Sweetwater Program Transcript

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

(NARRATOR – speaking from Liverpool dock)

In the mid nineteenth century, tens of thousands of British, Welsh, and Scandinavians crowded the docks at Liverpool to take a one-way ocean voyage to America. These emigrants dreamed of a new life, a new beginning.

Nearly two thousand of them were believers in a religion born on American soil. They boarded vessels in the spring and summer of 1856 bound for what they considered the “promised land.”

For the most part, these religious emigrants were poor. They would pull wooden handcarts loaded with only what they needed to survive as they crossed the Great Plains and the Rockies. Their hopes were set not on jobs, adventure or business --- but on gathering with their fellow faithful to worship the Almighty God.

So it was, with what they termed, “the fire of Israel’s God burning in their hearts,” they began their passage from this bustling British seaport to the American West --- to a place they called Zion.

(VOICE OVER)

Susannah Stone, Ship Thornton, 1856

(VOICE OVER)

Monday. Bid farewell to . . . President Richards who said, “God bless you, Brother Bleak, and give you power, and cause all our efforts to prosper.” James G. Bleak, Ship Horizon, May 25, 1856

(HEADING)

(NARRATOR)

The settlement of the frontiers of the American West is a story of explorers, trappers, miners, and settlers who crossed the heartland of America by the thousands to realize their dreams. By 1856 more than 40,000 Mormon converts had made the pilgrimage to settle in the Utah territory.

(VOICE OVER)

When [the Lord] calls his saints to do anything, if they will rely upon Him and do the best they can, He will fit the back to the burden and make everything bend to the accomplishments of His purposes.

John Jaques, Liverpool

(TALKING HEAD: LANDON)

(NARRATOR)

**Church President Brigham Young had established a revolving fund to finance the ongoing exodus of the faithful.

(TALKING HEAD: WOODS)

For those who couldn=t afford to pay their own way there was the Perpetual Emigrating Fund that was launched in the Fall of 1849 . It was very successful. About 30,000 of the 90,000 Latter-day Saints that came in the 19th Century were assisted by this fund.

(NARRATOR)

Those who emigrated with the help of this revolving fund were expected to pay back the money as soon they could, so that others might be assisted. Time and demand strained the coffers.

(VOICE OVER)

We can not afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past. --- make handcarts and let the emigration foot it.

President Brigham Young, Salt Lake

(VOICE OVER)

The Lord promised through his servant Brigham [Young] that the handcart companies shall be blessed with health and strength, and will be met part way with teams and provisions from the Valley. . . . Those who go by handcarts and continue faithful and obedient will be blessed more than they have ever dreamed of. When they get to Zion they will be . . . better Saints every way than when they started.

John Jaques, Liverpool

(VOICE OVER)

The gathering poor, if they are faithful, have a right to feel that the favour of God, angels, and holy men is enlisted in their behalf.

Franklin D. Richards

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

Franklin D. Richards was the president of the British Mission for the Mormon Church. And one of his responsibilities was to do all of the planning and organizing for this gathering. When he encouraged this huge number of people to emigrate in 1856, was perhaps overly optomistic, even you could describe him as reckless. He had a chance to know the people of the British Isles very intimately and he knew their conditions. So for him this was a wonderful thing that these poor people, some of which had been waiting nineteen years, eighteen teen years to go to Zion were finally going to have their chance.

(TALKING HEAD: PICKUP) There was very little here to keep them. Life was hard. Life was short. And therefore there was no opportunity for them. So when people talked about going on a great trek, it fired the imagination of these people. People were desperate to go. They wanted to go. They believed that whether they made it or not, they would be saved in heaven.

(VOICE OVER)

Thomas Tennant, Esq. . . . payed my way.

Henry Hamilton, Scotland (TALKING HEAD: PICKUP)

To travel the whole voyage at the cost of about 20 pounds from Liverpool to the Salt Lake Valley that would represent more than a years salary for an individual.

(VOICE OVER)

The brethren and sisters congregated upon the decks, and . . . made the air vocal with their songs of praise and joy to the Lord their God, for the deliverance . . . from Babylon.

John Jaques, Ship Horizon

(NARRATOR)

For six weeks the emigrants faced sea swells and headwinds, fog, cold and some sunny days. Most everyone was seasick. They were organized into companies and maintained rules of cleanliness, health and good order.

(TALKING HEAD: WOODS)

These different cultures of say the British and the Scandinavians had an opportunity in crossing the ocean for five or six weeks to be carefully, carefully intertwined together to form this rope that would literally help pull them to Zion.

IOWA CITY

(VOICE OVER)

In all its history, the American West never saw a more unlikely band of pioneers . . . Most of them until they were herded from their crowded immigrant ship had never pitched a tent, slept on the ground, cooked outdoors, built a campfire. They had not even the rudimentary skills that make frontiersmen.

Wallace Stegner, Historian

(TALKING HEAD: BASHORE)

This was an experiment, this handcart business was an experiment. First year it had ever been tried.

(TALKING HEAD: LONG)

Lots of people walked west, but no one ever had done an organized outfitted handcart trek across to the west.

(NARRATOR)

There were five handcart companies in 1856. The first three companies arrived in Iowa City at the end of March and mid April.

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

The first shiploads of emigrants that were using the handcart plan got to Iowa City, they just had to wait . Nothing was ready for them So any of the craftsmen that came across on these ships were immediately put to work in building handcarts.

(NARRATOR)

Completing construction of so many handcarts stalled the emigrants getting out on the trail. They finally left in June and arrived in the valley --- without serious incident ---- late September and early October. The residents welcomed their fellow saints with parades and celebrations.

(NARRATOR)

But the last two companies, captained by James G. Willie and Edward Martin, were not so fortunate. They sailed late from Liverpool; Mormon emigration officials lost precious time making arrangements and securing passage for the travelers.

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

They really didn’t have the money to finance and trying to wait and get that money and make it all happen caused enormous delays which sent the people out from England as much as two months later than they should have left.

(TALKING HEAD)

I think you have a combination of people who had zeal with not a great deal of knowledge but certainly had right motives in wanting to come.

Fred Woods

(VOICE OVER)

[July 24] We have traveled upwards of seventeen hundred miles by railway to this place. For the last fortnight, we have been living in a tent.

James G. Bleak, Iowa City

(NARRATOR)

The three handcart companies ahead of them had depleted the supplies of seasoned lumber in Iowa City as had the building boom in the community.

(VOICE OVER)

We expected to find these [handcart] vehicles already at hand on our arrival at Iowa City.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Iowa City

(NARRATOR:)

Precious weeks passed before the handcarts and tents were completed.

(NARRATOR)

The first leg of the journey, 277 miles from Iowa City to Florence, Nebraska took four weeks. Willie’s Company arrived August 11; Martin’s on the twenty second.

(NARRATOR)

A few who had been to the valley were wary of travel so late in the season and urged wintering in Nebraska.

(VOICEOVER)

[We can] not cross the mountains with a mixed company of aged people, women and little children so late in the season without much suffering, sickness and death. Levi Savage,

(VOICEOVER)

The emigrants were entirely ignorant of the country and climate – simple, honest, eager to go to Zion at once

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

A few leaders were still hesitant to continue the journey. About 100 people chose to stay behind in Nebraska.

(TALKING HEAD)

They knew that they were late. Everybody knew that they were late. Richards frankly admitted that he anticipated that they would have some snow.

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

From the outset clear back in 1847 it was very clearly stated that they must get an early start . . Early enough. so they could get all the way across during the summer months. . . . this was the cardinal guideline and unfortunately it was ignored.

(NARRATOR)

Company leaders determined to push on, trusting a divine hand would temper the elements and shore-up the travelers.

(VOICE OVER)

Seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you, and, if necessary, I will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us.

Levi Savage, Willie Company

(TALKING HEAD: BASHORE)

Something in their soul kept them coming even though all common sense would say, AHey just stop here.@ And they didn=t.

(VOICE OVER)

[Saturday, [August 26]. We started with our handcart this morning.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Each person was allotted 17 pounds of personal belongings. A handful of wagons carrying supplies and tents trailed behind the carts. In addition, 385 emigrants who could afford teams traveled behind the Martin Company in either the thirty-three wagons with W. B. Hodgett or the fifty wagons with John A. Hunt.

(NARRATOR)

Soon, the monotony and rigor of the trail wore down the emigrants.

(VOICE OVER)

We continued our toil day after day, pulling our hand-carts with our provisions or rations, our little children, etc., through deep sands, rocky roads, or fording streams. It was a dreary journey.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

The carts broke down as the unseasoned lumber dried out and shrank. Sand and rocks ground down the wheels and axles. Repairs caused further delays.

(NARRATOR)

Their troubles worsened when on the night of September third, a violent thunderstorm and a buffalo stampede scattered their cattle. The loss of the Willie Company’s livestock signaled disaster.

(VOICE OVER)

We hunted for [our livestock] three days in every direction, but did not find them.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

Through losing our cattle and having to camp on the Plains for several weeks, it threw us late in the season and made our provisions short for the latter part of our journey.

Susannah Stone, Willie Company

(TALKING HEAD -- CARTER)

Willie, fully aware that they were running out of time, said that they would go on. But they were definitely hampered by not having these animals. They had to hitch heifers and milk cows to their wagons just to keep moving. Their progress was slowed by at least a third, maybe almost in half. Now the Martin Company, when they left Florence, it was late enough in the year that, in my opinion, they were doomed from the beginning.

(VOICE OVER)

September 8th. We traveled 18 miles over a very heavy road. No watering place. . .

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Traveling fast in light wagons, emigration agent, Franklin D. Richards and about a dozen returning missionaries passed the Martin and Willie Companies on the trail. Richards promised to send food and supplies from Salt Lake as soon as he arrived.

(NARRATOR)

By early September, the emigrants were beginning to run out of food.

(VOICE OVER)

On September 30 we arrived at Fort Laramie, having necessarily expended considerable time in the repair of handcarts.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

Due to the lateness of the season, Fort Laramie’s shelves were bare of food supplies except for a couple of barrels of crackers and a bit of bacon.

(VOICE OVER)

[October 8th] Our old people are nearly all failing fast.

Levi Savage, Willie Company

(VOICEOVER)

Shortly after leaving Fort Laramie it became necessary to shorten our rations that they might hold out and that the company be not reduced to starvation. The reduction was repeated several times. . . . We pushed ahead.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

It was ascertained that at our present rate of travel and consumption of flour the latter would be exhausted when we were about three hundred and fifty miles from our destination.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

Those who knew the trail could not ignore the heavy frost on the ground each morning. They were cold, hungry and utterly exhausted from pulling the carts and taking their turn at guard duty. No relief was in sight.

(VOICE OVER)

The mountains before us . . .revealed themselves to view mantled nearly to their base in snow, and tokens of a coming storm were discernable in the clouds which each day seemed to lower around us.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

Strips of burlap or canvas replaced worn out shoes. Temperatures dropped dramatically. Their ragged clothing, wet from river crossings, never dried one day to the next.

(VOICE OVER)

[Oct 14th] Some would sit down by the roadside and die. My younger sister Caroline, 17 years old, after traveling all day . . . took off her apron to tie some sage brush in. They found her chilled and dying and carried her into camp. She . . . was placed in an unmarked grave.

Robert Reeder, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

October 16th. Our rations of flour was reduced from 1 pound to 12 ounces for adults and 8 ounces for my children to 6 ounces a day.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

There was not enough food to maintain the body heat they required, there was not enough bedding or clothing to keep them warm, particularly at night and they became exhausted and this brought them down.

(VOICE OVER)

[October 17th] Good blankets and other bedding and clothing were burned as they could not be carried further. . . there was yet 400 miles of winter to go through.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

They had to lighten their loads, to take this load off their men, to give them a better chance of surviving because it was mostly the men that were dying. So the loads were lightened and everything that wasn=t absolutely essential was burned. Even some essential things were burned, bedding and warm clothing, but just because they [couldn’t] carry it anymore.

(VOICE OVER)

[October 18th] Fourth crossing of the Sweetwater. . . The air is cool.

Levi Savage, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

October 19th. We crossed the Platte, very trying in consequence of its width and the cold weather.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Men, women and children waded through the current, many needing assistance.

(NARRATOR)

And then the snow, hail and wind came.

(VOICE OVER)

We were overtaken by a snowstorm which the shrill wind blew furiously about us. The snow fell several inches deep, as we traveled along, but we dared not stop.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

Winter came all at once, and that was the first day of it.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

The weather hit then, the sleet, the snow. And they were already wet from the crossing. The wetness froze on their bodies, which is the worst thing that can happen in cold weather is to be wet. And so that very first night we have a large number of deaths. But we don’t know, We have some people saying as many as 14 the night after they had crossed.

(VOICE OVER)

We had to travel in our wet clothes until we got to camp. Our clothing was nearly frozen on us. . . That night the ground was frozen so hard we were unable to drive any tent pins in and the tent was wet. . . .We stretched [the tent] open and got under it until morning.

Patience Loader, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

I listened to hear my husband breathe – he lay so still. I put my hand on his body, when to my horror I discovered that my worst fears were confirmed. . . . He was cold and stiff – rigid in the arms of death.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: BASHORE)

It was just cold and cold can kill you especially if you are trying to survive and if you are a man trying to provide for your family, you are expending energy and that can sap your strength enough to where when the night comes you may not be there in the morning.

(VOICE OVER)

They did not remove my husband’s 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 with snow. The ground was frozen so hard that they could not dig a grave.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

The crossing of the North Platte was fraught with more fatalities than any other incident of the entire journey.

Josiah Rogerson, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY )

Both the Willie and the Martin Companies reached, as I can see, a breaking point on the 18th and 19th of October, interestingly both at the same time before the storm struck.

(TALKING HEAD: LANDON)

The sum total puts them in a situation where they are in south central Wyoming and they can do nothing about their circumstances. They’are trapped and they can=t escape. And the only way they can get themselves out of the mire or out of the circumstance, really, is to get somebody to come and save them.

(HEADING)

SALT LAKE CITY

October 4, 1856

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

Brigham Young was aware that there were probably a lot of people coming. He had been informed by Daniel Spencer, who was the superintending agent at Iowa City, that he had sent off three groups and that two more were expected . No one understood at that point really the depth of the reason for concern . Now as it was getting later and he hadn’t received further word I don’t know if he made a very dangerous assumption that in their wisdom, that these agents would have kept them back in Iowa or at the Missouri, he may have assumed that.

(NARRATOR)

On October fourth, Franklin D. Richards rode into the Salt Lake valley with distressing news.news: There were as many as twelve hundred emigrants still out on the plains.

(NARRATOR)

The next day, October fifth, the fifty-five year old President of the LDS Church stood at a regularly scheduled church conference before a congregation of thousands and called for an immediate rescue.

(VOICE OVER)

Many of our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with handcarts and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place and they must be brought here . . . . Go and bring in those people now on the Plains.

Brigham Young,

(TALKING HEAD: LANDON) >

From my perspective Brigham Young is the most significant factor in the survival of those who actually made it into the valley.

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

It was Brigham Young’s spirit and his determination and his fury, I think, in some cases that started a massive effort the very day that he found out that so many people were still on the plains.

(NARRATOR)

President Young called for the men, horse and mule teams to stage an immediate rescue. He asked the women to bring food, blankets, and “clothing of any description” to fill the wagons.

(VOICE OVER)

The sisters stripped off their petticoats, stockings, and everything they could spare right there in the Tabernacle.

Lucy Meserve Smith, Salt Lake City

(NARRATOR)

Tuesday, October seventh, the first wagons and teamsters, began the climb up the steep canyon heading east.

(TALKING HEAD: LANDON)

The idea of the rescuers, they are going out and they haven=t even got a clue where Willie is and his people or Martin. It’s this idea we’re going to go ut and rescue these people, but we don’t even know what we’re facing.

(NARRATOR)

The leaders of the rescue were trail-seasoned men. With them were a select group of young men who had tended cattle, logged, plowed, irrigated, ferried mail and a few had clashed with Indians.

(VOICE OVER)

A better outfit and one more adapted to the work before us I do not think could have possibly been selected if a week had been spent fitting it up.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(TALKING HEAD: LORIMER)

They left their families in almost destitute situations in Salt Lake. They hadn=t gotten their harvest in, they had a locust infestation, they hadn=t got the wood in for the winter but yet they willing to go get these people because Brigham Young told them to. And they went. They took their very best animals knowing that their animals might die, that they might die.

(NARRATOR)

Weeks later, more teams loaded with additional tons of flour and other provisions joined the rescue.

(NARRATOR)

Estimates projected that Captain Willie and his company might be found two days past Fort Bridger, about 130 miles east of Salt Lake.

(VOICE OVER)

[October 15th] Our hearts began to ache when we reached Green River and yet no word of them.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

The rescue party kept riding, bewildered that the handcart companies were so far back on the trail.

(VOICEOVER)

This relief party proceeded eastward as rapidly as possible and in due time passed over the South Pass, the backbone of the continent.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

October eighteenth, no sign of the handcart companies

(NARRATOR)

Captain Grant stationed Reddick Allred, eleven men and four supply wagons at South Pass to restock the relief companies when they returned with the emigrants. He had earlier dispatched four express riders to find the two companies and assure them help was on its way. On horseback, the express riders could make more than 30 miles a day.

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

As they continued on across southwestern Wyoming and then toward South Pass the weather had held but right around the South Pass area the weather started falling apart and just on the east side of South Pass the rescue teams experience a terrible snow storm and they have to take shelter.

(NARRATOR)

The raging winter storm brought the rescuers and both handcart companies to a standstill -- the Willie Company on the Sweetwater and the Martin Company at the North Platte. More than a hundred miles apart.

(VOICEOVER)

The storm raged with increasing fury until it reached the capacity of a northern blizzard.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

The express riders from Captain Grant’s rescue party were riding hard. They finally found the Willie Company camped on the Sweetwater.

(VOICE OVER)

Oct. 19. . . .Met Brother Wheelock and company who have come to our relief. He reported forty loads of flour one day in advance of us. This was joyful news.

Levi Savage, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

Being surrounded by snow a foot deep, out of provisions, many of our people sick, and our cattle dying, it was decided that we should remain at our present camp until the supply train reached us.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

[Oct 20th] The snow, increasing in depth, daily . . . seemed to drag the life . . . completely out of us all, and from the last crossing of the Platte we commenced to bury the exhausted, rapidly.

Josiah Rogerson, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

The express had found the Willie Company out of food. And desperate.

(VOICE OVER)

Such craving hunger I never saw before, and may God in his mercy spare me the sight again.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR) Captain Willie with 21-year-old Joseph Elder left their camp to search for the promised aid, They spent several hours on the trail, uncertain of the rescue wagons’ location.

(VOICEOVER)

For protection of ourselves and animals, the company moved down the river to where the willows were dense enough to make a good protection against the raging storm from the north. I volunteered to take a sign board and place it at a conspicuous place at the main road. This was designed to direct the express party who were expected to return about this time. So they would not miss us.

I had only been back to camp a short time when two men rode up from Willies handcart company. The signboard had done the work of salvation. Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(TALKING HEAD: LORIMER)

Joseph Elder and Capt. Willie would have gone right past the rescuers. You can’t see the trail from where the rescuers were.

(TALKING HEAD: CARTER)

The report they get from Captain Willie is that they have to get to these people. And so the very next day they are on their way racing ahead to rescue the Willie

Company. . . . So that signpost on the road was definitely a lifesaver.

Rescue at the Sweetwater

October 21

(VOICE OVER)

[October 21] Just as the sun was sinking beautifully, behind the distant hills, on an eminence immediately west of our camp several covered wagon, each drawn by four horses were seen coming towards us. . . . Shouts of joy rent the air.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(VOICE OVER)

When the people of the camp sighted us approaching, they set up such a shout as to echo through the hills.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(VOICE OVER)

We found them in a condition that would stir the hardest heart. They were out of provisions, freezing and starving to death.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(VOICE OVER)

The [men from the valley] turned over to me flour, potatoes, onions, and a limited supply of warm clothing, besides quilts, blankets, buffalo-robes, woolen socks. That evening for the first time in quite a period, the songs of Zion were to be heard in the camp.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

In my opinion had the rescue not come when it did, within 48 hours of the storm on the 19th of October the death would have begun to sky rocket.

(VOICE OVER)

Our help came too late for some and many died after our arrival.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(TALKING HEAD: LORIMER)

We know that many of them perished before the rescuers got there and so their time was short. They probably could not have gone much more than a week before the rescuers got to them.

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

A week, or more, there is at least a possibility that everyone of them would have perished. There certainly would have been a great catastrophe. The timing of the rescue is stunning.

(VOICE OVER)

Six well loaded wagon teams and teamsters were left with the company and the rest of us pushed on for as yet we had no information as to where the other . . . handcart and two independent wagon companies were.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

By now, the rescuers had been on the trail for weeks and their own provisions were nearly gone.

(VOICE OVER)

Having seen the sufferings of Brother Willie’s company, we more fully realized the danger the others were in.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(TALKING HEAD: GUENTHER)

The rescue party was not sparing their horses. They were moving as fast as they could, literally running their stock into the grave in order to get to the stranded handcart people before they were all in the grave

(NARRATOR)

Captain George D. Grant’s rescue party of eight wagons and about twice that many men rushed east hoping to find the Martin, Hunt and Hodgett companies camped near the four-year-old stockade at Devil’s Gate. There they met the express riders but there was no sign of the emigrants.

(NARRATOR)

Meanwhile, October 23, the Willie Company faced a five-mile climb up Rocky Ridge. In the snow.

(VOICE OVER)

I had not gone far up before I overtook a cart that the folks could not pull through the snow, here about knee deep. I helped them along and we soon overtook another. By all hands getting to one cart we could travel, so we moved one of the carts a few rods, and then went back and brought up another.. . We overtook other carts at different points of the hill, until we had six carts. I put our collective strength to three carts at a time, took them a short distance, and then brought up the other three. Thus by traveling twice forward and once back – I succeeded in bringing my little company to the summit.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR) Even with help, many could not make it. Chislett and others went back and forth on the trail bringing in stragglers until five in the morning.

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

A fierce wind and driving snow met these folks just as they were crossing arguably the most difficult part of entire Mormon Trail. . . . my calculation is that the wind chill equivalent was probably 70 below zero. It is hard to imagine how they were able to get through that terrible day. And it was long day, all day, all evening, all night long. The rear elements didn=t get in until dawn was breaking the next morning.

(VOICE OVER)

There were so many dead and dying that it was decided to lie by for the day. In the forenoon I was appointed to go round and collect the dead. . . thirteen corpses all stiffly frozen.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(TALKING HEAD: LONG)

There has been speculation that it wouldn’t have really been necessary for the handcart companies, for the Willie Company, to have gone on what amounts to a forced march. But if you put yourself in the shoes of the rescue group, the hardest part of the trip was yet ahead of them and that was crossing the Wasatch Mountains and one real good snowstorm would have closed those roads over the Wasatch. . . . So they needed to get down the trail and get over those mountains as quickly as possible.

(NARRATOR)

Meanwhile, the Martin Company had floundered after crossing the North Platte

(VOICE OVER)

Thursday 23rd October. We traveled 5 miles. For several days we have been weather bound in consequence of a heavy fall of snow.

Friday 24th. No traveling.

Saturday 25th No traveling. Our rations reduced to 8 oz of flour for adults and 4 oz for children.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

I was six or seven thousand miles from my native land, in a wild, rocky, mountain country, in a destitute condition, the ground covered with snow, the waters covered with ice, and I with three fatherless children with scarcely nothing to protect them from the merciless storms.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Ahead on the trail, the Willie Company began to move again towards the valley.

(VOICE OVER)

[Oct 25th] We commenced our march again. Nothing much of note transpired, except people died daily.

Levi Savage, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

The Martin Company was still trapped in the snow at Red Buttes, the wagon trains behind them.

(VOICE OVER)

Sunday 26th. No traveling

Monday 27th No traveling.

(NARRATOR)

While Captain Grant and the wagons waited at Devil’s Gate stockade, three express riders on fast horses and a pack mule were searching for the Martin Company.

(VOICE OVER)

We saw a white man’s shoe track in the road. Bro. Young called out, “Here they are.” We put our animals to the utmost speed and soon came in sight of the camp at Red Bluff.

Daniel W Jones, Rescue

(VOICE OVER)

Tuesday 28th of October. When they first made their appearance I do not think there was one in camp but shed tears of joy.

James Bleak, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

Many declared we were angels from heaven.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

The three walked through what seemed to be a frozen death camp. Word spread that wagons, food and supplies were only three days distance. With resignation, the half frozen, starving emigrants began again next morning.

(VOICE OVER)

A condition of distress here met my eyes that I never saw before or since.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(HEADING)

The three express scouts Joseph A. Young, Abel Garr and Daniel W. Jones began leading the suffering emigrants toward Devil’s Gate and the waiting rescue wagons.

(VOICE OVER) The train was strung out for three or four miles. There were old men pulling and tugging their carts, sometimes loaded with a sick wife or children --- women pulling along sick husbands ---little children six to eight years old struggling through the mud and snow. As night came the mud would freeze to their clothes and feet.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(TALKING HEAD:CARTER)

They are dying on a daily basis. We don’t know how many but people are dying everyday . . . as they struggle five, six, seven, ten miles a day trying to get to Devil’s Gate.

(VOICE OVER)

[Nov 1st]There was a foot or eighteen inches of snow on the ground. As there were but one or two spades in camp, the emigrants had to shovel [the snow] with their frying pans or tin plates before they could pitch their tents, and the ground was frozen so hard that it was almost impossible to drive the tent pegs into it.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

The snow lay several inches deep upon the ground.  The night was bitterly cold.  I sat down on a rock with one child in my lap and on each side of me.  In that condition I remained until morning.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Captain Grant and the main rescue party moved east and met the last handcart train at Greasewood Creek, a day’s ride from Devil’s gate. They dispensed supplies, inadequate for the numbers, but gratefully received.

(VOICEOVER)

You can imagine between 500 and 600 men, women and children, worn down by drawing handcarts through snow and mud, fainting by the wayside, falling chilled by the cold. We have prayed without ceasing and the blessing of God has been with us.

Capt. George D. Grant, Greasewood Creek

(NARRATOR)

The rescuers began again leading the Martin, Hunt, and Hodgett companies towards Devil’s Gate.

(VOICE OVER)

[November 2] We arrived at Devil’s Gate that night to camp in the snow which was deep and freezing. . . We found several big fires there and several log huts.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(VOICEOVER)

Every room, nook, and corner was taken. Wagons and tents were filled to their utmost capacity.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

Ahead on the trail, the Willie Company pushed on to the valley. They left all but a few of their handcarts at Fort Bridger.

(VOICE OVER)

[November 2nd] we found a great many teams [at Fort Bridger] that had come to our help. All our company rode. This day I also rode for the first time on our journey.

John Chislett, Willie Company

(NARRATOR)

The final days of the Willie company’s journey continued to be marked by death and cold.

(VOICE OVER)

Peter Madsen, from Copenhagen, aged 66 years, died during the day. A snow storm came on this evening.

Willie Company Journal

(NARRATOR)

In a letter to Brigham Young carried by two express riders, Captain Grant reported the last handcart and wagon companies had been found.

(NARRATOR)

November 3 the rescuers and leaders from the Martin, Hunt and Hodgett companies met to determine whether to winter at Devil’s Gate or try to reach the valley. With supplies insufficient, the leaders decided to press on to Salt Lake leaving many of the handcarts and the freight from the Hunt and Hodgett wagons as well.

(VOICE OVER)

A unanimous vote was taken that all. . . would be willing to do as they were instructed, even it if was required of them to leave all they had behind and be glad to get into the Valley with their lives, only.

Hunt Company Journal, Devil’s Gate

(VOICE OVER)

Our company is too small to help much, it is only a drop to a bucket . . . in comparison to what is needed. I think that not over one-third of Brother Martin’s company is able to walk. . . . We will move every day toward the valley, if we shovel snow to do it, the Lord helping us.

Captain George D. Grant, Devil’s Gate

(NARRATOR)

November 4th, the emigrants and rescuers began to move to a nearby cove for shelter. But first they had to cross the Sweetwater.

(TALKING HEAD: ORTON)

For many it was a frightening experience, the thought of going into the water. They recall vividly in their mind what had happened when they crossed the Platte about sixteen days earlier on the day of the storm that overtook the company. . . .. While there were little bits of ice on the Platte, now there were large chunks in the water.

(VOICE OVER)

The crossing of the Sweetwater at this point . . . was the worst river crossing of the expedition and the last. . . The ice was three or four inches thick. . . Before the crossing was completed, the shades of evening were closing around . . . the coldest hour of the twenty-four, or at least it seemed to be so.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: ORTON)

The river was only about two or three feet deep, it is only about thirty feet wide as far as the crow flies. But the ford that they had to take was substantially longer so they were in the water for a period of time greater than just 30 or 40 feet. For most they were able to do it on their own. . . . We know names of five and there may have been more that were there to help those who were having trouble getting across on their own, they would carry them across.

(VOICE OVER)

November 5th. . . Our ration of flour was reduced to 4 ounces and 2 ounces for children making one pound a day for the six of us.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Temperatures dropped by more than ten degrees below zero. For five days, they waited it out in a nearby cove. And they buried their dead.

(VOICE OVER)

It was so cold that some of the company came near freezing to death. The sufferings of the people were fearful, and nothing but the power of a merciful God kept them from perishing.

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

That same period, the Willie Company neared the end of the trail.

(VOICE OVER)

It snowed most of the day. The camping ground presented a most dismal appearance, as we rolled onto it. . .late at night. Willie Company Journal

(NARRATOR)

November 9, the Willie Company entered the valley receiving a somber reception. Settlers opened their homes and took in the members of this Fourth Handcart Company. The sun was shining.

(VOICE OVER)

Our toilsome journey . . . was hard to endure, but the Lord gave us strength and courage.

Susanna Stone, Willie Company

(HEADING)

FROM MARTIN’S RAVINE

(NARRATOR)

Back at Devil’s Gate, Daniel W. Jones and nineteen men were appointed to stay behind and guard the belongings unloaded from the Hunt and Hodgett wagon train. The wagons were now needed to help transport the Martin company.

(VOICE OVER)

There was not money enough on earth to have hired me to stay . . . but I remembered my assertion that any of us would stay if called upon. I could not back out.

Daniel W. Jones, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

Daniel W. Jones and his men stayed the winter, five months, living on very little, resorting to roasting rawhide to stay alive.

(VOICE OVER)

[Captain George D. Grant] wanted the twenty left [at Devil’s Gate] to sleep with one eye open and one leg out of bed for there were devils, mountaineers, and Indians round about here.

John Jaques, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

November 9 the weather broke and the desperate emigrants left the ravine and headed for the valley. The wagons carried the weak and ill; still most had to walk.

(VOICE OVER)

Nearly all the handcarts have been left behind.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

The great object now was to save as many of the people as possible.... It was a trying time that day leaving the ravine. One perplexing difficulty was to determine who should ride, for many must still walk. There was considerable crying of women and children, and perhaps a few of the men, whom the wagons could not accommodate with a ride.” John Jaques, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

November 10th just before sunset, seasoned trail rider, Ephraim Hanks riding one horse and leading another laden with buffalo meat rode toward the train.

(VOICE OVER)

The starved forms and haggard countenances of the poor sufferers, as they moved about slowly shivering with cold, to prepare their scanty evening meal was enough to touch the stoutest heart.

Ephraim Hanks, Rescue

(VOICE OVER)

There was no mitigation of the piercing wintry cold. John Jaques, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

Many of the immigrants whose extremities were frozen, lost their limbs .

Ephraim Hanks, Rescue

(NARRATOR)

November 12th at Three Crossings on the Sweetwater, four wagons loaded with flour and supplies met the Martin Company.

(VOICE OVER)

[November 14] No deaths in camp tonight.

Robert T. Burton, Rescue

(HEADING)

November 16

(NARRATOR)

November 16th ten more rescue wagons met the Martin Company at the top of Rocky Ridge.

(VOICE OVER)

November 17th. We shall travel by mule team to the valley, leaving the ox teams behind, and expect to travel between 20 to 25 miles a day.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(NARRATOR)

Now in wagons, the Martin Company reached the Bear River on November 25. Progress to the valley was rapid though deaths continued. At Big Mountain, a handful of the rescuers including Joseph A. Young, were keeping the road open by tramping down the waist deep snow with ox teams. Twenty foot drifts lined parts of the canyon road leading to the valley.

(NARRATOR)

November 30 as Sunday meetings concluded, 104 wagons carrying the members of the Martin Company rolled into Salt Lake City.

(VOICE OVER)

I do not want to see them put into houses by themselves. I want to have them distributed in the city among the families that have good and comfortable houses. Prayer is good but when baked potatoes and pudding and milk are needed prayer will not supply their place.

President Brigham Young, Salt Lake City

(VOICE OVER)

I felt to rejoice greatly and give praise to God for my safe arrival in Zion with my wife and children after a journey of 6 months and 1 week.

James G. Bleak, Martin Company

(TALKING HEAD: BASHORE)

I think the tally is somewhere around 69-70 deaths in the Willie company whereas the Martin Company possibly as many as three times that number.

(NARRATOR)

Relief teams carrying the Hunt and Hodgett companies straggled into the valley between December 11th and 15th. Their arrival concluded the ordeal for some twelve hundred emigrants.

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

There is no doubting that it was the worst tragedy in the history of the Oregon Trail

(TALKING HEAD: GUENTHER)

And this was part of a huge migration of people looking for freedom to believe and to worship as they chose. And in this particular case of these two wagon trains and handcart parties who so many of the members had to pay the ultimate price for that freedom.... You talk about battle fields being consecrated in blood. I think this is an example of the trail being consecrated in blood .

(TALKING HEAD: CHRISTY)

Their strength, their tenacity, their possession of great faith, enormous loyalty to their families. In a word, it was heroic.

(VOICE OVER)

How inadequate is language to depict or pen to write the soul stirring pleasure and gratitude to the All wise creator for our safe arrival home.

Harvey Cluff, Rescue

(VOICE OVER)

The winter setting in at least a month [early]. . . and the mistake of starting us a month too late . . .are the main causes of that calamity.

Josiah Rogerson, Martin Company

(VOICE OVER)

The journey with its great and incessant toils, its wearing hardships and wasting privations, was a hard and bitter experience, wholly unanticipated. . . . Whom do I blame for the misadventure? . . . I blame nobody. I have no doubt that those who had to do with the management meant well, and tried to do the best they could.

John Jaques, Martin Company

Epilogue (scroll)

Ten handcart companies traveled to Salt Lake from 1856 to 1860. Eight crossed the plains successfully; two, Willie and Martin, met with disaster. As many as two hundred emigrants were buried on the trail but more than one thousand lived --- to tell their story.

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