Book Review: ***Hard Road West

Book Review: ***Hard Road West: History and Geology along the California Trail

Written by Keith Meldahl and published by the University of Chicago Press 2007.  This book will tell you more about how mountains are formed than you can even think of to ask.  It then takes all that information and relates it to the pioneer trail.  Why to the pioneers choose the route they took, and how is it that those circumstances were there.  For example the pioneers tried to stay by water, fuel and feed whenever they could.  So it stands to reason that they follow rivers.  But how is it the Sweet water does not go in and out of mountain ranges, but presents a relatively smooth descent to South Pass.  This book gives the answer, explaining that at one time their were mountains there, and they fell.
Why does the trail wander into the Black Hills instead of hugging the Platte.  It happens the Platte goes through narrow canyons.  The book points out that the river in many places predates the mountains.  And that is why you have these narrow canyons like Devil's Gate.  The river was there as the mountain rose over millions of years, and slowly cut the chasm.
If you like geology, you would love this book.  If you want to understand the Pioneer Trail, and the hardships with the journey, this book is for you as well.

The Harp of Zion

Book Review: **The Harp of Zion

This is the first book of poetry published by the Church.  It was published in England, by the European Mission in 1853.  The poems were written by John Lyon.  It was published to support the Perpetual Emigration Fund. The book of poetry can be accessed on Google Books. http://books.google.com/books?id=ErgUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=theharp+of+zion&source=bl&ots=FMOu6qyxIq&sig=z_wareIzGLEQVy2H9l2OiEGQwcg&hl=en&ei=uEY9TNTSDIiCsQPinpifCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
Thomas Edgar Lyon Jr. wrote an interesting article about the book in BYU Studies 27:1987 "Publishing a Book of Mormon Poetry: The Harp of Zion".
  http://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/27.1Lyon%20f9ef2f49-2669-439f-8f18-407351cf305b.pdf
The book was to assist the PEF by selling for more than the cost of printing.  Eventually all the volumes were sold, but only after many were sent to Utah.  It took some time for the Church to recoup its investment.

A couple deserve mention here.  One of these is a poem with regards to the Perpetual Emigration Fund, carrying that name.  I encourages people to donate:

The Perpetual Emigrating Fund.

Come on, ye rich, with all your gifted store;

Give to the poor, and God will give you more!

Your feeling hearts, responsive to His call,

Will find His love and blessing best of all:

Yea, tenfold int’rest on the things you have,

And more than all your charities e’er gave!                 

Why should the rich not help the lab’ring poor?

Both are compell’d to know at mercy’s door!

As well the river scorn the stream and brook

From which it all its swelling greatness took;

Or the great sea retain her liquid store,

Nor give one drop to quench the parched shore;

As wealth withheld accumulated toil,

And say to Poverty,--Starve on the while!

Let richer Saints pour in their glitt’ring gold,

‘Twill pave your way to Zion’s mountain fold!

Ten thousand hearts, with prayerful ardour, seek

The means to live, yet mourn from week to week,

Who could be blest through your beneficence,

To go where labour gains a recompense,

Oh, then! Let love your names in sums record

What you will do for Zion, and the Lord!

Ye poor who labour, learn with pure delight,

How much in value was the widow’s mite!

How farthings multiplied to pence make pounds,

And pounds, to hundreds, thousands—have no bounds!

Till ever Saint reliev’d, and sinner stunned,

Will shout,--LOOK HERE! At this Perpetual Fund!

The author does not have a lot of gathering poems as you would expect, but there are some.   These are a couple examples:

Strike the Lyre

Poor outcasts we, still forced to flee,

By mad sectarians driven,

Condemned, despised, robbed, and reviled,

Without an insult given.

For many years we’ve sown in tears,

Yet, dauntless we’ll remain!

With Ephraim blest, we soon shall rest

So strike the Lyre again, again,

So strike the lyre again.

Song of Zion  (chorus)

Far away from vain strife

There’s a land in the West,

Where our friends live the best,

‘Tis the Valley of Life!

I want to quote a couple more poems I found enjoyable.  One dwells upon helping the poor, but also hits the theme that one needs to develop the means in order to accomplish this:

Practical Religion

With diligence we’ll still pursue

Those acts of grace and mercy due

To toil worn, lab’ring man!

We’ll help the helpless, and secure

The means of life to bless the poor,

And help them all we can.

Cholera was a big killer of the time, not only in England but around the globe.  Poor sanitation conditions were part of the cause.  Cholera was also a culprit along the Pioneer Trail:

Cholera

What wailing’s this I hear, at home abroad?

A strange foreboding of calamity,

Which all men dread, and few can understand:

At which the vulgar stare, and more profane

Would love to jest it out of countenance.

Yet, still it comes with stealthy, murd’rous step;

The grave and gay, alike before it fall;

The learned seem baffled at its dark approach,

And, as an antidote, propose what might

Have been a sure preventative to some,

If timely given!  But common charity

Must see its haggard victim breed disease;

And when its influence spreads, retire afraid

At what their sins have made! And say ‘tis DEATH!

Chapter 10e: On to Salt Lake

On to Salt Lake

 

The Saints were in the cove until Sunday, Nov. 9 when they made another start.  They wagon companies had cached most of their goods, freeing the wagons for transporting frozen pioneers.  The handcart pioneers had also cached much of their goods, and left most of the handcarts behind.  “Nearly all of the handcarts have been left behind.”  (Bleak, CH 2)  Since Devil’s Gate, they only had one handcart per tent:

 

   A council was held in which it was decided that we should leave all our clothing and cooking utensils (except what was absolutely necessary, such as a blanket to wrap ourselves in and the clothing we stood in) to be left at Devils Gate and that a number of the brethern who had come out to meet us should stay to take care of them until spring should open (when they would be sent for from the valley) and that we leave all our hand carts, except one to each tent in order to carry our cooking utensils only.

   …However we made another start, some with bundles on their backs, a number of others would join together and put them on a handcart. Some would be crying, others singing, and thus went trudging along as best we could.  (Openshaw, CH)

 

They now only used the covered carts, for cooking utensils and sleep covers.   Langley would have been moved to a wagon, but Isaac indicated he was one still with a handcart.  Others of the other Saints did not have handcarts, but were still walking.  “I pulled for 1130 miles to Pacific Springs, Wyoming.”  (Wardle, CH)  Pacific Springs is just past South Pass.

A rescuer reported slow progress.  “Our travel was very slow at first. Five or ten miles a day was all we could make.”  (Cluff, Church History)  A few days after leaving the cove, by Nov. 11, Ephraim Hanks met the handcart company.  He was instrumental in saving many of the Saints.  “Very few men—or members of the rescuing party, if any, surpassed Ephraim Hanks in the services and assistance that he rendered our company, day and night, until the last one of us reached Salt Lake, and from that day till this we have been crowning him with thanks and blessings.”  (Rogerson, Church History) 

Ephraim found them just before they stopped for the day.  He brought with him buffalo meat draped over his mule, which he distributed to the pioneers.  Ephraim also talked about his anointments and healings, which commenced with that first night.  He and Daniel Tyler visited the tent of a man on his death bed at the request of his wife.  Brother Tyler said, ‘I cannot administer to a dead man.”    Brother Tyler went back to bed, leaving Ephraim Hanks to lay out the body.  Instead Ephraim recruited several men to help him warm the body with heated water.  He then anointed him with oil.  They then laid their hands on his head and “commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to breathe and live.”  This man began to breath, stood up and sang a hymn.  His wife went about camp saying, “My husband was dead, but is now alive. Praised be the name of God. The man who brought the buffalo meat has healed him.” (Hanks p 50)

            You can imagine the general excitement caused by this healing.  Ephraim was then in demand throughout the camp to bless this person or that.  “’Come to me,’ or ‘my dying child’ were some of the requests that were made of me.” (Ibid)  He spent days going from tent to tent administering to the sick.  “The result of this our labor of love certainly redounded to the honor and glory of a kind and merciful God.  In score of instances when we administered to the sick, and rebuked the diseases in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sufferers would rally at once; they were healed almost instantly.  I believe I administered to several hundred in a single day…”  A young man he blessed was healed immediately, dressed himself and danced a hornpipe on the end board of a wagon.  (ibid)

            Isaac made no mention of having been blessed personally by Ephraim Hanks, but there is no doubt he would have been the witness to not only the suffering of the Saints, but also the miracles performed in their behalf.  However not even Ephraim could heal everyone, or cure all the infirmities.  Many cases he also served as surgeon:

 

But notwithstanding these manifestations of the Lord's goodness, [m]any of the immigrants whose extremities were frozen, lost their limbs, either whole or in part.  Many such I washed with water and castile soap, until the frozen parts would fall off, after which I would sever the shreds of flesh from the remaining portions of the limbs with my scissors. Some of the emigrants lost toes, others fingers, and again others whole hands and feet;…  But so far as I remember there were no fresh cases of frozen limbs after my arrival in camp.   (Ibid p 48)

 

              As the train moved toward Salt Lake City, Ephraim stayed with them and would hunt buffalo.  He supplied the pioneers with a good amount of meat. 

It wasn’t until Nov 14 that it was recorded “No death in camp tonight.”  (Burton, CH 1)  As more and more relief wagons were met, the baggage was transferred into the wagons, the handcarts were abandoned one after another:

 

Not many days after the departure of the companies from Devils Gate they were met by a train of wagons with supplies from Zion. Following this train came another and then another and from that time on the road was kept pretty well opened. As the trains came the number of handcarts diminished as the aged were taken into wagons and made quite comfortable. By the time we reached Ft Bridger the entire handcart people were being carried with their goods, in wagons.  (Cluff, Church History)

 

As they approached the valley, more and more rescuers met them.  Isaac may have been relieved of his duty of hunting for firewood, as often the fires would already have been started by the “valley boys” before they reached camp.  “As we neared the vallies—younger men—boys in their red shirts, their trousers thrust well down into their boot tops made their appearence felling the dry timber for our fires—& even trying to make merriment to cheer up our gloomy & sorely tried people.”  (Jones, Albert, CH 2)  “The Brethern from Salt Lake continued meeting us and some times, we had a good cheering fire built for us when we got into camp.”  (Camm, CH 2)

            On Nov 17 the ox wagons were left behind so they had mule pulled wagons only, which could travel more quickly; “expect to travel 20 to 25 miles a day.”  (Bleak, Ch 2)  As they met more rescuers the handcarts were left behind.  “As the emigrants traveled up the sweet Water and over the mountain, more relief wagons met them from the valley, and one by one the hand carts were abandoned.”  (Loynd, Ch)  It wasn’t until Nov. 19 that Brother Burton records that all the Saints were then in wagons.  This was shortly after leaving the Sweetwater, so would have been close to South Pass and Pacific Springs.  (Burton, CH 1)  “In traveling up the Sweet Water we began to meet teams sent to our aid, which relieved the situation to such an extent that when we reached the head of the Sweet Water we were able, on the 19th of November, to get most if not all of the emigrants in the wagons and from this time on we made good time.”  (Burton, CH 2)  Thomas Steed, one of the rescuers, mentions that after having pulled back to fort Bridger, he and a group with their wagons met the handcart company at Pacific Springs.  (Steed, CH)

            A  rescuer who met the handcart company at Fort Bridger recorded, “This was the saddest sight I have seen.  The biggest part of them were given out and nearly frozen to death; some with their feet frozen, some with their hands frozen.  It was a sight that would make one's heart ache just to look at them.”  (Wadsworth, CH)

            Eventually the pioneers were allowed to sleep in the wagons at night.  However this was not always a blessing:

 

…the good brother that award [owned] the wagon told us that we could sleep in his wagon and he would make a hole in the snow and make his bed there[.] he thought we would be warmer in the wagon[.] we made our bed there but we only had one old quilt to lie on and in the night I woke up and called to Mother I am freezing[.] the side I had laid on was so benomed [benumbed] with cold Mother got up and helped me out of the wagon[.] there was some big fiars burning in several places in the camp and lots of the sisters sit[t]ing and Sleeping near the fiar to Keep warm So I went to the fiar and staid there the remain[d]er of the night[.]  (Archer, CH)

 

            Afterwards Patience learned that if you but some coals from the fire in a bucket, and brought them to the wagon, you could sleep comfortable enough.  (ibid)  Brother Allred, one of these rescuers recorded this after all the Saints were in wagons:

 

Nov 18th. The teams having all arrived we were organized into Companies of (10's) Tens by wagons—each ten taking up a Company of one hundred as they were organized in the Handcarts—my ten wagons hauling Capt. Mayo's company. All could ride, altho. much crowded. We then set out for the City with this half starved, half frozen and almost entirely exausted Company of about 500 saints. But from that time on they did not suffer with hunger or fatiegue, but all suffered more or less with cold. As well as I was provided I even lost my toe nails from frost  (Allred, CH)

 

About a week before they arrived in Salt Lake, one of the rescuers wrote a letter to his family.  He offered a description of the pioneers.  “I am setting. not on the stile. mary. but on a sack of oats with the paper on my knee, by the side of a blazing Camp fire, surrounded by some eight hundred persons, one old lady lays dead within twenty feet of me, babies crying. Some singing some praying, &c &c…. The suffering of the camp from frozen feet and various other causes, I will not attempt to describe, suffice to any bad. bad.”  (Hunter, CH) 

Although they made good time there was still peril going down the mountain to Salt Lake.  “Arriving at the Big Mountain on the evening of the 30th of November, where the snow had piled up on each side of the road nearly to the tops of our wagons, which had been kept open by the efforts of our dear President Brigham Young by the use of ox teams passing up and down the road.”  (Burton, Church History 3)  Brother Jones also mentions going through snow eight feet deep past Little Mountain.  (Jones, Albert, Church History 3)  Harvey Cluff remembered a snow bank.  “…Near the summit a cut with shovels had to be made through a snow drift twenty feet deep.”  (Cluff, Church History)  During some of this pass, the pioneers who were able had to get out and walk.  “We had to travel over two mountains before reaching Salt Lake City. One called the large Mountain and one the little Mountain. All that could was ordered to walk as it was hard pulling for the animals. They built fires here and there to warm by.´ (Goodaker, CH) “We had a hard time for the Canyon was full of snow and it was all we could do to get through. The authorities had sent out wagons and men from Salt Lake to put up tents, clear the snow from the ground, and to set the fires to [so] they could start them as soon as we came in sight. They did and it was a welcome sight to see them.”  (Wadsworth, CH)

Shortly before entering the valley, a bushel of onions arrived to them with the statement, Eat all you want.”  It had been some time since they had heard anyone say this.  Burton documents the donation of onions. (Burton, Church History 4)  Isaac later talked of this day.  “In Parley’s Canyon they were camped at a place called, ‘The Dell.’  A group from Salt Lake City met them with more food which consisted of cold biscuits and onion.  With word from Brigham Young to, ‘Eat all you want.’ What a wonderful message to a group of people who had not had all they wanted to eat for weeks.”  (Rupp)  The Dell, or Little Dell is about 9 miles up Emigration Canyon, and just over the top of the canyon into the Parley’s canyon area.  

At the mouth of Emigration Canyon they were met by a group of Saints.  “On a bright Sunday morning we were met in Emigration Canyon by hundreds of people in buggies and wagons and horseback to see us.”  (Camm, CH 1) The Handcart Saints arrived on a Sunday afternoon:

 

We were received by the saints, some with tears in their eyes and some with joy. We were a pitiful sight to see, and for weeks this company was not allowed to eat much nor to see themselves in a mirror. President Young met us, and when he saw us he was so melted down with grief at sight of our condition he had to go home sick, but he blessed us first.  (Clark, Church History 1)

 

Brother Allred gives a good description of the last few days of the trip, and entering the valley:

 

After geting well started Capt. Grant with a number of others started ahead to the City leaving Robert T. Burton in Command with me to assist him, and after hard marches & much suffering, which was however, lessened by assistance from Salt Lake City in the shape of Cooked provisions & men to Clear the snow on the mountain passes—making it possible for our much exausted teams to get along with their heavy loads, we arrived in the City in triumph. Capt. Burton leading one & I the other as we moved up the Street in two lines to the Tithing yard where we were greeted with much praise & a hearty welcome to the City of the saints where we as well as the new comers could rest from our labours and our work could follow us.   (Allred, CH)

 

            Entering the Valley, the handcart members may have felt much like Johan Ahmanson, who had preceded them with the Willie Company by a few weeks: 

 

Many forgot the tribulations they had endured upon glimpsing the sudden vista…. From that distance the city with its light gray adobe houses looked like a large encampment, and the Salt Lake Valley, which had a breadth of about thirty miles from east to west, resembled a basin or dried up lake, with its huge mountain masses ranging upward on all sides.  Although the vegetation was now dead, and the eye of the observer met only a desolate treeless valley, surrounded by bare, reddish mountains, yet the impression made by the whole scene was still very pleasing.  (Johan Ahmanson as quoted in Olsen p 176)

 

Langley Bailey described the arrival in Salt Lake.  He had ridden in a wagon since martin’s Cove:

 

   Our emerging from Immigration [Emigration] canyon Sun, Nov. 30 will never be forgotten. I was lifted up in the wagon, more dead than alive, and saw in the distance houses. Christopher Columbus and his men were no more pleased [illegible to rejoice [illegible habitations once more. When [illegible] the city the people were coming out of meeting. Hundreds came and viewed us with much amazement. (Bailey, CH 1)

   We arrived in Salt Lake City Sunday noon comming out of immergration [Immigration] canyon. I was lifted up in the wagon could see houses in the distance. It <was;> like the Isrealites of old in beholding the promised land. date Nov 30, 1856.  (Bailey, CH 2)

 

 

A sister noted that they were taken to the Assembly Hall, where, “”the floor was covered with straw and there was a nice warm fire for us.”  Isaac provided this description of their arrival:

 

  We arrived there Nov. 30, 1856 having taken us Six (6) months and five (5) days to come from Liverpool England to Salt Lake City U.S.A.

   President Brigham Young along with many of the other Brethren and Women came to welcome us and took us into their homes, fed and warmed us and gave us warm clean beds to rest our weary bodies.  (Wardle, CH) 

 

Chapter 10d: Martin's Cove

Martin’s Cove 

The Valley Boys not only provided service at the Sweetwater, but also at the cove this day:

Once the handcart pioneers reached the cove where they were to camp for the night, a great amount of work still needed to be done. Wood had to be gathered, fires built, meals provided, and tents pitched. The rescuers took as much of the burden of these vital needs as possible, with much of this responsibility falling upon those who had taken the weaker members of the company in wagons. Heber McBride recalled that at the cove “the men from Salt Lake would clean off the snow and pitch the tents and get wood for all the families that had lost their Father and then they would help the rest what they could.”  Concerning the reunion with his mother who had preceded him to the cove, McBride wrote, “We went into a cove in the mountain and got out of the wind and when we got there the tent was up and Mother and Mrs. [Mary Ann] Barton [were] sitting by a good fire.”  McBride further noted that the rescuers “put the tents up and got wood and took care of Mother [who was very ill] and the 3 little ones.”  (Orton 2)

Isaac, who had drawn his handcart to the ravine, had still more work to do after they arrived at camp.  He was compelled to gather firewood.  Hanks [not Hanks who still hadn’t arrived but another valley boy] forced them to go hunt for wood which they found just over a little hill.  (Rupp)  This incident is told in more detail by a docent at the cove:

Visitor: Can you share about the guy that cut down the tree?
Docent: Well that was Isaac Wardle.  Isaac Wardle was a young man; in his early 20s.  And uh, he had pulled and pushed, him and another kid about the same age, had pulled and pushed other handcart people, and did everything, and by the time he got up in here in the cove he was just spent and he sat down; and one of the valley boys came over and he said "we need you to go and cut some firewood."  And he says "no, I'm not going to.  I'm going to just sit here and die."  And the valley guy says to him, "no you're not.  You're going to get up, and  you're going to go down and you're going to go out and you're going to cut down three trees and bring them back for firewood. Here's the ax, and you go do it now."  And he says, "no, I'm not going to."  And uh, the valley boy insisted the next time, almost physically insisted.  And he got him up; and he kept coming here and he cut down three trees somewhere.  We think we have identified the stump according to President Hinckley.  And there are stumps.  And he cut down those three trees.  And later in life in his journal he said it was that act that preserved his life.  Otherwise he would have; and he thanked, in his journal, that valley boy, that insisted he get up and make that happen.  And that saved his life.  (aProductofUSA)

This story is also told in the blog of someone who participated in a modern-day trek:

Isaac Wardle, was freezing and starving in Martin's Cove in November of 1856.  He thought he was at his end.  One of the rescuers asked him to go chop down a tree for firewood before he sat down.  Isaac didn't want to and eventually had to be physically forced to go do it.  Once done, he was sent back twice to chop down more trees. The process ended up invigorating him and saved his life.  These are believed to be two of the three tree stumps that still remain.  (Courtney)  (see the picture in the introducation)

The handcarts were used to fetch firewood.  Some of the valley boys also gathered firewood.  (See Broomhead, CH)   Isaac was not the only pioneer who had to gather wood, despite the efforts of the valley boys. 

When he arrived at the camp, he had to climb the mountain to cut some cedar for firewood. The "boys" of the relief party had cut some wood for the camp, but that was all appropriated before he arrived in camp. So he went on the mountain, and the mountains there are little else than rocks, and he took his little hatchet, for axes were few in camp. Green cedar was of little use. Nothing but dry cedar was really serviceable for fuel, and the dry cedar was almost as hard as iron, while his hatchet had not been ground since he left the Missouri, if it had since he left Iowa city. So I will leave you to imagine how long he was that night before he succeeded in getting fuel for those depending on him. (Jaques, CH)

Isaac would have had the task of setting up their tent that night as well.  The wind played a nasty trick with the tents in camp that first night. 

Camp was made, tents set, supper over and the people retired for the night when a Snow Storm accompanied by a raging wind from the north came over the mountain and with a terrific whirrl arround the cove levelled every tent to the ground. Here again the Utah boys found that their services verry much needed. To rescue the people from beneath their tents and re-set the tents in the dark hours of the night was a very trying ordeal for the boys and also the people but marvilous as it may seem, not a single person was Seriously injured.  (Cluff, Church History)

However it is likely Isaac’s tent did not fall down with all the others. Langley Bailey, in his letter written to Isaac, wrote, “You and me are in much better condissions than we were at this time 60 years ago, I can remember one morning. every tent was blowed down. but ours. You did stake our tent down strong and firm My dear Brother.” (Bailey, Langley)
Another brother noted,  “We stayed in the ravine five or six days on reduced rations. One night a windstorm blew down almost every tent. Many perished of cold and hunger at this place. I am not going into detail about the occurrences at Martin's ravine.”  (Jones, Samuel, CH)
Pitching tents in the snow was quite a task, and with the Wyoming winds it was even more important to do it well to avoid catastrophe during the night.  A young sister commented about the stay in the Cove, “Then, when we camped, they had to scrape a place to camp in and there was not much to make fires with. The rations of food became scarce. There were 4 ounces daily for an adult and 2 for a child and sometimes a little piece of meat. O I’ll never forget it, never!”  (Fullmer, CH 2)  Another sister said, “The tent was frozen and the ground so hard we could not set it up. I think it was two weeks we were without tents.”  (Camm, CH 1)  Young Peter McBride described a night their tent fell down from the wind:

The wind blew the tent down. They all crawled out but me. The snow fell on it. I went to sleep and slept warm all night. In the morning I heard someone say, "How many are dead in this tent?" My sister said, "Well, my little brother must be frozen to death in that tent." So they jerked the tent loose, sent it scurrying over the snow. My hair was frozen to the tent. I picked myself up and came out quite alive, to their surprise.  (McBride, Peter, CH)

A young sister had a similar experience to Peter:

After pitching our tents we lay down on the ground to get some sleep and rest. In the night the tents all blew over. It was all ice and snow where I was lying, and when the tents blew off I didn’t wake up I was so tired. One man came and looked at me. He called some more men over saying, “I wonder if she is dead?” He patted me on the head and just then I opened my eyes. He jumped back. I tried to raise my head but found that my hair was frozen to the ground. They chopped the ice all around my hair, and I got up and went over to the fire and melted the large pieces of ice that were clinging to my hair. The men laughed to think that I could lie there all night with my hair frozen in the ice, but were very glad that I wasn’t dead. (Allen, CH)

Although the cove provided some protection from the elements, conditions were still extreme.  “On our way, we camped at a gulch called "Martin's Ravine". Here we suffered terribly with the cold. It was only with the Power of God that we survived.”  (Zundle, CH)  The cold was unbearable.  The ferocity of the wind, and efforts to combat it were recorded by the rescuers.  “The camp moved half a mile nearer the mountain to get out of the wind and to get wood hander.  Spint that day in cooking and geting wood and fixing ways to break the wind.”  (Broomhead, CH)
However, having the hill in front and the mountains behind did afford some protection from the wind, which protection likely saved lives:
    
     This cove or ravine, was indeed our Valley Forge or graveyard, and though some have censured Captain Martin for taking us there, yet if we had stayed at the Devil's Gate fort it would have been more fatal, on account of the full sweep the bitter cold winds had on us there, and one day or night with the thermometer 11 degrees below zero. Here we had plenty of good cedar wood and shelter on three sides. (Rogerson, CH)

The other goal, of being closer to a ready supply of fuel, was also achieved.  “We reached the cove or ravine in time to get our tents pitched before dark, and found plenty of good, dry cedar and pine, close by on the rocks and ledges.”  (Rogerson, CH)
 However the weather remained cold.  “The night was as cold as nearly any we had at the Devil's Gate, and the snow so frozen to the ground that many were not able to clear it out of the tents, so they threw down their buffalo robes and blankets and lay down exhausted. We remained here the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, 6, 7 and 8—five nights and four days.”  (ibid)  The temperature was eleven degrees below zero during this time.  (Burton, CH 1) 
Heber McBride later wrote of the Cove, “we came up this side of Devils gate about 6 miles and camped in a little cove in the mountains where the wind could not have such a clean sweep at us….then was the time to hear children crying for something to eat[.] nearly all the children would cry themselves to sleep every night[.]”  (McBride, Heber, CH 2)
 The pioneers remembered Martin’s Ravine or Cove with dread.  “At this season and at this part of the plains it commenced getting cold, and were again placed on shorter rations of 4 ounces of flour to each person per day. We traveled to the Sweet Waters River where we camped, being so weak and exhausted that it was almost impossible to move.  Many of our people while there died of starvations while others froze to death by the wayside.”  (Housley, CH)  “After this crossing we camped for several days in a deep gulch called ‘Martin's Ravine’. It was a fearful time and place. It was so cold that some of the company came near freezing to death. The sufferings of the people were fearful, and nothing but the power of a merciful God kept them from perishing. The storms continued unabated for some days.  (Kingsford CH)  “The Company passed off the main road to what was named Martin's Ravine, to escape the terrible blizzards and storms for we had little clothing and had given up all hope; death had taken a heavy tool, the ravine was like an overcrowded tomb, no mortal pen could describe the suffering; such was the condition when word was received that help was on the way.”  (Kirkman, CH)  Patience Archer added this memory:

“we had avery nice camping place[.] here we remained for nine days as we had to wait untill more provisions came to us[.] what suplys had allready been Sent to us had to be left for the breathren that had to Stay all winter at Devels gate[,] as the cattle had nearly all gave out[,] boath in the wagon company and our company and a great deal of freight had to be left there at Devels gate untill spring[.] and we was on four oz. of flour aday nearly all the time we was in camp on the Sweet water[.]  (Archer, CH)

The stay was actually five days.  Rations were reduced, as additional relief was longer in arriving than expected due to the storms.  The rations went back to four ounces of flour for adults and two for children:

We then went into a canyon where we camped for about three weeks. In a few days after we arrived here our rations were reduced to four ounces of flour per day. This happened on account of a number of the brethern having to stay a[t] Devil’s Gate until spring to guard the effects that the company had left. Having to leave all the flour that it was thought we could do without until we should meet a fresh supply from the valley… (Openshaw, CH)

The oxen and animals continued to die, or were killed and supplied what nourishment they could, but they were very lean.  This would not have been very good for Langley’s health issues.  “Here nearly all the balance of our oxen died, and several were found each morning dead between the tents, and some with their heads close to the ashes of our campfires. Others were knocked in the head before they did die, cut up and eaten, together with many a pound of rawhide, after roasting off the hair.”  (Rogerson, CH)  “they began killing the poor oxen that had not died and distributing the hyde and bones among the people to try and keep them from starving[.]”  (McBride, Heber, CH 2)  “The next day we had nothing to eat but some bark from trees.”  (McBride, Peter, CH)

Book Review: The Martin Handcart Company at the Sweetwater

Book Review: The Martin Company at the Sweetwater: Another Look.  This is an article published in the BYU Studies journal in 2006 (45, no. 3).  It was written by Chad M. Orton.  This article takes another historical look at the stories we have been told of the crossing at the Sweetwater.  The traditional story comes from Solomon F. Kimball who told how three 18-year old boys entered the water and helped the entire company cross the Sweetwater, and have effects from the cold the remainder of their lives, and all eventually dying from the consequences.  Brigham Young guaranteed them all Celestial Glory as a result of their sacrifice. 
Orton points out that this story, to a great degree, kept the handcart story alive in the minds of the members of the Church.  However, factually it does have some lapses.  There were more than three boys who entered the water; at least five and maybe more.  Others were doing other equally important duties that day.  Although those who entered the water were young, their ages varied from twenty-four to sixteen.  It is evident the boys did not carry everyone over the river.  The invalids were taken in wagons.  Some of the men forded the river, often pulling handcarts.  The women and children had first claim to being carried over the river, although some men were carried. 
It could well be that some of the young men had later health effects as a result—arthritis and such.  Many of them had careers which would have been difficult with physical limitations—teamster for instance.  They mostly lived long lives, and generally died from other causes. 
As to the promise from Brigham Young, it was elsewhere quoted as that they would be immortalized, which they have as thousands go to Martin’s Cover yearly and hear the story of their sacrifice.  Some even ford the river with a handcart.
This article lead me to a couple other shorter articles through the bibliography.  Belated Emigrants of 1856 by Solomon F Kimball was published in the Improvement Era February 1914.  Another is an autobiography of Janneta Ann McBride which is included in “The Story of the McBride Family” by Bruce I. McBride and David B. McBride.
This is an article which provides great insight to this event, and appears to be well researched.

Martin's Cove, Isaac Wardle

This is the transcript and link for docent talk about Isaac Wardle at Martin's Cove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHaLkeVi7I&feature=gv


Visitor: Can you share about the guy that cut down the tree?
Docent: Well that was Isaac Wardle.  Isaac Wardle was a young man; in his early 20s.  And uh, he had pulled and pushed, him and another kid about the same age, had pulled and pushed other handcart people, and did everything, and by the time he got up in here in the cove he was just spent and he sat down; and one of the valley boys came over and he said "we need you to go and cut some firewood."  Ane he says "no, I'm not going to.  I'm going to just sit here and die."  And the vakkey guy says to him, "no you're not.  You're going to get up, and  you're going to go down and you're going to go out and you're going to cut down three trees and bring them back for firewood. Here's the ax, and you go do it now."  And he says, "no, I'm not going to."  And uh, the valley boy insisted the next time, almost physically insisted.  And he got him up; and he kept coming here and he cut down three trees somewhere.  We think we have identified the stump according to President Hinckley.  And there are stumps.  And he cut down those three trees.  And later in life in his journal he said it was that act that preserved his life.  Otherwise he would have; and he thanked, in his journal, that valley boy, that insisted he get up and make that happen.  And that saved his life.

The young man who pulled with Isaac was John Bailey, 15.  Together they had hauled Langley, John's  brother, most of the way across the plains.  This day is most likely the day they would have forded the Sweetwater to get into the cove.



Young Isaac Wardle, was freezing and starving in Martin's Cove in November of 1856. He thought he was at his end. One of the rescuers asked him to go chop down a tree for firewood before he sat down. Isaac didn't want to and eventually had to be physically forced to go do it. Once done, he was sent back twice to chop down more trees. The process ended up invigorating him and saved his life. These are believed to be two of the three tree stumps that still remain.
http://andwecalledhermiranda.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

Chapter 10c: At the Sweetwater

At the Sweetwater

After it became obvious that the party would not be able to travel for several days because of the extreme cold a ravine, which would provide some protection from the weather, and close to the mountains where firewood would be available was scouted, and it was determined to move the handcart company there.  This was a ravine where the rescuers had camped a few days before and was described as “a lovely cove in the mountain across from the fort where we had plenty of fuel and forage for animals.” (Cluff, CH)  This ravine would become known as Martin’s Cove or Ravine.
There were not enough cabins at Devil’s Gate to provide protection for but a few from the wind.  “Cold continued very severe.  People could not move; stowed away the goods of the trains in the houses.  Capt. Martin’s camp moved 3 miles and camped.”  (Burton, CH 1)  There was also a lack of wood for their fires:

   THE winter storms had now set in, in all their severity. The provisions we took amounted to almost nothing among so many people, many of them now on very short rations, some almost starving. Many were dying daily from exposure and want of food. We were at a loss to know why others had not come on to our assistance.
   The company was composed of average emigrants; old, middle-aged and young; women and children. The men seemed to be failing and dying faster than the women and children.
   The hand-cart company was moved over to a cove in the mountains for shelter and fuel; a distance of two miles from the fort.  (Jones, Dan)

To escape the wind, Nov 4 the Martin Company moved to Martin’s Cove or Ravine.  And thus came into play one of the most dramatic scenes of the handcart trek.  For the handcart company to reach this ravine, they would have to ford the Sweetwater River. This river isn’t very wide, but at this time there were ice chunks in the water, and the pioneers would have to go with the stream for a time because of the steepness of the opposite bank, making the ford longer than going straight across.  A pioneer commented, “It was decided that morning that we should cross the Sweet Water. and go into what is known as Martin's ravine, as there was some cedars for fuel.”  (Jones, Sam, CH)  The weather earlier in the day was unsuitable for traveling, and consequently the move took place in the afternoon and evening.  (Orton) 
John Jaques described the experience this way.  He speaks of himself in the third person as he was pulling the cart involved:
  
   The passage of the Sweetwater at this point was a severe operation to many of the company. Like Napoleon's passage of the Beresina, it was the worst river crossing of the expedition. It was the last ford that the emigrants waded over. The water was not less than two feet deep, perhaps a little more in the deepest parts, but it was intensely cold. The ice was three or four inches thick, and the bottom of the river muddy or sandy. I forget exactly how wide the stream was there, but I think thirty or forty yards. It seemed a good deal wider than that to those who pulled their handcarts through it. Before the crossing was completed, the shades of evening were closing around, and as everybody knows, that is the coldest hour of the twenty-four, or at least it seems to be so, in a frosty time, and it seemed so then, for cold enough it was. The teams and wagons and handcarts and some of the men forded the river. A son of Heber C. Kimball and a son of George D. Grant, and I believe several others of the relief party, waded the river, helping the handcarts through and carrying the women and children and some of the weaker of the men over. If I were certain of the names of all those brave waders I would insert them here.
   In that rear part of the company two men were pulling one of the handcarts, assisted by two or three women, for the women pulled as well as the men…  One of those men, who was much worn down, asked, in a plaintive tone, “Have we got to go across there?”  On being answered yes, he was so much affected that he was completely overcome.  That was the last straw.  His fortitude and manhood gave way.  He exclaimed, “O dear?  I can’t go through that,” and burst into tears.  His wife, who was by his side, had the stouter heart of the two at that juncture and she said soothingly, “Don’t cry Jimmy.  I’ll pull the handcart for you.”  A noble and generous offer, which, however was not carried out. Jimmy besought one of the "boys" from "the valley," who was in the water, to carry him over. The "boy" urged that the women and children had the first claim, but finally consented to carry him across. Jimmy got on the back of the "boy" to ride over, and the "boy" started with him. This little episode, however, ended badly for Jimmy, for, before he was carried entirely across, the "boy" slipped and fell with Jimmy into the water, very wet water it was too, and very cold, freezingly cold, enough to congeal anything. The women with the handcart were carried over safe, and the cart remained with the one man to pull it through.  He rolled up his pants as high as he could, pulled off his stockings and boots which he had happened to receive at Greasewood reek, put on a pair of old shoes he carried with him, and all alone went into the river with naked legs and with his cart laden with pots and kettles. It was easy enough to go into the river, but not so easy to pull across it and get out again. The way of the ford was to go into the river a few yards, then turn to the right downstream a distance, perhaps forty or fifty yards, and then turn to the left and make for the opposite bank. When in the water the narrow felloes of the cart wheels cut into the soft bottom of the river bed and he soon got stalled. Two of the "boys" in the water went to his help, and one soon exclaimed "D-u it, you don't pull an ounce!" So hard was the tugging at the cart that it required the utmost combined strength of the three to take the vehicle through safe to dry land. While in the river the sharp cakes of floating ice below the surface of the water struck against the bare shins of the emigrant inflicting wounds which never healed until he arrived at Salt Lake and the dark scars of which he bears to this day….Going through the river and taking his cart single-handed to camp after he had effected the crossing of the river, on that piercing cold evening was the hardest piece of tugging he had encountered on the entire journey…  (Jaques, CH) 

Josiah Rogerson later described the hardship:

Martin's hand company left the camp at Devil's Gate some time in the forenoon, making straight west to the Sweetwater. The creek here was at least two rods wide, and from two to three feet deep, with plenty of ice and snow, so as to carve the recollection forever in the minds of all that waded that stream. Our few wagons helped to carry all the children they could, the aged and wornout, and many a child was pulled across in the father's covered cart…  (Rogerson, CH)

As they crossed the river, they were assisted by the boys from the Valley.  These descriptions of the crossing have been left for us:

   The creek here was at least two rods wide, and from two to three feet deep, with plenty of ice and snow, so as to carve the recollection forever in the minds of all that waded that stream. Our few wagons helped to carry all the children they could, the aged and worn out, and many a child was pulled across in the father's covered cart, but we had one hero on this occasion, whose name deserves to be chiseled on the pedestal of the throne in heaven, and that was Daniel H. Grant, the son of General D. Grant of Farmington, Utah, about 18 or 21 years of age, who jumped into that cold, icy stream, and for nearly two hours carried across on his back, with their arms clasped around his neck, fully 150 children, young ladies and the aged of box [both]sexes. When we were all across, he walked in his suit of ice some two and a half miles to the camp at the Gate, where his father did all possible for him that night, but he told me ten or twelve years afterward in Utah that his services that day in the Sweetwater had made him an invalid for life and a permanent rheumatic, and so far as health and strength, a ruined man.  (Rogerson, CH)

   The crossing of the Sweet Water near this point proved a terrible ordeal to the weary travelers, standing, shivering with cold, on the river bank. They watched the huge pieces of ice floating down stream. The water at this crossing was about two feet deep and in other places still deeper. In spite of the cheering information that this was the last river they would have to ford, it seemed impossible for the emigrants in their weakened condition to make the attempt. At the prospect before them not only women and children wept but even strong men shed tears freely….David P. Kimball, George W. Grant and C. Allen Huntington of the relief party entered the icy stream determin[e]d to save life. They waded back and forth helping the hand carts through and carr[y]ing the women and children ac[r]oss the river. Hour after hour they worked incessantly until just as darkness closed in upon them all the company had passed over.  (Loynd, CH)

   …The north wind blowing hard and cold but the men came and took the tent down and fixed our load on our cart and they went ahead and broake the road[.] went about 2 miles and turend and crost s[w]eetwater[.] when we saw that we felt very bad to think we had to ford that stream and I dont think we could have made it in our week[e]ned condition but when we got there we was very much suprised for there were some men there[.] they carried us across[.]  (McBride, Heber, CH 1)

   I fealt that I could still walk if I did not have the cart to pull[,] but oh what a dissapointment[,] the next morning we faunt [found] it was only those could ride that was to[o] sick and weak to pull there carts and so we girls all pretty well in health[,] we had to start out with our cart again[.] as we started out from camp[,] there was quite a nomber of the breathren from the valley standing in readyness to help us across the stream of water with our cart[.] I was feeling somewhat bad that morning and when I saw this Stream of water we had to go through I fealt weak and I could not Keep my tears back[.] I fealt ashamed to let those breathren see me shed[d]ing tears[.] I pulled my old bonnet over my face as thay should not See my tears[.]
   there was three brave Men there in the water packing the women and children over on there backs[.]…those poor breathren was in the water nearly all day[.] we wanted to thank them but thay would not listen to My dear Mother fealt in her heart to bless them for there Kindnes[.] she said God bless you for taking me over this water and in such an awfull rough way[.] oh D –m that[!] I dont want any of that[.] you are welcome we have come to help you[.] Mother turned to me saying what do think of that man[?] he is arough fellow[.] I told her that is Brother William Kimble[.] I am told thay are all good men but I daresay that thay are all rather rought in there Manners[,] but we found that thay all had kind good hearts[.] this poor Br Kimble Staid so long in the water that he had to be taken out and packed to camp and he was along time before he recoverd as he was chil[le]d through and in after life he was allways afflicted with rhumetism.  (Archer, CH)  [The rescuer actually wasn’t William Kimble, who was not there that day, but another unknown rescuer.  (see Orton.)]

The traditional account says three of the Valley Boys entered the water, pulling handcarts or carrying people across the river.  These were George W. Grant, David P. Kimball and C. Allen Huntington.  (Kimball, Solomon)  However two more rescuers have been for sure documented as entering the water, adding Stephen W. Taylor and Ira Nebeker.  There may have been others.   As many as eighteen rescuers were in the area and assisting the company with the move this day.  (See Orton.) 
A good percentage of the pioneers were carried across the stream, but not all.  “The brave boys from the valley, under George D. Grant carried the women and children over the Sweet Water river, but the men and able bodied had to wade and take the handcarts with them. The water and ice took me up to the waist, and the clothes had to dry on me. That was a terrible night.”  (Jones, Samuel, CH) 
There was a hierarchy as to who had claim on the wagons, to ride to the Cove, and also to the services of the rescuers in the river.  As many of the infirm, elderly, children and widows would have been in the wagons as they could carry.  However many children and the women would have been expected to walk, and ford the stream.  “As with deciding who would ride in the wagons, the rescuers implemented a priority system at the Sweetwater.  While those who had difficulty walking had first claim on the wagons, those who had first claim on being carried by the rescuers at the river were women and children.”  (Orton)  Some of the older men were also carried across.  “Finally a lull in the raging wind from the north enabled the handcart companies to cross the river and go up to the cove where we had camped as previously mentioned. Men of old age and women were carried across the river on the backs of these sturdy mountain boys.” (Cluff, CH) 
Isaac talks of pulling his cart to Pacific Springs.  After Devil’s Gate most of the handcarts were left behind, but the sturdier carts, about a quarter, made in St. Louis and with canvas covers, were still used to supplement the wagons.  (See Orton.)  Isaac would have been still pulling his cart with the assistance of John Bailey.  Most likely Langley was no longer a passenger, but would have been in a sick wagon.  Of that crossing, S.S. Jones would later recount, “The brave boys from the valley, under George D. Grant carried the women and children over the Sweet Water river, but the men and able bodied had to wade and take the handcarts with them. The water and ice took me up to the waist, and the clothes had to dry on me. That was a terrible night.”  Issac, too would have had a terrible night.
Some of the rescuers were singled out for their efforts this day.  However all the rescuers did whatever they could to help the pioneers:

Every possible assistance from the boys from Utah was freely given. And these young hardy men from the Rockies were a mighty force and power in the salvation of that people. . . . In this instance [carrying pioneers across the river], as in many others, the value of the boys from Zion was a great help to the weary Saints. Camp was made, tents set, supper over and the people retired for the night. (Cluff, CH)