My JellyBellies: Pioneers and Handcarts

Martin's Cove, 993 miles from Nauvoo

Many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from England, Wales, Scotland and Scandinavia desired to join their fellow saints in the United States. They secured passage overseas and then, upon reaching America, travelled by steam boat or train as far as Iowa or Nebraska. From there, the only means of travel was by horse-drawn-cart, or by foot. Most of these saints, having used all their funds to travel across the sea, could not afford to buy wagons and oxen. Instead, they travelled on foot pulling their belongings and provisions in handcarts. Nearly 3,000 Mormon pioneers, travelling in 10 different handcart companies, crossed the vast plains of America this way.
For most of these companies, travel was rigorous and long, but safe. Two of these companies however, the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies, left much too late in the summer of 1856 and, encountering early winter snows, met with tragedy. More than 210 of the 980 pioneers in these two companies died along the way of exposure and starvation before rescuers from the Salt Lake Valley assisted them in reaching the Salt Lake Valley.
Martin's Cove is an historic landmark and memorial to these two companies. It was here that the Martin company sheltered with some of their rescuers as they waited out a snowstorm. Many pioneers died during that storm. We honor and revere these saints and the faith they had to carry them forward despite ominous struggles and heart-wrenching tragedies.

At Martin's Cove, families and youth groups can come experience what it was like to pull a handcart. Some groups pull their carts for several days, living off of "true pioneer rations" and camping over night along the trail. Our family only pulled a handcart a few miles. We started out by letting the kids pull the cart alone, without adult help. Empty, the cart was not that heavy.

Ryanne, Mckay, and Elias. Where's Leah?

There's little Leah!

Pioneer Handcarts were small, having about a 5-foot-long box set between two narrow, lightweight wheels. They could carry 500 pounds of provisions and stores. Sometimes the pioneers were able to add a hooped cover. Most of the carts were made of hickory or oak It was rare for the wheels to have any iron parts--even the axles were made of wood. The dust and sand from the trail would get into the axles, grinding them down and causing them break. There were many delays for repairs along the trails. The Martin and Willie handcart companies had to use green wood instead of seasoned lumber for their handcarts. This proved fatal, in a sense, because the green lumber caused many problems and delayed the companies severely.

Wes is showing Mckay how to hold the yoke.
See how Elias is helping?!

Ahh--now Elias is putting some muscle into it!

Ryanne and Mckay are a good team.
They were tough.

Pioneer children sang as they walked?

After a while, Dad got in the yoke to help the kids pull.
I was still playing photographer.

Wait a minute-- now he is getting a ride?!

Looks like Ryanne wanted a break too.

Is that a body lying in the road behind the cart?

I think she is quite content with these pulling arrangements.

Now the boys are enjoying a ride.
Despite the fact that pioneer children did not ride in the carts (unless they were very ill), our children seemed to think that riding was the proper thing to do. I guess since we didn't have 100 pounds of flour in the cart, we had to see what it was like to have some weight to pull.

This is Mckay's face when I told him it was time to get out.

This is me telling the kids that our trail goes, "way over there, behind that hill."
It looks soooo far to them.

Elias has decided he cannot make it any further.

Just kidding mom! Look, I can pull this cart all by myself.

Ryanne on her own. Piece of cake. She can't wait for the real thing--in two years she'll get to pull a heavily loaded cart with other teens until 1am, eat dried biscuits, drink broth, and sleep in the dust on her own mini pioneer trek.

Mckay takes over while Ryanne ties her shoe.

And, we're back to Elias who thinks this is pretty fun, can he go home now?

After a while, it wasn't as fun:
"How far were we going?"
"When could we refill our water?"
"My legs hurt; my arms are tired; can I have a ride?"

Oh look! Mommy did actually help pull the cart.

Here are Ryanne and Mckay sauntering along having a good chat while Elias is putting his whole body into the job at hand.

Blue Wyoming skies and dusty trails.

Uh, is something under the cart? Did we run over something?

Yes, it was Elias' brain-child. He wanted to lay in the middle of the trail and have us drive over him. Anything to get out of pulling the cart? Well, we all needed a few laughs along the way. Leave it to Elias to bring on the humor.