could proceed. Imagine a 19 year old girl driving a team of horses in the midst of a huge storm so fierce that it was blowing down trees. Perhaps you can begin to see what kind of people these pioneers really were.

A Pioneer Legacy

Driving along Interstate 40 at 75 mph, it is nearly impossible to imagine sitting in an ox pulled wagon traveling along at 1 or 2 mph if the road wasn't too rough, maybe making up to twenty miles a day. No air conditioning, no heat in the winter, no fast food restaurants just off the freeway, no DVD to entertain the children, no radio, no weather service to warn of storms, no doctors, no hospitals, no traffic, no trucks, but there was plenty of wind and dust. The pioneers didn't know they had a spectacular view of the night sky, because that was the only view they had ever seen. If they wanted to eat, they had to build a fire and cook their meal. If they wanted to take a bath, too bad, it didn't happen.

Why did they travel into our Arizona desert? The answer is very complex. It starts with a prayer by a 14 year old boy in upper New York State and is still going on with their descendants today in a world wide Church called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The pioneers had joined the Church in a lot of different places. Some came from Europe, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Norway and Australia. Some came from New England, some from the South and the Mid-Atlantic States. Many of them walked or rode across the continent before coming to Arizona.

The pioneers were farmers, carpenters, masons, teamsters and many other trades. They carried all they owned in their wagons and started from the ground up and built towns and cities all over the Mountain West. They established schools, colleges and universities. Their children were school teachers, businessmen and contractors. Their grandchildren were doctors, lawyers, politicians and judges. Their great-grandchildren are poets, university professors and artists. Their great-great-grandchildren study political science, neuro-psychology and astrophysics.

As we their descendants sing:

They, the builders of the nation,
Blazing trails along the way;
Stepping-stones for generations
Were their deeds of ev’ry day.
Building new and firm foundations,
Pushing on the wild frontier,
Forging onward, ever onward,
Blessed, honored Pioneer!

Text: Ida R. Alldredge, 1892–1943. © 1948 IRI
Music: Alfred M. Durham, 1872–1957. © 1948 IRI

A dry trek across Northern Arizona

On March 27, 1877 the pioneers left the banks of the Colorado River and began the long journey across the desert of Northern Arizona. From the Bushman Diary as quoted by George S. Tanner, "From the river south, the roads were sandy and hard to go along. We had to make considerable roads which delayed us some. Water being so scarce, we divided the company. Came to Walaipi Valley thirty miles long and ten miles wide, but no water. On Monday, April 2nd, came to Hackberry, a little mining camp. on the 3rd came to the old Beal road that was used in 1852. This road will take us past the San Francisco Mountains to the little settlements on the Little Colorado River. On April 13th, the first part of the company arrived at Fort Valley by the San Francisco Mountain. They remained there until April 20th when all the company came. All rested here until the 24th when the started for the Little Colorado."

It is reported by George S. Tanner that several of the Hunt girls left diaries of the trip and from those diaries it seems that the company was divided into three groups; the Bushmans and Manasseh Blackburn company, followed by the Westovers and their company, with the Hunts and Tanners taking up the rear. The description of the trip evidences difficult conditions that created extreme hardship. Here is the Hunt sisters' account as edited by George S. Tanner. The account begins at the Walaipi Valley where they rested their animals due to the availability of water and grass: (Spelling and grammar in the original).

"Here one of Henry's [Henry Martin Tanner] mares died of distemper." At Footoon Spring an ox in Hunt team gave out and had to be left. "There was very little grass here so we did not expect to see him again." On April 7th they came to Young Springs where they noted "a great many Indians but very little water. There being only two little springs, had it not been for a ranch (Peach Springs) three miles off the road on the left, the animals would have suffered greatly for water. We unloaded our light wagon and took the barrels and everything that would hold water up to be filled. Here our old Broad, our trusty near wheel ox, got down on a rockly hill and could not get up so we sold him to the Indians to eat. This left only two oxen in the team and we had to work cows in the place of the dead oxen."

The magnitude of the journey can be sensed by looking at the Google Maps of Peach Springs, Arizona, located just north of U.S. 66 and quite a bit north of the newer Interstate 40. You can still see the old wagon road in the aerial photos.

Source unless otherwise indicated:
Tanner, George S. Henry Martin Tanner, Joseph City, Arizona Pioneer. 1964.


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Across the Colorado and into Arizona

John Hunt and Henry Tanner explored the southern route. Instead of crossing the river at Lee's Ferry, they traveled to the south and crossed at Pearce's Ferry. As we learned previously, this crossing had been pioneered by Jacob Hamblin in 1862, but a regular ferry was not established until December, 1876 by Harrison Pearce, father of James Pearce who was later a pioneer in Taylor, Arizona. The site of the ferry now lies under the waters of Lake Mead.

South of St. George, Utah, the pioneer company was increased with the addition of the John Bushman company. John, accompanied by his second wife, Mary Peterson, and his daughter Lois, had previous agreed to travel with the pioneers to Arizona. The Bushman party also included Edwin Lycurgus Westover, his wife Joanna, Joanna's father, and her two small children.

In the words of John Bushman:

This road was very bad, dugways for miles, very hilly and water scarce. This is a new road from St. George to the Pearce Ferry on the Big Colorado River. Some places were almost impassable and rocky. On Monday, March 19th, we reached the Ferry and found Father Pearce very glad to see us.

Quoting George Shepherd Tanner's account of the river crossing:

Two days were used in getting the wagons and animals across the river. The wagons were ferried across without mishap but the livestock presented a difficult problem. The animals refused to swim the broad river and there was no other way to get them across. Henry was a skilled horseman and used to handling stock and it was his job to get the animals across. After scores of attempts which met with failure, the company was about to despair. He related that on the second day after many failures, a old Indian came into the camp and asked for food. While he was being fed, he noticed the men trying to get the animals to swim the river. One of the women noticed the the Indian showed a great deal of interest in the ferry operation. It came to her that this Indian had had experience in crossing the river with animals and she mentioned the fact to one of the men. By the use of sign language, he was asked if he knew how to gt the animals across. He said that he did and was asked to help. But he wanted to be paid. After some bargaining, he settled for a small sack of flour which he tied on the saddle of his horse. He then went down to the river and motioned for the men to drive all the animals into the edge of he water. At the right moment when all the animals were up to their bellies in the water, the Indian, who by this time had taken off what few clothes he had and was covered only with an Indian blanket, seized the top corners of the blanket in his hands and began flapping the blanket and letting out war whoops. The animals, now more frightened of the Indian than the river, quickly took to the water and headed for the other side. The last animal to take to the water was an old, lazy mule. As he was getting out his depth, the Indian threw his blanket to one of the men, seized the tail of the old mule and let him pull him across the river. When the mule saw the Indian on his tail he was so frightened that it is reported he made a new record in crossing the river. The Indian's long loose hair was streaming behind him in the water. He would put his head into the water for an instant, fill his mouth with water and blow it at the frightened animal and then let out another whoop. The animals could possibly be excused for being frightened. They even experienced some difficulty in getting the animals rounded up after they were across.

Next, into the wilds of Arizona.

Source unless otherwise indicated:
Tanner, George S. Henry Martin Tanner, Joseph City, Arizona Pioneer. 1964.

Ready for the journey

Typical Covered Wagon and Log Cabin

On January 25, 1877 Henry Martin Tanner and Eliza Ellen Parkinson were married in the St. George Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Henry was 24 years old and Eliza was 19. At the time of their marriage, Henry had already been called to settle in Arizona. They spent the next month preparing their wagons and obtaining provisions for the trip. Neither of them was a stranger to wagon travel. They owned a fine pair of mares called Mag and Puss. They were a spirited pair of horses and Puss would dance to music. Henry also had another span of horses and saddle horse, for a total of five horses in all.

Eliza's father, Thomas Parkinson, gave her a milk cow named Red. They also had other cattle for the trip.

Quoting from George S. Tanner's biography of Henry Martin Tanner:

In preparation for their departure, Sydney Tanner gave a reception and farewell, for the young couple in the upstairs of his ample home. In addition to the friends in Beaver who attended were the members of the Hunt family who were also going to Arizona. For the past year the Hunts had been living on Cove Creek two and a half miles from Joseph City, Sevier County, Utah. The Hunts had eight children, the oldest of whom was but one year younger than Eliza Tanner. They had three wagons of their own, one drawn by two yoke of oxen, one by two span of horses and a light wagon with one span of horses. The oxen were driven by a young man anxious for a bit of adventure by the name if Isadore Wilson. He was a neighbor of the Hunts. John Hunt drove the fair horse team and two of the girls, drove the light wagon. Also in the Hunt company was a four mule team owned by Manasseh Blackburn, also anxious for the adventure of the trip. His wagon carried mostly heavy supplies belonging 10 the Hunts.

Before leaving Beaver, Thomas Parkinson had mixed a large quantity of flour with soda and probably cream, at tartar so that all that was necessary in making bread was to add salt and water. The company left Beaver February 21, 1877, accompanied by Father Sidney Tanner who went one day's journey with them and hauled feed for their animals. Enroute to St. George, Henry and Eliza went by way of Toquerville for a few day's visit with relatives. Emma Ellen Stapley, cousin of Eliza, was at that time a girl of fifteen. Perhaps she little dreamed that ten years later she would be going to Arizona too. She undoubtedly met the Tanner couple on this visit. At St. George, Sam Porter, half brother of Eliza, joined a party of well wishers who accompanied them a mile and a half from the city to bid them God's speed.

Next, the journey to Northern Arizona