In 1855, Lt. Sylvester Mowry led a military detachment from Salt Lake City to Fort Tejon via Cedar City, Santa Clara, Las Vegas, Resting Springs, and the Mojave River. The men traveled south to reinforce the California post. Arthur Woodward’s later history of Fort Tejon identifies the detachment as 85 recruits.
Mowry followed an established road between Utah and Southern California. An 1851 waybill already listed its watering places, distances, and road conditions. Travelers crossing the desert relied on springs and the Mojave River for water and looked for grass to feed their animals.
Mowry documented the march in a report and route sketch. His map also showed the Kingston route as a proposed cutoff that would shorten the desert crossing. His detachment traveled the older route through Resting Springs.
At Las Vegas, Mowry learned of Mormon efforts to investigate navigation on the Colorado River. After reaching Fort Tejon, he recommended surveying the river upstream to the head of navigation, then examining an overland route to Salt Lake City. He offered to lead the survey, but did not receive the assignment. His recommendation added another proposal to the growing interest in a river connection with Utah.
References
Bailey, Lynn R., editor. “Lt. Sylvester Mowry’s Report on His March in 1855 from Salt Lake City to Fort Tejon.” Arizona and the West 7, no. 4 (Winter 1965): 329-346.
Giffen, Helen S., and Arthur Woodward. The Story of El Tejon. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1942. See p. 62.
Warren, Elizabeth von Till, and Ralph J. Roske. Cultural Resources of the California Desert, 1776-1880: Historic Trails and Wagon Roads. Bureau of Land Management, 1981. See the Kingston Cut-Off discussion and military-expedition entry II-63.
Hafen, LeRoy R., and Ann W. Hafen, editors. Journals of Forty-Niners: Salt Lake to Los Angeles. The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series, vol. 2. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark, 1954. See pp. 321-324 for the 1851 Mormon waybill.
Smith, Melvin T. “Before Powell: Exploration of the Colorado River.” Utah Historical Quarterly 55, no. 2 (Spring 1987): 105-118. See p. 114.
Map Showing the Different Routes Travelled Over by the Detachments of the Overland Command in the Spring of 1855: From Salt Lake City, Utah, to the Bay of San Francisco. Washington, D.C., 1855-1856. University of Michigan, Clark Library Maps collection.
