My outfit consists of Ken's Wellington boots, Carl's wool Pendleton coat, Jim Hay's wool pants, my old Eddie Bauer wool hat, a canvas belt from Goodwill, and an extra large flannel shirt. The stomach and jowls are real. I forgot to take my glasses off, but no one seemd to notice as I stumbled up the stairs to the stage. (Photo by Ken)
Harry Reich assembled the handcart from a kit. Janeil and I are on the committee organizing a 3-day, 25-mile trek over Santiam pass this summer. Sheryl, Brenda, Neil, and their families have been involved in similar treks in past years.
Only 10 of the 250 pioneer companies were the very poor British Isles and Danish converts who used handcarts. Only 2 of these 10 hardcart companies got stranded on the Wyoming open country in early winter snows where about 200 of the 1000 people perished. The remaining 60,000 pioneers mainly came by oxen-powered covered wagons, including the Olsens and the Fugals.
The handcart company our stake is mimicking had no fatalities!
Gerald Lund has written a historical fiction novel called "Fire of the Covenant" detailing the daily struggles of a couple of the families in the Martin and Willie companies. The daily ration of flour was supposed to be 16 ounces for men, 12 for women, and 8 for children. Before the rescue wagons coming from Salt Lake were able to find them, the rations were down to a few ounces per person.
We had a great pioneer heritage.
4 comments:
When people have asked why we're doing this trek it got me thinking. And this is what I think. When we see how the hand of the Lord helped them, we have greater faith that He will help us also.
Excellent context! We focus so much on those two companies that people lose sight of the larger picture.
Which company is it?
No fatalities! That's amazing. Hopefully you'll be able to mimic that. Are they making you stick to those rations? I would bring up the fact that people were smaller back then.
At Mike's brothers trek they brought live chickens and had the kids butcher and cook them on the trail.
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