Abstract
The chapter analyzes contemporary depictions of the 1856 handcart pioneer disaster, at Martin’s Cove and Sixth Crossing on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here, handcart emigrants suffered through autumn blizzards, and many died before rescue parties arrived from Utah. Today, these are pilgrimage sites for Latter-day Saints (LDS) tourists, including teenagers, who undertake handcart trek reenactments. The sacrifice of the handcart pioneers and the generosity of their rescuers are presented at the sites as model behavior for the LDS, especially young people in the Church. But this story of salvation depends on the suppression of a portion of the history, specifically the question of why the handcart pioneers set off so late in the season, when Church leaders knew that to do so was a mistake. This matter of responsibility is ignored, since the didactic emphasis on a renewable pattern of faithful conduct depends on a story of unequivocal virtue.
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Notes
- 1.
The cost was $13 per person versus $93 for a wagon. Sixth Crossing Visitors’ Center, Wyoming.
- 2.
Leroy Hafen and Ann Hafen, Handcarts to Zion (Glendale, CA: Arthur Clark, 1960), 193.
- 3.
Will Bagley, “‘One Long Funeral March’: A Revisionist’s View of the Mormon Handcart Disasters,” The Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 1 (2009): 109.
- 4.
Tom Rea, Devil’s Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 254.
- 5.
“Senior missionaries” refers to those over forty. Male missionaries use the title “Elder,” females “Sister.” These titles are used in conjunction with a last name only—thus, “Elder Bond” or “Sister Baker.” In this chapter, the names of the missionaries at the Mormon Trail sites have been changed to protect their privacy.
- 6.
Kenneth Foote, Shadowed Ground (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997), 7.
- 7.
John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, Dark Tourism (London: Continuum, 2000), 12.
- 8.
Foote, 257.
- 9.
“Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders,” the website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lds.org.
- 10.
Wallace Stegner, The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 251.
- 11.
Jason Swenson, “Sixth Crossing Visitors’ Center Dedicated as Tribute to Tenacious Pioneers, Selfless Rescuers,” the website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, June 19, 2017.
- 12.
Stegner, The Gathering of Zion, 222.
- 13.
“Handcart Companies,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1992.
- 14.
Carrie Moore, “Historians Fault Leaders in LDS Handcart Tragedy,” Deseret News, May 27, 2006.
- 15.
Rea, 93.
- 16.
David Roberts, Devil’s Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 285.
- 17.
Roberts, 286–287.
- 18.
Bagley, 81.
- 19.
Ibid., 54–58.
- 20.
Rea, 92.
- 21.
Roberts, 156.
- 22.
Mormon Handcart Visitors’ Center at Martin’s Cove.
- 23.
“Handcart Trek Reenactments,” lds.org.
- 24.
Mormon Handcart Visitors’ Center, Wyoming.
- 25.
Nate Oman, “Levi Savage and Obedience to Church Authorities,” Times and Seasons (weblog), October 28, 2006.
- 26.
Stegner, The Gathering of Zion, 243.
- 27.
Sturken, 8.
- 28.
Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country (New York: Duell, Sloane & Pearce, 1942), 80.
- 29.
“Handcart Trek Reenactments,” lds.org.
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Nichols, C. (2020). Reenacting the Handcart Debacle: The Work of Rescue at Martin’s Cove on the Mormon Trail. In: Dawes, J. (eds) Dark Tourism in the American West. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21190-5_7
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