st above Vermilion Creek, opposite the remains of an "old
fort," which was doubtless Fort Davy Crockett. "Here the river enters
between lofty precipices of red rock" (now the Gate of Lodore), "and the
country below is said to assume a very rugged character; the river and
its affluents passing through canons which forbid all access to the
water." After journeying to the head of the Platte, and south through
the Parks, he went east by the Arkansas, and came again in 1845 to cross
the Green a little farther south on his way to California.

* For an account of this unfortunate affair see The Rocky Mountain
Saints, chapter xliii., by T. B. H. Stenhouse. I knew Lee. Personally
he was an agreeable man, and to me he disclaimed responsibility in this
matter.

** See Fremont and '49 by F. S. Dellenbaugh.

By this time the relations between the United States and Mexico were at
the point of rupture, and in 1846 Kearny's forces moved on New Mexico
and California, the Mormon Battalion marking out a waggon-road down the
Gila. Fremont, being in California, took an active part (1846) in the
capture of the region, but the story of that episode does not belong
here, and may be found in any history of California. The same year
in which the formal treaty of peace was signed (1848) another event
occurred which was destined to have a vast influence on the whole
country and lead streams of emigrants to the new Dorado across the
broad wastes of the Colorado Valley; gold in enormous quantities was
discovered on Sutler's California ranch. There were three chief routes
from the "States" across the wilderness of the Colorado River basin:
one down the Gila to the Yuma country, another by South Pass and so on
around Salt Lake and down the Humboldt, and the third also by South Pass
and Salt Lake and thence south, by Mountain Meadows and west by the
Old Spanish Trail. On the northern road Jim Bridger had, in 1843,
established a trading post on Ham's Fork of Black's Fork of Green River,
and this now was a welcome stopping-place for many of the emigrants,*
while on the southern trail a temporary ferry was established at
the mouth of the Gila by Lieut. Cave J. Coutts, who had arrived in
September, 1849, commanding an escort for some boundary surveyors under
Lieutenant Whipple. For a couple of months he rendered great assistance
to the stream of weary emigrants, who had reached this point on their
long journey to the Golden Country of their