What is expected to be the largest number of handcarts gathered in the Salt Lake Valley since the 1800s will be drawn in a trek into downtown Salt Lake City on Sept. 26 in a historic re-enactment on the 150th anniversary of the entrance of the first handcart trains into the valley.
The 100 handcarts and 500 walkers will proceed from This Is The Place Heritage Park to the Church's Conference Center plaza area, said Rob Race of the Sugar House Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, which is organizing the event.
Everyone is invited to come participate without charge, said Brother Race, who hopes that spectators will feel free to be dressed in pioneer-style clothing as they line the streets of the route to cheer on the handcart pullers and walkers.
The handcarts will depart at 9:30 a.m. from the park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon where, in 1847, President Brigham Young with the first group of Mormon pioneers gazed at the valley and pronounced the words, "This is the right place; drive on," thus beginning the pioneer movement to the Mountain West. The movement would last until the coming of the railroad in 1869 and would include 10 handcart companies from 1856 to 1860.
Brother Race said participants can register at the park at 9 a.m., or they can join the trek about 11 a.m. at the Salt Lake 10th Ward meetinghouse, at 400 South and 800 East. An actor depicting Brigham Young will greet the handcart walkers at both locations, and entertainment will include choir and brass band music.
From the 10th Ward building, the train will proceed to State Street and go north to the Eagle Gate, where "Brigham Young" will come out of the Beehive House to again rally the participants. The train will proceed around Temple Square and end at the Conference Center, where Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, Church Historian and Recorder, will address the gathering, Brother Race said.
For details about the event and registration information, contact Brother Race at wagontrainwalker@netzero.net.
This will be the latest event in a yearlong observance of the sesquicentennial of the departure of the first handcart trains. An observance in June in Iowa City, Iowa, the first outfitting point for the handcart pioneers, featured President Gordon B. Hinckley in a Churchwide satellite telecast from the University of Iowa (Church News, June 17, 2006, p. 4).
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com