The day we arrived at Fort Bridger we sent four men on
ahead to ascertain, if possible, where Bannock was. Here they met,
by chance, some men from what was then called East Bannock and
from them we learned just where Bannock was located, it being on a
west tributary of the Missouri river. We also learned from these
parties that there was a great excitement at this time over mines
that had been struck some eighty miles east of Bannock, on what
was known as Alder Gulch, or Stinking Water, but they were not
able to advise us as to whether or not we could get there with
wagons.
Now I knew just where we wanted to go, and we took what was known
as the Landers cut-off, and pulled for Fort Hall, reaching the
fort without encountering any trouble with the Indians or
otherwise. The second day after passing Fort Hall, while we were
crossing Snake river, we met a crowd of miners just from Alder
Gulch, on their way to Denver, Colorado, for their families. From
them we learned where Alder Gulch was, and those miners spoke in
such high terms of the richness of that place that a great many in
the train wanted to go there instead of going to Bannock, while
others wanted to go to Bannock, that being where they had started.
That night they took a vote to decide as to which place they
should go, which resulted in favor of Alder Gulch, so we pulled
for Alder Gulch instead of Bannock.
Pages:
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374