August 27, 1841 - September 4, 1841

This is the view from the east that Bidwell saw on Friday August 27.	This photo was taken from the Tenmile Spring area looking south toward the Great Salt Lake. This is the view that the Emigrants had for 9 days while camped in this area waiting for Bartleson & Hopper to return from their scouting trip ahead.

This is a map of the approximate Bidwell Trail from Tenmile Spring to Bidwell Pass. The light gray line would be the approximate location of the trail.

Turn left onto the gravel road, and travel north 0.8 miles to a junction, then travel left through a gate 1.4 miles to a locked gate. Northwest of this gate, you can see the meadows at Tenmile Springs. This is the 27 AUGUST--4 SEPTEMBER CAMPSITE. The Bidwell-Bartleson party stayed at this campsite longer than any other site on the trail. John Bidwell described the reasons for this long rest:

"Daylight discovered to us a spot of green grass on the declivity of the mountain towards which we were advancing. 5 miles took us to this place, where we found to our great joy, an excellent spring of water and an abundance of Grass-here we determined to continue, 'till the route was explored to the head of Mary's River and run no more risks of perishing for want of water in this desolate region."

James John also described this campsite:

"Started early and travelled about 5 miles, camped. Plenty water and grass here. We remained several days. Some Snake Indians camped near us and came out and traded some berries for powder and buffalo and bullets. The Captain, and an other man named Charles Hopper, left camp on the 30th for the purpose of finding Mary's River. There is neither rain nor, I can here discover, of the season of the year. We have had no rain since we left the Platte River."

This is an aerial view of the Tenmile Spring area. The photo was taken in the fall when things were dry.

This is Tenmile Springs. The Bidwell-Bartleson Party stayed at these Springs for 9 days, the longest on the trail. They remained here while Bartleson and Hopper scouted ahead to find the way to Marys River or the Humboldt River as we know it today. Historians say that the Hudson Bay Fur Company representative, Peter Skene Ogden with his fur trappers, camped at these springs on December 26, 1828 and again on March 30, 1829. John Works company camped here in 1831 and Joseph R. Walker on his way to California in 1833, then the Bidwell party in 1841.

These springs were also the campsite of the 1828-9 Peter Skein Ogden fur trapping expedition to the Humboldt River which Ogden called the Marys River.

The rail post marker at this area reads:

August 26, 1841	September 5, 1841