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Soda Springs was a well-known landmark
on the westward emigrant trails. The trail passed along
the Bear River, splitting into three segments at Soda
Point (Sheep Rock). The mineral springs in the area were
remarked on by almost all of the westward emigrants.
Development, though, has brought many changes to the
area.
Of all the springs which once existed in
this area, only one -- Hooper Spring -- can still be
found today. Hooper Spring is 5 miles northwest of town.
Visitors to Sulfur Canyon, east of Soda Springs, can
also get some sense of what this remarkable area was
like for the emigrants. In town, visitors can watch the
only captive geyser in the world erupt every hour, a
controlled release which reaches heights of 100 feet. |
John
Steele, 1850:
...Among these springs we found an
encampment of Canadian Indians, with whom, much to our
surprise, we saw a middle-aged white woman. Her blue
eyes and light hair contrasted strangely with the
swarthy complexion, black hair and eyes of her
husband. We were not greatly astonished to find white
men, like Baker and McDonald, living with Indians, and
adopting their habits; but to me it seemed impossible
that any white woman could ever, voluntarily, take up
such a life, and at first I supposed she must have
been a captive. She, however, assured Dr. Callaman
that her mode of life was purely a matter of choice
and affection. Her husband, a French and Indian half
blood, had always pursued the Indian life in its
widest range, and with woman's devotion and love, she
had abandoned kindred, home, and civilization, and
sharing the danger and privation of his uncertain
camp, had wandered with him more than twenty years. |
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Although most of the springs have long
since been depleted, the emigrants did leave their mark
in Soda Springs. Ruts are still visible in at Oregon
Trail Park and in the Soda Springs Golf Course, where
they present a truly unique hazard for modern golfers.
John
Hudson Wyman, 1852:
July fourth. This was a very fine
pleasant morning. After leaving Ashlie Creek some three
miles we passed over a long hill, though not very bad
and came to Bear River valley again and kept down this
valley in sight of the river until we arrived at the
Mineral Springs, where we found a trading shanty kept by
some Americans, and numerous Indian Wigwams scattered in
all directions. Thes Springs are the greatest Natural
curiosities that I ever saw. We encamped here for the
night. The first springs we came to were on and elevated
tabled of white lime like schist rock elevated say 15 or
20 feet above the surrounding plain, upon the summit of
which was small crater 6 feet in diameter and say five
feet deep. Just a few feet from this was a spring of
water boiling from a small mound the size of a Hamper
basket strongly impregnated with Oxide of Iron lime and
carbonic acid gass if any thing else I am unable to
detect it, this one as well as three other small ones on
this eminence were about 98° in temperature. |
Another story of Indians near Soda
Springs had a less happy ending. In 1861, George
Goodhart, a trapper, came upon the scene of this
tragedy: "We camped on Soda Creek about two
hundred yards above where the wagon road crossed the
creek, on the south side. We turned our horses over
towards Bear River, and they fed up along it that
night. The next morning Bill Wilburn and John Taung
went out to bring our horses into camp. When they came
back, they told us they saw a lone emigrant wagon
camped on Little Spring Creek at the old wagon
crossing, so we caught our saddle horses and rode up
there. We found that the emigrants had all been
murdered ...
"We all decided that the best
thing we could do was to bury them in their own wagon
box. for we had no lumber to make a coffin. ...We laid
the father and mother side by side and placed the baby
in its mother's arms, between her and its father. We
laid a little girl with her feet up by the side of her
mother on the outside; the oldest boy next to her,
with his feet between the father and mother; the next
smallest boy by the side of him, his feet up along the
outside of his father; a little boy next to the baby,
we laid in about half-way up along the side of his
father, with his head a little below his father's
hips. |
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"We then covered them all up with quilts,
and took the upper sideboards and sawed them so they would fit
across the wagon box. We put some across over the old folk's
faces and some over the children's faces at the foot. Then we
got some willows from Soda Creek and cut them so as to cover
the whole length of the wagon box. We then spread quilts over
them, covered them with dirt, and set four formation rocks,
one at each corner." [This grave is now in the Soda
Springs cemetery.]
Mr. Goodhart continued: "I think the
murderers came upon them when they were sound asleep, and
killed the father. It looked like the mother had grabbed her
baby and started to run. I think her screams woke the
children. She was found dead on the ground, her baby in her
arms. The oldest boy was about a rod from the wagon. The next
oldest boy was behind lying on his face with a broken arrow in
his breast. I think he broke the arrow when he fell as the
broken piece was under him. The girl was lying about three
feet from the mother. The little boy next to the baby was in
bed with his throat cut. I think they cut his also the
father's throat when they were asleep. The mother was stabbed
in the breast. It looked like the baby had been stabbed above
the ear in the head.
"This terrible thing may have been done
for revenge. I think the Indians had stolen the horses and had
cached them the night before. The emigrants told us that the
man was a brave man. I think that when he found the horses
cached, he must have taken a shot at the Indians, and taken
the horses by force. I think the Indians had followed them all
day and murdered them while asleep. I think there were only
two Indians as there was only one shot with an arrow. We
examined the wounds and were satisfied that the same knife did
all the stabbing. They took nothing but the father's
gun."
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