This Nov. 30 marks the 163rd anniversary of the arrival of the Martin handcart company in the Salt Lake Valley. While the struggles of the ill-fated company are well chronicled and the efforts to bring in the suffering travelers are well known, there are lingering lessons for 21st century society.
In October 1856, the handcart pioneers were stuck on the plains of what is now Wyoming. The company’s late start and limited provisions, combined with an early winter, created a perfect and deadly storm that stranded them in the cold and snow.
In Salt Lake City, Brigham Young stood to open a general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They had no tabernacle or conference center in which to meet, but the Latter-day Saints gathered, as they still do each October and April, to hear inspiring speeches and insightful sermons from leaders of the church.
President Young began the conference, not with a great oration, but by reading the report sent to Salt Lake by the leaders of the handcart groups. They described the horrible circumstances and plight of the pioneers on the plains:
“Between five and six hundred men, women, and children, worn by drawing handcarts through the snow and mud; fainting by the wayside; falling, chilled by the cold; children crying, their limbs stiffened by cold; their feet bleeding and some of them bare to snow and frost.”
President Young then called the people to action with this simple message: “Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts … and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them.”
He would not wait until the next day. He called for 40 young men, 65 teams of mules or horses and wagons loaded with 24,000 pounds of flour to leave immediately and rescue those stranded pioneers out in the wilderness of Wyoming.
“I will tell you all,” President Young said, “that your faith … and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you … unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching. ... Go and bring in those people now on the plains.”
The rescue party quickly assembled and set out to “bring in” the handcart pioneers.
The rescue party found the weak and weary travelers and provided them with needed nourishment, warm blankets, supplies and renewed courage to continue the journey. The survivors were then carried, some literally on the backs of their rescuers, to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. On Nov. 30, 1853, the beleaguered bunch of handcart pioneers arrived home at last. Yes, it actually was home. They were welcomed into a community in which none had been before but where each of the survivors felt they belonged.
It is easy to criticize the mistakes of that journey or bemoan the misfortune of the Martin handcart company, but that would only tell a portion of the story and ignore the lessons for today: Galvanized by a call to action, determined to rescue those in need, willing to act swiftly and committed to bringing struggling individuals into a community where they belonged turned a tragedy into a triumph over adversity and a became a testament to the power of a community to lift, help and save.
Today, there are many among of the residents of this region, right here in the self-same valley of the Great Salt Lake, who are still out on the plains of addiction, homelessness, depression, illness, poverty and despair. It is up to each willing soul to bring them in.