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Hub photo by Amy Schweitzer
A display in the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument depicts a
Mormon pulling a handcart across the Sweetwater River in Wyoming.
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KEARNEY — The trip
across Nebraska for the pioneers pushing handcarts was generally filled
with hardships, but the 150th anniversary celebration in Kearney June 2 and
3 should be filled with fun.
Organizers hope to show history in a way history books can’t — pushing a
real handcart, tasting the food they ate, and a candlelight tour will make
it seem like 1856.
Other activities will include living history displays, presentations by the
nation’s leading experts on the handcart pioneers, genealogy presentations,
entertainment and dances.
Buffalo County was the first place some of the companies of handcart
immigrants saw buffalo. Today’s 11th Street that runs through Kearney takes
the same path that the immigrants pushed their handcarts on the Mormon
Trail.
“We were right in the
middle of it,” said Joe Carlson, local history buff and University of
Nebraska at Kearney criminal justice professor.
Trails and Rails Museum, Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, Fort
Kearny State Historical Park and the Kearney’s Visitor’s Bureau are joining
together to present the 150th Anniversary of the Mormon Handcart Pioneers.
It will be in conjunction with the annual Wagons West Celebration at Trails
and Rails.
It will be the largest celebration of the handcart anniversary in the
country, said Ronnie O’Brien at the archway.
“People from all over are excited about our event,” she said, adding they
hope to draw people from Illinois to Utah for the event.
Nationally recognized authors and speakers who have been confirmed to be at
the event include: Paul Willie, the direct descendent of Capt. James
Willie; William Hartley, doctorate graduate of Brigham Young University,
Utah and author; William Hill, from New York, author of many books on the
Mormon Trail; Greg Franzwa, author of books on the Oregon Trail and Lincoln
Highway.
“We have the people who wrote the books,” said Gene Hunt, superintendent of
Fort Kearny Historical State Park, adding that the celebration will tell
more about those who lived it. “We hear about the trails but we forget the
people. We have it in their own words.”
Admittance to Trails and Rails and the museum’s buildings and activities
will be free to the public on June 2. A small admission will be charged for
activities June 3, which will include an old-fashioned fiddle workshop and
contest, live music, cowboy poetry and storytelling.
The archway also has a display that tells the story of two of the handcart
companies’ struggles getting trapped in a Wyoming snowstorm. The display
portrays the company as its members cross the icy Sweetwater River.
While all of the 150th Handcart Celebration activities are free at the
archway, admission to the archway will be charged.
O’Brien said the event will be more participation oriented than the 150th
anniversary of the beginning of the Mormon Trail in 1997 in Kearney.
“It’s more user friendly — you are more a part of the events,” she said of
the two days.
People are being encouraged to join in an actual handcart trek being led by
the direct descendent of Captain James Willie. He led one of the companies
on the handcart trek 150 years ago.
Participants may sign up to walk in memory for one of their own ancestors
or for another pioneer and receive a certificate of participation.
Pre-registration is required for the four- and five-mile handcart treks on
Saturday between the archway and Trails and Rails. Shorter treks of
one-quarter to two miles also are planned on both days, and will be
certificates given.
So far, participants are planning to bring more than 40 handcarts to the
event. Six new carts are being made in Broken Bow for the event.
e-mail to:
amy.schweitzer@kearneyhub.com
What’s It About
Between 1856 and 1860, about 3,000 pioneers pushed and pulled handcarts
across 1,300 miles of the Mormon Trail from Iowa City, Iowa, to Salt Lake
City. A 150th anniversary celebration of the movement of pioneers using
handcarts will be June 2 and 3 in and around Kearney.
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