"This little-known expedition, led by Parley P. Pratt, thus had a large impact on Utah history. It was also a dramatic and adventurous journey. The journals of the expedition - published complete in Over the Rim for the first time - record the feat of an unusual party of righteous frontiersmen who, challenged by harsh weather and difficult terrain, opened a way for Mormon expansion toward the Pacific coast and along the way documented much about both their new homeland and the native Utes and Paiutes their people would displace."--BOOK JACKET.