Laying the Trail ~ A Letter from Danny

by Danny Van Fleet - December 2007

During the first week of December I traveled across Iowa by car laying out the trail for next June. Eleven years ago we traveled the southern route across Iowa. It was the way Brigham Young traveled with his first wagon train in 1846.

Over the next 22 years there were as many as 12 different routes taken across Iowa. The route I have chosen for 2008 is a northern route. It follows the Des Moines River for a longer time north than the first pioneers experienced. At Eddyville, Iowa, we will start to head west and leave the Des Moines River.

Talking with farmers just north of Eddyville, I learned that the pioneers crossed the Des Moines River about six miles north of Eddyville. There are still ruts on his farm where the wagons sunk into the mud 150 years ago.

At Mt. Pisgah, on the farm of Bob Brown, there is a lot of history and many people are buried there. We will camp there for a long day after a short ride from Murray. There is a lot of history at many points along the trail to Winter Quarters. I hope to show you as much of it as time will allow on our way west.

On my way back to Nauvoo, after mapping out the trail, I was caught in a snow storm and spent a night in Dahlonega at Larry England's home. He and his wife Charlotte have a beautiful place with a bed and breakfast.

Larry has proven to be a valuable source of knowledge on the history of the Mormon Trail in Iowa. He was one of the major players in taking the wagon train of IL2 across Iowa in 1996. He loves to talk about the Mormon trail. I learned a lot from Larry. We will camp at his Mormon Trail RV park one night next June.

We now have the map of the towns we will be traveling through in 2008 on our wagon train from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters in Nebraska. The dates are tentative dates for each town and camp site. They may vary a little, but I don't anticipate it will be much.

Another very interesting thing happened as I was mapping out the trail in Nauvoo. Across the road from where we plan to start the wagon train at Bar Y Stables on Winchester Street, on the east side of town, is a business called Nauvoo Log Cabins. It's owned and operated by David and Lori Hardel.

One of the cabins they have for people to rent by the night is called the "Van Fleet Homestead". It's a cute little old log cabin. I asked David to tell me the story of this cabin and how it came to be in Nauvoo. He said it was owned by a family in Lyman, Wyoming, and it was in bad repair.

The family had donated the cabin to Nauvoo Log Cabins and they moved it to Nauvoo and restored it to its original shape and size. It had been damaged by the elements through time. Bulls and horses were running in and around the cabin at the ranch near Lyman, which damaged it further.

The land had been homestead by a Van Fleet family in 1907 from U.S.A. to John E. Van Fleet. It had been passed down to family over the years. The last owners donated it rather than allow it to be completely destroyed through more time and the animals. I told David how we came through Lyman 10 years ago and that the Mormon Trail came through there.

In researching the Van Fleet name, I found that one Elias Van Fleet had come from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City in 1848 with a Brigham Young Co. wagon train -- the second one taken across by Brigham Young, I believe. Elias was only nine years old in 1848. His father was Alanson Van Fleet, who just happens to have the same birth date as I do, October 28th. He was born 130 years before me.

All the time I was riding across the plains 10 years ago I thought I was the first Van Fleet to cross on the Mormon Trail. I remember wishing I had ancestors who I could honor by coming across in 1996-1997, not knowing that a Van Fleet had preceded me in 1848. It now makes me proud to think I might have had ancestors who traveled the trails before me.