Last updated: December 5, 2023
Place
Broad Hollow
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Southwest of Henefer, Utah
Significance:
A detour around the Dixie Hollow chokepoint.
Before Broad Hollow, wagons followed Dixie Hollow, the ravine to the right side of today’s paved road. The hollow bristled with brush and its boulder-choked bottom was too narrow for wagons to pass. The Donner-Reed wagon party grubbed a dangerous sideling trail along the sloping bank before dropping, exhausted, into their first camp beyond the Weber River. Mormon pioneers improved the rough track, but despite their efforts, many wagons over the years tumbled sideways off the trail. Dixie Hollow narrows and becomes impassable to wagons.
Broad Hollow, which drains into Dixie Hollow near the Donner-Reed campsite of August 11, provided a detour around the Dixie Hollow chokepoint. The pioneers veered northwest up Broad Hollow, turned west across a wide bench, and then dropped south again to East Canyon Creek and through today’s East Canyon State Park.
A monument marks the location where pioneers turned west. Some researchers think the two-track to the right of the monument may be the original trail alignment, but it might be a more recent ranch road.
Site Information
Location (Southwest of Henefer, Utah)