Sharon Park Stake Pioneer Trek 2015

OREM UTAH SHARON PARK STAKE Dear Friends,

The Trek is happening and we are very excited for this great adventure. June 17th to the 20th 2015 will be days of excitement and reverence.

To prepare each of us for these special days we invite you to be part of the Trail of Faith. This trail doesn't begin in June, it begins now. With effort and commitment you will be involved in spiritual and physical activities that will help you so your personal experience during the trek will be magnified.

Along with preparing you for the trek you will be able to complete some of the requirements for both Duty to God or Personal Progress programs. As you begin this journey down this trail pace yourself and enjoy the adventure. You can work alone or with a group. Each requirement must be signed off by a parent or leader.

This journey will be exiting, challenging, and one that will bring you closer to our Heavenly Father. With Him you can achieve all the righteous desires of your heart. He loves you. Invite Him to be part of your life and as you prepare for this trek you will be strengthened and you will see miracles. Sincerely, Sharon Park Stake Presidency

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My Pioneer Trek Family

Pa: _________________________________

Ma: _____________________________________

Brothers:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sisters: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My Trek Name: ____________________________

Name: ________________________ Ward: _____ 3 | P a g e

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Table of Contents

Stake Presidency Welcome Letter………………………2 Theme………………………………………………………………..6 Schedule of Events……………………………………………..7 Trail of Faith Award……………………………………….8-13 Introduction to Trail of Faith Stories…………………14 Trail of Faith Stories…………………………………....15-56 Section A…………………………………………...15-18 Section B……………………………………………19-23 Section C……………………………………………24-26 Section D……………………………………………27-31 Section E……………………………………………32-37 Section F……………………………………………38-43 Section G……………………………………………44-47 Section H……………………………………………48-52 Section I…………………………………………….53-56 Bibliography……………………………………………56 Journal…………………………………………………………57-77 Song (The Fire of the Covenant)…………………………...78-81 Packing List………………………………………………….82-84

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2015 Stake Pioneer Trek Theme: ROOTED “Unless the roots of your testimony are firmly planted, it

will be difficult for you to withstand the ridicule of those who challenge your faith. When firmly planted, your testimony of the gospel, of the Savior, and of our Heavenly Father will influence all that you do throughout your life.”

Thomas S. Monson “And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let

us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.

But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.

But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.”

Alma 32:37-38, 41 “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so

walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as

ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain

deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Colossians 2:6-8

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Schedule of Events

January 14 (Wednesday) Trek Kickoff | 7:00-8:30 PM | Stake Center January 25 (Sunday) Jenny Phillips Fireside | 6:30-8:00 PM | Stake Center March 21 (Saturday) Choose an Ancestor Family History Activity | TBA | TBA April 25 (Saturday) Hike* | 8:00-11:00 AM | TBA *wear the shoes you will trek in if possible

May 16 (Saturday) Combined Activity: Games, Buckets, and Tents | TBA | TBA May 31 (Sunday) Trek Leaders Speak in Combined 5th Sunday Meetings June 14 (Sunday) Stake Fast for Trek Success June 17-20 (Wednesday-Saturday) Pioneer Trek at Martin’s Cove in Wyoming

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Trail of Faith Award Sharon Park Stake Pioneer Handcart Trek 2015

For Youth & Leaders

Instructions 1. Complete the tasks listed under each month. 2. Have your Ma/Pa, YM/YW leader, or parent sign off each

month as you complete the tasks. 3. If you miss one of the events you can make it up by

completing an additional Faith Activity. 4. Many of the requirements coincide with the Personal

Progress and Duty to God requirements. (PP= Personal Progress, DG=Duty to God, D=Deacon, T=Teacher, P=Priest)

5. If you complete all of the tasks prior to the trek you will receive the Trail of Faith Award Medallion (pictured above).

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January _______________________________________ □ Read sections A and B and record your thoughts and

feelings in your journal. □ Attend the Jenny Phillip’s Fireside on Sunday, January 25th

at 6:30 PM in the stake center. □ Make and carry out a physical fitness goal. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

February _____________________________________ □ Read sections C and D and record your thoughts and

feelings in your journal. □ Attend the “family activity” with your assigned family for

the month. □ Continue with your physical fitness goal. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

March ________________________________________ □ Read sections E and F and record your thoughts and feelings

in your journal. □ Attend the Trek Family History Activity on Saturday, March

21st to help you find a name to walk for during the trek. We prefer that you find a personal family name. The individual does not have to be a pioneer.

□ Continue with your fitness goal. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

April __________________________________________ □ Read section G and record your thoughts and feelings in

your journal. □ Participate in the Stake Hike on Saturday, April 25th at 8:00

AM. Be sure to wear the shoes you intend to use for the Trek.

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□ Decide on an individual whom you will walk for during the trek.

□ Continue with your fitness goal. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

May __________________________________________ □ Read section H and record your thoughts and feelings in

your journal. □ Attend the Trek Combined Activity on Saturday, May 16th. □ Continue with your fitness goal. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

June __________________________________________ □ Read section I and record your thoughts and feelings in your

journal. □ Participate in the stake fast on Sunday, June 14th. □ Pack your bucket & bedroll. □ Complete one Faith Activity and record # here: ______

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Trail of Faith – Faith Activities 1. Participate in one of the trek vignettes (short acting skits). 2. Participate in the trek choir or other trek musical number. 3. Learn all the songs for the Trek. Commit to making music an

important and powerful part of your life by choosing carefully the music you listen to. (PP pg. 23 & 54)

4. Visit and spend 30 minutes at the Stake Family History Library. Print out your 7-generation fan chart. (PP pg. 18)

5. Visit and tour Pioneer Park in Provo. 6. Tour the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City. 7. Tour the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. 8. Visit This is the Place Heritage Park and Old Deseret Village. 9. Tour the Beehive House in Salt Lake City. 10. Visit the Brigham Young Family Memorial Cemetery in Salt

Lake City. 11. Go on a walking tour of downtown Salt Lake City and visit

some of the pioneer sites. Recommended website: http://www.visitsaltlake.com/group-tour-itineraries/pioneer-history/

12. Serve as a volunteer at any of the pioneer museums or historic parks. (PP pg. 38 & 55, DG - D pg. 26, T pg. 50, P pg. 74)

13. Volunteer for 4 hours at a hospital, home for the aged, welfare center, homeless shelter, or center for the disabled (e.g., Tiny Tots). (PP pg. 26, 34, 55 & 58, DG - D pg. 23 & 26, T pg. 47 & 50, P pg. 71 & 74)

14. Prepare an FHE lesson on patriarchal blessings. If you have not yet received your patriarchal blessing, begin making plans to do so. (PP pg. 30)

15. Teach a lesson in FHE about the pioneers or a pioneer ancestor (PP pg. 55, DG - D pg. 19, T pg. 39 & 43, P pg. 64 & 67)

16. Prepare a Sacrament meeting talk on a topic of your choosing. (PP pg. 39, DG - D pg. 18 & 23, T pg. 42 & 57, P pg. 64, 67, 71 & 74)

17. Give a talk in Sacrament meeting and include something about the pioneers or a pioneer ancestor. (PP pg. 39)

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18. Fill out a family group sheet with one of your parents or grandparents as a child. (PP pg. 31)

19. With the help of your parents, leaders or ward/stake family history specialist, find an ancestor that needs to have temple work done and prepare their name for the temple. (PP pg. 34)

20. Participate in baptisms for the dead at the temple. 21. Complete 30 minutes of indexing online. 22. Spend 30 minutes online @ https://familysearch.org/. 23. Invite a less-active or non-member to an activity. (PP pg. 56,

DG - D pg. 23 & 26, T pg. 47 & 52, P 71, 76 & 81) 24. Invite on of your grandparents to share their childhood

memories with you. Record what you learned in your journal. (PP pg. 18)

25. Watch one of the following pioneer movies and record your thoughts and feelings in your journal (this Faith Activity can be completed twice): Legacy, 17 Miracles, Ephraim’s Rescue, Faith in Every Footstep: The Epic Pioneer Journey, A Legacy More Precious Than Gold (Mormon Battalion), Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, The Mountain of the Lord, An Ensign to the Nations.

26. Read one of the following pioneer books and record your thoughts and feelings in your journal (this Faith Activity can be completed twice): Follow Me to Zion, Journal of the Trail, The Price We Paid, Tell My Story Too, Fire of the Covenant (PP pg. 18)

27. Read one of your ancestor’s journals. 28. Read The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer. 29. Record your personal history in 500 words or more. (PP pg.

34) 30. Record in your journal about a modern-day pioneer in your

life. What have they done? How has it impacted your life? (PP pg. 18)

31. Make a list of qualities that the pioneers developed on the trail (e.g., faith, endurance, humility, charity, etc.). Pick one of these qualities and create a plan for improvement between now and the trek. Record your progress in your journal. (PP pg. 23 & 54)

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32. Read Doctrine and Covenants 89. Improve your health by developing and implementing a regular fitness and healthy eating program that lasts at least 6 weeks. Record your progress in your journal. (PP pg. 42, DG pg. 31, 32 & 33)

33. Hike Ensign Peak and read the historic markers. 34. Learn a pioneer craft, skill, or art (e.g., dutch oven cooking,

knitting, rope making, horseshoeing, rug weaving, etc.). (PP pg. 26, 34 & 38)

35. Cook a meal without the use of a modern kitchen and share it with someone.

36. Use any art form (e.g., sculpture, poetry, song, dance, quilting, etc.) to express our pioneer heritage. (PP pg. 18)

37. Young Women - sew the skirt and bonnet you will wear on Trek. Young Men - sew pants you will use on trek. (PP pg. 26)

38. Young Men - earn the genealogy merit badge. 39. Participate in a service project. (PP pg. 26 & 34) 40. Plant a garden and include some of the same things the

pioneers planted when they first arrived in the Salt Lake valley. (PP pg. 18)

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Introduction to Trail of Faith Stories A reverence for sacred things gives context to all of life’s

experiences. That context is especially important when we learn about distant places and people who lived long ago. With the assistance of the Spirit, events that took place along the Mormon Trail can touch our hearts and inspire us to greater commitment. As President Boyd K. Packer has encouraged, our objective should be to “see the hand of the Lord in every hour and every moment of the Church from its beginning till now.” The journals kept by the pioneers seem to cry out for us to see the hand of the Lord in the events described there. Without the Spirit, one may see the Mormon Trail as merely sagebrush and dusty paths, but a sensitive heart will discern the eloquent witness of what transpired there. When we begin to feel a spiritual kinship with those who walked these trails, our lives are strengthened and enriched.

The Mormon Trail is a sacred place, made holy by the sacrifice of the Lord’s people. The story begins, of course, long before the first pioneers set foot on the Midwestern plains. It starts in 1820 in a grove of trees just outside Palmyra, New York. A young man knelt in prayer seeking direction from God, and received a glorious vision of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. After receiving divine priesthood authority, the prophet Joseph Smith organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on April 6, 1830.

Each story of the thousands who came has its own drama, its own moment when the wilderness travelers had to square up their shoulders under loads that threatened to break them. In this hour, as they took their own measure, most were not found wanting. They put one foot in front of the other, sometimes through tears and loss, and came to Zion. The wilderness would play its part in purifying their souls, binding the generations that followed through the invincible power of love and sacrifice.

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Trail of Faith Stories

Section A “OH ZION, DEAR ZION.” Creating Zion was the burden of

the prayers of the early Saints. They yearned for it, carried it like a fire in their hearts, longed for that society away from the oppressions of the world where a celestial order prevails. It was a heavenly homesickness they carried with them, a sense that “the world we have made and are making is not the world God meant us to have.” God has far better designs and happier ways for his children. So, from the earliest times of the Restoration, new converts left their fields and fortunes, coming “one from the bed, the other from the grinding,” and bade farewell to all they had known to gather. They came first to Kirtland, then Missouri, then Nauvoo, and finally rumbled across fourteen hundred miles of plains and mountains, breaking their carts and wagons but not their spirits in pursuit of Zion. “Thy kingdom come,” they prayed, and they were willing to shoulder their part to make it happen even if they left a heartbreaking string of graves across the prairies and their backs were bowed under the weight of what they had given up.

HISTORIANS who see the great western movement of the Mormon pioneers merely as an escape from persecution miss the point. Much more than escape, the pioneers were involved in a monumental creative effort. They felt themselves called out of the world because they wanted Zion. “Go ye out from Babylon. Be ye clean.” They were to gather to Zion for “a refuge from the storm” that would soon be poured out upon the whole earth. They would gather because, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares, “the time of harvest is come.” They would gather in one place “to prepare their hearts and be prepared in all things” for the second coming of the Lord. With particularly poignant meaning for those who had been forced from their sacred temples in Kirtland and Nauvoo, they would gather to build a temple to God where they could make eternal covenants to be his people.

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The Saints felt the urge to gather because “the Spirit of the Lord rested upon them, and they could not stay themselves.”

Brigham Young said of the pioneers, “the spirit of the Lord was all the time prompting them.

Though that silent, inner stirring is sometimes unnamed, the spiritually inclined feel a longing, almost a memory, of a former, better state, and they wish to regain it. Zion is the answer to that longing, designed on God’s principles, where every institution and relationship promotes joy. It is a place of beauty, whose standard in all things is a light to the world. It is a place of peace and unity, where the false pride, follies, and selfishness of the world are forgotten. The buildings, walls, streets, and gates, the throngs in shining robes are not the essence of Zion. When all else is stripped away, Zion is the pure in heart.

THOSE WHO WANTED TO BUILD ZION, then, had to begin by looking to their own hearts, “We are trying to be in the image of those who live in heaven; we are trying to pattern after them…to walk and talk like them, to deal like them, and build up the kingdom of heaven as they have done,” said Brigham Young. Yet it is hard for those who have so long lived in the world, immersed in Babylon, to envision Zion; hard to be a Zion people when one cannot yet conceive it, can only catch glimpses of its beauty from a distant shore.

Thus, a pattern emerges in the scriptures. Those who would go to the Promised Land, those who are longing for Zion, must first learn it’s principles in the wilderness journey.

IT IS A DIFFICULT JOURNEY WHOSE TESTS ARE TO BE ENDURED. A necessary labor to be performed in order to find the safety and joy of the Promised Land. The children of Israel trudged through the desert for forty years. Nephi and his family trekked the most foreboding desert of the world. At some future time, there will be another coming out of Babylon, which is the world, to build Zion. In every case, the Promised Land is reached only after the tedious and difficult journey, and the heart is transformed in the process. Priorities became clear to converts who shed every precious keepsake along the trail, who dragged on when their bodies cried out in utter exhaustion. They came to know the Lord when human strength was gone

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and He was there to compensate, when their faith, like gold, was seven times purified. They learned to give freely to each other and bear one another’s burdens in the furnace of affliction. These are Zion lessons that the world cannot offer.

BRIGHAM YOUNG, who said he had Zion constantly in his view, put it simply: “I want hard times, so that every person that does not wish to stay, for the sake of religion will leave.” Zion could not be built by those who would come on false premises. Though it didn’t always succeed, the trail was to strip Babylon from the heart of one who wanted to build Zion.

So they came from Vermont and Kentucky, from England and Wales, came in a growing swell to build their beloved Zion and then be driven from it again. Finally, weary of being a driven people, they sought refuge in the mountains in an arid valley that nobody else wanted and formed a city called Great Salt Lake. By some estimates, nearly seventy thousand people brought rickety wagons and carts and tramped those plains; six thousand of them died along the way, their dreams of Zion buried in a trailside grave. For the rest it was “Carry on, carry on” ----and they did, leaving a legacy that burns in every Mormon heart.

We hope it will burn in your hearts as you follow their trail to Zion and learn and feel their spirits along the way!

THE IDEA HAD BEEN RUMBLING IN THE BACK OF BRIGHAM YOUNG’S MIND FOR YEARS. In the British Isles, the gospel had been accepted by thousands of converts, many of whom had the spirit of gathering but not the means. These were proselytes who wearied themselves sometimes with sixteen-hour days in the dark, dreary coal mines of Wales of the steaming factories of Manchester, whose starvation wages were stretched so thin that scarcely a shilling could be saved for the journey to Zion. They included families who could only make out enough savings to send family members one at a time to Zion, or converts who had waited years since baptism to begin their journey to the Salt Lake Valley.

To help these people, Brigham started the PERPETUAL EMIGRATION FUND in 1852. It was a compassionate and efficient scheme, primarily funded by tithes and contributions, which helped poor but eager emigrants with the costs of the

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journey. Once in Zion, they could repay the debt and help others to come. For three years, Church agents in Liverpool effectively extended the money to bring 4,225 converts to America. But by 1855, costs of emigrating were escalating. In addition, the grasshopper plaque in Utah had destroyed crops so that funds dwindled. Still, a swell of converts was waiting to come. It was time for Brigham to resurrect his idea.

He presented it in a letter to European mission president Franklin D. Richards in September of 1855: “I have been thinking how we should operate another year. We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past. I am consequently thrown back upon my old plan---to make handcarts, and let the emigration foot it, and draw upon them the necessary supplies, having a cow or two for every ten.

News of the handcart experiment came with great excitement to converts anxious to be brought to Zion. 2

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Section B

The hand cart idea was certainly inviting to Isaac Wardle. He had grown up without the sun in English coal mines, his skin black with coal dust that seemed almost permanent. At age seven he had been put to work as a runner at the mines; at age nine he had gone underground, training his eyes to darkness as he toiled from seven in the morning until seven at night, perhaps stripped to the waist like most boys and girls under the age of thirteen who wore out their young bodies pulling loads of coal. At day’s end when his mother served him supper, he was too tired to wash and often too tired to eat, was falling asleep between mouthfuls. Then, little boy that he was, his mother washed him and put him to bed for the night, which was never long enough. He had been imprisoned by his social origins and lack of education, and resistance to change was so powerful in England that things would probably never be much different in his lifetime. So, when the missionaries found him, he responded to the message of hope in this world and in a world to come. He was eighteen when he was baptized on September 23, 1853. He would join a handcart company.

In 1837 Margaret Perren Pusell had been one of the first women baptized in England, losing in her own race to the River Ribble just ten days after she heard the gospel preached in Preston at the Reverend James Fielding’s church. Because great prejudice had developed against the Church, she hid the news from her husband, Samuel, for three months, praying he would accept the gospel. But Samuel had his own secret; when he confessed to her that he had joined the Mormons, relief and joy swept over them both. Now they could share openly this gospel that had come to mean so much to them. Samuel worked in a factory, but there was never enough income for even the barest necessities. Their daughter Nellie remembered often going to bed without supper so the missionaries who chanced to call might be given something to eat. Through the years, they watched, bound by their poverty, as others around them immigrated to Zion. They would join a handcart company.

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Ann and William Rowley had been members of the United Brethren, that six-hundred-member splinter from the Wesleyan faith, who met in Herefordshire and prayed for knowledge. They had heard Wilford Woodruff preach and knew he offered a priceless treasure. They had opened their spacious home for meetings, and one night during an especially important gathering when Wilford was going to speak, an angry, noisy mob gathered around their home. When William started for the door to quiet them, Ann begged him not to go, but he answered, “Why Ann, they are people I have known all my life. They are my neighbors and I’m sure they’ll listen to reason.” He opened the door and was seized and beaten. With such opposition, the Rowleys’ financial affairs soon faltered, and the humiliating day came when they auctioned off their house, their furniture, and all their feather beds except Ann’s.

As the years passed, the Rowleys dreamed of going to Zion, but they no longer had the money to do it. In fact, the heartbreak and disgrace of losing everything finally killed William, leaving Ann a widow with seven children under the age of twelve. The dream of Zion seemed further and further away. Samuel at seven and John at nine were hired to tramp mud in the brickyards, leaving home at daylight and meeting their mother at a narrow bridge again at night so she could help them across. They would join a handcart company.

Converts like these not only accepted the handcart proposal, but they also clamored for it. The fire of emigration blazed brightly as England’s poor responded more dramatically than ever could have been imagined. If they could not afford wagons, they would walk to Zion; as it turned out, some of them would even crawl, bearing the scars from torn flesh until they died. The Millennial Star newspaper noted, “We do not doubt that a multitude of the faithful are ready to do anything, to gather to the mountains in any way that may be opened before them, and that will best subserve the interests of the work. The sacrifices and exertions they are willing to make are the constant measure of their faith.”

They sold family furniture, discarded precious keepsakes, and picked through possessions to take only the bare-bone necessities needed to join the 2,012 Perpetual Emigration Fund

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charges who were committed to handcarts that spring of 1856. With nearly empty hands but with hearts full of the love of God, these Saints would leave on four ships. Because of a series of unfortunate delays, however, two ships would leave late, a reality some of them may have noticed like a chill wind in their hearts. The first, the Enoch Train, carrying 534 passengers, did not embark until March23; the S. Curling departed on April 19. These departure dates would still ensure the passengers a safe passage to the valley, but the story would be tragically different for the third and fourth ships. The Thornton, whose 764 passengers, mainly English and a few Scandinavian, left May 4; the Horizon, heavy with 856 passengers, was not on its way until May 25. The Saints on these last two ships would become the Willie and Martin handcart companies, and the passengers’ stories would be written in their tardy departures and a series of devastating misfortunes. Ten-year-old Nellie Pusell, who bounded onto the ship with two healthy legs, would, after her handcart experience, waddle on painful stumps that would fester and bleed the rest of her life, and after all their years of waiting, her parents, Margaret and Samuel, would never see Zion. In June, when these handcart companies should have been setting out across the plains, they were still thousands of miles away on the high seas.

For six weeks on board ship, quarters were dark, cramped, and unventilated, the passengers crammed into tight bunks and sometimes separated from their families. Patience Loader, who would later join the Martin Company, complained, “I began to think we would smother to death before morning, for there was not a breath of air. I made my bed on a large box. I had a big loaf of bread in a sack. This I used for my pillow to make sure of having bread for breakfast.” They were thrown about in storms, made anxious as they skirted icebergs, and felt the pangs of homesickness for the land most of them would never see again. They sweated with seasickness and fainted with malnutrition, but despite the miserable conditions, they were such a model of order and discipline that most crew members came to feel like Captain Collins of the Thornton that he had never seen a better lot of passengers. Once in America, the emigrants crammed

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into trains, watched the new country slide by through tiny windows, and arrived in Iowa City ready to walk to Zion.

Wallace Stegner describes them in this way: “In all its history, the American West never saw a more unlikely band of pioneers than the four hundred—odd who were camped on the bank of the Iowa River at Iowa City … they were not colorful---only improbable. Looking for the brown and resolute and weather seasoned among them, you would have seen instead starved cheeks, pale skins, bad teeth, thin chests, all the stigmata of unhealthy work and inadequate diet. There were more women than men, more children under fifteen than either. . . . Most of them until they were herded from their crowded immigrant ship and loaded into the cars and rushed to the end of the Rock Island Line and dumped here at the brink of the West had never pitched a tent, slept on the ground, cooked outdoors, or built a campfire. They had not even the rudimentary skills that make frontiersmen. But as it turned out, they had some of the stuff that makes heroes.”

Artist: Simon Winegar

Jens Nielson---Upon arriving at the end of the railroad in

Iowa, Jens Nielson obtained a victory which to most of us is the most difficult of all, that of parting with money and security. He had the money from the sale of his farm, and unboastfully stated in a letter to his son that he, Jens, had let all of his money

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go to the Church except enough to buy a handcart, and to stock it with 15 pounds of belongings per person. Thus, he could have obtained wagons, horses, stacks of food and other supplies and traveled west in style and comfort, and early enough to beat the winter. He gained the great victory over selfishness by parting with his life’s savings and demonstrated his unyielding faith in God by obeying His every command. This in order that those Saints who had nothing might at least have a handcart. Jens quoted: “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

Levi Savage, a seasoned frontiersman knew the mountains as well as anyone in the Church. With tears running down his cheeks, he pled for the Saints to reconsider. They could not possibly arrive before the end of October, and the hardships would be incalculable. With their numbers of children and elderly, many would starve and die. The risk was unthinkable. He was not only voted down, but he was also reprimanded as one who denied the power of God to deliver his people. It was one of those moments when a soul reveals itself, and Levi proved himself well. Without the least hint of resentment, he pledged to go with them, saying, “Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will weep with you, will suffer with you, and if necessary I will die with you.” 2

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Section C The Perpetual Emigration Fund, established in 1850

brought 50,000 saints to Zion. The Funds were contributed by American saints and used to bring foreign converts to the west. The emigrants then settled in Utah and worked to repay the fund.

In 1855 cricket clouds replaced rain clouds and the harvest was cut in half. Tithing and perpetual Emigration donations were reduced to a mere trickle. Brigham Young announced that a lack of funds should not, and could not limit the passage of saints to Zion. This proclamation, coupled with the prevailing economic situation, created a demand for a cheaper mode of transportation. In 1855, the church leaders officially introduced the handcart plan:

“Let all things be done in order, and let all the saints who can, gather up for Zion and come while the way is open before them: let the poor also come, let them come on foot, with handcarts or wheelbarrows; let them gird up their loins and walk through, and nothing shall hinder or stay them.” Brigham Young estimated that the saints could cover 15 miles a day initially and would increase their mileage to 20, 25, even 30 miles per day, completing the journey in 90 days.

Brigham Young went on to assert: “The system of ox-trains is too slow and expensive, and must give way to the telegraph line of handcarts and wheelbarrows. It would be much more economical with in time, labor, and expense. On the arrival of a company of saints on the frontier they could have the necessary handcarts ready and load them, and be 200 or 300 miles on their journey, with the same time and labor that would otherwise be expended in getting started. It is only to those who have traveled the plains with ox-teams that the advantages of doing without them will appear in all their force. They alone can realize what it is to get up on a sultry morning, spend an hour or two in driving up and yoking unruly cattle, and while waiting to start, hear that same brother has an ox missing, then another hour, or perhaps half a day is wasted and finally, when ready to start, the pleasant time for traveling is past, during

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which a company of handcarts would have performed the greater part of an ordinary day’s journey.”

Showered with promises, the plan was also soaked in reality. President Richards warned the saints: “It is our constant desire not to mislead the saints concerning the difficulties of the journey to Utah. We wish them calmly to make up their minds that it is not an easy task, and to start with faith, trusting in Israel’s God of success and seek of Him constantly, by prayer and supplication.”

The plan was implemented in 1856. Saints spent 38 to 65 days at sea and then traveled by train to Iowa City where they received their handcarts. The handcarts used by the different companies varied in size and construction, but the general pattern was uniform. The open handcart was made of hickory or oak, the shaft and side pieces of the same material, and the axles were generally hickory. The side pieces and shafts were about six or seven feet long, with three to four binding crossbars spaced intermittently from the front to the back. At the front there was a three to four foot single tree or front bar yoke. The cart bed was about nine inches deep and four feet wide. The wheels, often constructed without metal, were four feet in diameter. Approximately five people were assigned to each cart and each person was allowed to bring 17 lbs. of luggage (this included clothing, bedding, and utensils).

The first two companies left Iowa City two days apart, but arrived in Salt Lake City simultaneously. The combined companies had 100 handcarts, 5 wagons, 24 oxen, 4 mules, and 25 tents. Averaging about 21 miles daily, they traveled 32 miles in a single day on two separate ‘occasions. The saints arose to a five a.m. whistle and, after prayer and breakfast, began pulling. At night the handcarts circled. Smoke from fires built outside the carts provided a mosquito deterrent.

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Five handcart companies crossed the plains in 1856. The

first three experienced few deaths and though difficult, were considered successful. The last two, the Willie and Martin Companies, started in an early winter to catch them unprepared in icy mountain passes. In 1857, two more companies successfully traversed the plains. Threats from Johnston’s Army temporarily halted the treks in 1858, but 1859 saw yet another handcart train cross the wilderness. In 1860, the last two companies crossed the plains, incredibly, the last train did not report a single death.

By 1860, Salt Lake Valley had blossomed and it became economically feasible to send teams from Salt Lake, across the plains, and back in a single season. This gave employment to Utah saints and saved the enormous amount previously invested in the purchase of the railroad in 1869.

From 1856 to 1860, nearly 3,000 emigrants traveled to Zion by handcart. They employed 653 carts and 50 wagons. The eight trains that left Missouri in June or July came through without undue casualties. Without a doubt, handcart travel was an exacting ordeal, for both the body and the spirit. Concern for material welfare alone could never have produced the handcart migrations. It took consecrated resolution strengthened by the sustaining conviction of a deeply religious faith. 4

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Section D In October of 1856 When President Brigham Young learned

that the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies were still on the plains, he organized a rescue effort to bring them to the Salt Lake Valley. “I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out such just principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the Plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain; the preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you. Any man or woman can reason this out in their own minds, without trouble. The Gospel has been already preached to those brethren and sisters now on the Plains; they have believed and obeyed it, and are willing to do anything for salvation; they are doing all they can do and the Lord has done all that is required of Him to do, and has given us power to bring them in from the Plains, and teach them the further things of the kingdom of God, and prepare them onto enter into the celestial kingdom of their Father. First and foremost is to secure our own salvation and do right pertaining to ourselves, and then extend the hand of right to save others.” 1

Each day they made from ten to twenty miles, drawing ever farther away from civilization into a landscape more arid and strange to their eyes. Their shoes wore thin, their hands became blistered, and their muscles ached at the end of long days of exertion. More than they could ever have anticipated, their green-lumber carts were a plague that slowed them down. The extra weight of flour broke the axles at the shoulder as “dust picked up by the loose fitting rims of the wheels would settle in the axles and grind out the wood. Some of the travelers cut up their boots and nailed the leather to the worn axles; others pounded their tin ware flat and affixed. They had no lubricant, so they dipped into their small supply of bacon and soap to grease their wheels,” This only served to worsen their situation, as the lubricant attracted more sand, which ground

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the wheels faster. John Chislett noted, “When a cart collapsed it was difficult for the owner to see the long line move on without him while he remained behind with a few crude tools, struggling to repair the damage.”

Being left behind could have also been a sweating, heart-pounding experience for these tender feet, for they had heard much of the Indians in Britain, and word had spread that other wagon trains had been killed that summer by the Cheyenne. On August 29, near Wood River, the worry was made palpable as they passed the remains of the Almon Babbit party, which had been massacred just four days earlier, among them a woman and a child. It was a grim duty to rebury their mutilated dead, who had been uncovered by wolves, and to burn their tattered, pathetic belongings, leaving images in the pioneers’ minds to haunt their nights. They doubled their guard duty and pushed on.

This painting depicts my then 15 year old great, great

grandmother, Charlotte Elizabeth Mellor, and her 16 year old sister Louisa returning to their camp near Red Buttes after walking more than a mile from camp in the snow to gather firewood on October 21st, 1856. In researching for this project I was impressed and moved to learn that these two teenagers faithfully pulled one of their family’s two handcarts from

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Missouri until their rescue near Devil’s Gate. Many times the handcart not only contained their supplies it often held one of their twin three year old sisters, Emma or Clara.

Artist: Stephen Mark Bartholomew Tamar Loader---The story is told that Tamar Loader was

very much grieved when she left England because she had been unable to convert her sweetheart and he remained in England. One night, while on the plains, after much grieving she had a dream. The next morning she told her mother that she had dreamt that her sweetheart came and stood beside her and he seemed so real. But he was not alone, another man was with him who was wearing a slouch hat and walked with a limp. In the dream the sweetheart finally faded away but the other man remained. When she first saw Thomas E. Ricks in the rescue party, she took her mother by the arm and said, “Mother, that’s the man.” When they arrived in the valley she was put out in the home of Thomas E. Ricks. He tried in vain to marry her off to eligible young men in the community, but without success. There was no doubt in Tamar’s mind who she should marry. The next spring Thomas E. Ricks asked for her hand in marriage.

Sarah Franks and George Padley---Sarah and her sweetheart were assigned to the Martin Company. They were going to be married when they reached Zion.

Sarah became so weak and ill with chills and fever that she was taken into one of the wagons. Her sweetheart also became very ill from hunger and exposure and developed pneumonia and died. Sarah took her long-fringed shawl from her almost freezing body and had the brethren wrap her sweetheart’s body in it. She couldn’t bear to think of his being buried with nothing to protect him from shoveled dirt and ravages of the weather. It has been said that the weather was so severe that his body was hung from a tree in Martin’s Cove for others, who followed, to bury.

Lousia Mellor---The first snowstorm left about two feet of snow on the ground, and we began to feel very nervous. We had to wade through more streams, sometimes up to our waists. When we got through our clothes would freeze on us until a great many gave up and many died, mostly old people.

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At last the snow got to be four and five feet deep and often we had to shovel a road before we could move. Thus our traveling was very slow and our provisions nearly gave out.

My mother, still being weak, finally gave up and said she could go no further. The company could not wait for her, so she bade my father goodbye and kissed each one of the children Godspeed. Then my mother sat down on a boulder and wept. I told my sister, Elizabeth, to take good care of the twins and the rest of the family, and that I would stay with mother. I went a few yards away and prayed with faith that God would help us, that He would protect us from devouring wolves, and asked that He would let us reach camp. As I was going back to where my mother was sitting I found a pie in the road. I picked it up and gave it to mother to eat. After resting awhile we started on our journey, thanking God for the blessings. A few miles before we reached camp we met my father coming out to meet us. We arrived in camp at 10:00 p.m. Many times after that mother felt like giving up and quitting, but then would remember how wonderful the Lord had been to spare her so many times, and offered a prayer of gratitude instead. So she went on her way rejoicing while walking the blood-stained path of snow. 1

Sixth Crossing was the sight of the rescue of the Willie Company. Pen could not adequately describe the conditions that the emigrants were found in. John Chislett wrote of the conditions “Before we renewed our journey, the camp became so offensive and filthy that words would fail to describe its condition and even common decency forbids the attempt. Suffice it to say that all the disgusting scenes which the reader might imagine would certainly not equal the terrible reality. It was enough to make the heavens weep. Such craving hunger I never saw before and may God in his mercy spare me the sight again”. The rescue party did the best they could to distribute the food and clothing to somewhat ease their suffering. The emigrants were soon told that in order to avoid further disaster they had to travel twenty-five miles further where wagons would be waiting for them at South Pass. This meant they had to cross Rocky Ridge, one of the most difficult stretches of the trial. Rocky Ridge was not a single ridge that had to be crossed

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but a series of rolling hills, steep gullies and rocky escarpments that stretched on for about five miles. 5

ASCENDING ROCKY RIDGE The second highest elevation of the entire Mormon Trail is

at Rocky Ridge, a climb that is more formidable than it first appears. Its name comes from the formation of layered rock that juts out from the ground at an angel and spans nearly the entire ridge. For much of the approximately five mile ascent, innumerable rocks and rock fragments make the trail extremely difficult.

The ascent up Rocky Ridge was especially treacherous for members of the Willie Company, who faced snow, ice, and extreme cold in additional to the rugged terrain. Many were frozen or died of exhaustion during the ascent. A memorial has been erected part way up the ridge, in recognition of those who lost their lives and of those who survived such extreme hardships there. 3

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Section E

Ellen “Nellie” Pucell Unthank--- It is the story of a woman

who, in spite of crushing handicaps, carried on the highest mission of womanhood. Nellie, when nine years of age, left her home in England to come with her parents to Utah where they could worship with others of their faith and assist in building a new Zion.

Nellie’s parents were among those who died and were laid to rest in snow banks. But those who died and were laid to rest in the snow perhaps were most fortunate of all. They were through with their suffering and had gone to their reward.

The rescue wagons gathered them up and took the sufferers to Salt Lake City where the Church saw to it that they were cared for.

Poor little Nellie, nothing could be done to save her feet. When they took off her shoes and stocking the skin with pieces of flesh came off too. The doctor said her feet must be taken off to save her life. They strapped her to a board and without any anesthetic the surgery was performed. With a butcher knife and a carpenter’s saw they cut the blackened limbs off. It was poor surgery, too, for the flesh was not brought over to cushion the ends. The bones stuck out through the ends of the stumps and painfully she waddled through the rest of her life on her knees.

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In poverty and pain she reared a family of six children but never asked for favors of pity or charity because of her tragic handicap. William was a poor man and unable to provide fully for his family; so Nellie did all she could for herself. She took in washings. Kneeling by a tub on the floor she scrubbed the clothes to whiteness on the washboard. She knit stockings to sell, carded wool and crocheted table pieces. She seldom accepted gifts of charity from friends or neighbors unless she could do a bundle of darning or mending to repay the kindness.

The bishop and the Relief Society sometimes gave a little assistance which Nellie gratefully accepted, but once a year, to even the score, she took her children and cleaned the meetinghouse. The boy carried water, the girls washed the windows and Nellie on her knees, scrubbed the floor.

This heroic woman gave to William Unthank a posterity to perpetuate his name in the earth and he gave her a home and a family to give comfort and care in her old age.

In memory I recall her wrinkled forehead, her soft dark eyes that told of toil and pain and suffering, and the deep grooves that encircled the corners of her strong mouth. But in the face there was no trace of bitterness of railings at her fate. There was patience and serenity for in spite of her handicap she had earned her keep and justified her existence. She had given more to family, friends and to the world than she had received.

Lucy Ward---To each hundred there were five tents with twenty persons to a tent; twenty handcarts and one Chicago Wagon drawn by tree yoke of oxen to hold provisions and tents, each person was limited to seventeen pounds of clothing and bedding. The strength of the company was equalized as much as possible by distributing the young men among the different families to help them. Several carts were drawn by young girls exclusively. Lucy was one of these. She had just turned 23 years old in May.

At this time, the Salt Lake Conference was taking place and Brigham Young was sending a rescue party to the stranded handcart companies. James Barnet Cole, went with them. One night he dreamed he would meet his future wife with the stranded Saints. He even was shown what she looked like. She had a fur cap and a green veil tied over her to keep the wind

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off, and she was very beautiful. He told his dream to Brother (William) Kimball and he remarked, “We will see no beautiful girl with a fur cap and a green veil in these frozen Saints.”

Reminiscing, James Barnet Cole said that they saw the encampment just as the sun was sinking in the west. It looked like an Eskimo village which was fully a mile away. The snow was very deep and paths had been made from tent to tent giving the camp that appearance. It was located on a plain near the river.

When the people caught sight of the train coming, they shouted, they cried, they threw off all restraint and freely embraced their deliverers. Just then, William Kimball caught sight of Lucy Ward in the green veil. He drove up to her and said, “Bother Jim, there is your dream girl.” James asked her to get in the wagon and her reply was, “No, I don’t know you.” She got used to the idea of having him around, because on the way to Salt Lake, on November 2, 1856, they were married at Fort Bridger by William Kimball.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford---About the 25th of Oct., I think it was—I cannot remember the exact date—we reached camp about sundown. My husband had for several days previous been much worse. He was still sinking, and his condition now became more serious. As soon as possible after reaching camp I prepared a little of such scant articles of food as we then had. He tried to eat but failed. He had not the strength to swallow. I put him to bed as quickly as I could. He seemed to rest easy and fell asleep. About nine o’clock I retired. Bedding had become very scarce, so I did not disrobe. I slept until, as it appeared to me, about midnight. I was extremely cold. The weather was bitter. I listened to hear if my husband breathed—he lay so still. I could not hear him. I became alarmed. I put my hand on his body, when to my horror I discovered that my worst fears were confirmed. My husband was dead. He was cold and stiff—rigid in the arms of death. It was a bitter freezing night and the elements had sealed up his mortal frame. I called for help to the other inmates of the tent. They could render me no aid; and there was no alternative but to remain alone by the side of the corpse till morning. The night was enveloped in almost Egyptian

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darkness. There was nothing with which to produce a light or kindle a fire. Of course I could not sleep. I could only watch, wait, and pray for dawn. But oh, how these dreary hours drew their tedious length along. When daylight came some of the male part of the company prepared the body for burial. And oh, such a burial and funeral service. They did not remove his clothing—he had but little. They wrapped him in a blanket and placed him in a pile with thirteen others who had died, and then covered him up in the snow. The ground was frozen so hard that they could not dig a grave. He was left there to sleep in peace until the trump of the Lord shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall awake and come forth in the morning of the first resurrection. We shall then again unite our hearts and lives, and eternity will furnish us with life forever more.

At Martin’s Cove, the company lingered five hungry days,

looking anxiously every evening for help from the valley. When the weather broke, they moved on, still waiting. Where were the backup rescue teams?

Ephraim Hanks--- John Jaques wrote, “Now people hesitated when the morning bugle blew. It would be better, they said to stay here and die comfortable than push forward into the ice bound mountains.

“So the company moved slowly, not all together as they had at first, but strung out in a long line that made … a trailing black line in the snow. No one sang, no one talked. Folks just pushed

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along at their own pace and tried not to think of how the days and nights stretched into weeks and months before the last of them found a long sleep in a trench of snow.

“And one evening, just before sunset, a strange quiver like a thrill of hopefulness was communicated down the wavering line. Coming toward the train was a lone man leading two horses with great pieces of buffalo hung on each side of the animals.” This was the dogged Ephraim Hanks, on the Lord’s errand to save the handcart pioneers.

It was like this, he was saying, his large hands spread out to the fire. “No matter what I did or where I went I couldn’t forget you folks. I kept wondering how you were getting on, what with the early snows and everything.

“This night I was down near Utah Lake where I had gone fishing. . . I was after a load that time, not just a string for supper. Well, I was staying at Gerney Brown’s place, and though the bed was comfortable enough, I could not sleep. Finally I did drop off, but no sooner than I’d done it I was waked up again. Somebody said, Ephraim! That’s my name, so I said, yes?

“But it wasn’t Gerney that was speaking. No one was in the room. Then my name was spoken again. My heart was like to pound right out of my body, but I couldn’t see anything. Third time the voice said ‘Ephraim,’ seemed like it was sort of sharp and out of patience.

“I said, yes, yes. Is there something I can do for you? “Then the voice said clear as if I’d been face to face with a

neighbor, Ephraim that Handcart Company is in trouble, will you help them out?

“I got right out of bed. Gerney, he got my team hooked up and Sister Brown fixed me a bite and some food to carry along. Got to Salt Lake about daylight, and what should happen but I met a messenger from brother Brigham, on his way to fetch me. . . Seems since I was a boy that the Lord has always been willing to keep in touch with me if I’s deep in touch with Him…

This is the way I have it figured…The Lord isn’t going to fool around with any gifts just to impress folks. I don’t hold for goings on in meeting like I’ve seen in some sects. I do know when a body needs the Lord-needs something the Lord can do

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for him so bad that there isn’t any other way out – that is the time that the Lord will show His face or His voice and there’ll be healings and tongues and prophesy and all the rest. ”He passed out hunks of buffalo to the ravenous, explaining, “I wouldn’t ever have expected to meet a buffalo. But you folks needed meat, and he was put in my way.” In addition to feeding the famished, Eph became their rough, frontier surgeon, for many of the Saints were carrying frozen limbs that endangered their lives.

The next morning everyone in camp was talking about Brother Hanks, about his prayers for the sick, but even more the operations he had performed with his hunting knife. Brother Hanks anointed these folks and prayed that the amputation could be done without pain. Then when he took out his great hunting knife, held it to the fire to cleanse it, and took off the dying limb with its keen blade; many with tears in their eyes said they hadn’t felt a thing…

He wrote, “Many such I washed with water and castile soap, until the frozen parts would fall off, after which I would sever the shreds of flesh from the remaining portions of the limbs

with my scissors. Some of the emigrants lost toes, other fingers, and again others whole hands and feet.” 1 He also brought a

man back from the dead.

Artist: Clark Kelley Price

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Section F Ann Rowley noted, “It hurt me to see my children go

hungry. I watched as they cut the loose rawhide from the cart wheels, roast off the hair and chew the hide. There came a time, when there seemed to be no food at all … I asked God’s help as I always did. I got on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuits that were still in my trunk. They had been left over from the sea voyage, they were not large, and were so hard, they couldn’t be broken. Surely, that was not enough to feed eight people, but five loaves and two fishes were not enough to feed 5,000 people either, but through a miracle, Jesus had done it. So, with God’s help, nothing is Impossible. I found the biscuits and put them in a Dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for God’s blessing, then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals. When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan filled with food.”

“Nearly all suffered more or less at night from cold. Instead of getting up in the morning strong, refreshed, vigorous, and prepared for the hardships of another day of toil, the poor Saints were to be seen crawling out from their tents looking haggard, benumbed, and showing an utter lack of that vitality so necessary to our success. “Cold weather, scarcity of food, lassitude and fatigue from over-exertion, soon produced their effects. Our old and infirm people began to droop, and they no sooner lost spirit and courage than death’s stamp could be traced upon their features. Life went out as smoothly as a lamp ceases to burn when the oil is gone. At first the deaths occurred slowly and irregularly, but in a few days at more frequent intervals, until we soon thought it unusual to leave a campground without burying one or more persons.

While the Donner party, in a similar hour of desperation, had turned to cannibalism, John Chislett said, “These people died with the calm faith and fortitude of martyrs.

Archibald McPhail---The Company was divided into groups of twenty carts and a man placed over each group. Archibald McPhail was chosen to preside over one of these groups.

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A terrible blizzard had been raging all day and when they reached camp Archibald found one of his group was missing. There were two old ladies in his Company who often lagged behind---coming into camp later. When they didn’t soon follow (Brother McPhail) felt it was his duty to go back after them. It was indeed an undertaking for one so exhausted by the lack of food and nearly perishing cold, but he cheerfully accepted his responsibility and went in search of the women. He found them sitting by the wayside on the other side of a frozen stream (strawberry creek) they had crossed earlier. He pleaded with them to come on, but they refused, saying they were going to stay there and die. There was nothing to do but cross the stream and get them. He picked them up and as they crossed the stream the ice broke and he was soaked with icy water to the waist.

By the time he reached camp his clothes were frozen to him and he was taking heavy chills. The air was cold and wet and the men were so weak and hungry they could not go in search of dry wood to make a fire. Without anything warm to eat or drink, he was placed in a cold bed with the covering of a handcart pitched over him for a tent. There was a strong wind blowing which blew it over three times, and they stopped trying to keep it up. He was in high fever, and Henrietta (daughter, age 16) sat by his bed brushing the snow from his face as he lay dying. He and his wife Jane McKinnon were members of the (Willie) handcart company. On the long journey across the plains He became so weak that when the relief teams met them in Wyoming he could walk no farther so was taken into one of the wagons. When the company arrived at the crossing of Bear River, later known as Meyer’s Crossing, He died and was buried on the east side of the river. Jane often told her children the incident connected with his death. She was sitting in the wagon that night beside her husband in the dim light of a small tallow candle. She prayed fervently that the candle might last until his suffering had ended. Her prayer was answered for the light of the candle and the life of her husband went out at the same moment. At the time of his death he was just thirty-nine years of age.

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Artist: James C. Christensen

With the storm showing no signs of letting up Captain

George D. Grant under the circumstances felt it would not be wise to travel in such terrible conditions and ordered his men to halt. The drifts so deep the teams would have to buck their way through the snow. Later on that evening a member of the rescue party named Harvey Cluff felt a strong impression to make a sign to post on the trail to notify the “express” rescue team where they were camped down in the willows. He was worried that they would cross paths and would not know if they had found the handcart companies and where they were located. Harvey followed his impressions and made the sign. He then hiked out to the trail in snow drifts almost up to his waist to post the sign.

After traveling for fifteen hours non-stop with no food Captain Willie and Joseph Elder found the rescue party because of the sign that was posted shortly before. Had Harvey Cluff not posted that sign Captain Willie and Joseph Elder would not have found the rescue party.

Patience Loader---- Puzzled about why no help had yet arrived from the valley, Captain Grant sent the unflagging Joseph A Young and Abel Garr back as couriers to Salt Lake City.

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After several days of waiting for help, living on the hide from dead cattle or broth made from boiled wagon tongue cover, the company decided to move their camp three miles away into a cove for better shelter from the relentless storms. Yet this entailed crossing the Sweetwater, at this point only about two feet deep but excruciating in its bitter temperatures, pain slicing through the body on contact. Ice choked the water, the bottom of the river was muddy, and the river was an appalling 90 to 120 feet across.

Patience Loader, describing her feelings when she saw the

river that must be crossed, wrote, “I could not keep my tears back.” She also noted, “When the handcart arrived at the bank of the river, one of these men who was much worn down, asked in a plaintive tone, ‘Have we got to go through there?’ On being answered yes, he was so much affected that he was completely overcome. That was the last strain. His fortitude and manhood gave way. He exclaimed, ‘Oh dear! I can’t go through that,’ and he burst into tears. His wife, who was by his side, had the stouter heart of the two at that juncture, and she said soothingly, ‘Don’t cry, Jimmy. I’ll pull the cart for you.’”

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In the end, few of the wearied immigrants pulled their carts that day. Four young men of the rescue party, C. Allen Huntington, George W. Grant, David P. Kimball, and Stephen W. Taylor spent their day in the freezing water, carrying people and hauling carts across. Coming to the shore on one side of the river meant only that they would turn around and plunge in again, endlessly crossing the pitiless water to spare the others.

Historians claim that these boys (three of whom were still in their teens) suffered ever after from the effects of their heroism, and all died young.

Artist: Del Parson

Eleven year-old James Kirkwood was responsible for getting

his four-year-old brother Joseph to Rock Creek that night, carrying the boy on his back as he slogged through the snow on frozen feet. His widowed mother could not help, for she, with his brother Robert, were pulling their crippled, nineteen-year-old brother Thomas and their meager belongings on a cart that barely budged. Faithful to his charge and dutiful to the end, James staggered into camp with his precious load, put Joseph down by the fire, and then died of exposure and overexertion.

Bodil Mortensen---- Else Nielsen could not care for her six-year-old son Niels because she had to pull her husband, whose feet were badly frozen. Instead, nine-year-old Bodil Mortensen,

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a Danish child who was planning to meet her older sister in the valley, was put in charge. She labored to get Niels to camp, then began gathering sagebrush to build a fire. Exhausted and frozen, she leaned against a cart wheel and died with the sagebrush still in hand. 2

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Section G Some years later in a Sunday School class, “the subject

under discussion was the ill-fated handcart company that had suffered so terribly in the snow of 1856. Some sharp criticism of the church and its leaders was being indulged in for permitting any company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies of protection than a handcart caravan afforded.

“One old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity. He said in substance, I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes! But I was in that company and my wife was in it, and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited here was there too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? No one of that company ever apostatized or left the church because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities.

“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, ‘I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.’ I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one I knew then that the Angels of God were there. “Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.” 2

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Wilford Woodruff

“When I saw Br. Ellsworth come into this city covered with dust and drawing a handcart, I felt that he had gained greater honor than the riches of this world could bestow and he looked better to me than he would have done had he been clothed with the most costly apparel that human ingenuity can produce; he looked better I say than a man adorned with jewels and finery of every description. The honor any man can obtain by his faithfulness in this cause and kingdom is worth far more than all the honors of the world.” President Hinckley

When we begin to feel a spiritual kinship with those who walked these trails, our lives are strengthened and enriched. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, “It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. Their tremendous example can become a compelling motivation for us all, for each of us is a pioneer in his own life, often in his own family, and many of us pioneer daily in seeking to do God’s will and lift and serve those around us. “ Elder Ballard

How will we feel then, as we stand shoulder to shoulder with the great pioneers of Church history? How will they feel about us? Will they see faith in our footsteps? I believe they will….

Joy will fill our hearts when we fully come to know the eternal significance of the greatest rescue- the rescue of the family of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is through Him that we have the promise of eternal life. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of spiritual power that will give you and me the assurance that we have nothing to fear from the journey.

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Elder Maxwell

These are times during which great tribulation and temptation will occur. Those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing. The special spirits who have been reserved to live in this dispensation of the fullness of times will one day be praised for their stamina by those who pulled the handcarts. Modern Day Trek Experience

I was involved in the planning of the trek, and I prepared a little, but I didn’t anticipate the difficulty of the hike, so I didn’t work out, or anything. I just did some walking.

We went to Martin’s cove. It was sacred and I felt the spirit. I was looking for something more powerful. The site was very reverent and people were encouraged to be quiet and thoughtful. It was a beautiful place with a powerful spirit. I’m glad I was able to be there, but I wanted more. I had no idea what was in store for me and now, looking back I can see that it was a preparation for the spiritual experience that came later.

After the cove, we continued to hike and I felt some pain in my hip and in my knee. I was really having a problem keeping up with the rest of the group. There was a 4 wheeler that had been going up and down the trail picking up people who were having trouble. I saw the driver and I decided that was for me. I was clear behind and not having any fun. I was really struggling. I guess it showed because the driver came by and asked me if I wanted help. I told him to go ahead and check on others, and then to come back to get me.

I was walking slowly and limping. I was feeling like I really wasn’t going to be able to continue so I decided I needed to offer a prayer. In my prayer, I asked my Father in heaven; “what would the Martin’s company do in this situation if they decided they couldn’t go on and they had no choice?” I had a choice. I had the 4 wheeler, but wanted to know what they would do.

Right in the middle of my prayer while I was asking the question, I felt 2 people lift me from underneath my armpits and just took off. I actually felt like I was running with no power

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on my own. It felt quick to me. I was just “going”. There was definitely a power lifting me down the trail.

I passed others on the trail and I couldn’t believe how fast I was going. I really didn’t know how this was happening, but it was so amazing. I passed my wife and she looked at me like “what are you doing” I put my hands up as if to say to say , I don’t know. I have no idea. I don’t know how I looked to her, but to me it felt like I was running with two people lifting me up on either side. It felt like my feet were suspended in the air but they were moving effortlessly. Every now and then my toes would touch the ground but not with every step.

I made it to the front of the group and met President Busaith. It was then that I was set down and left to my own power. Literally the pain in my hips and knees was gone. I didn’t have any other problem the rest of the trek. I made it all the way walking on my own.

I understand that the important part was when I asked “what would they do?” The spirit told me that they were literally lifted up and carried. I know now that this is possible. It actually happened to me. I know that there was a purpose for their journey just like my life has a purpose all of our lives have purposes and we can ask for help from beyond our own power. When we ask, we are heard. I’m grateful for this experience that has brought me closer to those who traveled under such difficult circumstances and I will never forget the power that lifted me and carried me when I could not do it on my own.

Personal story Mark Chapman, Orem Utah

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Section H When the call was issued by a prophet of God to go into the

high mountains of Wyoming and rescue the perishing handcart pioneers, saints from the Salt Lake Valley prepared quickly and left immediately, relying on their faith, risking their own lives in the severe winter storms. Their willingness to accept the call and risk their lives to save strangers has many parallels in our lives today. This is the First Rescue.

Throughout his service as counselor in the Stake Presidency and then as the President of the Riverton Wyoming Stake, President Robert Scott Lorimer has always felt a special spirit associated with the Rock Creek Hollow site. There, thirteen members of the Willie Handcart Company are buried in a common grave and two others of the Company are buried nearby. Early in 1991 while traveling to conduct some Stake business, the Stake Presidency was discussing why they felt such an urgency to receive computers and software for conducting family history research. Then very distinctly President Lorimer received the revelation. “It’s the Willie’s people! Their temple work hasn’t been done.” That evening using the new family history software developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they confirmed that many of those buried at Rock Creek Hollow did not have all their temple ordinances performed vicariously in their behalf.

On July 21, 1991, during a special Riverton Wyoming Stake meeting a call was extended to members of the Stake to rescue again the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies – not a temporal rescue but a spiritual rescue. At that meeting President Lorimer stated, “The spirit that you have felt has been theirs. They beg you and ask you to be faithful. Don’t turn back before you get to Fort Bridger. Get the work done! And let it be our byword, that of President Hinckley, ‘People of the Riverton Wyoming Stake do not stop. Please do not stop until this is done.’”

This journal provides information about the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies, the first Rescue in 1856, and their Second Rescue. As these events are studied, and understanding

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is gained of not only what happened but also what it means to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

In the 1990’s, faithful saints in the Riverton Wyoming Stake spent thousands of hours researching the family groups of the handcart pioneers and performing for them the saving Temple ordinance for which they had waited so many years. This is the Second Rescue.

The final chapters of this Journal remain to be written. They will be written by you, members of the Sharon Park Stake, who have been touched by the stories of the 1st and 2nd rescues as you build upon the foundation of faith and sacrifice laid by those who have gone before. As you gain a testimony and share these experiences, this will be the third rescue

Today, the rescue continues. The Savior rescued all mankind through His infinite atonement. He now calls upon each of us to rescue others by showing our faithfulness, by keeping our covenants, and by serving others both living and dead. This is the fourth rescue.

As you participate in this youth conference trek, you will begin to experience, in a small way, what those valiant pioneers suffered and sacrificed in order to reach Zion and dwell with the Saints of God. You will come to understand how our loving Heavenly Father poured out His blessings upon those faithful saints in the midst of their sufferings and strengthened them against the storms.

As you complete the pre-trek challenges in this journal, you will come to know and appreciate the courage and faith of the pioneers. You will never undergo all that they suffered, but you can learn to draw upon the same source of strength that they did as you endure the trials and challenges of your own life, and you will be blessed immeasurably - now and for years to come. October 6, 1991 President Gordon B. Hinckley

I wish to remind everyone within my hearing that the comforts we have, the peace we have, and most important, the faith and knowledge of the things of God that we have, were bought with a terrible price by those who have gone before us. Sacrifice has always been a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The crowning element of our faith is our conviction of our living

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God, the Father of us all, and of His Beloved Son, the Redeemer of the world. It is because of our Redeemer’s life and sacrifice that we are here. It is because of His sacrificial atonement that we and all of the sons and daughters of God will partake of salvation of the Lord…

In our own helplessness, He becomes our rescuer saving us from damnation and bringing us to eternal life. In times of despair, in seasons of loneliness and fear, He is there on the horizon to bring succor and comfort and assurance and faith. He is our King, our Savior, our Deliverer, our Lord and our God. Those on the high, cold plains of Wyoming came to know Him in their extremity as perhaps few come to know Him. But to every troubled soul, every man or woman I meet, to those everywhere who are pulling heavy burdens through the bitter storms of life, He has said: “Come unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and pure in heart; and ye shall find rest into your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

Now, I am grateful that today none of our people are stranded on the Wyoming highlands. But I know that all about us there are many who are in need of help and who are deserving of rescue. Our mission in life, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, must be a mission of saving. There are homeless, the hungry, and the destitute. Their condition is obvious. We have done much. We can do more to help those who live on the edge of survival…It is with many immediately around us, in our families, wards and stakes, in our neighborhoods and communities. “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwell in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” (Moses 7:18) If we are to build that Zion of which the prophets have spoken and of which the Lord has given mighty promise, we must set aside our consuming selfishness. We must rise above our love for comfort and ease, and in the very process of effort and struggle, even our extremity, we shall become better acquainted with our God.

Let us never forget that we have a marvelous heritage received from great and courageous people who endured

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unimaginable suffering and demonstrated unbelievable courage for the cause they loved. You and I know what we should do. God help us to do it when it needs to be done, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 1

Reach With a Rescuing Hand President Hinckley

I am grateful that those days of pioneering are behind us. I am thankful that we do not have brethren and sisters stranded in the snow, freezing and dying, while trying to get to this, their Zion in the mountains. But there are people, not a few, whose circumstances are desperate and who cry out for help and relief. There are so many who are hungry and destitute across this world who need help. I am grateful to be able to say that we are assisting many who are not of our faith but whose needs are serious and whom we have the resources to help. But we need not go so far afield. We have some of our own who cry out in pain and suffering and loneliness and fear. Ours is a great and solemn duty to reach out and help them, to lift them, to feed them if they are hungry, to nurture their spirits if they thirst for truth and righteousness.

There are so many young people who wander aimlessly and walk the tragic trail of drugs, gangs, immorality, and the whole brood of ills that accompany these things. There are widows who long for friendly voices and that spirit of anxious concern which speaks of love. There are those who were once warm in the faith, but whose faith has grown cold. Many of them wish to come back but do not know quite how to do it. They need friendly hands reaching out to them. With a little effort, many of them can be brought back to feast again at the table of the Lord.

My brethren and sisters, I would hope, I would pray that each of us… would resolve to seek those who need help, who are in desperate and difficult circumstances, and lift them in the spirit of love into the embrace of the Church, where strong hands and loving hearts will warm them, comfort them, sustain them, and put them on the way of happy and productive lives.

I leave with you, my beloved friends, my co-workers in this wonderful cause, my testimony of the truth of this work, the

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work of the Almighty, the work of the Redeemer of mankind. I leave with you my love and my blessing, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Section I You Have Nothing to Fear from the Journey M. Russell Ballard, April 1997

…We cannot begin to understand the journeys made by those who laid the foundation of this dispensation until we understand their spiritual underpinnings. Once we make that connection, however, we will begin to see how their journeys parallel our own. There are lessons for us in every footstep they took- lessons of love, courage, commitment, devotion, endurance, and most of all, faith…

For the Utah pioneers of 1847, their faith was grounded in principle. They left their homes, their temple, and in some cases their families, in search of a place of refuge where they could worship without fear of persecution. There was little that they could carry with them in the way of provisions and material possessions but each wagon and handcart was heavily laden with faith- faith in God, faith in the Restoration of His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and faith that God knew where they were going and that He would see them through…

Those 19th – century pioneers… never set out to be heroes, and yet they accomplished heroic things. That’s what makes them Saints. They were a band of believers who tried to do the right thing for the right reasons, ordinary men and women who were called on to perform an extraordinary work. At times they gave in to discouragement and allowed themselves to murmur and complain. But ultimately their faith in God and the man they sustained as their prophet and leader prevailed, and they righted their vision and attitudes along with their wagons. In the process they found joy amid the hardships and trials of the trek…

Is there a lesson in the pioneer experience for us today? I believe there is. The faith that motivated the pioneers of 1847 as well as pioneers in other lands was simple faith centered in the basic doctrines of the restored gospel, which they knew to be true. That’s all that mattered to them, and I believe that is all that should matter to us. Our faith needs to be focused on the fundamental truths that God lives, that we are His children, and

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that Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son and He is our Savior. We need to know that they restored the Church to the earth in its fullness through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we learn that our Father’s plan for the happiness of His children is clear and quite simple when studied and accepted with real faith. Traveling from Nauvoo to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847 is not unlike a young missionary from Idaho traveling to Siberia in late 1993 as one of the first Latter-day Saints to labor in that land. Nearly every day our missionaries arrive in countries where they have little knowledge of the language and where the food, culture, and living conditions are often much different from that which they are accustomed to. And yet they go boldly as modern pioneers, not fearing the journey, walking with faith in every footstep to bring to people everywhere the good news of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our faith can help us be equally bold and fearless during the course of our respective journeys, whether we are parents working with a troubled child, a single parent trying to raise a worthy family, young people struggling to find a place in a wicked and confusing world, or a single person trying to make the journey through life alone. No matter how difficult the trail, and regardless of how heavy our load, we can take comfort in knowing that others before us have borne life’s most grievous trials and tragedies by looking to heaven for peace, comfort, and hopeful assurance. We can know as they knew that God is our Father, that He cares about us individually and collectively, and that as long as we continue to exercise our faith and trust in Him there is nothing to fear in the journey.

Like the pioneers of 1847 who ventured west along a trail that kept them relatively close to life-sustaining fresh water from rivers, particularly the Platte and the Sweetwater, we need to follow and partake of the Living Water of Christ to refresh our faith and sustain our efforts as we travel the road through mortality.

Life isn’t always easy. At some point in our journey we may feel much as the pioneers did as they crossed Iowa- up to our knees in mud, forced to bury some of our dreams along the way. We all face rocky ridges, with the wind in our face and

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winter coming on too soon. Sometimes it seems as though there is no end to the dust that stings our eyes and clouds our vision. Sharp edges of despair and discouragement just out of the terrain to slow our passage. Always, there is a Devil’s Gate, which will swing wide open to lure us in. Those who are wise and faithful will steer a course as far from such temptation as possible, while others- sometimes those who are nearest and dearest to us- succumb to the attraction of ease, comfort, convenience, and rest. Occasionally we reach the top of one summit in life, as the pioneers did, only to see more mountain peaks ahead, higher and more challenging than the one we have just traversed. Tapping unseen reservoirs of faith and endurance, we, as did our forebears, inch ever forward toward that day when our voices and join with those of all pioneers who have endured in faith, singing, “All is well! All is well!”

The road we travel today is treacherous, and the scriptures tell us it will continue to be so until the very end. But our reward will be the same as that which awaits worthy pioneers of all ages who live faithfully the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, make right choices, and give their all to build the kingdom of God on earth.

We are the inheritors of a tremendous heritage. Now it is our privilege and responsibility to be part of the Restoration’s continuing drama, and there are great and heroic stories of faith to be written in our day. It will require every bit of our strength, wisdom, and energy to overcome the obstacles that will confront us. But even that will not be enough. We will learn, as did our pioneer ancestors, that it is only in faith- real faith, whole –souled, tested and tried- that we will find safety and confidence as we walk our own perilous pathways through life.

We are all bound together, 19th and 20th century pioneers and more, in our great journey to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to allow His atoning sacrifice to work its miracles in our lives. While we all can appreciate the footsteps of faith walked by Joseph Smith and his followers from Palmyra to Carthage Jail and across the Great Plains, we should ever stand in reverential awe as we contemplate the path trod by the Master. His faithful footsteps to Gethsemane and to Calvary rescued all of us and opened the way for us to return to our heavenly home.

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Let us remember that the Savior is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and there can be no greater promise than to know that if we are faithful and TRUE, we will one day be safely encircled in the arms of His love (See D&C 6:20). He is always there to give encouragement, to forgive, and to rescue. Therefore, as we exercise faith and are diligent in keeping the commandments, we have nothing to fear from the journey.

Bibliography 1. Remember – compiled & written by Members of the

Riverton Wyoming Stake. 2. The Gathering – by Maurine Jensen Proctor and Scot Facer

Proctor 3. Journal of the Trail – by Stewart E Glazier and Robert S.

Clark 4. Hand Carts To Zion, The Experience of the Handcart Pioneer

– by Leroy R. Hafen and Anne W. Hafen 5. Martin & Willie Handcart Companies – Timeline

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Orem Sharon Park Stake Pioneer Trek Packing List

This document contains all of the items that you will need to bring on the trek. We encourage you to begin collecting them as early as possible. We recommend that you label as many items as possible with tape and a permanent marker. Sleeping Items The following items (except for the small pillow) should be double bagged in heavy duty plastic bags. Write your name in large print on duct tape attached to the bag.

□ Sleeping bag □ Coat/ jacket wrapped up in the sleeping bag □ Sleeping pad (no large air mattresses, there is no

electricity) □ Small pillow (bring on bus)

5 Gallon Bucket Items Each person going on the trek will need to purchase their own 5 gallon bucket with lid. This bucket will be used as a seat on the trek so adding a padding to the top is suggested. Buckets must have your name, trek family name, and family color prominently displayed on the outside. Put smaller items in zip-lock bags for protection.

□ One set of clothes (see next page) □ Flashlight (with new batteries) □ Work gloves □ Rain poncho □ Small hand towel □ Dish towel □ Scriptures (in a zip-lock bag if they don’t already have a

holder) □ Insect repellent with deet Toiletry Items (combined together in a zip-lock bag) □ Deodorant □ Comb or brush □ Soap

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□ Baby wipes in a zip-lock bag (these are important as there are no showers)

□ Toothbrush & toothpaste □ Feminine hygiene products □ Prescription medications in a zip-lock bag (please let

your Ma and Pa know about your medications) Mess Kit Items (please make sure your mess kit is the last thing to go in your bucket) □ Deep plate made of plastic or metal (a heavy “Marie

Callender” pie pan is ideal) □ Cup □ Utensils

Necessities Bag Items (the bag will be provided by the stake and carried by you on the Trek)

□ Trail of Faith booklet & pen in zip-lock bag □ Wide mouth water bottle – filled (24-36 oz, preferably

one that can attach to a bag) □ Powdered Gatorade or similar electrolyte water

additive □ Sunscreen – SPF 30 or higher □ Lip balm w/ sun protectant – SPF 30 or higher □ Hand sanitizer □ Fingernail clippers □ Prescription eyeglasses (glasses are preferred over

contacts due to blowing sand) □ Moleskin for blisters (2 sheets) □ Several Band-Aids – different sizes Optional Items □ Camera (not on a phone or iPod) □ Sunglasses (conservative in style) □ Ear plugs (for sleeping)

Clothing General (wear one set of clothing and pack the rest in your bucket)

□ Socks – wool blend, acrylic or polypropylene (4-5 pairs) □ Modest pajamas (it will be cool at night so you will want

warm sleepwear, consider long underwear to supplement lightweight pajamas)

□ Underwear – men, no cotton boxers (3 pairs)

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□ Shoes – wear one pair and tie the other to the bucket handle (DO NOT buy new shoes the day before the Trek, they will give you blisters!)

□ Hiking shoes or tennis shoes – check laces to make sure they are not worn (broken in and comfy, good tread)

□ Old tennis shoes or water shoes for river crossing – a plastic bag to put them in (no flip-flops)

Clothing for Young Women □ Dress that is mid-calf with modest neckline (1-2 pairs) -

OR- Skirt that is mid-calf with blouse that is long-sleeved, loose fitting, cotton blends (1-2 pairs of each)

□ Bonnet or wide-brimmed sunhat with strap (the wind will blow hats away!)

Optional Items □ Bloomers or knee-length shorts (for lifting your dress at

river crossings) □ Apron with pockets

Clothing for Young Men □ Shirt – button type with collars, long sleeves, no t-shirts

or polo shirts, no words or logos (1-2 pairs) □ Pants – long and lightweight, no blue jeans (1-2 pairs) □ Wide-brimmed hat with strap (no baseball caps) Optional Items □ Vest □ Suspenders

Clothing Resources Howtodresslikeapioneer.blogspot.com D.I./ Savers Pioneer costume patterns at Jo-Ann’s Deseret Book Dressed in White Past trekkers

Items NOT to Bring Food or snacks, Candy, Jewelry, Wallets, Money, Electronic Items (Cell Phone, Gaming device, Radio, iPod, iTouch, Tablet, MP3 Player, Tape Recorder, etc.) If you bring any of these items, they will be held safely for you until after the trek.

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