Pioneer sharing: Missionaries give time, talents, testimony to trekkers
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RIVERTON, WYO.
A father walked alongside the handcarts on the pioneer trail, carrying his baby son. When the train of handcarts stopped for a break, the father removed the sun shade from his son and gently placed him on a blanket spread under a handcart so he could stretch out.
As Elder John Dastrup looked at that scene while accompanying a ward handcart trek this summer, it impressed upon him deeply what the actual pioneers had gone through more than 150 years earlier.
For senior couple missionaries serving at the Willie Handcart Center, also known as Sixth Crossing, in west-central Wyoming, such experiences are common and inspiring.
Sister Donna Dastrup, who is stationed at the handcart site this summer with her husband, said she is always touched with the spirit of the original pioneers as she walks over one of the most challenging portions of the trail — Rocky Ridge — with the youth. "You know you're walking right where the pioneers put their feet," she said.
About 12 to 15 senior couples serve their missions at the Willie Handcart Center for 3-6 months or more. The center is not really near anywhere. On U.S. Highway 287, it is 36 miles south of Riverton and about 60 miles west of the Martin's Cove Handcart site. A small welcome center, the replica of an early 20th-century one-room school house, rest rooms, camping and picnic areas and a parking lot make up the Church-owned site near where the Willie Handcart Company first met rescuers. Devastated by early snowstorms, the Willie company crossed the Sweetwater River for the sixth and final time, then pulled over the punishing Rocky Ridge and into Rock Creek Hollow.
Rocky Ridge, along with Rock Creek Hollow where the pioneers buried more than a dozen of their dead while taking some refuge from the weather, are associated with the Willie Handcart Center. Trek groups can pull carts through various portions of the trail between the three sites.
Another experience that touched Elder Dastrup was one trek group's "women's pull." He was acting as a military officer, calling the youth group's young men to military service, reminiscent of the pre-handcart era Mormon Battalion pioneer event, leaving the young women to pull the loaded carts alone for a grueling half mile — uphill. As Elder Dastrup was leading the young men away, he turned around and looked back at the young women at the foot of the trail, in the shafts of the handcarts, singing "God Be with You Till We Meet Again."
"I thought that's tender and nice," Elder Dastrup said in an emotional voice. "I said to the young men, 'Did you hear the women sing?' and the boys said 'No.' So when the women were coming up that trail, and it's a tough trail, when they got near the top where the men were, the men started singing, 'Families Can Be Together Forever.' There was a lot of emotion and I thought what a terrific honor to these women who did it. That's just one of the little vignettes that happen here day after day. I bet those girls thought a lot differently about the guys after that."
A solo bicyclist provided one of many enriching experiences for Elder Val Rich, who is serving at the Willie Handcart Center with his wife, Marth. They were hosts at the Sixth Crossing river camp and family camp last summer. The cyclist from England was one of many who pass through on cross-country rides. He stopped to clean up and rest during the afternoon, and accepted an invitation to the welcome center where he learned about the handcart pioneers.
Later that evening, Elder Rich saw the man in camp watching trek groups square dancing.
"I walked over to visit with him," Elder Rich said. "He had traveled a great distance, so I asked him, 'What has been the highlight of your trip?' He said, 'This is it.' I thought he was joking. I said, 'Seriously, what has been the highlight of your trip?' He said, 'This is it.' Then I realized he was serious.
"He had been through the welcome center, so he heard about the Willie handcart people, and then he was witnessing these happy families, and wanted to know more about the religion of these people.
"To me, that was a witness of the spirit that's felt, not only by LDS people, but by everybody who is here."
Several of the missionaries at the handcart sites are repeaters, feeling a spiritual connection that draws them back. Their duties are many. Not only do they help trek groups, they also maintain and clean the sites as well as assist drop-ins who are welcome to get information, pull a handcart, camp or picnic and hike the trail.
Ross Ramsey and his wife, Julia, live in nearby Lander and served a mission at the Willie site several years ago. Now, they accept ward assignments to serve as hosts at Rock Creek Hollow. They welcome, help and guide drop-ins there while the full-time missionaries assist organized trekkers.
Brother Ramsey feels a special connection to the pioneer sites. Once less active, he and his wife were in Martin's Cove one night watching the moon come up. He said he felt a strong impression that the story of the pioneers was true. "And if this is true, it's all true," he remembers thinking of the Church. He now speaks enthusiastically about serving with his wife as ordinance workers at the Ogden Utah Temple as well as taking the opportunity when they can to host at Rock Creek Hollow.
Summing up the joy of serving a mission at the handcart sites, Sister Dastrup pointed out that sharing was one of the outstanding traits of the handcart pioneers. They shared water, food, other resources and labor, she said. She recalled a time she and her husband were trying to combine two small trek groups on the trail so they could be better managed. The groups, she said, were resistant, wanting their own experiences. But once they combined, they learned the spirit of sharing the same way the pioneers did.
Sharing is also evident in the work of the senior missionary couples, sharing their labor in providing facilities for visitors and sharing their spirits to facilitate an inspiring visit.
E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com
