Dear Julia, In the pioneer histories I have read, it often mentions the Mormon ferry operators. I think that probably isn't an exaggeration. Certainly the men who were stationed at those ferry outposts faced a lot of dangers, but that seems to have been common to the pioneer experience in general. Usually several men were assigned to operate those ferries, and they traded off after a certain time. The ferries seem to have been fairly profitable, and the money earned helped supply the Saints with needed items. If you enter the search terms "Mormon ferries" in google.com, you will find some interesting articles, including some in 19th Centuryhistories scanned in by Google Books. Baerbel -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of juliasgenes Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 10:09 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [G-P-L] Baerbel Johnson - ? about ferries in the Wild West Hello, Ms Johnson: I recently read an essay written in the early 1960s, aimed at a middle school audience, that discussed river ferries in the old west prior to construction of roads, bridges, and railroads. It stated that most ferries west of the Mississippi were operated by Mormons for the benefit of other migrating Mormons. Of course, many non-Mormons used the ferries, too. Is this true? If so. it seems like an early stab at creating an infrastructure, but at the same time must have left many Mormon ferry-tenders alone and isolated, vulnerable to the same aggression shown to the members of the faith back in Nauvoo or to non-discriminatory cut-purses or to the anger of displaced Natives. Perhaps this was an overstatement and, if true, the writer should have said the Mormon ferry-tenders were stationed along the Mormon Trail? I'm curious about movements across the country, so this tid-bit interested me. Thank you for your time, Julia For all the latest News, please visit our Homepage: http://www.germanyroots.com Please visit and participate in our new forum http://www.germanyroots.com/phpBB3/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Thank you for your info - you're the only Mormon I currently know of, so I appreciate your help. Julia --- On Tue, 2/23/10, Baerbel Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: ...In the pioneer histories I have read, it often mentions the Mormon ferry operators... Baerbel