Show CHAPTER XIV GREAT SALT LAKE A BARRIER TO YffiSTWARD MIGRATION emigrants moved westward to seek homes in California during the 1840 ’a Great Salt Lake assumed the characterAs istics of be such migration It had to to the north or the south in order to a formidable either by-pas- sed barrier to reach the future "Golden State" first party to reach California by way of the north shores of the Great Salt Lake (after the Bonneville-Walk- er expedition 1833) was one under the direction of Col The John Bartleson in 1841 However because John Bidwell a of the party kept a most ao curate record of the journey this group has often been referred to as the Bartleson- Bidwell party Since the origin of this party and its or- - member ganization and trip across the plains is already well known we have only to consider its course as it approached the Great noteworthy because in it were Mrs Benjamin Kelsey and her small daughter the first white woman and child to reach California by way of the overland Salt Lake This company is to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains The Bartleson party followed the Oregon Trail to Soda Springs where they decided to seek a shorter route to California to avoid the long trip to Fort Hall and then back south- - trail and |