Pioneer Heritage

An important part of participating in this trek is having an understanding of the real people and their stories. To help everyone prepare for the trek, we need them to research some of these people, and chose one that they will honor as they participate. The following list of resources is a starting place for your research. By mid-March, we need every trek participant to have chosen “their” person. People can chose any member of the Martin and Willie handcart companies, the Hunt and Hodgett wagon companies, the rescue party , or if they chose, any Mormon pioneer with which they have a strong affinity.  You will be treking in honor of that pioneer and will have the opportunity to share their story at trek.

Here are a few useful websites:

http://handcart.byu.edu/

http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch

http://www.tellmystorytoo.com/

http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/handcart.htm

http://handcart-trek.org/stories.html

http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/handcartcompanies.html

http://www.historynet.com/martin-company-mormon-pioneers-used-handcarts-to-trek-to-salt-lake-city.htm/2

http://wiki.hanksplace.net/images/0/00/Pioneer_09-1-.pdf

http://www.thefurtrapper.com/martin_handcart.htm



Here are a few useful books:

Handcarts to Zion – by Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen

Tell my Story, Too – by Jolene Allpin

Sweetwater Rescue: The Willie and Martin Handcart Story - by Heidi Swinton and Lee Groberg

The Fire of the Covenant – by Gerald N. Lund. This is a well researched historical novel. Many of the events and people included actually happened. At the end of each chapter there are notes that discuss the non-fiction versus the fiction. Even without reading the novel, a search of the end notes will provide a lot of the real story and people.