D&RGW Soldier Summit

Soldier Summit
On Sept. 11, 1776, Two Franciscan priests Father Escalante, and Father Dominguez entered what is now the state of Utah, and several weeks later camped in a mountain pass. It is believed that the Fathers gave the pass its first name, calling it Grassy Pass.

The name was changed to Soldier Pass when Johnston's army at Camp Floyd was ordered east in 1861.

About 40 officers and enlisted men from the southern states were given permission to leave the U.S. Army and go south to join the Confederate Army. They arrived at Grassy Pass in a blizzard. Six or seven men and a fourteen year old boy were frozen to death and were buried by a spring near the summit of the pass. The Rio Grande Railroad Company in 1880 named the pass Soldier Summit in its first time table.

~Castle Valley Center-Handicapped School. Nov. 1, 1990

One feature might well have been added to it, the "Timpanogos Road." This led from Fort Bridger to the headwaters of the Provo River, down that stream through the canyon, across Provo Bench to Lehi, over the Jordan River bridge, constructed in 1853, and so to Camp Floyd. All personnel and supplies to the camp were sent over this route, and Colonel Cooke used it in 1861 when he departed for the Civil War with the small remaining garrison. The chief purpose of the road was to keep teamsters and soldiers out of Great Salt Lake City.

From the city of Provo in Utah County to a point on the eastern boundary line of Utah, passing into or through the counties of Utah, Wasatch and Uintah, with the following branches: 1) a branch from a point at or near the mouth of White River in Uintah County, to a point on the eastern boundary line of Utah where the same is crossed by the valley of Green River, passing into or through Uintah County: 2) a branch from a point at or near Soldiers Pass in Wasatch County to a point on the Sevier Valley Railway line at or near the mouth of Huntington Creek in Emery County: 3) a branch from a point at or near the mouth of White River in Uintah County to a point at or near Kimball's Station in Summit County, passing into or through the counties of Summit, Wasatch and Uintah: 4) a branch from the mouth of White River in Uintah County to the mouth of Grand River in Paiute County, passing into or through Uintah, Paiute and San Juan Counties, the length of said last named line and four branches being - a distance of about 620 miles.

A couple miles farther on we pass a saloon that some enterprising rum-seller has put up to supply the passing traveler with the 'staff of life.' There are no residences anywhere near here, but he catches the custom of the passing travelers. A little farther on we leave the valley of the Price [White River], and passing over a gentle divide 8,000 feet above the sea we begin to descend upon the western slope. Soon we strike a little rill which, growing as it goes, occupies the bottom of a narrow valley which grows deeper, and the mountains on each side higher, as we follow it down. Four miles from the summit we find a clear and sparkling spring of ice cold water, and there we pitch our tent for the rest of the summer. Evening is coming on, and before we go to rest we hear for the first time in half a year the shrill whistle of the locomotive as the cars roll up to the station three miles below us.

(The authors added that the station Hodgman described was Clear Creek, later Tucker, Utah, the point where the Utah & Pleasant Valley built in 1878-79 south from Springville, turned up Starvation Creek to work its way over the crest of the Wasatch range to the coal seam near Scofield, employing an unusual switchback arrangement to surmount the summit. The road was purchased by the D&RGW Railway at foreclosure in June 1882, and the switchback line was abandoned by December that year.)

The most obvious was to build from the hamlet of Price west up the Price River drainage to Fish Creek, then up Fish Creek into Pleasant Valley to join the U&PV line. That could be followed over the Wasatch summit down the switchbacks into Starvation Creek and then on to Springville.

A more practical alternative was to build up the Price River to the junction of Fish Creek and the White River, then up the White River drainage across Soldier Pass and down to Clear Creek Station on the U &PV in the Soldier Creek drainage. A four per cent grade would be required on the west side of Soldier Pass, but no switchbacks would be needed. In addition, the Wasatch Range at Soldier Pass could be crossed at an elevation some 500 feet lower than the U&PV's crossing some miles to the south.

Also, the through line via Soldier Pass would be much shorter than trying to use the full length of the Utah & Pleasant Valley. Intelligently, the Soldier Pass route was adopted, and construction was inaugurated. Six-thousand feet of track from Clear Creek station toward the summit of Soldier Pass was laid in 1881 before winter weather brought such activity to a halt. Track construction resumed in 1882 building eastward on over Soldier Summit and down the White River/Price River alignment into the Utah desert. This is the alignment upon which Engineer Frank Hodgman had done location work in July and August of 1881.

At 9:30 a. m. on July 12, 1861, Johnson’s army, with a guide, broke camp and forever turned away from Camp Floyd, taking the route by way of Spanish Fork canyon, Soldier Summit, down into the valley of Price river, thence through southern Colorado and Texas, until it reached its destination, the Confederate lines, where Colonel Albert Sydney Johnson had gone and perhaps was waiting for them. It is said that by the time they reached the Confederate lines there were less than 1,000 men all told.

Soldier Summit received its name from the fact that several soldiers are buried here; who the soldiers were, however, is a matter of spirited local disagreement.

The somewhat peculiar name is a bit shrouded in legend. Some say the departing soldiers from abandoned Camp Floyd (Fort Crittenden), under Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, were caught unprepared in a chilling blizzard in July 1861 on the summit. A couple of the soldiers died during the snowstorm and were buried on the summit. Another story agrees that the troops moved up the creek now called East Fork of Soldier Creek, were not caught in a storm , but merely passed over the broad summit on their way east. The graves, apparently, are still there, however, and even in these times sudden freezing storms come up occasionally during summer which makes the first account very likely.

No one knows for sure which if any of these stories is true or the identity of the bodies buried there. It is said that at one time the graves had a headboard and there was a fence around the graves made of wood. All that was left of these was a few rotten boards and a faint outline of four graves with a small stone at one end. No one has cared for the graves in many years.

Mr. Verne Jeffers, a dedicated history buff of Springville, was instrumental in getting a state historical marker placed at Soldier Summit where the graves of six unknown men are buried. Mr. Jeffers has done much research on that area and has compiled several scrapbooks with pictures and history. He came up with the following information about the graves:

"The original name for the summit was Grassy Pass. When Johnson’s army at Camp Floyd was ordered east in 1861, about forty officers and enlisted men camped there. They had been given permission to leave the U S. Army and go south to join the Confederate Army. Two days after leaving Camp Floyd, they arrived at Grassy Pass in a blizzard and tried to make camp.

"Six or seven men and a fourteen year old boy froze to death and were buried by a spring near the summit of the Pass. What happened to the rest of the party is not known. The name Grassy Pass was now forgotten and the summit became known as Soldier Pass."

(Verne Jeffers, 1901-1997, began collecting histories of Utah towns when he moved to Springville in 1947, along with collecting thousands of historical photographs of Utah towns and railroads. He became a source for historical notes for the local Springville Herald newspaper in the late 1970s. He became well known in 1983 after furnishing historical notes and photos to several local newspapers during the Thistle slide. His stories of the history of Soldier Summit was taken up by the local chapter Sons of Utah Pioneers, which in June 1985, protected the site of the graves with a railing and placed the first monument at the location.

Another story is that when Johnson’s Army was on its way to Utah in 1857, they made winter quarters at Camp Scott near Fort Bridger. A scouting party was sent out over the Uinta Mountains and down the Green River to the old Spanish trail to try and find a route into Utah and the Salt Lake valley so that Echo Canyon could be bypassed. This party never returned to Camp Scott and may be buried in the graves.

(The realities of the geography of traveling south from Fort Bridger, over the Unita Mountains to either the Unita Basin, or still farther south to the Castle Valley, would seem to make this version unlikely. Reaching Following the Green River would have put the Army much farther south than their stated mission would have allowed.)

Another account of what might have happened was given by Alfred L. Pace of Payson. He was born in 1884 on the old Pace Ranch up Spanish Fork Canyon. His father told him the following story:

In 1863, Brigham Young wanted to find a better route to Southeastern Utah and sent six men from the Nauvoo Legion in Salt Lake south to Spanish Fork to find a route up the canyon that would be suitable to construct a wagon road through the mountains to southeastern Utah.

Because of unfriendly Indians living around the hot springs a short distance up the canyon, only a heavily armed troop could travel this part of the canyon; so the legion of men were sent up the old Indian trail through Payson Canyon and down Bennie Creek. From there they came into Spanish Fork Canyon where they met John A. L. Pace who agreed to guide them up the canyon to Grassy Pass. They departed with an Indian guide going around the Red Narrows to the mouth of Sheep Creek where they made camp after dark.

Two hours later, a small dog of Pace's began to growl and the horses became restless. They thought hostile Indians were near, and decided to break camp and slip away up the canyon. It started to snow, covering their tracks and they arrived at the head of the canyon at daybreak and with six inches of snow on the ground. They arrived at Grassy Pass the following day. Mr. Pace left the party, and arrived back at his camp near the mouth of Thistle Creek in two days. Some time later six men were found frozen to death at the spring in Grassy Pass.

The name Soldier Summit has always been shrouded in mystery. I asked several people and read several accounts--each one had a different story. In one story, two defectors of Johnston’s (Utah War) Army left Camp Floyd to join the confederacy during the Civil War and froze to death on the summit. In another, they simply passed over the summit, and in another, ten soldiers were killed in the 'willows' by Indians, and buried with their boots on, right there where they died.

Recently someone erected a marble headstone on the remote grave site that reads, "Here lie 7 unidentified U.S. Soldiers who perished, 1861." I didn't get a chance to talk to whoever put up the headstone, but maybe they know the real story. With a gas station, small motel, and one or two houses the only living remains, Soldier Summit isn't even a skeleton of its past.

Soldier Summit has a unique history. On Sept. 11, 1776, two Franciscan Priests, Father Escalante and Father Domingquez, entered what is now Utah and later camped in a mountain pass in the Manti Mountains. It is believed the two priests gave the pass its first name, calling it Grassy Pass.

The name remained until the railroad reached the south fork of Soldier Creek in 1877. Army records dated 1860 show the fifth regiment of infantry and three companies of the tenth infantry passed up Spanish Fork Canyon, crossing the pass to the head of White River. They traveled down White River to the Green River on their way to New Mexico.

At the Green River, a strong party was detached to return with the wagons through Spanish Fork Canyon to Camp Floyd.

When Johnston's army was ordered from Camp Floyd to help with the fighting during the Civil War, the soldiers passed through Grassy Pass in a blinding blizzard and made camp in the cold weather.

Six or seven men and a 14-year-old boy were frozen to death and were buried by a spring near the summit pass.

The name of Grassy Pass is now forgotten, and the name Soldier Summit remains.

The story of Soldier (or Soldier's) Summit, as told by Verne Jeffers.

Soldier Summit was named after six soldiers were killed in a battle with Indians. Soldier Summit was originally called Grassy Pass. But in in February of 1861 an advance party of about 30 soldiers traveling from their garrison in Cedar Valley to Texas and New Mexico, fought a battle with Indians at Grassy Pass.

Six soldiers were killed and buried. About 11 Indians were piled on top of the ground. Vern Jeffers said 1,100 soldiers camped at Grassy Pass, and one must have dropped the insignia of the 71st Infantry of the Pennsylvania National Guard that a California woman found there. She wouldn't give it to Jeffers, but she let him photograph it. It's one of the many photos in his album.

In 1861, when the town was still called Grassy Pass, an army detachment camped in the area received orders allowing soldiers from the South to return home and join the Confederate forces if they chose.

Forty officers and enlisted men took their leave. They traveled through a blizzard and decided to hunker down and wait out the weather. Six or seven of the soldiers — no one is certain how many — and a 14-year old boy traveling with them froze to death.

Townspeople buried them on a hillside, and to this day, their graves are kept up. The local people did one more thing to honor their memories. They changed the name of the town.