Between June 9, 1856, and July 6, 1860, ten handcart companies left Iowa City, Iowa, or Florence, Nebraska, for Zion in the Utah Territory, with 653 handcarts and 50 wagons carrying nearly 3,000 people across 1,400 miles of prairie, desert, rivers, and mountains. The first three and last five companies completed the journey without unusual hardship or death, but the Willie Company of 500 under Captain James G. Willie and the Martin Company of 576 under Captain Edward Martin left too late in the season after delays in Iowa City and Florence, despite Levi Savage Jr.'s warning that they should wait until spring. Trapped by an early severe winter on the Wyoming plains, halted by blizzard, deep snow, freezing weather, and exhausted food supplies, they endured hunger, fatigue, dysentery, and death until rescue wagons sent by Brigham Young from Salt Lake City reached them; by then nearly 250 had died of fatigue, disease, and exposure. Levi Savage Jr., who had returned from a mission to Siam and India and chose to go forward with the emigrants after warning them, later owned farmland near Toquerville and LaVerkin, Utah, where his river crossing on the Rio Virgin became known as Savage Crossing and was used by stockmen and by the north branch of the Honeymoon Trail.