Salt Desert Mustangs
Discovering wild horses and historic trails in Tooele County, Utah

Full color print edition. Early westward travelers seeking a direct route to California faced a daunting challenge: a seventy-mile trek through a dry and salty region 19th Century cartographers labeled "The Great American Desert". The Donner-Reed Party may be the best known among those who braved this forbidding desert, but they were neither the first nor the last. From Jedediah Smith's legendary walk across the Great Basin to Dwight D. Eisenhower's consequential cross-country odyssey nearly a century later, the roads and trails crisscrossing western Tooele County find their origins in a surprisingly rich collection of historical tales. Today, two popular herds of wild horses still roam this storied landscape, beckoning sightseers and photographers along these same trails. Robert Hammer brings the history and the horses together in this entertaining and informative book, packed with images from both past and present, guiding the reader through nearly-forgotten times and uninhabitable spaces in search of those living icons of our national heritage, the mustangs of the American West. Also available in standard black-and-white print and e-book editions.