Return Trip to Handcart Park in Iowa City, Iowa

 I returned to the Handcart Park in Iowa the last time I drove through.  As part of the Martin Handcart Company, the question I had in my mind is Langley Bailey talks of swimming, treading water in a pond.  He says someone didn't realize he was treading and walking into the water, and because he didn't swim Langley had to save him.  The Iowa river runs close by, and there are some streams going through the Handcart Park.  It is hard to see them as they keep you on the trail above the can

This picture shows some water

yons.

West Branch Rest Area Talks of the Mormon Handcarts and Iowa City

 There is an informational bulletin that talks of the handcarts; and the back side talks of Iowa City as the territorial capital.

It is a bit hard to see, so here is the transcript: Mormon Handcart Trail 1856.  In 1856, some 1300 Mormon converts from Europe, many of them wards of the Perpetual Emigration Fund COmpany, reached the railroad "End-of-Track" in Iowa City.  Their money exhausted, Brigham Young declared: "Let them come on foot, with hand-carts or wheel-barrows, let them gird up their loins, and walk through and nothing shall hinder them."
The Mormons encamped at what is now Coralville while awaiting the completion of their handcarts.  The first company of 226 Mormons set out bravely from Coralville on June 7, pushing or pulling their carts through Homestead, Marengo, Newton, Des Moines, Adel, and historic Dalmanutha.  It joined the Mormon Trail of 1846 at Lewis and crossed the Missouri River north of Council Bluffs.  The Mormon Bridge at North Omaha stands as a symbol to their trek across Iowa.
Meanwhile, the other companies followed close on the heels of the first Handcart expedition, all three reaching Salt Lake CIty safely before cold weather set in.  The fourth and fifth Handcart companies suffered untold hardships and death before they reached their Zion in present-day Utah.

The back side of the plaque tells of Iowa City as the territorial capital from 1839-1857.  There is a historic capital building in Iowa City.   

Iowa City: Marching Off Point for Mormon Pioneers 1856-57

There are times when what we imaging in our heads has nothing to do with how it really was.  At the time when the end of the rail line was at Iowa City (1856-1857) the outfitting point was actually two to three miles outside of town.  This necessitated a good walk to get there.  These year of course coincide with the first two years of handcart companies.  Today it is part of the University of Iowa Campus and is within a mile of the Iowa City Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This is where Caleb's mission would meet for transfers every six weeks, as it is considered a central location for the mission.
I always imagined Iowa as being fields at the time, cultivated, and the vegetation pretty much being similar to that in Wyoming or western Nebraska.  However in visiting the place, I now realize how wrong I was.  I should have remember Iowa is a humid place, which much more rain fall that Wyoming or Nebraska.  Consequently the grass would have been very high, and there would have been woods not yet cleared, and a three mile hike would have been a formidable task.  Another formidable task would be to maneuver handcarts which such thick vegetation.
I went there to find where Langley Bailey had talked about swimming, in the Iowa River, close to the outfitting point.  I could not find the river, although I know it is not too far distant.  There were river beds, which made me wonder if the route of the river could have changed in the last 150 years.
At any rate, I was totally taken back by the presentation of the environment.  It was not anything like what I had in my head.  The humidity and the heat would have been difficulty.  This type of environment would have also been prime ground for bugs, including mosquitoes.  It also was a prime environment for wild flowers.  There where many trees, which would have provided shade.  However, it would have been difficulty to find a place for the tents.  When Isaac was there there were 2000 other pioneers making ready to cross the plains.  They would have been spread out, but also crowded trying to find a place for that many people.

Lots of greenery to deal with

lots of grass

Looking down at old river bed

That be us

Handcart Park, Iowa City, Iowa

My son, who is serving a mission in the Des Moines, Iowa Mission visited the Handcart Park in Iowa City and took these pictures.

The Handcart emigration:  In the summer of 1856 this location was the staging area for one of the most remarkable treks in the history of the American West.  Some 1900 British and Scandinavian converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wished to emigrate to Utah, but they were too poor to buy animals and wagons for the journey.  Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, proposed that the cross the plains on foot with their few belongings in handcarts.  The church presidency wrote: "Let them come on foot, with handcarts or wheel barrows: let them gird up their loins and walk through."
The emigrating Mormons sailed from England to New York and Boston, then traveled by train to Iowa City, the railway terminus at that time.  Here they were organized into five handcart companies for the last 1300 miles of the trip.  A few wagons were provided to carry the heavier provisions for each company.
The new emigrants were an unlikely group of pioneers.  Few of them had ever pitched a tent or built a campfire.  There were more women than men and many children and older people.  Despite their inexperience and the hardship of the trail, three companies arrived in Salt Lake Valley without misfortune.  The last two companies of the year were caught by early winter storms before reaching their destination and had particularly difficult journeys.
Two additional handcart companies departed from this site in 1857.  The last three handcart companies started from Florence, Nebraska in 1859 and 1860.  In all, more than three thousand Latter-day Saints walked across the plains and over mountain passes to their new home in the Rocky Mountains. 

http://billywardlegen.blogspot.com/2010/10/isaac-wardle-history-chapter-seven.html
My writings about the Martin Handcart Company in Iowa.

Caleb is walking this ground 157 years after his Great-great-great grandparents Isaac Wardle and Mary Ashton walked on the same ground.  Some of his relatives did not survive this trip, including Mary's sisters, Betsy, Elizabeth and Sarah Anne, as well as her mother, Sarah Anne.  She and a sister, Sarah survived the trip.  Their father joined the infantry at Fort Laramie and did not complete the trip.  Several years later, other ancestors were also handcart pioneers, but staged in Florence, Nebraska. 

Your Heat Will Burn: Act II scene 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArtP_YIGanQ&feature=plcp

There is a lot going on in this video.  It starts with the entreacte presented by Joe Eliason and Elaine Morris.  It then quickly goes to a scene showing the activity in Iowa City, and concludes with the difficulty of the Saints reducing their load to 17 pounds each.  It was difficult to sell, when potential buyers knew it would just be left behind anyway.