Salt Lake City

Within the memory of the present generation the map of North America represented the region now covered by the Territories of Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, the State of Nevada and the western part of Colorado, as the Great American Desert. In fact, until the explorations of Bonneville and Fremont, little if anything was known of its character. As early as 1833, Captain Bonneville had trappers on Green River–a tributary of the Colorado–and in July of that year he sent a party from that point westward, to explore this vast region. Passing down what is now called Ogden River, they discovered the Great Salt Lake. Colonel Fremont came afterwards, in 1842, and remained exploring in and around the Great Desert until 1846, but save for these travelers, the country was visited only by trappers and hunters. The advent of civilization into the Great American Desert was on the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers, after their exodus from Nanvoo, in Illinois.