This year marks the 150th anniversary of the 1856 rescue of the Martin and Willie pioneer handcart companies on the plains of Wyoming.
Ephraim Knowlton Hanks, traveling alone on his horse and leading a pack mule across Wyoming through the winter storms, brought food and hope to the two stranded companies. To the Martin company, especially, he was a godsend. Many had died of hunger and exposure, and the group was near the end of its food supply.
Hanks brought them buffalo meat and also tended to the sick, many of whom had frozen hands and feet.
He had been a member of the Mormon Battalion and made the march from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to San Diego. Later he rode the Pony Express, crossing the plains more than 50 times. He helped settle communities in Utah and is among the first to discover the Park City mines.
Hanks' numerous descendants will honor him in a family gathering on July 24 in Sandy. The reunion will be at 1 p.m. in the Willow Creek Stake Center and pavilion, 2350 E. Creek Road. Participants must take their own lunch. A reunion meeting will take place at 2 p.m.
For information on the Hanks family and its genealogy, go to www.hanksplace.net, or call J. Philip Hanks, 801-943-8758 or e-mail Dan Hanks at dhanks@hanksplace.net.