HISTORIC MARKER
Miles Goodyear obtained a herd of horses with the intent to trade with emigrants along the Overland Trail. Goodyear was a mountain man who gave up fur trapping to trade and build Fort Buenaventura in 1845 on the Weber River, in what is now Ogden. He lived in this first permanent structure built by white Euro-Americans on the Wasatch front with Pomona, a Ute and their two children.
Some of the horses not traded on the trail to Oregon and California were left in the care of Hector Haight of Kaysville. The majority, however, were driven along the Overland Trail 2,000 miles to Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River for use in the U.S. – Mexican War. The war ended before Goodyear arrived in Missouri, so he drove 200 horses back west. 
When he returned to Wyoming, he met the first wagon train of Mormon pioneers bound for Utah. When those settlers purchased Fort Buenaventura from Goodyear, he then drove them to Sacramento and sold them for a large profit to gold miners. This marks perhaps the longest horse drive in American history, spanning nearly 4,000 miles in total. In the background of the painted scene, are the Witches Rocks near the Weber River and visible from the i-84 interstate between Henefer and Echo, Utah.
After the death of Goodyear at age thirty-two, his brother, Andrew, came to retrieve the horses left in Davis County with the intention of taking them to California where they would be used to support Goodyear’s heirs. Instead, the horses were gone, apparently having been used by the pioneers, the final disposition a mystery. Haight first settled on the border of Kaysville and Farmington at Herd or Camp Creek, eventually becoming known as Haight’s Creek. This initial camp resulted in both cities claiming Haight as their city’s first pioneer. Some years later, the campsite was named Blooming Grove and became a recreation area for pioneers. In modern times, a commemoration marker was installed at the spot.
Sources
- Ferris, Benjamin. Utah and the Mormons. New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1854.
- Painting Horse Drive, created by Farrell R. Collett and commissioned for the nation’s bicentennial, is owned by the Weber State Storytelling Festival and shown by permission.
