Local youth participate in pioneer handcart trek reenactment

SPARTA — Young members of the Sparta congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cassidy Shrope and Nathaniel King, were two of over 90 area youth between the ages of 14 and 18 that recently spent three days wearing old-fashioned clothes, while pushing and pulling handcarts over the hills of Northern Virginia, as part of a three-day pioneer handcart trek reenactment sponsored by the Church.

The reenactment took place in Hume, VA from Wednesday, July 10 to Friday, July 12 and coincided with the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the organization of the first formal congregation of the Church in New Jersey.

The event was designed to help participants appreciate the faith and sacrifices of the early Mormon pioneers, including those from New Jersey, who travelled across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to the Salt Lake Valley in what is now Utah between 1847 and 1869.

During the course of the reenactment, ten groups of approximately nine male and female youth and two adults pushed and pulled handcarts loaded with their clothes, water, and other gear over an arduous 12-mile course that included thick woods, two river crossings, and steep inclines.

Each handcart weighed between 700 and 800 pounds when fully loaded. Nathaniel King said, “Pushing a handcart was very demanding, but rewarding. It was satisfying to work towards a goal and then to reach it.”

Along the way, the participants were faced with simulations of actual events encountered by the early pioneers.

For example, at one point, the four to five female members of each group were asked to pull the handcarts over difficult terrain without their male counterparts, to simulate the numerous documented instances where pioneer women made all or part of the journey to Utah by themselves.

“It was just the women trying to pull the handcarts up this huge hill,” Cassidy Shrope said. “It was really difficult, but by helping each other, we made it through, and it was worth it in the end. I really understood what it was like to be a pioneer because I was working so hard.”

At night, after the day’s journeying was done, the groups cooked their own meals, sang, danced, and listened to inspirational messages, and then went to bed in tents set up along the trail.

As used by the pioneers, handcarts were two-wheeled wagons pulled by men and women, rather than by animals.

Although most of the 70,000 pioneers that migrated to Utah before the completion of the transcontinental railroad did not use handcarts, some Latter-day Saint pioneers chose to pull handcarts because they could not afford any other means of transportation. Their sufferings along the trail are well documented.

Today, Latter-day Saints view the journey and the privations of these early handcart pioneers as examples of faith and a willingness to sacrifice for their God. Ideals that all Church members should strive for today, as they live their religion.

The event was put on by a team of over 50 adults, including medical professionals, trail guides, food handlers, equipment movers, and dramatic interpreters. It took over 15 months to plan.

Event co-chair Daniel Stringham of Randolph said, “This was a massive project, but it was worth it, as we witnessed the youth gain an appreciation of how those that lived before them, have sacrificed for their belief in Jesus Christ. It was also gratifying to see them learn that they too, could do hard things.”

Nathaniel King agreed with this assessment. “When we were pushing the handcarts, I put myself in the mindset of the pioneers,” said King, “When you put yourself in that mindset, you realize that these people had tremendous faith that they would be able to make it through. I admire that, and that gives me faith that if I apply that same mindset to anything that I may come across, that I too, can have faith and that I too, can make it through.”

Reenactment participants also learned that it was 175 years ago in October 1838 that Daniel Winchester formally established the first congregation of the Church in Hornerstown, New Jersey. Congregations were also organized in Shrewsbury and Toms River around that time. In late December 1839, the early New Jersey Latter-day Saints in those areas were rewarded with a visit by Joseph Smith, the founder and first President of the Church.

Thereafter, the Church flourished in that area of New Jersey, so much so, that one history claims that the Church was the principal religion in Toms River by 1850.

Eventually, most early New Jersey Latter-day Saints migrated to Utah. Some of them travelled by means of the very same type of handcart pulled by the youth during the three-day reenactment.