IOWA CITY, Iowa — This historic staging ground for the handcart companies of Latter-day Saint immigrants to Zion in the years of 1856-60 has been reveling recently in its Church history and heritage with the third annual Mormon Trek Heritage Festival and the concomitant organization of the first stake in Iowa City.
The festival occurred June 9 at the Hawkeye Intramural Fields adjacent to the University of Iowa's Mormon Handcart Park just off Mormon Trek Boulevard and Hawkeye Park Road.
"We had about 600 people in attendance, probably 30-40 percent of whom were not members of the Church," said Kenneth Richardson, president of the Mormon Trek Heritage Society of Iowa City.
"The live entertainment was a big hit, with two local [non-LDS] groups, the Drollingers and Al and Aleta Murphy, playing bluegrass and gospel-style music to give a pioneer atmosphere. In addition, the Pitts Brass Band from Nauvoo, Ill., (about eight senior missionaries) entertained us with hymns and secular 1840s music, along with readings and dramatizations, "and even a juggling and magic act for the children in the audience."
The original William Pitts Brass Band was made up of Church members who lived in Nauvoo during its heyday and who entertained townspeople during the Iowa portion of the pioneers' trek to the Salt Lake Valley. Modern-day recreations of this band — including the one formed by the Nauvoo missionaries — pay homage to this earlier ensemble, which cheered the Latter-day Saints while on their trek.
Brother Richardson added that the missionaries from Nauvoo brought five replica handcarts "to go with the two we already have. They [the two] were made as Eagle Scout projects back in 1996 and taken on portions of the sesquicentennial Mormon Trail wagon train re-enactment across Iowa that year by two young men named Ben Hartley and Jared Rowell."
Children were placed in the handcarts as they were pulled through a patch of Iowa prairie at the Handcart Park, Brother Richardson said. Festival-goers would pull the carts from one sign to the next, 11 in all, designating individual landmark locations between Iowa City and Salt Lake City. "Did-you-know?" placards were placed on the signs, indicating such notable facts as "the handcart pioneers left from Clear Creek in Johnson County because Iowa City was the western end of the railroad in 1856 and 1857," and "Iowa City was still the capital of Iowa at this time." Another sign indicated that each person was allowed 17 pounds of personal luggage for the cart, including clothing, bedding, cooking utensils and some food.
Other activities at the festival were "pioneer pastimes" such as pushing iron hoops with sticks, stick-pulling contests and wooden toys. One attraction featured 15 pioneer crafts for children to engage in, such as making cloth dolls, wooden stick dolls, yarn dolls, cloth hearts and woven napkins, bonnets, boys' vests and tin-can toys.
"In addition, we had displays and handouts giving factual information about the handcart companies, their captains, how many people, the date they left, how many handcarts, how many deaths, etc," Brother Richardson said. "We had lots of journal entries from the handcart pioneers and local newspaper accounts of the day. Also, descriptions of the Martin and Willie companies and the tragedies they experienced."
Brother Richardson said the cities of Iowa City and Coralville each declared Saturday, June 9, as "Mormon Pioneer Day." The original handcart pioneer campsite covered land now in both cities. June 9 is the anniversary of the first company's departure from Iowa City, and the festival is expected to be held on or near that date hereafter.
A fitting cap to the day's activities was the reorganization on Sunday, June 10, of the first stake in Iowa City. It was formed from four existing stakes and will be part of the new Nauvoo Illinois Temple District when that structure is completed next year, Brother Richardson said. Biographical information about the stake presidency will be in an upcoming edition of the Church News, along with other new stake presidency information.
The Iowa City Mormon Handcart Park was created in the 1970s by the University of Iowa. The site of a Mormon pioneer campsite and burial ground, it has several monuments describing the history. It is jointly maintained by the Church and the university. The Mormon Trek Heritage Society of Iowa City seeks to preserve the history and heritage of the handcart pioneers who departed from Johnson County in the 1850s. It is a non-profit organization not directly affiliated with the Church.
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com