The Discovery of Rebecca Winters' Grave by the Burlington Route Engineers

For many years, Oscar had longed to find the burial place of his mother, Rebecca Winters, who died on the plains in 1852. While the Burlington Route was surveying land, they stumbled upon what appeared to be a high growth of sagebrush, which turned out to be her grave, marked by a wagon tire with her name chiseled into it. The engineer changed the line of survey to respect the site.

Rebecca Winters died of cholera on August 15, 1852, while traveling with the James C. Snow Company, and the wagon tire rim was engraved by William F. Reynolds. Although earlier accounts mention a 1913 discovery, National Park Service and historical records indicate the grave was rediscovered by Burlington Railroad surveyors in 1899, who subsequently rerouted the rail line and constructed a fence to protect the site. In 1902, her descendants erected a monument, and in 1929, the Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled a marker attended by President Heber J. Grant and his wife, Augusta Winters Grant, who was Rebecca's granddaughter.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 24 no. 7 (July 1913)):

The Burlington Route pushing its way farther westward had stumbled at a certain point on the line, onto what appeared to be an unusually high growth of sagebrush but what had turned out to be a grave. At its head was part of a wagon tire with the words, “Rebecca Winters, aged fifty,” chiseled in it. Settling a dispute which arose among the men as to whether the forsaken mound should be respected the engineer, with a sudden tightening in his throat had given orders to change the line of survey and had sent news of the discovery to the Utah papers.