First Wagon Over the Old Spanish Trail

The first wagon over the Old Spanish Trail came into Iron County, Utah, on May 15, 1848, with 25 Mormon Battalion men returning from California under Captain Henry G. Boyle. Piloted by Porter Rockwell and James Shaw, they converted the western half of the old pack trail into a road over which 50 wagons went westward in the fall of 1848. The old trail was thereafter known as the Southern California Emigrant Route.

Enoch, Utah · United States