In 1849, recognizing the Salt Lake Valley's limited resources for pioneer settlement and expecting many more immigrants, Brigham Young began seeking new settlement areas. Drawing on Jefferson Hunt's reports from 1847 and 1848, southern Utah Territory, especially the valleys along the Spanish Trail, appeared promising. The November legislature authorized the Southern Expedition to investigate these possibilities, and Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt led an exploring party of fifty-five men. The expedition and its report helped influence the founding of dozens of new communities in southern Utah, including Parowan and Cedar City in 1851 in what would become Iron County. On Christmas Day in 1849, Pratt divided the party into two groups. He led one group south over the Black Ridge and the rim of the Great Basin toward present-day St. George, then returned to Parowan by way of the Spanish Trail through Mountain Meadows and Iron Springs on January 8 and January 9, 1850. While he was away, David Fullmer led the second group from camp at Parowan to explore the canyons around the Valley of the Little Salt Lake, just east of Parowan Gap, where they discovered the Parowan Gap petroglyphs. Robert Campbell, the expedition's clerk and historian, copied some of the petroglyphs into the last two pages of his journal. The expedition members were the first to report their existence, though others had probably seen them before. The journey home was difficult because of freezing January snowstorms. Pratt reached Provo ahead of the main company and sent help to his weary, cold companions. He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on January 31, 1850, and the rest of the party arrived in mid-February. In his report to Brigham Young and the territorial legislature, Pratt said that Chief Walker, a Ute Indian, called Parowan Gap "God's Own House."