Ted Parkinson expresses doubts over the use of the term "re-enactment" when referring to the Sesquicentennial Wagon Train now wending its way from Omaha to the Salt Lake Valley (Readers' Forum, July 1). He feels that the experience of the modern trekkers doesn't duplicate the struggles of the original pioneers, so to call the Sesquicentennial Train a re-enactment is "really not very true."
The 1997 wagon train cannot be nor does it attempt to be an exact duplication of the 1847 pioneer experience. It is, however, in every way a worthy enactment, a commemoration, an act of devotion, a representation as close to the original pioneer trek as possible in today's society.Certainly the Sesquicentennial Wagon Train is closer to the spirit and experience of the 1847 pioneers than the centennial version of 1947, when participants dressed their automobiles as wagons and drove them from Omaha to Salt Lake City.
Organizers have spent years negotiating with federal, state and local government agencies, as well as private landowners, in plotting the course of the train, and the negotiations continue almost daily even as the train proceeds.
Does Mr. Parkinson seriously believe that these entities would allow modern participants to hunt and forage as the original pioneers did on what was then essentially open territory?
If potable water and sanitary food were not available to the sesquicentennial trekkers, lawyers would swarm as thick as the mosquitoes on the high plains of Wyoming. Would Mr. Parkinson really measure the greatness of the efforts and sacrifice exhibited by the modern train participants only in the numbers of their sick and dead?
The modern version of the pioneer trek is not a walk in the park and is not without struggle and danger, as the occasional mishaps and injuries have demonstrated. I saw the tears of walkers who traveled 25 miles a day on blistered feet. I saw acts of heroism and kindness on the trail. Overshad-owing the minor examples of human frailty is an abiding spirit of love and devotion, a sense of mission, bestowed in large measure by apostolic blessing upon the train and its participants.
I invite Mr. Parkinson to catch the spirit of the Sesquicentennial Wagon Train. It is uplifting and exhilarating.
Fred Graham
Salt Lake City