Artists depict tragic handcart story

By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006 8:12 p.m. MDT
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Artists, authors and at least one documentary filmmaker are slated to release their interpretations of events surrounding the Willie and Martin Handcart Co. disaster, in which scores of Latter-day Saint converts died of starvation and exposure on the high plains of Wyoming 150 years ago in October.

"Sweetwater Rescue: The Willie and Martin Handcart Story," by local filmmaker Lee Groberg, will premiere Sunday, Oct. 8, on KBYU-TV, Ch. 11. The PBS documentary chronicles the story of the ill-fated handcart companies, whose members left Iowa in 1856 bound for the Salt Lake Valley, pulling handcarts that carried their scanty belongings.

The film is slated for nationwide release later this year.

Long memorialized by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an example of faith and courage in the face of unimaginable conditions, the two handcart companies were caught in early Wyoming blizzards without shelter or adequate provisions. A rescue party dispatched by then-LDS Church President Brigham Young from Salt Lake City saved the majority of the stranded emigrants, and their stories have become legendary in chronicles of LDS history.

Groberg filmed the documentary in Wyoming earlier this year, casting several of the handcart company members' descendants as major characters and extras. A short film explaining the making of the documentary was shown Thursday at Jordan Commons to members of the LDS Booksellers Association, who are holding their annual convention at the South Towne Expo Center this week.

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In the film, Groberg said he has long wanted to tell the story of the handcart companies and their rescue and was finally able to do so after 10 sponsors provided the funding. "Because of the nature of the story, I truly believe it was a consecrated effort," he said, praising historians' passion for detailing facts about the events that "I had never known before."

Heidi Swinton, a local writer and historian who has partnered with Groberg in past documentary films about LDS history, wrote the film's script and an accompanying book by the same title, which is set to be released next month. The coffee-table book includes original artwork by more than three dozen artists, commissioned to interpret specific events in the history of the handcart companies' ventures, according to publicist Melissa Dalton.

Two paintings of young rescuers who crossed the Sweetwater River near Martin's Cove in early November carrying the freezing emigrants are part of the original artwork, described in part by the writings of emigrant John Jaques, who called it "the worst river crossing of the expedition. Before the crossing was completed, the shades of evening were closing around . . . the coldest hour of the twenty-four, or at least it seemed to be so."

According to the narrative, he recalled that the only way to have a warm spot to sleep was to "sweep away the ashes of the camp fire and lay your bed on the spot where the fire had been built.

"In the morning the same spot was found to be the most available for a graver use — it was the easiest place in which to dig a grave to bury the night's dead."

The artists' depictions, and that of others whose original sculptures and other art were not featured in the book, will be displayed in an exhibit at the LDS Museum of Church History and Art, scheduled to open Sept. 29. The exhibit is being mounted in conjunction with the Museum of Utah Art and History.

Artists include several familiar to LDS audiences, including James C. Christensen, Al Rounds, Del Parson and David Linn.

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com

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