Martin's Cove: Church purchases access, giving visitors a chance to better understand heritage

"We pray that the time may come when this place may be of easier access to all who wish to come here, that those who have control over the access may be touched in their hearts to work quietly to create an easier access that more may come and experience thy Spirit which we felt this day." - President Gordon B. Hinckley

On Aug. 15, 1992, President Hinckley stood on a sandy, sagebrush-covered hill, overlooking Martin's Cove in desolate central Wyoming a few miles from Independence Rock, and dedicated a monument in honor of the Martin handcart pioneers of 1856 who sacrificed so much on their tragedy-plagued trek to Zion.Through the years, it has not been easy to get to the horseshoe-shaped cove, where the pioneers of the Martin company in late October nearly 141 years ago abandoned their handcarts and sought protection from the cold and snow. The 6,100-foot-elevation cove is sandwiched in between the sand dune and the high walls of a mountain with huge granite rocks. Although the cove is on Bureau of Land Management land, its only access was across private land.

First, permission had to be received from the owners of the property, and obviously there were some restrictions on the number of people crossing their land. Then visitors who were granted permission had to cross the Sweetwater River on a "bridge" that, in reality, was a narrow nine-foot railroad boxcar that was only seemingly a hair wider than the width of a vehicle. The boxcar had been placed in the river, allowing vehicles to cross on top. Without barriers on the sides of the "bridge," it was, at best, a thrill to cross the river, and, at the worse, scary.

Then once across, visitors had to make their way uphill for nearly three miles on what would stretch the imagination to be called a road. Particularly in the spring, a four-wheel-drive vehicle was a must to make it through the water-saturated marsh lands and across the huge, jagged rocks along the way to the cove.

Today, the prayer that President Hinckley, then first counselor in the First Presidency, uttered at the time of the monument dedication has been answered.

Under an agreement reached last summer between the Church and the owners of the Sun Ranch, the way has been opened for tens of thousands of people to visit the site - however, not by vehicle, but on foot, pulling or pushing a handcart if they wish. The Church purchased the easement to the cove, as well as to Devil's Gate, a giant rock formation on the ranch that was one of the major landmarks on the Mormon/California/Oregon trails, which at this point was really one trail. The Church also agreed to purchase the entire Sun Ranch at a later time.

This year particularly, during the 150th anniversary of the Mormon Trail, visitors to Martin's Cove are expected to be numerous. "We've heard as many as a quarter of a million to half a million," said John Creer, president of Farm Management Co., which manages the property. "We just don't know."

To accommodate the thousands of visitors, the ranch headquarters is being converted to a visitors center, staffed by six Church-service missionary couples. The Mormon Handcart Visitors Center will be dedicated May 3 by President Hinckley.

"The shadow of a visitors center is long and will bless us in every way," said R. Scott Lorimer, president of the Riverton Wyoming Stake. "Not only will it bless the members but the non-members as well. It will lead to a strengthening of the Wyoming members, both in Spirit as well as number."

Pres. Lorimer, who first visited the Sun Ranch with his family when he was 6 years old, was instrumental in the Church securing the easement to Martin's Cove. He was asked by President Hinckley in 1992 to negotiate an easement into the cove. "I had no idea what would eventually come out of my visits with various members of the Sun family. To even imagine that the Church would come into possession of these sacred grounds was beyond comprehension."

He said that Martin's Cove and Rock Creek Hollow, 72 miles to the west, where the exhausted Willie handcart company stopped after making the difficult climb across Rocky Ridge and where 13 died in one night, "have truly been consecrated by the sacrifice of our people."

Pres. Lorimer praised the Sun family "for preserving our heritage. Tom De Beau Soliel (Sun) arrived in the Sweetwater Valley around 1860, just four short years after the Martin and Willie Handcart experience. He built his first cabin, which is still standing and will be part of the visitors center, in 1872. The properties have remained in the control of his descendants since that time. He never allowed the family to plow up the ground as he felt it sacred and should remain as the pioneers saw it.

"Martin's Cove is probably the most pristine historical site we have as a people to visit," Pres. Lorimer said.

"They were members of the Martin Handcart Company, the fifth company to come to the valley that year. . . . Terrible was the suffering of those who came here to find some protection from the heavy storms of that early winter. . . . They found themselves in a terrible storm with vivid cold. Their people hungry and cold and dying from sheer exhaustion. They came up to this cove for shelter, and many died here. . . . They are buried somewhere in this earth. We stand here with bared heads and grateful hearts for their sacrifices and the sacrifices of all who were with them along this tragic trail." - From President Hinckley's dedicatory prayer, Aug. 15, 1992

"Our mission is to have people come to this place and to experience, to understand why those handcart pioneers were there in the condition they were," said Brother Creer. "We want people to know the story of the handcart pioneers, and we want them to feel the experience `in their bones.' "

The way visitors will learn the handcart pioneer story and feel the experience is through the visitors center and a trek by handcart to Martin's Cove, said Brother Creer.

At the ranch headquarters, visitors will be able to pick up a handcart, cross the Sweetwater River on a new two-lane, 23-foot-wide bridge, and walk for about two miles along a trail adjacent to the Sweetwater Mountains. Along the trail will be rest stops, and at each stop will be plaques that tell the story of the handcart pioneers. At a point along the trail, visitors will leave their handcarts and then walk another half-mile or so along a path to the cove.

"It's important that people stay on the path," said Brother Creer. "The cove is a very sensitive environment. The sand dune was blown there over the ages and is very fragile." Visitors will be able to walk to and view the monument that President Hinckley dedicated five years ago. At the cove are two natural amphitheaters where groups will be able to meet together, hold a testimony meeting or other service, and ponder their heritage.

"Visitors will be able to feel the cold and the wind, and understand their heritage better, and hopefully take inspiration from those people

the handcart pioneersT and become better people themselves," said Brother Creer.

After leaving the cove, visitors will walk back to where they left their handcarts, and continue their trek back to the visitors center by another trail.

Once again they will have to cross the Sweetwater River. "The hearty ones will pull their handcarts through the river, and experience, in some small way, what the handcart pioneers went through," said Brother Creer. Those who don't want to go through the river can cross it on a new foot bridge, he said. At this point, visitors will be on the actual pioneer trail as they make their way back to the visitors center.

The entire trek is nearly five miles.

At the visitors center, visitors will view exhibits and displays in the five rooms of the 2,000-square-foot center. The first room is the Sun Ranch room, where visitors will be told about the people who owned and preserved the ranch.

"Then we'll take visitors into the Trail Room," said Brother Creer, "and talk about the importance of this area on the trail, where you have the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express all converging."

The next room is the Mormon migration room. "We are going to talk about the motivation of the people who passed here on their way west," he explained. "They were all going for different reasons. The Oregon Trail people were going for land, for a new life. The California people were going for money and get-rich-in-a-hurry. The Mormons were motivated by a whole different set of values.

"So in the migration room, we are going to talk about the restoration of the gospel and the call to gather out of the world." He said only 3 percent of the immigrants came by handcart, and only a third of those were involved in the Willie and Martin companies, which ran into trouble on the high plains of Wyoming because of early snow storms. As a result almost 250 deaths occurred in the two companies and in the Hunt and Hodgett wagon trains, which, at this location, were mixed in with the Martin handcart pioneers.

The Willie and Martin pioneers will be the focus of the fourth room, and why they crossed the plains by handcarts," continued Brother Creer. "It was part of the obligation of the Church to bring the poor to Zion - some people call it a covenant. We'll talk about the Perpetual Emigration Fund. We'll talk about the domino effect of the Willie and Martin companies leaving late from England, leaving late from Iowa City, Iowa, leaving late from Florence, Neb.

"The motivation of these people, the faith of these people being guided by enthusiastic leaders who also had great faith is a wonderful, moving story," said Brother Creer.

In this room will be a memorial, which will include the names of all the immigrants in the two handcart companies and in the Hunt and Hodgett wagon trains. "And we'll include all the names of the rescuers, too," he said. A star will be placed by the names of those who died along the way.

In the fifth room, visitors will view a short video concerning the handcart pioneers.

Stakes in Wyoming have been involved in the preparation for this summer, along with the missionary couples serving at the ranch. The missionaries and members from Riverton, Casper and Rock Springs stakes are building 100 handcarts for visitors to use on their treks to Martin's Cove. The Riverton stake also built the new bridge, which has replaced the old "railroad boxcar bridge," and the foot bridge that crosses the Sweetwater River to the west, with engineering help from a member of the Casper stake. Many other volunteers have worked on research and development of the visitors center and the trail.

Members of the three stakes have devoted about 8,000 man-hours in constructing the two bridges, building trails and handcarts, and working on the visitors center, said Pres. Lorimer. In addition, members have donated the use of heavy equipment, without which, said the stake president, "it would have been impossible to finish the project."

This year will be the first opportunity for tens of thousands to be able to feel and experience to some degree what the handcart pioneers felt and experienced. "We think a visit to Martin's Cove will be a tender experience," Brother Creer said.

"The real message, however, is not about freezing in the snow," said Pres. Lorimer. "It is about an unyielding devotion to gospel truth, belief in a living prophet, and the ability to live together forever as families in the presence of God."

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