On Oct. 5, 1857, Lot Smith and 43 members of the Utah Militia confronted and burned most of Supply Unit 10 of the Russell, Majors and Waddell supply wagon train traveling with a U.S. Army troop headed for the Utah Territory.
On Saturday, members of the LDS Church re-enacted the event, which Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said was part of "one of the great events in the West." President Hinckley dedicated markers memorializing the wagon train raid.The U.S. troops had been sent by President James Buchanan to quell a supposed rebellion among pioneer members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who, for 10 years, had built up a desert stronghold in the territory.
When the confrontation was over, the bullwhackers driving the 25 supply wagons had given up their arms. Their leader, Lewis Simpson, also handed over his firearm after a little persuasion by Lot Smith, who directed the Utah troops.
Simpson pleaded with Smith not to burn all the wagons (one of the supply train owners was his father-in-law), and Smith made a small concession. He allowed the men of the supply train to keep two wagons.
The 23 remaining wagons were burned after the Utah "soldiers" had taken valuable clothing and food for their own use. It was the second such attack by the Utah men in two days. On Oct. 4, 51 wagons had been burned a few miles from Simpson's Hollow.
The re-enactment Saturday in the Wyoming hollow that still bears Simpson's name was on a much smaller scale. Token smoke from two wagons didn't match the original blaze. And the commemoration took place too far from spectators for any appreciable detail, but it reconfirmed an exciting chapter in Utah and Wyoming history.
For several of the actors, the event had special meaning. About a half dozen direct descendants of Lot Smith were among the "raiders" who disarmed the token supply train drivers and then set fire to the symbolic wagons. Pink name cards identified many other Lot Smith descendants in the crowd that watched.
The depredations undertaken by the Utah men to hound and harrass Johnston's Army were "a very desperate move on the part of a desperate people," said President Hinckley.
At that time, the fledgling LDS Church had suffered at the hands of militias in Missouri and Illinois and had journeyed more than a thousand miles seeking peace to follow their religious beliefs. They were determined not to allow another government-sponsored military to stymie their resolve, he said.
"To me, it is a miracle that in all this confrontation during the years of 1857 and 1858, not a shot was fired by the Utah Militia (upon Johnston's Army,)" President Hinckley said. One Utah man was accidentally shot by Smith himself and suffered severe injuries, but there was never any exchange of gunfire by the opposing armies.
Brigham Young and other early Church leaders readied for Johnston's expected invasion by preparing to burn Salt Lake City to the ground, President Hinckley said. Ultimately, the "war" was averted when church leaders, aided significantly by Thomas L. Kane, a non-member friend, were able to convince government officials that no rebellion was brewing in Utah Territory.
"In my judgment, (the Utah War happenings) represent one of the great events of the West," said President Hinckley.
He dedicated markers memorializing the Simpson's Hollow story and commended Bureau of Land Management officials for outstanding cooperation in a project that is of interest both to the church and to the preservation of Western history.
Wyoming BLM Director Al Pierson returned the compliment, saying that cooperation between the land agency and local stakes of the LDS Church had been outstanding. Preserving the land and keeping it from being "loved to death" is everyone's responsibility, he said.
Rock Springs Wyoming Stake President Edward Eyring presented Thomas L. Kane Awards to two BLM employees, Mike Brown and Jude Corino, for their efforts to preserve the Mormon Trail.The award memorializes Kane, who offered significant service to the church in its early days, though he was not a member.
Adding a fillip of historical authenticity to the re-enactment was a lineup of wagons from the 1997 Sesquicentennial Mormon Trail Re-enactment. The wagons were outlined on the horizon at the top of the hill where the drama took place. At the close of the program, President Hinckley encouraged the crowd to wave them on to their night's camping spot on the Green River.
Sunday, a few of the wagons were to be ferried across the river in a symbolic commemoration of the many such river crossings made by the original pioneers.
President Hinckley commented on what progress the historic commemoration has made since he bade the train farewell near Omaha, Neb., in mid-April. The train is due to move into Utah next week and will arrive in Salt Lake City July 22.
In historical perspective, the constant harassment of Johnston's Army by Lot Smith and his men did much to fend off what could have been a disastrous confrontation, said Stanley Kimball, a history professor at Southern Illinois University.
Kimball is a noted authority on the Mormon Trail, a descendant of early Mormon leader Heber J. Kimball and author of many books on the topic. He was a consultant to retired Deseret News writer Hal Knight in "111 Days to Zion," a day-by-day account of the first pioneer train in 1847.
The marauders burned three wagon trains carrying $80,000 in supplies that would have been of significant value to the Army. The value in 1997 dollars would be about $4 million, Kimball said. The constant needling and spying carried on by the Utah Militia ultimately forced Johnston to winter in Wyoming and allowed time for church and government officials to resolve their differences.
As time would bear out, Johnston's troops also had their effect on Utah and its evolution, he said. His army, camped at what became Camp Floyd southwest of Salt Lake City, eventually became the single largest military unit in the United States. When it was called to participate in the Civil War, Utahns were able to purchase about $4 million in abandoned supplies for 2.5 cents on the dollar - a great boon to the growing territory and its communities.
Several thousand people gathered on the Wyoming hillside to hear speakers and watch the re-enactment, despite a blazing sun and total lack of shelter.
It took a couple of hours for law enforcement agencies to get hundreds of vehicles on their way down Wyoming 28 again, then the landscape reverted to its usual sage-pocked silence, where visitors in much smaller numbers will stop to read the historic markers telling the story of Simpson's Hollow.