Parley P. Pratt's Camp Miraculously Strengthened by Prayer While Crossing the Desert to the Mojave (1851)
Published October 17, 2026 at 8:16 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
During an arduous two-day journey across a desert without adequate water or feed for their cattle, the camp was in a dire, exhausted state. Parley P. Pratt and his group turned to prayer, specifically crying unto God and asking in the name of Jesus Christ for strength for themselves and their teams. They felt that their request was answered in a miraculous manner, granting them and their cattle the strength to complete the journey to the Bitter Springs without the expected loss of life or total collapse, saving them from the horrors of the desert.
In Their Own Words
“On the 25th of February we reached the Mohave river. We had been two days and two nights without water or feed for our animals, and without water for ourselves, except a little which we found in the holes of the rocks. It was certainly the hardest time I ever saw; but we cried unto God, and in the name of Jesus Christ asked Him to strengthen us and our teams, and He did so in a miraculous manner, and we were saved from the horrors of the desert. We found the Mohave river a small stream of water, running into the sand and disappearing. We followed it up for some distance, and found plenty of grass and water for our animals, and we rested and recruited for several days.”
— Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt
Sources & References
Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1874), chapter XLVII - via Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44896 (account extracted verbatim from the public-domain text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1874), chapter XLVII https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44896/44896-h/44896-h.htm
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