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IHI Features Mormon Handcarts
Iowa Heritage Illustrated highlights the sesquicentennial of the Mormon handcart migration through Iowa with a fascinating article about the endurance and passion of these faithful followers.
By the mid-1850s, Mormon leaders needed less expensive ways to move poor immigrants to Utah. Costs for wagons and ox-teams were too high. In October 1855, church leader Brigham Young announced a handcart system by which the Church would provide carts to be pulled by hand across the Mormon trail. As a result, between 1856 and 1860, nearly 3,000 Latter Day Saint emigrants walked to Utah from Iowa City (where the handcarts were manufactured), a distance of 1,300 miles, or from Florence Neb., 1,030 miles.
The carts had hickory or oak wagon beds and hickory shafts, side pieces and axles. Wheels were as far apart as normal wagon wheels. Each cart carried 400 to 500 pounds of food, bedding, clothing and cooking utensils and needed two strong people to pull it. Follow the trek of the Mormons as they pulled these handcarts across the Iowa landscape, and the challenges they faced along the way, in the June issue of Iowa Heritage Illustrated.
The Mormon Handcart Sesquicentennial will also be commemorated in Iowa
City with a symposium and other activities on Friday, June 9th through Sunday,
June 11th. For more information, including a schedule of events, visit:
http://www.historicnauvoo.net/cal_display.cfm?EventID=6B0BEB11-123F-475D-DBE0E5B529B3521F&Type=1
