Traveling North/East from Enterprise, Utah on Highway 18, about one mile to the right is a paved road called Bench Road heading almost straight east.  If you were to travel this road east to the foothills one could see a sign that directs them to a Sons of the Utah Pioneers historical marker, which is about 200 yards off the pavement on a dirt side road.  The marker is below the new high tension electrical line being built in this area.

The marker, and stone monument that sits next to it, are shown in the attached pictures.  These indicate the site where the Old Spanish Trail and a “short cut” road to California split.  At this point, in October of 1849, 118 wagons chose to take the short cut route and seven wagons chose to follow Jefferson Hunt on the Spanish Trail route.  The short cut route goes straight west and the Spanish Trail Route goes south along the line of the power line being built to Mountain Meadows and beyond.

This location involves a lot of history and intrigue. Some confusion exists regarding the wording on the marker and references made in the Cotton Mission Sons of the Utah Pioneers article found on Google under the name Jefferson Hunt. The article from a Google search under the heading “Jefferson Hunt – Sons of the Utah Pioneers – Cotton Mission is titled Jefferson Hunt, Bad Judgment, the 49er’s and the Mormon Battalion.

The last paragraph on the trail sign states the following regarding Jefferson Hunt:” His error, over-confidently thinking he could easily find the Rockwell shortcut, led to general irritation and cost him the confidence of most of the wagon train”.

The terms ‘over confidently’ and ‘bad judgment’ seem to be somewhat misleading in the light of recorded history. The purpose of this writing is to introduce parts of history that explore a different perspective to the historical events as they transpired at this location.