A Sweetwater River Crossing

On November 4, 1856 members of the Martin Handcart Company left their camp at Fort Seminoe near Devil's Gate. The weather that day, was initially unfavorable for travel, “for a bitter wind howled down upon the pioneers, keeping the wind-chill factor well below zero”. When the wind moderated somewhat in the late morning hours, the rescuers were determined to take advantage of this opportunity and move the Martin Handcart Company into a ravine where the relief party had previously camped. Handcart pioneer Josiah Rogerson,  who was a youth during the journey,  wrote that the “Martin’s hand[cart] company left the camp at Devil’s Gate some time in the forenoon, making straight west to the Sweetwater.” Harvey Cluff, one of the rescuers, noted: “Northern blizzards prevailed, the thermometer showing ten to twenty degrees below zero, making it utterly impossible to proceed homeward; finally a lull in the raging wind from the north enabled the handcart companies to cross the river and go up to the cove.”

The handcart company traveled approximately two miles before reaching the Sweetwater River, but after sixteen days of exposure to snow, wind and cold, the company was not up to the challenge of crossing the river. The thought of fording the relatively shallow but freezing river was more than many of the weak and frozen pioneers could bear.  Although the Sweetwater River was only thirty to forty feet wide, where the Martin Company would have crossed, they were not able to go directly across as the ford of the river necessitated a diagonal crossing. The company entered at a low spot in the bank, angled across to another low spot, then exited. Josiah Rogerson recalled: “The creek here was at least two rods wide, and from two to three feet deep, with plenty of ice and snow, so as to carve the recollection forever in the minds of all that waded that stream.”

This emigrant and his wife, however, were spared the additional trial of having to wade the ice-filled river. Members of a relief party sent from the Salt Lake Valley by Brigham Young had arrived a few days earlier and were at the river crossing to assist the Martin Handcart Company.  “I am told”, John Jaques wrote twenty-three years later, “that the ‘boys’ who waded the Sweetwater and carried the women and children across were D. P. Kimball, George W. Grant, Stephen W. Taylor, and C. A. Huntington”.  Kimball, Grant, Taylor, and Huntington, however, were not the only members of the relief party assisting the Martin Company that day. They were only four of a group of approximately twenty-seven rescuers.  All these young men carried many of these pioneers on their backs, breaking the thin ice of the frozen river before them, as they waded from shore to shore.   William Binder recalled that several rescuers “laboured dillligently for hours” helping emigrants across the river. Patience Loader reported that “Br Kimble staied so long in the water that he had to be taken out and packed to camp and he was a long time before he recovered as he was a child." The cove provided some protection from the winter elements by its surrounding rock wall and by a large, brush-covered sand hill.

As a Modern Day Trek Begins

Press On!

Peggy crossing the Sweetwater River

One hundred and sixty-one years later on November 4, 2017 a group of 141 trekkers and missionaries met at the reconstructed Fort Seminoe camp near Devil's Gate to reenact the Sweetwater River crossing.  On this date the weather was not as brutal as it was in 1856.  There was no snow on the ground and the temperature was a cool 35-40 degrees. The wind, however, was howling at 20 mph, gusting upwards to 30 mph. We left the Fort Seminoe at 10:00am pulling handcarts westward for about two miles before reaching the Sweetwater River. We found the river to be 2-3 feet deep, 30 feet wide and totally void of ice. This modern-day handcart company was made up of both the young and the old, but fortunately there was no infants in the group.  None-the-less, everyone displayed reluctance on entering the 40 degree water.  Soon, a few brave individuals plunged into the flowing water, with others quickly following behind after taking deep breaths and letting out low yelps. 

Jay crossing the Sweetwater River

Jay sharing his thoughts at the Rescue Statues

Pushing on down the trail we soon arrived at the statues dedicated to those four named young men who so valiantly carried the beleaguered pioneers across the river those many years ago. Words were said honoring both the rescuers and the emigrants before pushed on to handcart parking and a nutritious lunch, which included cookies and hot chocolate.  We then silently and reverently walked up into Martin's Cove.  There we reflected on those in the Martin Handcart Company.  We recognized where we stood was sacred, hallowed ground made so by the obedience, sacrifice, faith, and charity of these wonderful pioneers.  Speaking of these pioneers, President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "The memories of our forebears are deeply and indelibly etched, and this ground must forever hold for us a feeling of great sanctity, a spiritual feeling if you please." Continuing his remarks President Hinckley noted, "We hope that a spirit of peace and reverence and sacred remembrance will hover over this whole area as a beneficent cloud on a hot summer day, and that those who here perished will not have died in vain... We remember all who traveled this way and suffered so much. Their pain was immeasurable. Hundreds died and were buried along this trail of tears. Their rescue was nothing short of heroic... Their measure of sacrifice was greater than any of us can understand. Those who walked this way long ago came to know the sacrifices of [God's] Son in a unique and wonderful way,"

True to President Hinckley's words, we who came to reenact the Sweetwater River crossing left with “a spirit of peace and reverence and sacred remembrance”, plus a surer knowledge that Jesus Christ is our ultimate rescuer.

This Water is Freeeezing!

Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers, 

Jay and Peggy