Wonderful Week

Fort Seminoe at Devil's Gate

We had a baptism in the Sweetwater River at Martin's Cove. A couple of days ago a young man came thru the visitor center. He and his wife were getting active in the church. Both parents were quite anti, but he decided he wanted to be baptized. He was to be baptized in the church but had told his wife he would love to be baptized outside. While at the cove, missionaries told him he could be baptized in the river. He was very excited as his uncle had lived in the old bunkhouse when the Sun family still ran the ranch. This was a special place to him. The weather was bitter cold with a strong cold wind and snow showers all day. he was tough and didn't bat an eye at sitting for 45 minutes in the wind with just the jumper suit on and then being baptized in the river. It is fairly high with snow melt, so pretty chilly. Afterwards, he stopped to chat, eat a cookie and then walk the hundred yards into this wind to get where he could change his clothing. It was really fun. Most people were in heavy winter coats and still froze. I bet he remembers his baptism. It was fun.

Typical old pioneer females. Looks just like the old photos. Maybe those old gals were better looking than they appear, as most of these folks were fairly attractive women. Actually, the best term for these are school marms. This was the missionaries that were working the school groups this day. They took the kids down toward Devil's Gate and told the Indian legend of the gate and how it was made.

Looks like Seminoe himself at Fort Seminoe with a bunch of school children from Casper. My first solo with the script and telling about the fort and the history of it and how it fit into the Martin Cove affair.

Tbe entrance to the replica of the old trading post at at Fort Seminoe at Devil's Gate. It was the command post for the rescuers of the Martin Company. They tried to put all the handcart people in it to get them out of the wind and cold, but there were just to many of them, so that is when they took them up to the cove as wind was a major problem in people dying.

Another women's pull but this time at Sixth Crossing. It was a special time but the hottie on the left will have to tell you the story of this experience and how they basically didn't have to work to take the cart up the hill.

The old school house over at Sixth Crossing. It was a fun day and was beautiful in temperature with lots of sun.

Not such a warm day at Martin's Cove. We are loving it, but it is mighty cold a lot of the time. Temperatures do not tell the story and as we now read the story of the Martin and Willie Companies, we view it so much differently. We cannot stay warm with down coats, ear muffs and thermal underwear. They had none of this and the wind was twice as hard and the temperatures were fifty degrees colder. "The miracle is that most of the people survived."

Veil Bridge on a beautiful but cold day. The bridge was named in honor of the work done from both sides of the veil when those who did the second rescue were finding the names, and information on the handcart company members, etc. The help they got from the other side was invaluable and so was the temple work done for those on the other side, as most of it had not been done before. Thus the term Second Rescue.

Our box at Missionary Village

Home sweet home. Our digs on the high plains of Wyoming. At least we enjoy the view and we are starting to love our little box. After all, it is the best tent we ever camped in. We now have one more trailer to the side of us so are boxed in, but not by much.

The daily view when in the village. They feed thru the trailers at times. Sometimes they are found walking between the trailers. It is always fun to see them. They should start giving birth this month and last year, one of the does had triplets right on the edge of the village. People had a good time watching them grow up and frolic.

A small buck in the village. Picture taken from the trailer door. The day before there was a trophy class buck about fifty yards away sleeping in the field just a ways from the trailer. We have several fairly nice bucks that frequent the area.

Welcome to the storm. Nasty cold wind, sleet, then rain and some soft hail, then ten minutes later, sun, but cold wind. Not seen in the picture is a pretty nice buck antelope sleeping just on the other side of the fence. Lyn is tired of my pictures of them so did not put in the one I took of him after sneeking up to the fence to take it. He never knew I was there. Twenty minutes later he was sparing with several other little bucks. This is fun but still nerve wracking with much to do for the first time tomorrow and no real practice on what to do. I do not even know where the key is to the building I will be presenting in tomorrow and to do that to fourth graders is even a greater challenge.



Just a month early in her quest to have some flowers. However, the day she planted them it snowed a bit and turned cold. How many bags does it take to protect flowers from frost. Only time will tell. However, she must try to invent spring or then what? After all, it is the tenth of May.

Tending the first flowers planted in the village. Does they know something she does not. Most of those in the Village raise large gardens. Maybe they are just shocked by the place so they do not know that freezing nights do not a flower bed make. Good luck lady.

Our Day of Trekking

The Women's Pull - They do this with all the youth treks that come. The guys say goodbye to the girls and they walk up the hill and have a talk about how many of the men died or were called away and the women had responsibility for the family. The idea is to help the men appreciate the women in their lives and understand what many of the pioneer women had to go through. The women are talked to about some of the women that ended up traveling across to Zion without their husband. The men then line up along both sides of the trail, take off their hats, and watch in silence as the women have to pull the carts up this tough sand hill. This is all done in silence and no matter what, the men cannot step in and help. It is a very spiritual experience for all. There are some amazing things that happen with the youth when they do this.

Crossing the Sweetwater River - The youth trekkers are prepared for this by learning about how the pioneers came to the Sweetwater, with temperatures below zero, fierce winds, and ice floating in the water. They were nearly starving to death and had very little hope of survival. Many of the members of the Martin Company began to cry and just couldn't face another river crossing, especially in these conditions. This is where the four young men from the valley helped carry many of the members across the river. Clark Allen Huntington, was one of those men. They went back and forth all day, carrying people across the river. Today, some of us decided to walk the river. It is also done in silence.

This is the statue of one of the four rescuers that carried the people across the Sweetwater. Without discussing it, both of us felt that one represents C. A. Huntington. When we walked up to it both of us looked at him and couldn't believe how he looked like a Huntington. I couldn't help but get quite emotional. The Fenns, who are our directors, are related to Nellie Unthank whose statue is in Cedar on the SUU campus. They believe that it represents Nellie that he is carrying. I like to think that it is Mary Barton Allen, my great, great grandmother who was fourteen when she came with the Martin Company. Her father and two younger sisters died and she came into the the SL Valley with her step mother.


Our first snake of the year! Oh well, it's just a blow snake. At every post and in every rover there is a snake catcher, made from PVC pipe.

Looks like a couple of pioneers to me. Elder Turek and Elder Swope pushing our cart over the Sweetwater on the Memorial Footbridge. One of them is a pretty well fed pioneer, don't you think?

Taken from the Martin Cove area, looking down toward the Sweet Water River and the valley it runs through. The original National Trail is about a mile away towards the mountains that are in the back ground. It was the 'super highway to the west' back in the mid eighteen hundreds. I think these pioneers have on as much clothing or more for this sixty degree but windy day than those of the Martin Company did for a 10 below day with forty to fifty mile an hour winds. That is why were are called "fair weather" pioneers.

Our Day In The Wind!

We did some training today. As part of that, we stopped where they do the Sweet Water River crossing with the treks. The rope is for the local priesthood leaders of the group to stand for safety, if the kids go over the river when it is fairly high. This is a sacred part of the trek, so needs to be prepared for as it is too easy for the people to just play in the water an lose the spirit of that great act of sacrifice of the four men. Their willingness to give their lifes for others, is a token of that of the Savior, but without the power or universal impact.

This is a picture of one of the posts for the missionaries to man. The point of this picture is that there are about twenty mule deer behind the dude in the hat. We have seen thousands of Antelope, but these are the first mule deer we've seen. We have seen some white tail deer and a sand hill crane in this area as well. While the weather was sunny and relatively warm for what we have been having, it was still coat weather or freeze solid.

Holy macrel. What a hot missionary I found standing in the road. Do not know what she wanted, as I am to stick with my wife while out here. She just happened to be where one can look at Martin's Cove in the back ground. As you can see, there was a gentle wind blowing, but not much for here. We spent most of the morning up in the Cove and had a great learning and spritual time while there.

This is a post that designates the historic Oregan, Calfornia, Mormon and pony express trail. The post has a designation of each one of these trails on a side, so all four sides represents one of the major trails that came thru here. You can see the ruts and the old swale made in the topography by the five hundred thousand people that used it in the twenty or so years that it was the major highway to the west.

Real Missionaries

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 - We have been training at all of the posts today. We have a book of scripts that we have to learn. We learned many of them before we came but there are new ones and some of the old ones have changed. We had the head honchos from the church historical site department come and talk to us this morning. They wanted to tell us that their research has determined that Martin's Cove probably isn't exactly where they thought it was and that Rock Creek Hollow isn't exactly where they thought it was. Oh well! It probably won't change anything. The Martin Handcart Historical Sites have been under the direction of the Farmland Reserve in the church and it will be switching and coming under the direction of the Church History Department. We don't know what effect this will have, but we hope not too much, at least while we are here. We love the people here. All missionaries say that, right? Well, this is different because the people here are missionaries. We are having a lot of fun. We think it's going to be a wonderful experience. We pack our lunch every morning. We come home to our little box every night. We go to the wash house to do our laundry. It's kind of like when you first get married. Thanks for all your support and prayers. Just know that we are praying for you all the time. Love ya, Elder and Sister Turek

We Are Official

We are now official missionaries with badges and the whole deal. We have our trailer parked, hooked up and functioning. We are actually living, cooking, sleeping, showering, etc. in it and we are definitely out in the middle of somewhere. It's peaceful and beautiful in its own way. It has been cold and windy. It has been hailing so "Elder Turek" went out and took some pictures. We will get some of us when we can. Everyone has been wonderful and they are all just like us except they have talents and we don't. We hope we can keep up. Things are great so far. Love ya all, Mom and Dad

Kanarra Mountain Memories

So the Jones siblings met and have made some decisions about the mountain property. There are details to work out and things could change, but probably not.



The Kanarra cabin and surrounding area (upper basin) will be taken over by the Laurie Rose family.








The Evan Jones family will be getting the quarter of Blue Valley with the spring (northwest corner)

The Leah Brown family will be getting the northeast corner of Blue Valley. The area with Bare Rock and Burma Road. For those of you that have been around, you know that is where you can see clear to Nevada.

The Lyn and Brent Turek family will be getting the southeast corner, with what we call Watson's corner and Deer Valley. It's beautiful and steep. We are excited but we are definitely going to miss the cabin. We hope the Roses can get as much enjoyment out of it as we have.