Salt Lake Cutoff

In later years it was used by tens of thousands of pioneers and miners going east and west on their way to or from the future states of California, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada or Washington.

On September 15, 1848 they found the junction of Hensley's pack trail near the rock formation called the Twin Sisters.

They then went to the tiny community of Ogden, Utah where they crossed the Weber River before traveling on to Salt Lake City.

Ebenezer Brown, leading a party from the 1846 Mormon ship Brooklyn, followed them three weeks later and helped to further define the trail.

When the gold-crazy emigrants of 1849 heard of this new route to the California gold fields, many thousands detoured to Salt Lake City to get new supplies and livestock.