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Primary Source Sets
Mormon Migration
A trail roadometer designed and used by William Clayton, 1847.

A trail roadometer designed and used by William Clayton, 1847.

William Clayton was among the first pioneer group to reach the Salt Lake Valley. In May 1847 he designed, and Appleton Harmon built, this wagon odometer to measure road distances along what would become the Mormon trail. Clayton found that his wagon wheel turned 360 times per mile. The carved, wooden, gear-driven counter, mounted on the wagon, registered complete revolutions of his wheel to measure accurate mileage between campsites, landmarks, and river crossings for the benefit of travelers following after. Clayton used those distances to compile his “Emigrants’ Guide.”

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Citation Information
“Roadometer P.1; No. 9447,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/adbaade507ab7a8c244ab4ab5a99ce53.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society via Mountain West Digital Library.

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Item 10 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Mormon Migration

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An 1846 map by Augustus Mitchell “of Texas, Oregon and California, with regions adjoining.”
An excerpt from a report from Illinois Governor Thomas Ford reporting on “Mormon difficulties,” December 1846.
A letter from Eliza R. Snow to Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney and Vilate Murray Kimball, June 30, 1846.
A plan of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, during the winter of 1846 to 1847.
An excerpt from the trail diary of Mormon pioneer William Snow, 1850.
A paisley shawl brought by Eliza Kittleman from Philadelphia to Utah on the Ship Brooklyn, 1849.
An excerpt from a roster for Company A of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican-American War, 1846.
An 1897 map of the route of the Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo to Salt Lake.
An excerpt from William Clayton’s booklet, “The Latter-day Saints’ Emigrants’ Guide,” 1848.
A trail roadometer designed and used by William Clayton, 1847.
A color lithograph from 1866 called The Rocky Mountains: Emigrants Crossing the Plains.
An illustration showing a view of the Utah Valley in 1850.
A printed page showing the Deseret Alphabet, around 1850.
A photograph of Zion’s Commercial Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) in Salt Lake City, with Native Americans on horseback, 1869.
A photograph of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869.

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