Oskaloosa to Council Bluffs

The day after Alonzo left Oskaloosa they broke an axel on one of their carts and had to make a new one.  The next day they broke the axel on another cart. The next town they stopped in was Chariton, Iowa. He describes the country between there and Mt. Pisgah as the most beautiful prairie that can be found in the United States. He writes that Mt. Pisgah was a Mormon Station with some 60 or 70 families and they spent three days there.

(double click on photos for a larger image)

Court House and band shell in Chariton, Iowa

Landscape between Chariton and Mt. Pisgah, Iowa

Monument for Mormon dead at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa

Road near Mt. Pisgah, Iowa

The next day they, “Drove 39 miles and stopped at Evans camp that was one family with thirty miles to the first neighbor and forty miles to the next.”  

It’s unclear if they continued west, in the area of what is now Hwy 34, until they were just south of Council Bluffs or if they followed the Mormon route from Mt. Pisgah up to Orient and then west on what is now Hwy 92. That’s the route I took.

Alonzo drove into Council Bluffs about four o’clock. I arrived about 6:00 p.m.