The Saints then used this odometer to keep track of their mileage as they traveled to the Salt Lake Valley. On June 26, 1847, they halted at the last of the main branch of the sweet water. The measurement of the odometer read 275.5 miles since they started recording their miles. On July 21, 1847, Orson Pratt and Brother Erastus Snow entered the Salt Lake Valley. The rest of the company entered the valley four days later. Temple Block One of the first things that was established was the layout of the city. Orson Pratt was called on to carry out this duty. On July 31, 1847, he began the city layout. With the help of Henry G. Sherwood, the layout of the temple site began. They marked the Southeast corner of the temple site and started naming the city streets from this point. The layout of the Great Salt Lake City was done according to a vision that Joseph Smith had on June 25, 1833, titled the Plat of the City of Zion. The Plat shows the dimensions of the streets and blocks and describes how the blocks should be laid out. After the establishment of Temple Square, there is no evidence that Orson Pratt participated in any more surveying within the city or surrounding areas — this may be due to his involvement with the church as an apostle. Henry G. Sherwood, Orson Pratt’s apprentice, became the Deseret Survey General and performed most of the surveys following the layout of Temple Square. Even though he may have stopped practicing surveying as a profession, barometer, and he calculated elevations of peaks using his sextant and trigonometric measurements. President Brigham Young called on Orson Pratt, William Clayton and several others to determine a way to attach some machinery to one of the wagons to keep track of the distance the company traveled in one day. The odometer had already been invented, so the challenge was coming up with something using their limited resources that could be tailored to traveling by wagon/handcart. Orson writes: “This afternoon, I proposed the (Bellwins) method. Let a wagon wheel be of such a circumference that 360 rotations shall make one mile. …” Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Image MS 11757. Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Image CR 679 4. UCLS Foresights 17
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