Treksplanation

It seems that many of you enjoyed the pioneer photos of Emily, myself, and our temporary family of 9 teenagers. I answered a lot of questions this week about our awesome pioneer trek and figured it would be worth posting the most common of these on the blog.

Where were your horses and oxen?
Between 1847 and and 1869, roughly 70,000 Mormon settlers crossed the plains to settle in the West. The majority of these pioneers traveled by covered wagon pulled by oxen or horses. Some of these faithful members, especially those emigrating from Europe, couldn't afford to travel west by wagon and instead went by handcart. Ultimately, ten handcart companies made the trek west.

Eight of the ten handcart companies had uneventful journeys. Two companies, however, started late in the year and met early blizzards. They faced extreme hardship and experienced mortality rates of nearly 25%. Complete disaster was averted by rescue parties sent by Brigham Young from the Salt Lake valley.

Why a migration?
In the early days of the Mormon church, members had a strong desire to live together in the same communities. As the population of these communities swelled, their non-Mormon neighbors typically grew suspicious of their political and economic clout. Thus, early Mormon history is a series of migration, town building, and persecution, followed by more migration.

In the early 1840s, the main body of the Mormon church had settled in Illinois and had established the city of Nauvoo,  the largest city in the state. Unfortunately, the pattern of growth followed by persecution repeated itself and the church founder, Joseph Smith was murdered in June of that year. Following these events, Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young was inspired to take the beleaguered people west to the Great Basin of the United States.

Why a reenactment? 
Every member of the LDS Church owes a debt of gratitude to those early church members who made tremendous sacrifices to come west. Some are direct ancestors of these remarkable pioneers (Emily and I both have progenitors who lived in Nauvoo and trekked West). Others had their faith kindled by missionaries who were pioneers themselves or were descendants of those pioneers. In all cases, each church member has benefited by the legacy of faith left behind by these hearty souls.

Trek was a small reenactment of experiences of those handcart companies. Groups of 9 or 10 teenagers were paired with a Ma and Pa to form a family. Six or seven families formed a company. We were on the trail with a total of 3 companies (more than 200 people!). The goals were relatively straightforward:

1. Strengthen the faith of the participants
2. Pay tribute to our pioneer heritage
3. Gain confidence in our ability to to hard things
4. Have fun with people who share similar values

And watching nearly 200 youth square dance to Katy Perry's "Firework" was quite an impressive sight -- one we're glad we did not miss.