Transcript

Transcript for Wilford Woodruff, "Letter of W. Woodruff, One of the Apostles," Prophet of the Jubilee translated and edited by Ronald D. Dennis (1997), 101

The first 500 miles of our journey, to Fort Laramie, were on the north side of the Platte river, where only the red nomads of the forest have ever before traveled. We made a new road for that whole distance, and we built several bridges. Along this way we had a great abundance of geese, ducks, cranes swans, deer, antelope, elk, and buffalos, by the tens of thousands. From there we journeyed through the Black Mountains for about 500 miles. Along these parts the creatures noted were not as numerous as in the aforementioned parts, but we met the occasional bear wandering through the woods for prey, which could be shot easily with a rifle by just being careful: we killed some of them on our journey, but we depended mainly on the buffalo for meat along the way. The meat of a buffalo calf is excellent food. At times we were troubled by a few renegade Indians, who tried to drive away our horses, but we managed to get nearly all of them back by following them to their camp. The leaders of the Indians do not allow anyone to attack us; but from the other side, they behaved in a very neighborly manner toward the Saints, as far as we could see, except for some renegades amongst them.