LYMAN, Wyo. — The territory teetered between war and peace in this high mountain valley in 1857.
It was here that Fort Supply and Fort Bridger were burned, where Lot Smith's rangers skirmished in Simpson's Hollow with the advance army, and where Johnston's army arrived and spent the winter. In this valley, the diplomatic Col. Thomas L. Kane visited and helped preserve the peace.
Today, Bridger Valley is a scene of peace — pastoral, greened by irrigation; and Pioneer Day is harvest time for hay. A few miles away stands Fort Bridger where wintered the army of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, sent to put down a supposed insurrection among the Mormon settlers in the Great Basin. This army was harassed by the Mormon militia into stopping to winter on the 7,000-feet high plains, averting a war.
Historic moments here in other years saw fur trappers, pioneer wagon trains, and the struggles in 1898 of Mormon settlers and their descendants to prevail over the harsh climate.
Yet the appreciation of this history seemed to be slipping away from the present generation. As a result, under the direction of Lyman Wyoming Stake President F. Dana Eyre, Pioneer Day was celebrated July 24-25 with a look to the past. He directed the organization of a "Finding Fading Footprints" committee, with local historians Ron and Patty Michaeli as co-chairmen. About half the valley's 5,500 residents are LDS and an effort was made to include all the history, said Brother Michaeli.
On the 24th, Main Street of the town of 2,500 was lined with families to see the parade. Many came to family reunions held to coincide with the celebration. Parade-goers, including children with fists fat with candy, saw a parade partly based on an 1856 journal from the Church's Fort Supply, written by John Pulsipher that detailed an elaborate and enthusiastic celebration held July 24th of that year.
That all-day celebration of 1856 began at 6 a.m. with a bugle call, and a later procession, as described in the journal: "Rifle company in full mountain uniform, with banner; the martial band, with banner, 'The Serenade Band is Always Ready. . .' 24 young boys in white shirts and blue pants, red sashes and straw hats, with banner, 'Our Mountain Home.' Twenty-four ladies in white with blue sashes, wreathes of flowers and parasols, with banner, 'We Instruct Our Sisters of the Forest.' Twenty Four little girls in pink dresses, green sashes and straw hats, decked with native flowers with banner, 'Let Virtue Abound.' Chaplain and committee of arrangements with banner, 'Hear, O Israel.' "
This year's celebration was to capture a partial re-creation of the earlier celebration and its full enthusiasm. According to President Eyre, it did.
"(The celebration) has gone way beyond what we imagined," he said. "If it doesn't do anything more than what has already happened, it has been successful." He said many people had spiritual experiences as they researched roots of the past.
Preceding the celebration, stake families were given family home evening packets with lessons of the valley's history. After the parade came a barbecue (beef or buffalo, you choose) served in a city park at the end of town to an estimated 2,000 people. Later came a historical display and a rodeo. Capping off the celebration was a fireside July 25.
Of interest on July 24 were the historical displays, set up in the lobby of the high school, down the road about a half a mile out of town. Each ward in the stake was assigned to research some aspect of the valley's history and show their findings. Among the subjects were Camp Scott (where Johnston's army first located), Fort Bridger, Fort Supply, the Mormon Trail, the valley's half dozen ghost towns, and the Pony Express. At the displays were miniature models of Fort Supply, Fort Bridger and the valley, and demonstrations of such pioneer skills as spinning, cooking, soap making and blacksmithing. Photo and relic displays, a historic video, a pioneer-style accordion and fiddle band, also had the stuff to show.
"The enthusiasm created by this year's celebration has been wonderful," said Brother Michaeli.
Two on his committee were Joe and Cindy Hickey. Wearing chaps and a six-shooter, Brother Hickey explained that he is descended from Jack Robertson, the valley's first white settler. Robertson was a mountain man who arrived in 1829 with Kit Carson.
"I think this celebration is just as important for those whose families have been here a week as those who have been here 150 years," he said. "They still have that heritage."
One who knows that heritage personally is Marcelle Carter, 83, a native. Her father, George Bradshaw, made caskets for the community. Her mother, Rebecca, lined them. As a child, Marcelle often accompanied her parents as they sat up all night and prepared a body for burial. She recalled one untimely death in particular.
"I remember when my aunt, who was 16 years old at the time, was named prom queen. She died before she got to be queen. I remember seeing her in the coffin at home."
While members of the Lyman Wyoming Stake cannot change the footprints of the past, they have come to appreciate their heritage more. And they have learned that just finding the footprints helps keep them from fading, unappreciated, into the past.
E-mail to: jhart@desnews.com