Great Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriff Rodney Badger, one of the original 1847 pioneers, was the first known Utah law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty. In 1853, while on assignment from Brigham Young to assist pioneers fording the Weber River, he tried to save an immigrant family after their wagon was swept into deep, frigid water and overturned. After warnings to cross without the family were ignored, Badger dived into the river and rescued the mother and four of the six children, then swam back for the remaining two children. He was overcome by the river and disappeared, and both children also died. One child's body was found the next day, the other three months later, and Badger's remains were found eighteen months afterward on an island one and a half miles downstream and returned to Salt Lake City, where his wife and four children lived. At the time of his death, he was a counselor in the Salt Lake 15th Ward Bishopric. An eyewitness, William H. Hooper, wrote that Badger was beloved by all who knew him and that the camp was in gloom, while noting that the mother and four children were saved. In 1996, one hundred forty-three years after his death, the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor were awarded to Badger and presented to his descendants by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. Additional information later indicated the event probably took place at an early Weber River ford in Uintah, twenty-nine miles downstream from the previously identified location, used by emigrants leaving the Utah Territory for California.