=Salt Lake Trail.=--Many variations of the above described trail were in use. Travelers up the Missouri River disembarked at St. Joseph, Nebraska City, Plattsmouth and especially at Council Bluffs. The great Mormon trek was made from the last-named place. They reached the Platte River west of Omaha and followed it on the north bank, paralleling the Oregon Trail from Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, where they crossed over and joined with the Oregon Trail through South Pass then leaving that trail turned south and west to Great Salt Lake. =Later California Trail.=--A continuation of the Salt Lake route north of Great Salt Lake and along the Humboldt River, across the desert to near Lake Tahoe, where there was a crossing through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Truckee Pass, thence to the Gold Diggings or across California by way of the American and Sacramento Rivers, was a trail very popular to California gold miners and was afterwards used by the overland stage, and known as the Later California Trail. =Santa Fé Trail.=--This road passed westward and a little south to the Arkansas River, which it followed to Bent’s Fort (Colorado), thence up Timpas Creek and over the Raton Pass to Las Vegas (New Mexico). Then westward through Apache Cañon to Santa Fé. This trail was too rough for wagon traffic, so later a route which crossed over south from the Arkansas to the Cimarron and meeting the old trail at Las Vegas was used. =Gila and Spanish Trails.=--Two routes were possible from Santa Fé. One southwestward by way of the Rio Grande and Gila Rivers into southern California. The other took a northwesterly direction up the Chama River, down the Dolores Valley, and across to the Grand River near the present site of Moab, Utah. Then west to the Sevier, up which it followed until it crossed over to the Virgin River; up this for a short distance then turned directly south-west across the Mohave desert toward Los Angeles. This last route received the name of Spanish Trail. Many of these trails were difficult on account of scarcity of water in the deserts. Descriptions of early travel over them are replete with hardships, sickness, and deaths. Some of the graves were marked with wooden, stone, or iron markers with names roughly chiseled, but more received no marking whatsoever. Many travelers and settlers were killed by the Indians; the tribes apparently becoming more hostile as the number of whites increased until their own numbers became so decimated they could no longer command sufficient warriors to warrant further attacks. It would seem as though no advance in civilization is unaccompanied by its toll of human lives.