Published May 20, 2006. Reprinted with permission from the LDS Church News published by the Deseret Morning News.

Celebrations recall handcart pioneer era
Iowa City, Iowa, and Kearney, Neb., to observe landmark anniversary
R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer

Cloy Kent painting of handcart family, which hangs in Iowa City 4th Ward meetinghouse, is prominent in the city's promotion of handcart sesquicentennial observance, one of two celebrations occurring in June. Photo courtesy Iowa City Handcart Sesquicentennial Committee

One hundred fifty years ago this year, the Church inaugurated what was then a revolutionary means of overland travel for moving converts to the Salt Lake Valley, and the brief but famous handcart-pioneer era began. Two cities with connections to Mormon pioneer history — Iowa City, Iowa, and Kearney, Neb. — are observing this landmark anniversary with major celebrations early in June.

Both celebrations are free to the public and are Church-supported but not Church-sponsored.

In Iowa City, where the first handcarts companies embarked in 1856, the celebration will transpire the weekend of June 9-11, the exact dates when the handcart companies left 150 years ago. It will culminate with a closing fireside at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 11.

The celebration kicks off at 7:30 a.m. Friday with opening ceremonies for a youth handcart trek, followed by a daylong symposium at the University of Iowa Memorial Union. Among presenters at the symposium are William Hartley, BYU professor and trail historian; Loren Horton, senior historian emeritus of the Iowa State Historical Society; and Fred Woods, BYU professor and executive director of the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation.

A "Mormon Handcart Pioneer Festival" on Saturday at the University of Iowa will feature "Nauvoo on the Road" activities and demonstrations from historic Nauvoo, Ill.

A commemorative program that evening will feature Paul Willie, a direct descendant of Captain James Willie, whose handcart company is famous for the tragedy and suffering it endured in Wyoming en route to Salt Lake City. A video presentation on loan from the Church's Martin's Cove Historic Site visitors center in Wyoming will be shown.

In addition to the closing fireside, another Sunday event will be an interfaith devotional at 9 a.m. at the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium.

Other events have occurred and will occur in Iowa City in connection with the sesquicentennial, said Kaye Wierda, Iowa City Stake public affairs director. Service projects by Church members have included assisting members of Elder Services Inc., which assists 50 elderly homeowners every spring and fall through local volunteers. In April, four wards of the Church provided some 3,000 work hours — one for each handcart pioneer — delivering food, assisting with a charity carnival, and making items for patients at hospitals and clinics.

And in September, the Johnson County Historical Society in nearby Coralville, Iowa, will be placing a life-size, three-dimensional diorama of a handcart pioneer family at the society's museum. Iowa City is conveniently located on Interstate 80 at the I-380-Highway 218 junction. Nauvoo is just and hour and a half to the south.

Kearney, Neb., also located on Interstate 80, midway between Nauvoo and Salt Lake City, is the site where the Mormon, Oregon and California Trails converge. By the time the handcart companies reached Kearney, they had merged with the original 1847 Mormon Trail; hence Kearney's hosting of its own handcart sesquicentennial observance on June 2 and 3, the weekend before the commemoration in Iowa City.

A central feature of Kearney is the $60 million Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, a unique museum and multi-media exhibit center that spans the interstate highway. Among its attractions are exhibits about the Mormon Trail and the handcarts. The monument — and its education director, Ronnie O'Brien — have been key organizers of the handcart sesquicentennial event in Kearney. (Please see Church News centerspread in Feb. 25, 2006, issue.)

"This is a community event," emphasized Joseph Carlson, a Kearney Nebraska Stake high councilor and event organizer. "There is only a very small number of LDS people in our entire geographical area. Our handcart celebration is free to the public, and we are on the actual trail just north of historic Fort Kearny. This is a historic event where people can learn and actually live some of the history by pulling handcarts. Those who desire, we encourage to come wearing pioneer-type clothing."

Brother Carlson noted that the celebration will have 41 handcarts, the largest number assembled in one place in Nebraska since the 1800s. Among them will be one of only three known original handcarts, he said.

A variety of handcart treks of one-half, one, four and five miles will be available; visitors may participate in behalf of one of their ancestors. Paul Willie, the descendant mentioned above of Captain James Willie, will be leading the five-mile trek.

A Candlelight Tour on Friday evening will feature brief one-act plays or vignettes of true stories that happened along the handcart trail.

"Our living-history camping area will have about 24 white canvas tents of the period," he said, "with people from Nevada, Idaho and Nebraska, living as though they were pioneers on the trail. They will be doing constant day-to-day things while in camp. This is a complete educational experience in itself.

Brother Carlson added: "We have storytellers, musicians and entertainers from over seven states all coming and performing without pay. They are all doing this to help keep the memory of the handcart pioneers alive."

For more information on the Kearney celebration, access the Web site at www.handcarttrek.org, where one may register to participate in one of the handcart treks.

More information on the Iowa City celebration is at www.handcartpioneer.com.

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com