A Historical Guide to the Mormon Battalion and Butterfield Trail

Tucson: Westernlore Press, 1992. First Edition. 124pp. Quarto [28.5 cm] Dark blue buckram boards with the title gilt stamped on the backstrip. Near fine/Near fine. Signed by the author on the title page. Illustrated guide to the Mormon Battalion/Butterfield Trail through southern Arizona. There are few major events in the history of the Far West from 1846 to 1849 that did not involve the Mormon Battalion. Recruits for the Mexican War from migrating Mormons in Iowa, the Battalion helped make that migration to Utah possible, opened four major western trails to wagons (including principal overland routes of the forty-niners), showed the importance of the Gadsden Purchase corridor, participated in the United States conquest of California and in the discovery of gold there, escorted John Fremont to his court martial, and carried the news of the gold east to an eager American public.