Hand Cart Trek Experience for Modern Pioneers

Youth from all over the world participate in authentic Pioneer Handcart Treks sponsored by  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). These annual events are typically  open to all youth aged 14 to 18, and are designed to provide a growing experience for all who participate. Most handcart treks involve dressing in Pioneer style clothing, eating food prepared and cooked the old fashioned way, and sleeping under the stars along the trail.   These events provide an opportunity for the youth to experience a small taste of pioneer life as they work hard to cook meals, push handcarts and build fires without modern day conveniences.

Each day on the trail, trekkers rise early and  face a new set of trials and situations.  They encounter huge hills, sandy trails, river crossings,   and all kinds of terrain.  When trek families and not busy pulling handcarts, they also take time along the trail to play pioneer  games, shoot at targets with muzzle loaders, bows and hatchets.

The journey can be long a difficult when pulling heavy handcarts, especially when the men are called away and enlisted by the Mormon Battalion to help fight the war with Mexico, leaving the women, to pull their heavy handcarts alone.

Goals of Pioneer Handcart Treks usually include: inviting the spirit, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, increasing personal testimonies, and building on the love and unity among youth  within Stakes.

If you would like more information on how to plan a successful Trek and do it all under budget, please submit the form below and we will email you with a complete trek planning kit for FREE....

How to Plan & Carry Out A Highly Successful Pioneer Handcart Trek Under Budget

First Name:  Last Name:  Email Address Where We May Send Your Requested Info:  required** City & State:  Your Stake:  Date of Your Trek: Location of Your Trek Approximate # of Trekkers (Best Guess) Are You In Need Of Handcarts? Has Your Stake Been On A Trek Before? If Yes... Where? Would You Like to Receive Any Of The Following Resources for Free?.... Trek 1st Aid Training CD/MP3 Trek Food Prep Training Video Trek Meal Planning/Menus & Recipes Sample Trekkers Journal Activity Ideas Ma/Pa Training Manual Sample Trek Registration Forms Sample Trek Itinerary Sample Budget Sample Trek Committee Organization Misc Other Training Material Free Copy of Actual Trek DVD Fireside Planning Info Are You Looking For Handcart Rentals? Please Note:   We must have your email address in order to email the trek planning kit or any requested info, because we send it via email.  If you don't give us your email address, there is no way we can send you the info.    Every single request we receive is read by our own eyes, and not a 'robot autoresponder.'    We respect your privacy and the info you provide, including your email address will never be shared. 

"...and, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which is the greatest of all gifts of god....", d&c 14:7.

This site is not an official Church website and should be used only as a resource for Trek preparation and information.

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Handcart Trekking

From Commemorative Reenactment to Modern Phenomenon

From an early date, Mormons have remembered and celebrated their history with jubilees, commemorative celebrations, pageants, markers, and reenactments. Only two years after the first Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, several thousand Church members celebrated the event with the first Mormon Pioneer Day on July 24, 1849. There was a procession, speeches, songs, prayers, and a bounteous feast reminiscent of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving. 1 By the second half of the nineteenth century, the Pioneer Day celebration had been firmly established throughout the Mormon corridor.

Why do we, as Mormons, memorialize our history so much? Why are we so interested in pageants and reenactments? Why do we choose to remember our past in these different ways? While these celebrations are interesting to examine intrinsically, they also reveal as much about the participants as they do the events and histories being memorialized.

This article reviews the history of handcarts in reenactments, both as part of Pioneer Day activities and the recent growth of treks as multi-day youth activities, as a step toward understanding what handcart history means to Mormonism. Historical reenactments in general can be traced as far back as the early Roman period and the Middle Ages, 2 and the modern popularity of reenactments is widespread. Living history demonstrations, mountain man rendezvous, and Civil War reenactments are just parts of this modern phenomenon. Handcart treks are a modern Mormon equivalent of these reenactments.

In his study of the nineteenth-century Pioneer Day observance, Steve Olsen observes that “community celebrations provide one of the most insightful and concise windows into the soul of a people.” 3 His observations, though centered on the role of Pioneer Day, also apply to handcart treks and what they reveal about the Mormon identity. First, handcart treks show how Mormons feel “about themselves as a religious and social group.” 4 Many trek participants have written about their experiences in online blogs. Kristen Duke, living in Austin, Texas, for example, wrote about her experience on a trek undertaken in central Texas in 2015. She is a descendant of Rebecca Burdick Winters, an 1852 pioneer who died of cholera while trekking across the plains and whose grave was marked with an engraved wagon wheel in Nebraska. All participants were asked to walk in memory of an ancestor or pioneer, and Kristen dedicated her trek journey to Rebecca. Recognizing her story might be read by those not of her faith and uninformed about its history, she explained that modern handcart treks harked back to the Mormon pioneers, who traveled across the country to escape persecution and settle in a place where they could worship freely. She said, “We tried to put ourselves in their places as much as possible. To remember how they suffered so much for their faith, but still experienced joy in the journey.” 5

Steve Olsen’s second observation is that Pioneer Day (and, correspondingly, handcart treks) “reinforced the nature and meaning of Mormon social organization and cohesion.” 6 Handcart treks are organized similarly to the old pioneer companies’ structure, with captains, assistants, commissaries, etc. The young people are organized into small family groups with married couples, called “Ma’s” and “Pa’s,” taking the lead. 7 And Olsen’s final observation is that pioneer commemorations help “create and preserve a strong consciousness of the Mormon past.” 8 Marco Dal Zotto, the leader of a 2011 Mormon handcart trek in Milan, Italy, said, “In the end, our young people developed a lot of respect for early Mormon pioneers and for the things that they went through.” 9

Each year, thousands of youth participate in organized Mormon handcart treks around the world. In Wyoming in 2010, over fourteen thousand trekkers participated in 183 treks, conducted at the historic trail sites Martin’s Cove, Sixth Crossing, and Rock Creek Hollow. 10 Thousands of others have participated in treks at Church-owned farm and ranch properties located in Utah, Washington, Florida, California, Oklahoma, and Argentina. 11 Although handcart treks are not a required activity in the Church’s youth program, treks have been organized in such far-flung locales as Taiwan, Alaska, and Chile. In 2015, in response to the growing number of treks around the world, the Church issued a thirty-two-page handbook to help wards and stakes conduct successful, safe handcart trek reenactments. 12 Who could have foreseen the phenomenal popularity of handcart treks today?

The Earliest Pioneer Day Reenactments: Wagons and Handcarts

In Mormon history, the fascination with handcarts as a two-wheeled moving van to transport one’s possessions extends back to as early as the Saints’ exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1846, one woman, who was part of a non-Mormon, California-bound company that passed the Mormon outcasts moving west, noted with amazement that some were pushing their loads in wheelbarrows: “This is an actual fact,” she wrote, “some trundled wheelbarrows before them, containing all of their worldly possessions.” 13 When Mormons first started using handcarts to cross the plains in 1856, the carts attracted attention and interest. “It was certainly the most novel and interesting sight I have seen for many a day,” reported an observer in the Nashville Daily News. 14

While the handcarts were an attraction for many because of their novelty, for Mormons the carts were infused with conflicting emotions. During Brigham Young’s lifetime, there was a reluctance to speak freely about the handcarts because so many handcart travelers had died along the way. 15 Even before the last handcart and wagon companies had reached the Salt Lake Valley in 1856, Brigham Young lashed out at those who blamed him for the poor management of that season’s emigration. At the Sabbath meeting in the Old Tabernacle on November 2, 1856, Heber C. Kimball said, “There is a spirit of murmuring among the people, and the fault is laid upon br. Brigham.” 16 In that same meeting, Brigham Young spoke frankly on who he thought shouldered blame for the disaster. “There is not the least shadow of reason for casting such censure upon me,” he said. “I never thought of my being accused of advising or having any thing to do with so late a start.” He severely reprimanded Franklin D. Richards and Daniel Spencer for not holding the late companies back. “If, while at the Missouri river, they had received a hint from any person on this earth, or if even a bird had chirped it in the ears of brs. Richards and Spencer,” scolded Brigham Young, “[they] would have stopped those men, women and children there until another year.” 17

President Young was deeply hurt that some were blaming him for the deaths of so many. Perhaps because of this, people avoided speaking or writing about the 1856 handcart tragedy until after Brigham Young’s death. Apparently, the only person who wrote anything about the handcart tragedy before Brigham Young’s death was John Chislett. He had been a subcaptain in the Willie handcart company but apostatized from the Church about 1864. His account of the handcart journey was published in 1873 in T. B. H. Stenhouse’s anti-Mormon book, The Rocky Mountain Saints. 18 The memory of the late-season disaster in 1856 was too fresh and too suffused with thoughts that the human suffering may have been brought on by mismanagement and poor judgment. But sentiments about the handcarts evolved with the passage of time. After Brigham Young died, people began to talk and write more openly about their experiences traveling in handcart companies. The accomplishments they achieved in their hard journey began to be admired and, in time, celebrated. Handcart pioneers began to be singled out and honored in parades and community celebrations.

By the time of the 1897 Pioneer Jubilee, the public sensed more than ever before that they were fast losing the pioneer generation, their human touchstone to the great overland migration and to the settlement of Utah. Although the celebration focused on the surviving pioneers from 1847, the later handcart companies of the pioneer story were also recognized in the festivities. J. T. Harwood designed an enameled steel souvenir cup for the event that featured a handcart train along the rim’s border and other iconic emblems such as the state flower and the beehive. 19 One of the highlights of the four-day celebration was a wagon train reenactment of the 1847 pioneer entrance into the valley out of Emigration Canyon. In the parade that passed through Salt Lake City, a “hand-cart brigade” was included in the line of march behind Utah’s first stagecoach (figs. 1, 2). 20

A few decades later, after the turn of the century, the Handcart Veterans Association and the Daughters of Utah Handcart Pioneers were organized. 21 Trekking the Mormon Trail on foot was a popular LDS Boy Scout activity from just before World War I into the 1950s. 22 Confined principally to troops along the Wasatch Front, the treks would generally involve hiking, biking, or even snowshoeing the last thirty-six miles of the Mormon Trail, from Henefer, Utah, over Big and Little Mountains, and down through Emigration Canyon. While photos from the Church History Library (figs. 3–7) show pioneer and handcart reenactments by adults and children circa 1900 to 1925, my research turned up no commentary about these events or activities. Figure 7 shows a family reenacting the handcart trek of their ancestor Archer Walters; the sign on the wagon reads, “Handcart Pioneers 1856–60, Family of Archer Walters, As they left Iowa June 7th, 1856, Children Walked 1200 Miles.”

In 1947, an auto-tour trek was one of the highly publicized events of Utah’s Pioneer Centennial Celebration. In this one-hundredth anniversary reenactment of the pioneer trek, 148 people in 72 automobiles caravanned from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City. They drew national attention as they replicated the pioneer trek in cars affixed with canvas tops to look like covered wagons. 23

Handcarts in Reenactments, 1960s and 1970s

In 1966, seventy-two Boy Scouts from Phoenix, Arizona, made carts and brought them to Utah to reenact a handcart trek on the last thirty-six miles of the original Mormon trail, from Henefer to Salt Lake City (figs. 8–12). Their adventure had been in planning and preparation for a year. Wayne Green, the stake Young Men’s president, came up with the idea for the outing. He said, “It just sounded like an adventuresome, fun thing to do and at the same time, the opportunity to teach a little church history.” 24 They transported eleven homemade carts and traveled by bus and car from Arizona. Their carts used fifty-four-inch metal wheels scavenged from old hay wagons. It took two days to drive from Arizona to Henefer. Andrew McInnes drove a two-seated pickup truck, carrying five boys and some handcarts. He kept a journal of the trip and handcart trek. 25 After stopping to camp that night in Zion National Park, they reached Henefer the next day, Sunday, at 6:00 pm and drove from there to East Canyon Reservoir, where they camped.

After breakfast the next morning, they broke camp and returned to Henefer. They signed their names in a logbook at a small log house before setting out to start pushing their carts. They were able to travel in old trail ruts for a short distance but had to move onto the highway because the old trail was so badly washed out. Their first camp was in a large meadow just east of the East Canyon Reservoir. The next day’s trek took them south up East Canyon to Little Emigration Canyon, where they had to clear a path to enable the carts to get through on the way up to Big Mountain. “Going is rough, axmen ahead of carts cutting trees, and removing brush,” wrote McInnes, “also removing large rocks from the trail.” McInnes wrote, “We were told we are the first handcart co. to pass this way since the Saints passed this way so long ago!” 26 That expression indicates the sense of history they were experiencing.

David Koutz, a fifteen-year-old scout from the Phoenix Nineteenth Ward, served as scribe for the group. Going up Big Mountain taxed their carts. “One axle broke and had to be left until we could fix it,” the young scribe wrote. “Another axle bent and had to be straightened. One wheel went flat when it landed on a rock . . . and at evening camp we heated it and pounded it out.” 27 They used aspen branches to make a very hot fire. “When the coals were red hot,” wrote McInnes, “we placed the damaged wheel in the coals and when the metal was just right, we straightened the wheel with a single bit ax, and then tempered it with cold water.”

They had to lower their carts with chains and ropes much of the way down the steep western slope of Big Mountain, not unlike the handcart pioneers in the 1850s. “The going [is] extremely rough,” McInnes wrote. “We had to cut our way through a thorn thicket, one cart tipped over . . . the footing very bad to say the least.” 28

That night they held a testimony meeting in their camp at the place marked as the Last Creek Camp, the same place where the main group of Brigham Young’s Vanguard Company had camped on July 21, 1847. “How I wish all of the loved ones of these young men and their leaders could have heard the beautiful, humble testimonies given this night,” wished McInnes. 29

Although footsore and tired, they set off early the next morning, finishing the final five-mile leg, all downhill, on a paved road. As they exited Emigration Canyon, they saw the This Is the Place Monument. “Monument in sight,” McInnes wrote, “we can see the reception party from SLC. TV cameras as we push to meet them.” They enjoyed a big party in Salt Lake City that night, all the trekkers receiving pins upon which was written, “I have walked the Pioneer Trail.” 30

Two years later, forty-four teenage LDS girls in the Campcrafter program from East Long Beach Stake in California traveled by bus to take a handcart trek over the same stretch of trail taken by the young men from Phoenix. The handcarts they brought, made by one of the men in the stake, were disassembled for the trip and reassembled in Utah. Each of the girls made her own pioneer clothing and soap and baked bread over a campfire. Some of the girls even made their own sleeping bags out of water-repellant nylon with Dacron filler. They had to fulfill numerous requirements beforehand: earn a physical fitness award, hike twenty-five miles, complete a one-mile run, pass a written exam on handcart history, and write two book reports. Apostle Mark E. Petersen and ­Seventy S. Dilworth Young visited their camp on a Sunday rest stop. 31

I interviewed three people who participated in that trek over forty years ago—two leaders and the camp scribe. Marlene Bellamy, a public school P. E. teacher, was the energetic stake leader who got the idea for the trek after reading about the last forty miles of the original trail leading to the valley in a small booklet. She thought, “Well, gee, why can’t girls do this?” 32 She had not heard about the feat of the Arizona scouts two years before. Elaine Moniz Peters, the camp historian, wrote, “We left Long Beach by Greyhound bus with forty girls from our Campcrafter Program, ages twelve to eighteen, six handcarts, two fathers and three Camp Directors and a Unit Leader per handcart. We arrived in Henefer where the weather on our first day was 104 degrees.” 33 Thelma Tolhurst, a nurse, was tasked with making sure the girls were in good health and fit to do the activity. The girls fared well on the trek, no more than minor blisters and sunburns spoiling their fun. “They were elated and proud of themselves,” Tolhurst remembered. 34 One of the fun memories happened near the end of the journey as the group neared the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Bellamy recalled, “These college guys went by in a convertible and screamed at us, ‘Hey! You’re too late. They’ve already settled the Valley.’” 35

It was almost another ten years before the next handcart trek on the old pioneer trail was held. In 1976, 107 young men and women in the Salt Lake Emigration Stake pulled carts for three days over the Mormon Trail from Henefer to Salt Lake. Girls sewed their pioneer dresses, and both boys and girls made dried fruit that they packed for trail lunches. They were organized into ten companies with ten young people and an appointed youth captain in each company. Enid Greene, who later served in the US House of Representatives, was a teenager on that trek. She learned lessons in teamwork. “We’ve had some hard times getting places, but we’ve helped each other,” she said. “We’ve also discovered a few of our limitations.” 36 At the camp spots, they enjoyed a variety of entertainment. The first night, three mountain men regaled them with stories of life in the wilderness. They let some of the youth shoot their muzzle-loading rifles. On the second night, James Arrington, arriving in a buckboard, performed his one-man show Here’s Brother Brigham. At the final camp, the youth engaged in a square dance followed by a testimony meeting. While the evenings were filled with fun and entertainment, during the day the youth were challenged by the hard work of pulling heavily laden carts. Teenager John Stevens had reason to think about his handcart pioneer ancestors. “I pulled that handcart and thought, ‘Wow! This is hard work. . . .’ I pulled it for only one hour and was exhausted,” he said. “My great-grandmother pulled one for three months.” 37 It was these kinds of hard experiences that gave young people a real, if brief, connection with their pioneer heritage and an appreciation for the personal sacrifices each made to make the journey to Zion. Nine years later, the Emigration Stake organized another handcart trek on the same stretch of historic trail and with the help of some of the same trek leaders. 38

These two handcart-trekking events in the 1960s and several in the 1970s—including an energetic 270-mile handcart trek in England and a large Boy Scout trek in Virginia—were the genesis of what would turn into almost a rite of passage for Mormon youth. Although I unfortunately unearthed little about the England trek, 39 details about the Virginia trek were written up in the Church News. Nearly four hundred Boy Scouts from the Capitol and Potomac regions of the Church camped for five days at a US Army installation at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in August 1979. Leaders planned events that would tie Scouting skills to the Church’s pioneer heritage. Harking back to the times of persecution in early Church history, leaders staged a dramatic attack on the boy’s campsite by an angry “mob.” The boys were forced to flee into the dark night with just what they could hurriedly gather together and throw into thirty homemade handcarts. During the rout, the carts had difficulty holding up as they were pushed over rough terrain. Several axles were bent and wheels fell off as the scouts hastily fled from the mob over muddy ground. “If we ever have to evacuate again,” trek director Corbett Aamadt said, “I hope the handcarts will be in better shape.” After their exciting night, they did what they could to repair broken carts and pushed ahead on a one-day trek simulating the pioneer handcart journey across the plains. With temperatures soaring near one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, the ground quickly dried out. They crossed a ravine on a monkey bridge built by the scouts, lowered their carts by rope over a cliff, and at one point were attacked by “Indians” who overturned their carts and mortally wounded their guide. 40 When the day ended, the boys were tired. A young scout from a Washington, DC, ward said, “I’m sure glad we don’t have to pull these handcarts for four months. It’s hard enough making this one-day trek!” 41

One other handcart trek in the 1970s that deserves notice was a one-day, four-hour handcart trek in which over four hundred students from Brigham Young University participated. The students made their own carts and traveled over a ten-mile course in late March 1974 in southern Utah County near the town of Goshen. Steve Shallenberger, the student chairman of the activity, said, “I’m dead tired, and we only went ten miles.” 42 The terrain was rough and taxed the hastily made carts, many of which rolled on bicycle wheels.

Survival Courses and Treks in the 1970s

In the mid-1970s, a handcart trekking program for LDS youth conference groups began being offered at BYU, sponsored by the Special Courses and Conferences Department. Doug Cloward, a professor in the Department of Youth Leadership, developed and administered the program. It drew upon elements in the curriculum of a thirty-day survival course offered to BYU students majoring in youth leadership. In 1974–75, Cloward and his colleague Stephen R. Covey pared down the thirty-day survival course into, first, a ten-day, then a five-day, course called Survival Adventure, which was offered in the summer to LDS youth groups. In 1975, the San Bernardino Stake in California participated in the survival program for their youth conference activity. Leaders from that stake wanted to return to BYU for their youth conference the next year, but only on condition that a different kind of program could be offered. “They concluded that it would be difficult to go back to that kind of, what they described, as a babysitting and games kind of a program,” said Cloward. “They wanted something that was a powerful, impactful experience for their youth and asked me if there wasn’t some other kind of program we might conduct that they could bring their stake to again.” 43

This led Cloward to develop the pioneer handcart trek program. It was conducted under Cloward’s direction for three summers from 1976 through 1978. The first BYU-sponsored pioneer trek program was launched for the youth of the San Bernardino Stake in 1976. It was conducted on Boulder Mountain in southern Utah. Upon arrival, the youth were divided into “family” groups, separated, as far as possible, from any of their other ward members or friends. Isolating the youth from their former acquaintances was meant to offer the individuals, according to Cloward, an “opportunity for a new identity and expectations.” 44 As the program matured, a credit course was offered in the university Youth Leadership Department to train BYU students to serve as the staff members for the treks. The treks were staffed by forty-five to sixty-five students, and their pay was based on experience and position of responsibility. Each family group had a male and a female BYU student leader assigned to them, called “Pa” and “Ma.”

After the “family” groups were established, staff members then went through the students’ gear bags, weeding out all candy, gum, soda pop, radios, and other distracting materials. In the first years of the program, the youth wore pioneer clothing. “We wanted it to be as basic as possible,” said Cloward. The youth were to bring a sleeping bag, ground cloth, their journal, scriptures, and a camera. Utensils, food, handcarts, and safety supplies were all provided by the BYU course. Cloward described the program’s general routine:

The first part of the program was a full day of strenuous pulling of the carts. We’d usually go from about 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon when we got to the location we were beginning the trek from until about midnight. That night, with a warm cup of broth, a hard biscuit or hard roll, a piece of jerky as a reward at the end of that long, hard day. The process of going without food, while not fasting per se, was a part of the designed difficulty of the program. It wasn’t an ice cream party. It was to be difficult and challenging. The second day of that pioneer trek process was a long pull that ended up in what we called a base camp location. Typically the distance on that first day pull was in the neighborhood of fifteen to twenty miles. Then the next day, somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen miles to the base camp. Once arriving at the base camp, we got involved with the young people in doing pioneer skills, washing clothes with a scrub board, a metal washtub, activities of cooking, pioneer skills, setting up shelters, those kind of things. Following those activities, we had, the next day, a day of thanksgiving essentially. We brought in live turkeys, and we had the young people participate in what we called a turkey hunt. Those activities were both fun, challenging as they caught their turkey, and then butchered the turkey, and learned how to cook the turkey in steam pits. Also how to bake bread in the Dutch ovens and various kinds of desserts. So it was an in-camp camp skills and pioneering skills day. That was followed by a Sunday of morning worship with girls and guys separated, then come together for a Sunday School program usually conducted by the adults who were there with the youth. That Sunday School program concluded about noon or a little after. And then the youth went from there into assigned solo locations where staff members placed the students at a significant enough distance where they wouldn’t be bothered or hear any of the other students. They were to spend that time with their scriptures and their journals reflecting on their experiences and feelings and writing those in their journals, reading their scriptures until about dusk, when the staff members then gathered them back up from that solo experience, and returned to the campfire program for a meal together and a testimony meeting that often went late into the evening. The following morning, they would pull their handcarts approximately five miles to a location where they were met by the bus and the carts were disassembled and moved to prepare for the next week’s group coming in. 45

While today’s handcart trek reenactments are focused on the handcart pioneers, that was not the central focus of the BYU treks. They used LeRoy and Ann Hafen’s Handcarts to Zion as a resource for evening campfire stories, but other than that, handcart history was a minor aspect of the program. 46 “The overall focus of the trek, initially, was not focused on connecting directly to specific pioneer ancestors,” explained Cloward, “but rather it was the vehicle or mechanism to provide hard experiences that required dependence upon each other: pulling the carts, preparing the food, gathering the firewood. And sharing the skills in connection with this community building, and self-reflection opportunities for those who participated in the program.” 47 The BYU trek program simply used the handcarts as a tool in an activity that tested and challenged the youth:

We were truly looking for ways to provide the kind of things we had found in the survival program, which, when you take the handcarts away, the bonnets, and the dresses, and the skills, all of that away, it was essentially an opportunity for young people to do something very, very challenging. Something where they had to depend on one another and where they have the real gratification of doing something on their own. It was the value-forming process. It is my impression that that, in large measure, is part of what we’re here on earth to do, to go through this difficult sojourn in the carnal, sensual, devilish kind of world and learn from our experience. And learn to choose the right path. I think the wilderness trek, the survival program, and certainly the handcart trek provided a mechanism, a framework, for those kinds of experiences and perhaps a different flavor with the handcarts, but under the same focus of providing difficulty, reflection, and determination of how people would live their lives. 48

Upon Cloward’s departure from BYU in 1979, BYU initially thought it would get out of the handcart trek business. No handcart trek outings were offered in 1979. But upon reconsideration, the university restarted the program. Kevin Henson was hired to direct it. He ran the program in summer 1980, then, as he wrote, “passed it off to others.” 49

From the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, BYU sponsored youth handcart treks and offered for-credit coursework that incorporated instruction on conducting handcart treks. In 1981–82, BYU offered a pioneer handcart trek for youth through its Conferences and Workshops department. 50 There was a lapse of a few years until 1989, when again a pioneer trek was offered as a part of the Church Educational System’s Continuing Education Youth and Family Program. 51 In 1992, the pioneer trek was discontinued, while more popular programs like Especially for Youth and Wilderness Trek continued to be offered. 52 For a decade beginning in 1981, the Department of Recreation Management and Youth Leadership offered a one-credit course titled Agency Skills Training that included a pioneer trek. 53

In the mid-1970s and for a few years thereafter, Ricks College (now BYU–Idaho) conducted handcart treks as part of the curriculum in their outdoor recreation program. 54 Students at Ricks College could earn five hours of college credit for the pioneer skills they acquired as they pushed handcarts on a ninety-eight-mile stretch from Rexburg, Idaho, into Montana. Although the route mostly followed Jeep trails, the terrain included desert, timber country, stream and river crossings, and mountains. Prior to embarking on the trek, the students spent five days in instruction and physical preparation. They were taught outdoor cooking, made their own soap and candles, dried fruit, and slaughtered cattle to make jerky.

I interviewed two of the men who started that program: Ed Malstrom, a psychology professor, who had the idea for the program, and geology professor Glenn Embree, who offered it as a summer program in 1979. The students learned survival skills, Church history, geology, and human relations in an outdoor setting. About three-fourths of the participants were young women. “Some of them were pretty prim and proper when they started,” Embree recalled. “By the time they got done, they knew how to rough it.” For instance, one hot day after pulling their carts, they halted at some small lakes to camp. “Everybody put their bathing suits on and dove in with bottles of shampoo and soap and were having a good time,” Embree said. “One of the gals climbed out onto the bank and looked down and she said, ‘Ed. What’s this?’ He said, ‘That’s just a leech.’ He picked that off her leg. They all gathered around to look at it and we thought, ‘Boy! They’ll come unglued.’ They examined it carefully and all dove back in the water and finished their bath.” 55 The young women displayed spunk and an inquisitive disposition in learning new things. They brought along several crates of live chickens to slaughter for food. Ed Malstrom remembered, “There were a couple of girls that were just horrified of the idea of having to cut a head off and actually clean a chicken. Then one of them found eggs in the chicken. That really piqued their curiosity, and they went through the chickens and had a whole series of eggs—a whole developmental sequence of egg production. They were proud of that.” 56

As the group neared the end of that 1979 trek, they were pushing their carts on a short stretch of paved road through a small community of homes near Island Park Reservoir. As Glenn Embree recalled, “As we got a little further down the road, all of a sudden this great commotion went off. Yelling and screaming behind me.” They were ambushed by whooping little boys in Indian costumes who had hidden themselves in bushes beside the road. On the way, they had been passed by a mother driving a station wagon full of young Mormon boys. Having just had a lesson in Sunday School on the handcarts, the boys were excited to insert themselves into the activity. In Embree’s memory, “It was one of the neat, spontaneous moments of the trip.” 57

Handcart Treks in the 1980s and 1990s and the 1997 Pioneer Sesquicentennial Reenactment

The courses and treks offered at Ricks College and BYU may have provided the training and impetus for locally organized handcart treks that were conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s in such far-flung locations as Alaska, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, Vermont, Tennessee, Alberta (Canada), England, and California. One place where handcart treks were conducted periodically on historic trails was in Wyoming. The youth in the Riverton Wyoming Stake held handcart treks over segments of a historic trail in 1980, 1988, 1992, and 1996. 58

In 1987, the Taber Alberta Stake conducted a two-day handcart trek, pulling carts that they had assembled to their base camp, where they enjoyed various activities. Kevin Livingstone remembered, “The first few miles weren’t bad; then we began to get hungry and tired. A couple of miles later we considered rebellion.” 59 Their experience was briefly written up in the New Era magazine. Church publications in the 1980s and early 1990s periodically reported on these youth handcart treks. Articles frequently mentioned that although the treks were challenging for the youth (for example, it rained during the Alberta trek in 1987), they enjoyed treks immensely and found that trekking provided a testimony-­growing experience.

In 1996, the Iowa Pioneer Mormon Trails Association led a wagon and handcart trek—celebrating the sesquicentennial anniversary of the pioneers’ journey—that traipsed across the route of the original trail in Iowa. One hundred people traveled in seventeen wagons and about fifteen handcarts. Utah rancher Montell Seeley was the principal leader of the handcart contingent. It was their plan to complete the remainder of the trek to Salt Lake City in 1997. 60 NFL quarterback Steve Young, a descendant of Brigham Young, was a participant in the trek. 61 This Iowa trek was the spark that initiated the big wagon and handcart ­celebratory trek the next year.

In 1997, the Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of the pioneers, which was called the Mormon Pioneer Trail Sesquicentennial Celebration. Although not sponsored by the Church, a wagon train reenactment of the one-thousand-mile Mormon pioneer journey from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City received widespread national and international media coverage. Several handcarts accompanied the wagon train.

The Boom in Treks from 1998 to 2018

While there is clear value in giving Mormon youth a small taste of pioneer life, the extraordinary Churchwide expansion of these activities since the 1997 sesquicentennial is not easily explained. These reenactments have moved beyond the borders of the United States into countries that have no historical connection to the Mormon pioneer settlement of Utah. In fact, handcart trek reenactments are conducted in countries where the Church has only just taken root. For instance, a handcart trek in Mongolia in 2012 was initiated by an American senior missionary couple. Gary and Martha Hunt, serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission, thought “it would be a great experience for the youth.” 62 The Handbook for Trek Leaders, the Church’s first trekking manual, states that the purpose of these treks is “to provide spiritual opportunities . . . where youth can gain a deeper appreciation of the principles of faith, obedience, and sacrifice.” 63 Given their expense and large time commitment, parents and leaders must be observing some measure of personal growth in their youth to warrant the continuance of these trek activities.

Over time, elements of the trek have become somewhat standardized. Stakes generally plan on sponsoring a trek once every four years (fig. 13). The treks take a lot of planning, preparation, and funding. One of the largest expenses for stakes, costing thousands of dollars, has been transportation. To reduce costs, stakes have tried to find places closer to home to hold treks. It is an expensive proposition to travel to the Church’s historic sites in Wyoming to push handcarts on historic trail segments. For stakes on the Wasatch Front, the Church-owned Deseret Land and Livestock property west of Evanston, Wyoming, has become a more affordable option. 64 Another option for the Wasatch Front stakes is the Mosida Handcart Trek Site on Church-owned land in Elberta in Utah County, Utah.

One feature often included in handcart treks has gone through a process of refinement and change. Since the beginning of modern handcart trekking, what is called the “women’s pull” has been an integral part of most treks. In this activity, young women pull the handcarts up a steep incline without the help of the young men, who stand quietly to the side (figs. 14–15). For many youth, this has been the most difficult, yet moving, part of a trek experience.

A women’s pull activity was a part of a handcart trek conducted by the Schaumburg Illinois Stake for 130 teenagers in mid-June 1997. The youth pushed handcarts for a couple of days across prairie land in eastern Iowa, just west of Nauvoo, with the permission of private land­owners. On the second day of the trek, the boys were “asked to form the Mormon Battalion and go with Colonel Thomas Kane to the southwest as soldiers for the U. S. Government in the Mexican War.” The boys left the girls and went off to do a service project for the landowner whose property they were trekking on. “The girls forged ahead and pushed the handcarts alone,” a news report of the activity stated. “At first they claimed they didn’t need the boys, . . . but after a couple of hours of forests and hills and crossing the 10-foot-wide Sugar Creek alone, they let out a cheer when the boys returned.” 65

The Church has mostly been successful in eradicating the idea that the Mormon Battalion (1846–47) took place during the handcart years (1856–60), but a few stakes persist in employing the battalion to construct a reason for why the boys can’t help the girls push the carts. The Church’s 2015 Trek Guidelines instruct, “Symbolizing the absence of the young men by calling them to serve in the Mormon Battalion is historically inaccurate and is therefore inappropriate.” The guidelines offer a different option: “Before the women’s pull, leaders could establish a historical context by explaining that many women handcart pioneers pulled handcarts without the assistance of men, sometimes due to the death or illness of their husbands and sons.” 66

Despite their popularity, handcart treks continue to draw critical commentary in the blogosphere. 67 In some of those posts, treks have come under wide and general criticism for being contrived, manufacturing overtly emotional settings, producing short-term testimonies, and enforcing sexist perceptions. For instance, one woman had little good to recall about her trek experience in 2004. Regarding the women’s pull, she said, “Most of the guys that talked about it after made it all about them and how it made them feel more obligated to protect and provide because of how pathetic we looked, apparently. I remember being annoyed because the boys in my ‘family’ hardly pulled at all anyway.” She said, “I didn’t hear a word about how the women’s pull made anyone more appreciative of the strength that women have.” Another woman who went on a trek in 1998 said, “The women’s trek [pull] was awkward. Guys standing watching us. . . . Not one word was said about how we were able to do it and we were strong—just a lot of guys feeling helpless because they could have done it easier and faster and that made them emotional because it’s their job to protect and provide and take care of families.” 68 While the women’s pull and the whole trek experience didn’t resonate for these two women and many others, for many youth, treks have been a spiritually profound and testimony-nurturing experience. 69 If leaders, parents, and youth didn’t find value in handcart treks, such events would have faded away years ago.

While the Church has emphasized making adequate preparations for health and safety issues, tragic events have happened on treks. The death of a twenty-nine-year-old mother of two in June 2016, serving with her husband as a “Ma” and “Pa” in a youth handcart trek in Oklahoma, raised questions about the overall safety of handcart treks. The report of this death in the Deseret News prompted several readers to question the continuance of the handcart program in the Church. A reader from Mapleton, Utah, asked, “Is this a wake-up call for re-evaluation of the use of handcart treks in the church?” Another reader from Salmon, Idaho, stated that handcart treks are a “part of the Mormon culture that needs to go away.” 70 Concerned with the “needless risk” posed by these handcart treks, a Salt Lake Tribune reader urged Church leaders to discontinue the reenactments. 71 While these comments call for the wholesale elimination of the handcart program, others have voiced concern about various parts of the handcart trek program. Though the death of this leader increased the volume of voices urging Church leaders to resolve questionable features and to reexamine the viability of the whole handcart trek program, it is hard to imagine that the program will be curtailed. Certainly there will be more emphasis placed on safety.

Conclusion: The Value of Treks

While youth handcart treks gained in popularity during the 1980s and early 1990s, several factors combined to launch the Churchwide explosion of interest in youth handcart treks in the late 1990s. The handcart treks sponsored by BYU and Ricks College in the 1970s and 1980s developed a pool of people who had the experience and training to conduct local treks. The Church’s lease of the Martin’s Cove property adjacent to the Sun Ranch and subsequent building of a trek center made it possible for stake youth groups to hold treks without having to build their own carts. And the widespread publicity attending the cross-country wagon and handcart trek during the Mormon Pioneer Trail Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1997 may have sparked local Church leaders to think about holding treks for their youth. Articles about treks featured in the New Era and Church News and the recounting of pioneer stories in general conference helped to popularize youth handcart treks. All of these factors combined to make handcart treks widespread in the Church.

For the past two decades, the handcart trek has developed into an institutionalized component of the Church’s youth program. In order to understand why these treks matter so much, we must turn to the voices of the participants. Despite the high cost of time and money, so many participants, both young and old, overwhelmingly see great redeeming value in holding treks. Rebecca Ehlert, a teen who went on a four-day trek with the East Millcreek Utah North Stake in 2010, said, “I absolutely loved it, and in a spiritual sense it was very rewarding to me. . . . The whole experience is so humbling for what the Saints then went through.” 72 A teenage girl from Utah shared her thoughts about going on a trek with her ward at Martin’s Cove in 2013 in a touching thirty-minute video documentary:

It was really good, and I was able to feel the spirit. Some kind of crazy things happened along the way. Our tent broke in half. People lost shoes and just things like that. I don’t know. It was just a really good experience to have, even though sometimes I was just like, I don’t want to go any more. I was like so done. I want my bed. I want my TV. I was done. But I learned that just by pressing forward, that’s just how the pioneers did it; we just had to keep going. 73

As Church leaders and parents hear these kind of remarks, observe behavioral changes, and witness the beginnings of religious spirituality in their youth, they see real value and importance in these youth handcart treks. That is the driving force for the continuance of the handcart trek program.

The youth handcart trek program in the Church has continued to grow beyond all expectations. Where once the handcart was a novelty in the Mormon past, its meaning has evolved over time within the Mormon community. In the 1850s, it was a temporary expedient in Mormon emigration. After the end of the pioneer period and continuing to the present, the handcart now stands as a symbol—possibly today’s key symbol—in community celebrations to honor the Mormon past. Today it also serves another purpose. Parents and leaders employ handcart treks as a means of helping their children connect with and “appreciate some of the hardships of the early Church pioneers.” 74 But more than that, they hope and pray that their children will, by dint of pushing a two-wheeled cart, gain some measure of personal spiritual growth.

About the author(s)

Melvin L. Bashore recently retired as a curator of historic sites with the LDS Church Historical Department. He received his BFA in modern painting from the University of Utah, his MEd from University of Missouri–St. Louis, and his MLS in library science from BYU. He worked for the Church Historical Department for thirty-eight years and conceived and developed the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel database ( http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/ ). In 2010, he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Oregon-California Trails Association for his work on this project. He has been researching trail mortality for more than a decade. He has also published numerous articles in wide-ranging historical journals. His recent publications include “‘The Bloodiest Drama Ever Perpetrated on American Soil’: Staging the Mountain Meadows Massacre for Entertainment,” Utah Historical Quarterly 80 (summer 2012): 258–71, and “Quitting Coffee and Tea: Marketing Alternative Hot Drinks to Mormons,” Journal of Mormon History 42, no. 1 (2016): 73–104.

1 . Journal History of the Church, July 24, 1849, 1–8, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE282783 .

2 . For example, many Roman naumachia, naval combats performed in an arena, were reenactments of battles.

3 . Steven L. Olsen , “ Celebrating Cultural Identity: Pioneer Day in Nineteenth-­Century Mormonism ,” BYU Studies 36, no. 1 (1996–97) : 161.

4 . Olsen , “ Celebrating Cultural Identity ,” 161.

5 . Kristen Duke, “Mormon Pioneer Handcart Trek,” Capturing Joy (blog), June 29, 2015, https://www.kristendukephotography.com/mormon-pioneer-handcart-trek/ .

6 . Olsen , “ Celebrating Cultural Identity ,” 161.

7 . Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2015), 6, https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/bc/pdfs/stake/Handcart-Trek-Guidelines-June-2015.pdf?lang=eng.

8 . Olsen , “ Celebrating Cultural Identity ,” 161.

9 . Quoted in Peggy Fletcher Stack, “Mormons around the Globe Re-enact Pioneer Trek,” Salt Lake Tribune, August 10, 2012.

10 . Historic Sites Files—Wyoming, Historic Sites Division, Church History Library.

11 . For trek locations currently operated under Church guidance, see “Trek Locations,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accessed February 14, 2018, https://www.lds.org/locations/treks/list-of-treks?lang=eng .

12 . Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders, https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/bc/pdfs/stake/Handcart-Trek-Guidelines-June-2015.pdf?lang=eng .

13 . Margaret M. Hecox, California Caravan: The 1846 Overland Trail Memoir of Margaret M. Hecox, ed. Richard Dillon (San Jose, Calif.: Harlan-Young Press, 1966), 24.

14 . “The Massacre on the Plains,” Nashville Daily News, November 25, 1857.

15 . In my years of research in Mormon pioneer documents, I have found very few critical comments about the handcart calamity uttered by faithful Church members. People were loath to speak about the handcart experiment, which resulted in disaster in 1856.

16 . Heber C. Kimball, “Remarks,” November 2, 1856, Deseret News, November 12, 1856, 282.

17 . Brigham Young, “Remarks,” November 2, 1856, Deseret News, November 12, 1856, 283.

18 . T. B. H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints (New York: Appleton, 1873), 311–32.

19 . “The Pioneer Jubilee,” Salt Lake Herald, February 11, 1897, 6.

20 . “Programme for Today,” Salt Lake Herald, July 21, 1897, 2; “Utah’s Growth Illustrated,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 22, 1897, 9.

21 . The Handcart Veterans Association was formed in 1906 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of handcart immigration. It was active until about 1914, holding periodic gatherings and reunions. For a published report of its first reunion, see “Grizzled Veterans Talk of the Past,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 5, 1906, 10. At a Handcart Veterans Association reunion in 1910, it was proposed that a women’s auxiliary organization called the Daughters of Handcart Veterans be formed. The women’s group, called the Daughters of Utah Handcart Pioneers, was organized on April 14, 1910, with fifty charter members. This organization evolved into what is today the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. “Handcart Veterans Unite to Strengthen Old Bonds,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, April 6, 1910, 1, 7; “Lapish, Hannah Settle,” in Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1901–36), 2:527.

22 . For example, see “Boy Scouts Travel over Pioneer Trail,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 22, 1912, 12; and “Youths to Hike from Henefer,” Ogden Standard Examiner, December 15, 1947, 5.

23 . D. James Cannon, ed., Centennial Caravan: Story of the 1947 Centennial Reenactment of the Original Mormon Trek from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake Valley, July 14 to 22, 1947 (n.p.: Sons of Utah Pioneers, 1948).

24 . Wayne Green, recorded telephone conversation with the author, April 7, 2012.

25 . Andrew McInnes, Journal of the Handcart Trip, June 11, 1966, copy sent to author by Dennis Schaub, and subsequently donated to Church History Library. Delbert Dennis Schaub, Phoenix Tenth Ward Handcart Trek Records, 1966, MS 25641, Church History Library.

26 . McInnes, Journal, June 14, 1966. This group may not have been the first reenactors since the 1850s.

27 . “Some Push, Some Pull,” Church News, published by Deseret News, July 2, 1966, 9.

28 . McInnes, Journal, June 15, 1966.

29 . McInnes, Journal, June 15, 1966.

30 . McInnes, Journal, June 16, 1966. See also “Phoenix Scouts Pull Carts on Mormon Trail,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 17, 1966, B-9. This story was also reported in “Arizona Scouts Trek Up Mormon Trail,” Arizona Republic, June 17, 1966, C-4.

31 . “Some Must Push . . . Some Must Pull,” Church News, June 29, 1968, 8–9, 14.

32 . Marlene Bellamy, recorded telephone conversation with author, April 20, 2012.

33 . Elaine Moniz Peters, email note to author, April 21, 2012.

34 . Thelma Tolhurst, recorded telephone conversation with author, April 6, 2012.

35 . Bellamy, recorded telephone conversation, April 20, 2012.

36 . “In Footsteps of Pioneers,” Church News, July 24, 1976, 13.

37 . “In Footsteps of Pioneers,” 13.

38 . “Trek along Original Trail Gives Taste of Pioneer Trial,” Church News, July 21, 1985, 8, 10.

39 . The 270-mile handcart trek in England is mentioned only in passing in “Lamanite Way of Worship Sparked His Interest,” Church News, February 19, 1977, 6.

40 . Though Indian raids have sometimes been reenacted in handcart treks, the extent of the raids have been somewhat exaggerated. Pioneers during the westward migration rarely experienced difficulties with the Indians, and many encounters were friendly. When there was an occasional raid, the greatest loss the pioneers usually suffered was the theft of some of their cattle. It was largely after the pioneers settled in Utah Territory that tensions grew between the Saints and Indians and resulted in episodes of violence. “Life on the Trail,” Heritage Gateways: Official Sesquicentennial K–12 Education Project, Utah Education Network, accessed February 14, 2018, http://heritage.uen.org/resources/Wc85c7aa9c851.shtml .

41 . “Pioneer Trail Comes to Life for Virginia Boys,” Church News, August 18, 1979, 6–7.

42 . “Students Re-Enact Cart Trek,” Provo Daily Herald, April 1, 1974, 4.

43 . Doug Cloward, interview with author, April 29, 2016.

44 . Cloward, interview with author, April 29, 2016.

45 . Cloward, interview with author, April 29, 2016.

46 . LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1960).

47 . Cloward, interview with author, April 29, 2016.

48 . Cloward, interview with author, April 29, 2016.

49 . Kevin Henson, email message to author, July 21, 2012.

50 . Brigham Young University, Winter 1981 Class Schedule, 42.

51 . Brigham Young University, 1988–89 General Catalogue, 260.

52 . According to an employee in the Priesthood Department, the BYU treks stopped “when BYU was asked to discontinue them.” Dale R. McClellan, email message to author, July 6, 2012.

53 . Brigham Young University, General Catalog of Courses 1981–82, 260.

54 . “Students to Relive Handcart Journey,” Church News, July 16, 1977, 12.

55 . Glenn F. Embree, recorded telephone conversation with author, April 20, 2012.

56 . Ed Malstrom, recorded telephone conversation with author, May 3, 2012.

57 . Embree, recorded telephone conversation, April 20, 2012.

58 . Riverton Wyoming Stake, Remember (n.p., 1997), 209.

59 . Kevin Livingstone, “Pioneer Trek,” New Era 17 (October 1987): 41.

60 . “Wagon Train Leaves,” Burlington Hawk Eye, June 18, 1996, 1A, 8A.

61 . “Young Joins Re-enactment,” Ottumwa Courier, July 15, 1996, 8.

62 . “Modern-day Mongolian Pioneers Re-enact Trek,” Church News, July 7, 2012, 8–9.

63 . Mormon Handcart Treks: Handbook for Trek Leaders ([Salt Lake City]: Farmland Reserve, Inc., The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 2010), 2.

64 . The Centerville North Stake was the first to conduct a handcart trek on the Deseret Land and Livestock ranch in 1990. Deseret Land and Livestock, Trek Mission History, 2011, MS 29195, Church History Library.

65 . “Schaumburg Youth Re-create Historic Mormon Journey,” Arlington Heights Daily Herald, August 2, 1997, sec. 5, 4.

66 . Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders, 13, 14.

67 . Angela C., “The Women’s Pull,” By Common Consent, June 9, 2015, https://bycommonconsent.com/2015/06/09/the-womens-pull/ ; Abe, “Mormon Youth Treks Are Lame,” The Blog O’Cheese, April 6, 2008, http://theblogocheese.blogspot.com/2008/04/mormon-youth-treks-are-lame.html ; Jonathan Green, “Don’t Hate Me Just Because My Trek Was Awesome,” Times and Seasons, January 9, 2014, http://www.timesandseasons.org/harchive/2014/01/dont-hate-me-just-because-my-trek-was-awesome/ ; Tona H., “Youth Trek, Public History, and Becoming ‘Pioneer Children’ in the Digital Age,” Juvenile Instructor, August 7, 2013, http://juvenileinstructor.org/trek-public-history-digital-age/ ; R. Bell, “Manufacturing the Spirit,” Millennial Star, July 27, 2005, http://www.millennialstar.org/manufacturing-the-spirit/ .

68 . Kerj and Kristine A., “The Women’s Pull, Comments,” By Common Consent, June 9, 2015.

69 . John L. Hart, “Life Changing—Youth Handcart Treks,” Church News, July 29, 2006, 6–7.

70 . “Mormon Youth Leader Dies on Trek Outing in Oklahoma,” Deseret News, June 21, 2016, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865656625/Mormon-youth-leader-dies-on-trek-outing-in-Oklahoma.html?pg=all . See also “Woman Dies from ‘Severe Heatstroke’ on LDS Pioneer Trek,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 28, 2016, A-10.

71 . Ben Leimbach, “Time to End Pioneer Re-enactment Treks,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 26, 2016, O-2.

72 . Quoted in “Participants Know Popular Treks Are a Far Cry from the Handcart Pioneers’ Sufferings,” Deseret News, July 23, 2010.

73 . Jeff Lundgren, “Mormon Pioneer Trek Documentary,” July 12, 2013, video, 28:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Fe4x7kRr8 .

74 . Mormon Handcart Treks, 2.

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youth handcart trek

Life-changing — youth handcart treks

Rivers, rocks and ridges; sacred sites and devotionals on wyoming plains.

MARTIN'S COVE, Wyo. — Faces shiny with sweat and their pioneer clothing covered with dust, heavily breathing youth pull off the trail at the crest of a ridge here and let their handcart grind to a stop. They don't speak, but look back in satisfaction at the hill they climbed, and sweep the group with a glance to ensure everyone is here. Someone mutters, "Let's go!" and, yoked in unison, they wheel back on the trail, continuing forward.

This is "trek," the youth conference of choice, that after months of preparation and honing becomes life-changing as youth and leaders re-enact pioneer handcart experiences.

Youth of Kaysville Utah East Stake push and pull handcart over rocks approaching Rocky Ridge.

Overall, handcarts brought fewer than 5 percent of the Mormon pioneers west and appeared on the western migration scene for just four years, (1856-57, 1859-60). Yet in recent years the two-wheeled wooden vehicles have made a comeback that likely outsizes their original numbers.

While handcarting among LDS youth is popular in many countries of the world, the most sought place is here in central Wyoming, the heart of handcart country. Here is the home of Martin's Cove and Rock Creek Hollow. In this region in 1856, the Martin and Willie handcart companies were caught in early snows and about 250 people, about one fourth of the two companies, perished from starvation and exposure. The rest were rescued in a heroic effort from Salt Lake City.

That long-ago drama remains fresh at Martin's Cove, where the Church's visitors center was dedicated in 1997 by President Gordon B. Hinckley, who said, "The memories of our forebears are deeply and indelibly etched, and this ground must forever hold for us a feeling of great sanctity, a spiritual feeling if you please."

Connecting to the past, in pioneer garb of bonnets and aprons, or broad-brimmed hats and neckerchiefs, today's youth have adopted the handcart to climb inclines and cross rivers in search of their own pioneer experiences.

At Martin's Cove Historic Site, trekkers roll in on buses and exit with color-coded bandanas and worn-in hiking shoes. The youth, fresh from video games, iPods and cell phones, take to handcarts as though they pulled, pushed and lifted every day.

These modern trekkers come much better prepared than the ill-fated companies of a century and a half ago. Each participant, whether a youth or adult, has a physical examination, wears appropriate shoes, walks many miles to build up endurance, drinks water and follows rules to protect the environment and comply with local regulations. Typically, treks are held only every four years in a stake. Groups usually have physicians, nurses and Emergency Medical Technicians walking alongside, who quickly handle the occasional cases of heat exhaustion.

Women's pull, reminiscent of pioneer women who had to make overland trek without their husbands and

The youth walk silently through Martin's Cove, and reverence a graveyard at Rock Creek Hollow as part of their trek. They also plod along the abundant miles near where the historic Oregon and Mormon trails ribbon across the back country as carved by the wheels of hundreds of thousands of pioneer wagons. While the clank and shout of pioneers and the lowing of their oxen has long since stilled, the most visible reminder of their heritage — the twin-rutted trail — remains for the youth as a tangible evidence of the past, and they connect.

According to their leaders, youth on handcart treks are almost universally finding spiritual pioneer experiences and the experiences are changing their lives.

Youth are organized into family units with a surrogate Pa, Ma and brothers and sisters. Here, love and sharing and responsibility are catalyzed by moving the handcart forward. The handcart is of a size that youth can manage it, yet large enough to give a significant challenge over rough terrain. Pushing a handcart is punishing enough that when the end of the trail is reached, so also is a deep sense of accomplishment. The commonality of the experience brings together adults and youth, say participants.

Youth pull through wind, rain along trail in central Wyoming. Treks such as this are usually held on

Characteristically, a trek will also include a women's pull, reminiscent of women whose husbands were away on the Mormon Battalion, a river crossing to memorialize the young men rescuers crossing on the Sweetwater in 1856, a solo experience — an individual alone in meditation and prayer — all of which contribute to the overall experience.

So young men and young women burn under the high plains sun, incessantly gulp water, plod on for miles and miles and collapse in near-exhaustion at the welcome end of the day. Devotionals and musical numbers punctuate the day. And somewhere between sunset and sun-up the fervency of their aspirations turns to meaningful prayer, and somewhere between sun-up and sunset, they feel the answer to their prayers. What begins as a physical experience becomes a spiritual one.

"They'd do it again in a heartbeat," said President Kenneth J. Lathen of the youth in the Grants Pass Oregon Stake.

"It was not an easy time," he said of the four-day trek at Martin's Cove the second week of July. "We had 50-mile-an-hour winds" and on the third night it rained so heavily their tents had an inch of water inside.

What made the difference "was the Spirit," he said. "It was being bathed in the Spirit for 72 hours." Reports at sacrament meetings have been filled with strengthened youth testimonies, he said.

Carrie Leavitt of the Eagle Idaho Stake, and her husband, Darren, a high councilor, headed the stake's recent youth trip to Wyoming. The stake youth made and donated 43 baby quilts at Martin's Cove for the Church Humanitarian Center in remembrance of the children who perished along the Mormon Trail.

Each of the youth carried the name of a handcart pioneer with whom they had become acquainted through research.

"Walking that hallowed, sacred ground made that experience great," she said.

Youth from Eagle Idaho Stake hold devotional at Rock Creek Hollow near handcart company burial groun

After the trek, ward members noticed a change in the countenance of some of the youth.

"That experience helped them to come back and carry on in the same faith that our pioneer saints had," she said.

Wendell P. Child, second counselor in the Kaysville Utah East Stake, who has supervised three stake treks including one July 17-20, said the spirituality of each event was the result of months of preparation, and of "our fasting, our going to the temple before trek begins. For months, we petition the Lord for His spirit to be with us."

Primarily, he said, it is the family structure that has the most significant impact on the spirituality. In selecting families, "we pray . . . with the intent that the Spirit will be invited to participate."

"I would say that trek mirrors what life is about — its challenges and difficulties. When they realize that no matter what the size or magnitude of the problem, when the Lord is on your side, you can achieve it. By far, this is the most significant activity we do as a stake."

President Child said a song, "Carry Me," that was composed by stake members for the trek, will remind youth of their experiences long after the activity concluded.

So, out on a dusty trail, as they watch their youth duck into a handcart's yoke, or push from behind to form the familiar train, dust hovering low amid the distinctive metal-on-rock grinding of moving wheels, leaders may begin to feel their mission accomplished.

But the real benefits of handcart treks come later, said Elder Eldean Holliday, director of Mormon Handcarts Sites in Wyoming. He is stationed at Martin's Cove Visitors Center. "I shed tears every day," he said. "It doesn't get old; it gets more beautiful, more glorious and tears flow quicker. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that the Church supports these programs for the youth. The aftermath is absolutely marvelous."

Carrying young women across the Sweetwater River, young men from Eagle Idaho Stake re-enact rescue o

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youth handcart trek

LDS365: Resources from the Church & Latter-day Saints worldwide

Guidelines for LDS Pioneer Handcart Treks

by Larry Richman | Feb 24, 2017

Guidelines for LDS Pioneer Handcart Treks

Some stakes plan pioneer treks as part of youth conferences. In the process, youth learn that they can do hard things, but more importantly, they learn lessons about faith and the motivations of the Mormon pioneers.

If your ward or stake chooses to hold a handcart trek, be sure to review the Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders .  These guidelines are provided because handcart treks usually require significantly more planning and resources than other youth conferences. Additional planning information and links can be found on the Youth Activities page for Pioneer Treks  and on the page of  Trek Safety Guidelines and Videos .

The new video “ Pioneer Journeys—More Than a Trek ” includes youth explaining what they learned from their trek experience. You may find this video helpful in a family home evening or in a lesson about faith, endurance, or sacrifice.

  • Pioneer Journeys–More Than a Trek on the Church History website
  • Trek Safety Guidelines and Videos
  • Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders (downloads PDF, updated January 2017)
  • Journeying to Zion by Handcart: One Young Woman’s Experience
  • Five Things You Might Not Know about the Handcart Rescue
  • What to Expect When You Visit the Mormon Handcart Historic Sites

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American West Heritage Center

THE WILLIE HANDCART TREK EXPERIENCE

In the saga of the american west, few events can compare to the pioneer handcart companies. put your shoulder to the wheel and discover first hand the trials and triumphs of the american handcart trek pioneer. awhc is a non-profit organization.  now scheduling for 2023-2024 seasons..

youth handcart trek

youth handcart trek

While most handcart pioneers traveled more quickly and safely than their ox-drawn wagon counterparts, a few handcart companies experienced great tragedy, demonstrating courage and fortitude beyond description. Many in the West feel that these experiences are sacred and demonstrate the consummate example of faith, bravery, and perseverance. In conjunction with Captain James G. Willie’s family descendants, the American West Heritage Center offers 1-5 day handcart treks that allow participants to gain experiences that tap into this monumental and sacred exemplar.

Handcart Treks are a challenging yet rewarding way for tourists, youth groups, church groups, family reunions, leadership retreats and other groups to gain valuable experiences, build camaraderie, and lasting friendships. They develop appreciation for heritage, explore morals and lessons in authentic ways. Learn about the pioneers that trekked westward, while enjoying some of the most dynamic scenery in the West.

As part of your journey, you can visit the American West Heritage Center to experience living history activities, and to see what Utah was like prior to the arrival of the pioneers. See what they saw when they arrived, and experience what kind of lives they built.

Learn the history of the handcart treks: what pioneers were able to take along, what they had to leave behind. Explore a history of westward expansion and pioneer migration.

Experience the hardships, joys, and triumphs that pioneers went through by participating in activities such as the women’s pull, proxy pioneering, and more.

Meet historical figures such as Orrin Porter Rockwell and the Pony Express. This program is highly customizable. We’ll do as little or as much program planning as you want, while maintaining a safe, challenging atmosphere. Designed to reduce the amount of time commitment from the individual group leaders, all will enjoy the experience to the fullest.

We’re located only 45 minutes from Logan and 90 minutes from Salt Lake City. The American West Heritage Center is a non-profit organization.

Remembering Handcart Pioneers in the Sweetwater Valley

A network of historic wagon roads across North America’s Great Plains converged at the Sweetwater. Explore this trail .

Between 1841 and 1868, about 450,000 people followed the Sweetwater River from Independence Rock to South Pass and crossed the Continental Divide through the Rocky Mountains. 1  Most of them sought new opportunities in the fertile farmland of Oregon Territory or the gold mines of California. The time they spent in this valley was short compared to their entire journey from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, but it was an important part of the trail because it provided plenty of water and good pasture for their livestock. The gentle slope of South Pass made the valley a good choice through the mountains. Signs at significant landmarks in the valley—such as Independence Rock, Devil’s Gate, Split Rock, and South Pass—show visitors that this wagon road is part of the nation’s heritage. Other landmarks—including Martin’s Cove, Sixth Crossing, and Rock Creek Hollow—hold special significance for Latter-day Saints.

The Handcart Experiment

About 70,000 of the immigrants who traveled the wagon road were Latter-day Saints. 2  Like others moving west, they were looking for new opportunities. But they were also part of an organized gathering.

Out of about 450,000 travelers on the overland trail, only about 3,000 pulled handcarts.

Uniting with others of their faith, they had left their homes so they could make temple covenants and build up Zion, a community of the pure in heart. They expressed their faith in the sacrifices they made to heed a prophet’s counsel and in the help they gave each other along the way.

Compare one handcart company to a wagon company from the same year.

Before the railroad, most Saints crossed the continent by ox-drawn wagon. In 1855, Church leaders reasoned that people would save time and expense if they transported their belongings in small, two-wheeled carts and used a few wagons to carry most of the heavy equipment. They began a bold new experiment in overland travel. From 1856 to 1860, 10 companies, totaling about 3,000 people, used handcarts to travel to Utah. For eight of these companies, the experiment was considered a success. Handcart companies traveled more quickly and with less expense and fewer accidents than wagon trains.

Rescuing the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies

The Willie and Martin handcart companies, along with the Hunt and Hodgetts wagon trains, left late in the season. In October 1856, they were caught in early winter snowstorms. Over 200 people died from hunger, exposure, and fatigue—the greatest loss of life in the history of this overland trail. 3

Elder George Albert Smith visits a grave marker at Rock Creek Hollow in 1931. A monument placed here in 1933 honors a mass grave of 13 people near a place where the Willie handcart company camped in 1856. The location of the actual mass grave is unknown.

Like so many tragic stories in history, it is appropriate to ask how this might have been avoided. What if more people had postponed their travel until the following spring? What if they had been better prepared? What if supplies had come sooner? In asking these questions, it is also appropriate to honor some of the final resting places of those who died and to reflect on the physical hardship that they and many others were willing to face in seeking a better life.

Visitors’ center near the Willie handcart company rescue site. Exhibits inside recognize the courage, faith, and sacrifice of those who rescued over 1,000 people who might otherwise have perished.

But tragic suffering is not the only reason to remember this story. The rescue of these suffering Saints is also one of the finest examples of Latter-day Saints coming to the aid of those in need. Men and women across Utah Territory organized a massive relief effort when they learned that so many people were still on the trail so late in the season. Their service embodies the Christlike love each Church member strives to develop. It is an expression of the covenant made at baptism to be “willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death” (Mosiah 18:9).

Lasting Impact

Albert W. Jones was 16 years old when he and his brother Samuel came west with their mother in the Martin handcart company. Years later, he remembered the joy in camp as the express riders rode in and assured them that help was on the way. He also recalled with gratitude his old friend William Binder, who had helped him cross the Sweetwater near Martin’s Cove. 4

Albert W. Jones, circa 1906. Find more handcart travelers in the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel database.

In 1906 Albert and Samuel Jones helped to organize a jubilee celebration at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, marking 50 years since the arrival of the first handcart company to the Salt Lake Valley. In his remarks at the event, Albert told of a secret vow he had made after meeting the relief company to repay their kindness through service to others. “Should I and my people reach the valleys in safety—and a call should come to go out to rescue belated Saints in their incoming through the mountains, I would go out to help them,” he said. Albert then reported that he had kept his vow in an assignment to bring in immigrants in 1862, “and this effort is among the most pleasant of my life.” 5

A youth handcart trek near Martin’s Cove. Youth groups stage treks to remember the faith of the pioneers and the need to keep their own covenants and serve one another. Find resources for trekking on youth.lds.org.

Since that jubilee in 1906, many others have found ways to remember those who gathered to Zion by handcart. A monument on Temple Square honoring the first handcart company is part of this tradition. So are the Church’s three historic sites along the overland trail in Wyoming. President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated grave sites, monuments, and visitors’ centers in the Sweetwater Valley between 1992 and 1997. At the Martin’s Cove and Sixth Crossing sites, visitors have the opportunity to push and pull handcarts.

In his dedication of Rock Creek Hollow in 1994, President Gordon B. Hinckley prayed that “this area may be sacred to all who shall visit it, that such visits may have a sobering effect upon those who come, that having visited here they will leave with a finer sense of appreciation and gratitude and an increase in their faith.” 6

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Op-ed: Ever wondered where the Mormon youth trek phenomenon came from?

Members of the Apex North Carolina Stake pioneer trek at Camp Reeves in Carthage, N.C.

Canberra Stake Youth Handcart Trek

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youth handcart trek

Canberra youth trek

Seventy-four youth from the Canberra Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently undertook a re-enactment of a pioneer handcart trek.    Emulating  Mormon pioneers  who crossed the American plains pulling two-wheeled wooden carts more than 1,600 kilometers before reaching their destination in Salt Lake City, Utah, the teenagers gained an appreciation for the hardships and sacrifices made by those early pioneers over 150 years ago.                        

youth handcart trek

Canberra Trek steep hill

The youthful trekkers were dressed in authentic pioneer costumes as they pulled handcarts loaded with food, cooking gear, tarps, sleeping bags, and clothing for seven people, from Hoskinstown through Tallaganda State Forest in NSW.  The trek took four days and nights and covered 44 kilometers, some of it in rough terrain.  Designed to test and teach the youthful participants, it was successful on both counts. Most of  all,  they had  fun. 

One young women on the trek, Utopia Kikkert, had this to say about the experience:  “The Trek was a lot of fun, especially the ‘women’s pull.’  Only the women were allowed to pull the handcarts up a very steep hill, while the young men stood by in respect.  Everyone worked in silence as they strained to get their loaded carts to the top of the hill.  We all said a prayer and definitely felt the Spirit.”                            

Tony Abel, second councillor in the Canberra Stake presidency and organizer of the trek said, “By making them physically struggle and asking them to work hard and overcome challenges, they got an appreciation of their family, faith, surroundings, themselves, and the blessings they receive from God.  It opens up their eyes and gives them the strength and courage to have a go at something.”

Stake Young Women’s president Annie Waddoups observed  that “A trek is a fantastic way to unify the participants because they have to work together to accomplish a goal they could not do alone.  Youth blossom when they are away from the distractions of technology.”

  • Canberra trek youth pulling handcart
  • Canberra trek youth pulling hardcart 2
  • Canberra Trek sepia second water crossing
  • Canberra trek sepia water crossing

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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.

Desperate vladimir putin plunges 22 million russians into darkness in bitter -22c winter, moscow is to be plunged into darkness as putin ordered rolling blackouts amid freezing temperatures, according to reports..

Full Moon in Moscow

Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered rolling energy blackouts across Moscow as temperatures reach - 22C. The blackouts are said to cover the entire metropolitan area of Russia's which has a total population of around 22 million. The order issued states that electricity is "not to exceed 12 hours per day" with the blackouts in place from January 14 through March 31 2024, according to Ukraine commentator Igor Sushko.

Sushko posted on X: "The entire Moscow metropolitan area, population 22 million, will have rolling blackouts of electricity "not to exceed 12 hours per day" from January 14 through March 31, 2024. - announced by the fascist state."

READ MORE: WW3 fears explode as Putin ally warns Poland is 'next' target on Putin's hitlist

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It comes after a heating main ruptured at the Klimovsk Specialised Ammunition Plant in Podolsk, about 30 miles south of central Moscow, on January 4. As a result, tens of thousands of Russians are said to be without heat in their homes in the Moscow region due to subzero temperatures.

According to a map published by a Russian Telegram channel and circulated on various social media platforms, the affected areas include cities such as Khimki, Balashikha, Lobnya, Lyubertsy, Podolsk, Chekhov, Naro-Fominsk, and Podolsk.

Residents in Moscow, specifically Balashikha, Elektrostal, Solnechnogorsk, Dmitrov, Domodedovo, Troitsk, Taldom, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Krasnogorsk, Pushkino, Ramenskoye, Voskresensk, Losino-Petrovsky, and Selyatino, are also experiencing power outages, according to other Russian media reports.

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Power outages have been reported in St. Petersburg, Rostov, Volgograd, Voronezh, and Primorsky. Meanwhile, a huge fire tore through a large warehouse used by Russia ’s largest online retailer south of St Petersburg on Saturday morning.

The blaze covered an area of 70,000 square meters, with 50,000 square meters of the Wildberries warehouse collapsing, according to Russia ’s Emergency Situations Ministry. No casualties were reported.

Videos posted to social media appeared to show employees running down fire escapes and fleeing the scene. A video shot from a passenger jet flying nearby showed flames totally engulfing the warehouse, sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Lanette Mayes

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Jessica Corbett

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

40-facts-about-elektrostal

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

  • Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
  • With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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Service Allows Disabled Youth to Participate in Trek

Contributed By Dee Dee Squires, Church News contributor

  • 10 August 2015

youth handcart trek

Daniel Andersen on the trail being pulled and pushed by his faithful trek “brothers and sisters“ in the Platte City Missouri Stake.   Photo by Valerie Anderson.

Article Highlights

  • Daniel Andersen, a young man with a congenital disability that requires the use of a power wheelchair, wanted to participate in trek.
  • Dave Tallant, a former hot rod builder, built him a custom cart to ride in across the plains.
  • Daniel’s “siblings” on the trek insisted on pulling his 800- to 1,000-pound cart.
“Generally, we have thought for years that Daniel’s involvement in trek would be very limited. In our wildest dreams we never would have thought he would have a custom-built handcart.” —DeWayne Andersen of the Platte City Missouri Stake

Related Links

  • Discover how the example of the pioneers can help us face our tests today.
  • See how other people celebrated Pioneer Day this year.

PLATTE CITY, MISSOURI

With a custom-built handcart and the love and service of fellow Latter-day Saints, Daniel Andersen was able to experience a youth conference and handcart trek, covering ground made sacred by early Mormon pioneers.

“When I think about the trek experience, I rejoice in the goodness of the service attitude of our Church,” he said.

On the trail July 23–25 in some of Missouri’s most historic Latter-day Saint countryside, nearly 200 members of the Platte City Missouri Stake donned pioneer garb, set up camp, and pulled fully loaded handcarts to experience what early Mormon pioneers learned along the trek west. Daniel was amazed to be able to be one of them.

Over a year ago, youth leaders began discussing ways to enable Daniel to experience the youth conference and pioneer handcart trek, traditional to the Platte City Missouri Stake’s Mutual program. Knowing that Daniel’s congenital disability requires he use a power wheelchair for getting around, Daniel’s father, DeWayne Andersen, commented, “Generally, we have thought for years that Daniel’s involvement in trek would be very limited. In our wildest dreams we never would have thought he would have a custom-built handcart.”

Jay Hales, stake Young Men president, got the ball rolling—or rather the handcart—by contacting stake member Dave Tallant. A former hot rod builder, now retired, Brother Tallant got started in his backyard workshop with a design concept that would look like a real handcart but have the functionality to be pulled by volunteer youth, bearing Daniel and his wheelchair on the long-distance trek. Brother Tallant built the two-axle cart with a pivoting front axle, small rubber tires for a low profile, and a ramp at the rear to load the wheelchair. “With so much to prepare, the trek occurs only every four years,” said Brother Hales. This year would be Daniel’s year. The stake provided 16 handcarts, several of which Brother Tallant was assigned by Church leaders to put together, in addition to building the special wagon for Daniel.

youth handcart trek

Dave Tallant, who built a special handcart, kneels beside Daniel Andersen on the grounds of the Far West Temple site at the end of the Platte City Missouri’s youth trek. Photo by Valerie Anderson.

The plan was for each “handcart family” to pull one handcart, which carries their supplies for the journey: tents, bedrolls, Dutch ovens, and food. A married couple was to become the “Ma” and “Pa” for a family of seven or eight young men and women 14 through 18 years of age, not their own children, but those gathered somewhat randomly from the 14 congregations in the stake.

Daniel’s “parents” for the trek were Jonnette and Ryan Geddes of the Platte City Ward, “a family where the pa was an emergency room physician,” noted Brother Andersen. From the 140 youth and 42 adults from northwest Missouri on the trek, each of the 16 “families” was to provide one person every hour to push Daniel’s handcart. “However,” remarked Brother Andersen, “two of Daniel’s Geddes cart family ‘brothers’ insisted on pulling his cart and refused to be relieved of that duty.” As Brother Tallant mentioned, “The average weight for each of the regular handcarts fully loaded was about 500 pounds, but the gross weight for Daniel’s wagon, wheelchair and all, was about 800–1,000 pounds to pull.” And the heat index for much of the trek was over 100 degrees.

youth handcart trek

The Geddes pioneer handcart trek family pulled this handcart over 14 miles to experience their forebears’ struggles. From left: Emily Dufrain, “Ma” Jonnette Geddes, Bethany Pearson, Hannah Nave, “Pa” Ryan Geddes, Mark Wells, Takoda Lucker, Deryk Goff, and Kaylee Cantwell. A special handcart was built to accommodate Daniel Andersen. Photo by Valerie Anderson.

“I am super grateful for all of the service that Dave Tallant, the stake Young Men and Young Women presidencies, and the other youth who attended the trek gave to make me an integral part of trek,” Daniel said after arriving at trail’s end at the Far West Temple site. Hundreds of Latter-day Saints from the Platte City stake lined the entrance to this Mormon historic site. They were all there to welcome back the travelers and to celebrate the annual Pioneer Day, a yearly remembrance regarding their Mormon pioneer heritage.

The theme for trek this year was “His Path Will Take Us Safely Home.” The purpose of the trek challenge was to teach that the pioneer trail is a trail of tragedy, of triumph, of faith, of devotion, and of the consecration of life itself. Church leaders wanted the youth to feel, in some way, what the pioneers went through in order to be able to worship Jesus Christ and enjoy the religious freedom they won with the hardship of their journey.

At their journey’s end, these valiant young men and women were hailed as the next generation of leaders for the Church and for the stake. President R. Scott Holman, first counselor in the stake presidency, welcomed the youth to the Far West Temple site, saying, “The ground upon which you stand is holy ground. It is made even holier today by your presence. We go forth today to become pioneers. As you stay on His path, it will take you safely home.”

Brother Andersen, reflecting on the weekend, said, “We are very humbled by the service and grateful for the opportunity Daniel had to be part of this great experience. He formed friendships, which are meaningful to him. He’s seen service that we all believe reflects the Savior’s love.”

youth handcart trek

The Geddes pioneer handcart trek family. From left to right: Ryan and Jonnette Geddes (“Ma” and “Pa), Emily Dufrain (kneeling), Mark Wells, Kaylee Cantwell, Deryk Goff, Takoda Lucker, Hannah Nave (hat in hands), Bethany Pearson, and Daniel Andersen. Photo by Dee Dee Squires.

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IMAGES

  1. Youth re-enact pioneer handcart journey

    youth handcart trek

  2. Youth Pulling Handcarts

    youth handcart trek

  3. Handcart Trek 2018: Olympia Washington Stake Youth

    youth handcart trek

  4. Canberra Stake Youth Handcart Trek

    youth handcart trek

  5. Local youth participate in handcart trek: Re-enact famous Mormon

    youth handcart trek

  6. Canberra Stake Youth Handcart Trek

    youth handcart trek

COMMENTS

  1. Handcart Trek

    Two weeks prior to obtaining the handcarts leaders need to call the Greg Phillips at (801)-360-3919 and confirm pick up and drop off times. When leaders come to check out the handcarts they will receive instructions and review the handcart/trailer safety rules. LDS Trek Ideas. Watch on.

  2. Trek Locations

    The Mosida Handcart Trek Site offers an authentic handcart experience on approximately 21 miles of groomed trails. It is a dedicated Church handcart trek site. Our motto is "Strengthening Saints through handcart experiences." The Mosida trek site is about one hour south of Salt Lake City and about 20 minutes northwest of Santaquin.

  3. Activity: Pioneer Treks

    Youth could be organized into groups or "families," wear pioneer-era clothing, pull handcarts, and discuss the faith of those who made courageous sacrifices to gather to Zion. For detailed information about organizing and carrying out a handcart trek, see Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders. Related Resources. Trek locations;

  4. Hand Cart: Mormon Pioneer Handcart Trek Ideas & Resources

    Hand Cart Trek Experience for Modern Pioneers. Youth from all over the world participate in authentic Pioneer Handcart Treks sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). These annual events are typically open to all youth aged 14 to 18, and are designed to provide a growing experience for all who participate.

  5. PDF Selected Handcart Stories

    This document will help you prepare for your trek experience by providing background information about the Willie and Martin handcart companies, along with individuals' stories of faith, sacrifice, and hope. During your trek, you may be asked to share one or more of these stories. As you study them, "liken" what you learn to your-

  6. Handcart Trekking

    The youth handcart trek program in the Church has continued to grow beyond all expectations. Where once the handcart was a novelty in the Mormon past, its meaning has evolved over time within the Mormon community. In the 1850s, it was a temporary expedient in Mormon emigration. After the end of the pioneer period and continuing to the present ...

  7. PDF ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE

    Groups should plan their activities to accomplish the goals they have set for the trek. Remember that the most important thing is to prayerfully consider your theme and the lessons your youth need to learn. Many groups try to do it all and overwhelm the youth. Trekking itself creates many powerful teaching moments, so prayerfully pick those ...

  8. Handcart Treks

    They'll meet pioneers along the way, including Mary Fielding Smith. The girls will participate in the arduous women-only handcart pull, then everyone will enjoy lunch on the mountain. Snacks will be provided as necessary for energy to finish the trek. For more information about costs and availability, call 801.924.7502. Fill out the form below ...

  9. Life-changing

    The handcart is of a size that youth can manage it, yet large enough to give a significant challenge over rough terrain. Pushing a handcart is punishing enough that when the end of the trail is reached, so also is a deep sense of accomplishment. The commonality of the experience brings together adults and youth, say participants.

  10. Selected Handcart Stories for Youth Treks

    Here are some historically accurate stories from the 1856 rescue that youth and leaders could read or share on the trail or in camp. Home. Resources. Sellars Creek Ranch. 2574 Sellars Creek Road Firth, ID 83236. Owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as one of eight regional Handcart Trek Sites.

  11. Guidelines for LDS Pioneer Handcart Treks

    Some stakes plan pioneer treks as part of youth conferences. In the process, youth learn that they can do hard things, but more importantly, they learn lessons about faith and the motivations of the Mormon pioneers. If your ward or stake chooses to hold a handcart trek, be sure to review the Handcart Trek Reenactments: Guidelines for Leaders.

  12. Handcart Treks

    Handcart Treks are a challenging yet rewarding way for tourists, youth groups, church groups, family reunions, leadership retreats and other groups to gain valuable experiences, build camaraderie, and lasting friendships. They develop appreciation for heritage, explore morals and lessons in authentic ways.

  13. Remembering Handcart Pioneers in the Sweetwater Valley

    A youth handcart trek near Martin's Cove. Youth groups stage treks to remember the faith of the pioneers and the need to keep their own covenants and serve one another. Find resources for trekking on youth.lds.org. Since that jubilee in 1906, many others have found ways to remember those who gathered to Zion by handcart. A monument on Temple ...

  14. Trekking Part 2: Find Pioneer Trek Stories Online

    According to "Handcart Trek Guidelines," here's how: "In advance, youth could research or be given the name and brief biography of a handcart pioneer. They could be asked to study the biography with the idea that they will walk on trek as if they were that person and will try to do the things that he or she would have done on the ...

  15. Church Youth Recreate Handcart Trek

    1 / 4. Download Photos. Almost 100 young members of the Melbourne Maroondah Stake (diocese) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints re-enacted the handcart journey made by Mormon pioneers traveling to Utah 160 years ago. Using the Creswick railway station near Ballarat as a base, they trekked in the Creswick State Forest four days ...

  16. Op-ed: Ever wondered where the Mormon youth trek ...

    The BYU student leaders were the Ma's and Pa's. BYU sponsored youth handcart treks and instruction on conducting handcart treks as a part of its curriculum for youth leadership students until the early 1990s. In 1977, Ricks College began conducting handcart treks as a part of the curriculum in its outdoor recreation program.

  17. Canberra Stake Youth Handcart Trek

    Seventy-four youth from the Canberra Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently undertook a re-enactment of a handcart pioneer trek.

  18. Vladimir Putin plunges 22 million Russians into darkness

    Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered rolling energy blackouts across Moscow as temperatures reach - 22C. The blackouts are said to cover the entire metropolitan area of Russia's which has a total population of around 22 million. The order issued states that electricity is "not to exceed 12 hours per day" with the blackouts in place from January 14 through March 31 2024, according to Ukraine ...

  19. 9th radio centre of Moscow, Elektrostal

    The 9th radio centre of Moscow was a high power shortwave and medium wave broadcasting facility at Elektrostal near Moscow.Its broadcasting frequency was 873 kHz with a transmission power of up to 1200 kilowatts. It was also used as radio jammer of "unwanted" stations.

  20. Trek Safety

    To help youth learn from the experiences of the handcart pioneers, leaders may plan handcart trek reenactments for youth conferences. Handcart treks require substantial preparation to achieve meaningful purposes with minimal risks. They normally require more planning and resources than other youth conferences.

  21. INTERTEKH, OOO Company Profile

    Find company research, competitor information, contact details & financial data for INTERTEKH, OOO of Elektrostal, Moscow region. Get the latest business insights from Dun & Bradstreet.

  22. 40 Facts About Elektrostal

    Promotes sports and youth development. Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness. Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals. Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

  23. Service Allows Disabled Youth to Participate in Trek

    Dave Tallant, who built a special handcart, kneels beside Daniel Andersen on the grounds of the Far West Temple site at the end of the Platte City Missouri's youth trek. Photo by Valerie Anderson. The plan was for each "handcart family" to pull one handcart, which carries their supplies for the journey: tents, bedrolls, Dutch ovens, and food.