Devil's Gate

This picture of Devil's Gate was taken from our front porch. The pioneers didn't go through it as the Sweetwater River runs through it. It was a landmark for the early pioneers. The road you can see in the forefront of the picture is the actual Oregon, California, and Mormon Trail plus it was the Pony Express Route. The following are some journal entrys made in regards to Devil's Gate.

On November2, 1856, the second day after the rescue wagons met up with the Martin and Hodgetts companies, the group arrived at Devil's Gate. Samuel Openshaw of the Martin company described the arrival. "The brethren who came out to meet us did administer every comfort and help that was within their power to the sick and the infirm. At Devil's Gate we were obliged to stop, the snow being about 14 inches deep on the level, and notwithstanding the teams that had come out to help us, there was not sufficient help to move the aged, sick, "On account of the nightly fatalities of the male members of our company for two or three weeks previously, there were many widows in our company, and the women had to pitch and put up the tents, shoveling the snow away with tin plates etc.

"One night I dropped to the ground in a dead faint with my baby in my arms. I had some pepper pods with me, and recovering from my stupor I took some of them to recover my strength. During these times we had only a little thin flour gruel two or three times a day, and this was meager nourishment for a mother with a nursing baby. My husband died and was buried at or near Devil's Gate, and the ground was frozen so hard that the men had a difficult task in digging the grave deep enough in which to inter him and nine others that morning, and it is more than probable that several were only covered with snow. Here I was left a widow with two young children". Alice Walsh

The Martin company camped at Devil's Gate on the nights of November 2nd and 3rd. The rescuers then decided to move them to an area that would provide better protection from the elements and more plentiful firewood. This is the place that came to be known as Martin's Cove.