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05/27/2006
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Organizers tout handcart event’s once-in-a-lifetime aspect
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By AMY SCHWEITZER , Hub
Staff Writer
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KEARNEY — What better way to understand the trials of pioneers than by trying it out ourselves, asks an organizer of the 150th Anniversary of the Handcart Pioneers.
Anyone who wants to learn what it was like to pull a handcart across the prairie can get a taste next weekend in Kearney. The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument and Trails and Rails Museum are sponsoring a celebration of the Mormon handcart companies that began trekking to Utah in 1856.
Joe Carlson of Kearney, a descendent of the Mormon pioneers and an organizer of the event, said he invites people to the free event even as spectators to “see what happened along the Platte River in 1856.”
The two days will expose visitors at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument and Trails and Rails Museum to both the fun of being on the trail headed west and the cold, hard realities that pioneers had to face.
“Walking an average of 15 miles a day pulling or pushing a cart about the size of our car trunks, loaded down with about 400 to 500 pounds of food and clothing, would be work,” Carlson said.
There will be candlelight tours that are mini-one act plays of true stories that happened along the handcart trail. Tickets are free, but must be picked up Friday morning because there are only 400 available.
The candlelight tours are just part of the two-day event that includes handcart treks of one-half mile to five miles that everyone can participate in, genealogy workshops, films about the handcart trips and entertainment.
Paul Willie a descendent of Capt. James Willie, will lead the biggest trek through Kearney on June 3. People are coming to the event from more than 18 states, including California, New York, Georgia, Texas and Nevada.
“This will be the largest number of handcarts assembled in one place in Nebraska since the 1800s,” Carlson said, adding that organizers anticipate 41 handcarts.
“This event is a once-in-a-lifetime. It will never be 150 years ago that the handcart pioneers went through Buffalo County. Nor will you ever see 41 handcarts assembled again in one place in Nebraska,” he said. “We hope that these stories and experiences will help all of us to continue meeting the challenges each of us face in life.”