As one of his relatives did nearly a century and a half ago, President Thomas S. Monson put forth extra effort to help weary pioneers continue their journey to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.

On Sunday, June 15, President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, visited Fort Caspar, the weekend camp of a modern-day wagon train that left Florence, Neb., April 21. (The city of Casper and the fort have different spellings.) The wagon train, which includes handcarts as well as many people who are walking or riding horses along the Mormon Pioneer Trail, is scheduled to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley July 22 in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers.During the visit, he and his wife, Frances, shook hands with and offered words of encouragement and motivation to numerous travelers dressed in pioneer-style attire. Old-fashioned hats and boots, and bonnets, long dresses and pinafores brought a splash of yesteryear to a mid-afternoon fireside held under a large tent erected to protect trekkers from some of Wyoming's most frequent rains in several years. With covered wagons lining a circular driveway through the fort, much of the scene might have come straight from the 19th century.

President Monson said that the original pioneers persevered, undergoing great hardship and difficulty. "You are experiencing some of that," he told the gathering in the tent. "You've got the horses, you've got the mules, you've got the leather on your shoes, the spirit in your heart and the nobility of soul and you're on the way to the valleys of the mountains. `Come, Come, Ye Saints' applies to you. Many of you are members of the Mormon faith; others aren't but you're having a great time together."

He said that a big welcome is being planned for the travelers upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, and that he intends to be among those who go to the mouth of Emigration Canyon to greet them. He explained that he especially wants to be among those welcoming the travelers because one of his relatives, Gibson Condie, was among the men sent by President Brigham Young to aid survivors of the Martin Handcart Company in 1856.

President Monson mentioned that he and Sister Monson had just the day before, on Saturday, June 14, visited Rock Creek and Martin's Cove where members of the Willie and the Martin handcart companies sought refuge from early winter storms in October and November 1856. That year, some 200 pioneers (including members of the Hunt and Hodgett wagon trains) died of starvation and exposure.

He spoke of the somber feeling he had at the recently-dedicated Mormon Handcart Visitors Center about 21/2 miles from Martin's Cove in central Wyoming, as he read the names of those who perished. "Then," President Monson said, "I read another list of names, those who went to the rescue of the handcart pioneers. There, I saw the name of my kinsman, Gibson Condie." President Monson read from a journal the account of the role his grandfather's cousin played in assisting the handcart pioneers. One of his kinsman's tasks was to help shovel a path through snow that was 16 feet deep so the pioneers and other rescuers could traverse Big Mountain en route to the Salt Lake Valley. The journal includes the following entry, with spelling and punctuation as in the original transcript:

"We were just in time to assist them and clearing the road for them. We all decended down from Big Mountain to camp. It was dreadfully cold and stormy. We had to have large fires burning all night to keep from freezing to death. My feet were frozen. I could hardly walk. We traveled and crossed Little Mt. and on to the City. I was glad that I arrived home. I suffered considerable with my feet, they pained me so I could not go from home for days. . . . Pres. Jedediah M. Grant, who had been sick, wished the attendents to carry him to the window so he could see the emigrants passing the house. Bishops with their Coun. were on hand to see that the emigrants had places to go and be cared for. It was a sad time for the poor saints to suffer as they did."

President Monson said, "When I saw the name of my relative under the heading, `Those who rescued,' I thought, `Gibson Condie. Bless his name.' I'm happy to be here in Wyoming to see that with my own eyes."

President Monson said that a re-enactment such as the wagon train trek is a good way to remember the pioneers.

Remembering the pioneers is just what President and Sister Monson did throughout their visit to Wyoming, which began the evening of June 13 as they were greeted by Riverton Wyoming Stake Pres. R. Scott Lorimer and his counselors, John L. Kitchen Jr. and Kim W. McKinnon. The stake presidency told President and Sister Monson about "the second rescue," a project undertaken by local members to research the members of the handcart companies and their families to ensure that temple ordinances had been performed for them.

On Saturday morning, June 14, the stake leaders took President and Sister Monson on a fast-paced tour in four-wheel-drive vehicles to key sites of pioneer significance in the area. They went first to Rock Creek, about 65 miles southwest of Riverton, where 15 members of the Willie Handcart Company are buried. They then went to Rocky Ridge, which at 7,300 feet, is the highest point along the Mormon Pioneer trail. The trail gains 700 feet in altitude within a two-mile ascent. Steep and lined with rocks, the ridge was one of the most difficult passages along the route.

That afternoon, President and Sister Monson traveled with the stake presidency to Independence Rock, a landmark along the pioneer trail, and on to Martin's Cove where President Monson addressed about 2,000 LDS Boy Scouts who had gathered in the vicinity for a jamboree. As youth and leaders sat on rocks and the ground, President Monson stood at a portable podium and spoke of some of the history of the area. "This is hallowed ground," he told them.

On Sunday morning, President and Sister Monson spoke at a sacrament meeting held for the Riverton Wyoming Stake. Pres. Lorimer, making introductory remarks, said, "President and Sister Monson, yesterday, we showed you the roads built, the monuments and the genealogical records, and we told you stories of the pioneers. Now, I show you the people of the second rescue." President and Sister Monson commended the stake members for their extraordinary efforts to bring sacred ordinances to those who had sacrificed so much.

After they attended the meeting at Fort Caspar Sunday afternoon with the wagon train participants, President and Sister Monson went to another afternoon fireside at the Casper Wyoming Stake center, where she bore her testimony and offered brief remarks and he spoke, paying tribute to pioneers of the past and present. In Casper, they were hosted by stake Pres. Thomas R. Blevins, and his counselors, George W. Rummel and Dennis R. Howard.