Parade, fun highlight festivities
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Visitors to the newly renovated Mormon Battalion Historic Site are welcomed by sister missionaries and senior couple missionaries dressed in period clothing.
Visitors begin the tour facing eight framed digital pictures on the wall. Suddenly, the figures come to life. They begin conversing with each other and introduce themselves as members of the battalion. They invite the visitors to follow them to the next room where they begin dramatizing their saga.
In this first room, sitting on logs surrounded by thick forage and large tents, visitors have the impression of being in one of the several camps on the pioneer trail such as Mt. Pisgah, Iowa.
They see a hesitant Capt. Allen and his contingent of three soldiers descend into the camp to deliver a letter from U.S. President James K. Polk requesting that 500 able-bodied men form a battalion to march to the Pacific Coast to defend the country's interests. The captain is kindly received, but expressions on the faces of the pioneers hint of an underlying tension.
When President Brigham Young receives the request, he expresses his concern of leading the Church west and says he feels this offer is the Lord's answer.
He accompanies Capt. Allen to the various camps to recruit volunteers. At Mt. Pisgah, the movie portrays how no one accepts the captain's request to join the battalion. During an awkward moment of silence, Brigham Young steps forward. He shares his confidence that it is the will of the Lord, and that those who respond will be blessed.
When the captain calls for volunteers a second time, willing volunteers step forward.
While they would not join for money, they would join out of obedience to a prophet.
Next, visitors are escorted to a second room, as if marching to Leavenworth, Kan., where battalion members are outfitted with uniforms and equipment. In this room of rough-hewn lumber, visitors are shown the meager equipment given to each soldier. Here visitors learn that Mormon Battalion members request that their goods be sent to their families on the pioneer trail.
After watching a clever exchange through an interactive window, visitors are ushered to a third room where they experience the trials of the trail. In this room of boulders and sagebrush, there is a sensation that the sun is hot and the rocks sharp.
At one point, a shout of elation is heard when a spring of water is found. Nine-year-old Charlie cringes at the disgusting water but is told to clench his teeth to screen the bugs.
When the ground suddenly begins to rumble, it's feared that the battalion is under attack. They soon learn that the rumbling was a stampede of runaway cattle, which provided much-needed food for the battalion.
In the fourth room, a replica of the courthouse that battalion members built for the local residents, visitors learn that the battalion arrived safely without firing a shot in their defense. They're told how they made friends with the local colonists by building a courthouse out of bricks they fired in a kiln, and how battalion members dug a 300-foot well that was lined with bricks to provide pure water.
The tour ends with the summary lesson: "God gave us what we wanted most, from where we least expected it."
