The Main Oregon Trail route (heading to Fort Hall) and Hudspeth's Cutoff took about the same amount of time. Hudspeth's Cutoff had five mountain ranges but was more direct (straighter); the Main route was bell shaped as it bypassed the mountains. Alexander Crater was a landmark for Hudspeth's Cutoff after leaving Soda Point.
Hudspeth's Cutoff was opened in July of 1849 and promoted as a faster and more direct route to City of Rocks. The route received heavy traffic from those traveling to the California gold fields. The trail separated in the vicinity of Soda Point.
View towards Alexander Crater and Hudspeth's Cutoff, 1999
Osborne Russell, July 9, 1834
"[W]e encamped at a place called the Sheep Rock, so called from a point of the mountain terminating at the river bank in a perpendicular high rock. The river curved around the foot of this rock and formed a half circle, which brought its course to the southwest, from whence it ran in the same direction to the salt Lake, about eighty miles distant. The sheep occupied this prominent elevation (which overlooked the surrounding country to a great extent) at all seasons of the year."
ETSI, p. 102
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William Swain, 1849
"...on arriving at the crater I ascended its mound which is forty feet above the level of the plain. Smooth outside surface which is covered with grass to its top. The E side is some 6 feet lower than the W, so that from the east a person has a fair view of the crater which is ten feet deep. The walls are like well arranged masonry. I descended into the valley of the crater and found it covered with soil in which sage and some grass were growing. The lower part of the wall is a mass of broken lava fallen from the upper part which stands as before stated in regular layers. At one point I found the side of the orifice standing, untouched by time, just as it was when the eruptions ceased, judging from the appearance... The circumference of the crater at the edge of the mouth is 64 paces. Judging from the appearance of the crater it must have been in a state of eruptions in some time of modern date."
Elija Preston Howell, July 23, 1849
"We passed the North-western elbow of Bear River at a remarkable cliff of rocks [Soda Point] on the South side. After crossing the plain we failed to find water as we had expected, and an old crater of a volcano [Alexander Crater]. From the forks of the road it is 6 to 8 miles to the Hills. To look at it you would think it more that 2 or 3 miles... Tuesday, July 24 - There are several Lodges of Snake Indians encamped here. They are drying large quantities of Black & Red crickets or grasshoppers of a large size. These are very numerous the earth being almost covered with them in some places."
The 1849 California Trail Diaries ofElijah Preston Howell. Edited by Susan Badger Doyle and Donald E. Buck, Independence, MO.: Oregon California Trails Association, 1995.
Directions: Hwy 30 west of Soda Springs
Must See: Alexander Crater
Current Observations/Journal Entry:
"The old townsite of Alexander now consists of a single-wide trailer, an old home, and a railroad track. Putnam Peak appears in the distance; it is snow capped."
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