Heritage Gateways

William Clayton Journals

August 12, 1847

Location: Salt Lake Valley (the right place), Utah - The end destination for the trek across the plains.

Summary: Soldiers secretly leave the establishment to go back to their families at the Winter Quarters.

Journal entry: THURSDAY, 12TH. Spent the forenoon with Elder Pratt in taking observations to ascertain the height of the temple block above the Utah outlet which he found to be sixty - five feet. The altitude one mile up the creek above the temple block is 214 feet and the attitude of the temple block above the level of the sea is 4300 feet. The latitude 40' 45' 50'.

The blacksmiths are very busy shoeing oxen and there is prospect that the ox teams will start back on Monday or Tuesday. The soldiers are getting dissatisfied at being kept here so long from their families and yesterday several of them left the camp secretly to go to Winter Quarters and this morning others are gone but it is probable that President Young knows nothing of it yet although about a dozen are already, one and others are preparing to follow them.

On Tuesday President Young laid a foundation for four houses; Elder Kimball four, Colonel Markham one. Dr. Richards one, and Lorenzo Young two, and today Dr. Richards has laid the foundation of another, George A. Smith two and Wilford Woodruff two, making a total of seventeen houses mostly fourteen feet wide and from twelve to seventeen long. Elder Kimball has his house four logs high.

Source: William Clayton's Journal

Published by the Clayton Family Association, and edited by Lawrence Clayton. To the best of our research, this contents of this book are no longer under copyright.