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Scouts were sent on a southern route dipping into Arizona,
but lack of water and unfriendly Indians caused Church leaders to rule out
using that route for the main expedition.
An old trail originally located by Spanish explorers had been used
during the 1850’s to establish the town of Moab, however, that was a short
lived occupation and Moab had been quickly abandoned. The road to the San Juans from Cedar City to
Bluff passing through the abandoned townsite still existed but was more than
400 miles long. A shorter route was
needed.
Scouts were sent to find a route wagons could use between
Escalante and Bluff. The original
scouting trip was not thorough. Perhaps
the scouts simply assumed a route could be found or perhaps they did not have
the courage to return to the Church leaders with a “no way” answer. The Church leaders were also too eager to
accept a favorable report. Although the scouts had made no apparent attempt to
find a specific route for wagons to travel, and had made no attempt to cross
the baron country to prove it could be done, the San Juan Mission was called in
1878.
In those days, a mission call was a rather simple
matter. The Church decided how many
families and which families it wanted and called their names during a
conference. They were expected to accept
the call, sell there businesses or leave their occupations, and get into
line. Although the persons being called
could refuse to go, most of them were honored to be called and looked upon the
opportunity as a mission from God. In
fact, some who were not called to the mission, volunteered to go.
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