WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
PARLEY P. PRATT EXPLORATION OF SOUTHERN UTAH
(1849-1850 Expedition)
ROUTE
Salt Lake City
Fort Utah on the Provo River
Current location of Nephi
Up Chalk Creek
Sanpitch settlement in the Sanpete Valley
Spanish Trail up the Sevier River
Vicinity of Circleville
Little Salt Lake Valley
Group 1 with the wagons & oxen and most of the men led by David Fullmer
Parowan and Cedar Valleys
Group 2 with Parley P. Pratt and 20 men with horses
Virgin River area
Santa Clara River
Mountain Meadows
Groups 1 and 2 united
Parowan
Current location of Fillmore
Group 3 with Parley P. Pratt and half the party (mostly the men with families) went ahead on horeseback.
Fort Utah
Salt Lake Valley
Group 4 with the other half of the party and the wagons & oxen delayed (7 weeks) for better weather.
Round Valley
Salt Lake Valley
COMPANY
Parley P. Pratt, PresidentWilliam W. Phelps and David Fullmer, Counselors
John Brown, Captain
Robert Campbell, Clerk
W. W. Phelps, Engineer
First Group of 10
Isaac Haight, Captain
Parley P. Pratt
William Wadsworth
Rufus Allen
Chauncey West
Dan Jones
Hial K. Gay
George B. Matson
Samuel Gould
William P. Vance
Second Group of 10
Joseph Matthews, Captain
John Brown
Nathan Tanner
Sterling G. Driggs
Homer Duncan
William Matthews
John D. Holladay
Schuyler Jennings
John H. Bankhead
Robert M. Smith
Third Group of 10
Joseph Horne, Captain
Alexander Wright
David Fullmer
William Brown
George Nebeker
Benjamin F. Stuart
James Farrer
Henry Heath
Seth B. Tanner
Alexander Lemon
Fourth Group of 10
Ephraim Green, Captain
William W. Phelps
Charles Hopkins
Andrew Blodgett
William P. Henrie
Peter Dustin
Thomas E. Ricks
Robert Campbell
Isaac Brown
William S. Willis
Fifth Group of 10
Josiah Arnold, Captain
Christopher Williams
Dimick B. Huntington
John C. Armstrong
Isaac B. Hatch
Jonathan Taylor Packer
Stephen Taylor
The vacancy of three men in the fifth ten was to be filled by recruits from the new Sanpete settlement. Actually, five men--Madison D. Hambleton, Gardner G. Potter, Edward Everett, John Lowry Jr., and Sylvester Hewlitt-- joined there; but two of the explorers were sent home after reaching the Little Salt Lake, keeping the expedition at fifty men as planned.
HISTORY
November 23, 1949 The company was organized.November 24, 1849 The company left Salt Lake City.
December 3, 1849 Reached the Sanpitch settlement in the Sanpete Valley.
January 10, 1849 The company started home from Parowan.
January 28,1850 Group 3 arrived back in the Salt Lake Valley.
February 5, 1850 Parley P. Pratt presented his report to the legislature.
End of March Group 4 arrived back home.
PHOTOS
WCHS photos:WCHS-03993 Photo of a monument to the Parley P. Pratt Southern Utah Expedition in 1849
REFERENCES
Over the Rim: The Parley P. Pratt Exploring Expedition to Southern Utah, 1849-50edited by William B. and Donna T. Smart
270 pages
Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999
[Note: This is a large file and may take a while to load.]
The 1849 Southern Exploring Expedition of Parley P. Pratt
by William B. and Donna T. Smart
Nauvoo Journal, pp. 125-137
The Southern Utah Expedition of Parley P. Pratt
by Rick J. Fish
Brigham Young University, Master's Thesis, December 1992
The Mormon Corridor
by Kellene Ricks Adams
In Pioneer Sesquicentennial 1847-1997, pp. 72-75
Quotes from the Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints an preparations
Members of the Parley P. Pratt expedition company
A report from Parley P. Pratt to Brigham Young
Video of Susan Easton Black talking about the Expedition
Tales Of The Old West: Exploring Washington County, 1849
By "Doc" Hal Hickman. Senior Sampler, July 1, 2022, p. 10
A paper on the Expedition given by William B. Smart