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Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy
by David Roberts
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Synopses & Reviews The Mormon handcart tragedy of 1856 is the worst disaster in the history of the Western migrations, and yet it remains virtually unknown today outside Mormon circles. Following the death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, its second Prophet and new leader, Brigham Young, determined to move the faithful out of the Midwest, where they had been constantly persecuted by their neighbors, to found a new Zion in the wilderness. In 1846-47, the Mormons made their way west, generally following the Oregon Trail, arriving in July 1847 in what is today Utah, where they established Salt Lake City. Nine years later, fearing a federal invasion, Young and other Mormon leaders wrestled with the question of how to bring thousands of impoverished European converts, mostly British and Scandinavian, from the Old World to Zion. Young conceived of a plan in which the European Mormons would travel by ship to New York City and by train to Iowa City. From there, instead of crossing the plains by covered wagon, they would push and pull wooden handcarts all the way to Salt Lake. But the handcart plan was badly flawed. The carts, made of green wood, constantly broke down; the baggage allowance of seventeen pounds per adult was far too small; and the food provisions were woefully inadequate, especially considering the demanding physical labor of pushing and pulling the handcarts 1,300 miles across plains and mountains. Five companies of handcart pioneers left Iowa for Zion that spring and summer, but the last two of them left late. As a consequence, some 900 Mormons in these two companies were caught in early snowstorms in Wyoming. When the church leadership in Salt Lake became aware of the dire circumstances of these pioneers, Younglaunched a heroic rescue effort. But for more than 200 of the immigrants, the rescue came too late. The story of the Mormon handcart tragedy has never before been told in full despite its stunning human drama: At least five times as many people died in the Mormon tragedy as died in the more famous Donner Party disaster. David Roberts has researched this story in Mormon archives and elsewhere, and has traveled along the route where the handcart pioneers came to grief. Based on his research, he concludes that the tragedy was entirely preventable. Brigham Young and others in the Mormon leadership failed to heed the abundant signs of impending catastrophe, including warnings from other Mormon elders in the East and Midwest, where the journey began. Devil's Gate is a powerful indictment of the Mormon leadership and a gripping story of survival and suffering that is superbly told by one of our finest writers of Western history. Review: People do remarkable things and appalling things in the name of religion. Distinguishing between the two categories isn't always easy. In the mid-1850s, Brigham Young directed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to gather in Zion — Utah Territory — to enable the struggling Mormon colony to hold its ground against the encroachments of westering American gentiles. To save money ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) and thereby maximize the number of Mormons able to make the trek, Young decided to forgo horse- and oxen-drawn wagons in favor of human-powered push carts. The handcarts cost a 10th of what wagons and draft animals did, and they promised to fill Utah with Mormons before too many gentiles arrived. The journey of the handcart travelers from Iowa to Utah became a defining myth of Mormon history, the equivalent, as David Roberts observes, of the voyage of the Mayflower in American colonial history. Subsequent generations of Mormons took pride in their descent from handcart pioneers; as with the Mayflower, more than a few of the claims of lineage were spurious. In the judgment of Roberts, who has written extensively about the American West and its peoples, the mythmaking has a sinister aspect, crossing the line into historical cover-up. The handcart companies — as these traveling groups were called — suffered from hunger, disease, exposure and death; their mortality rate dramatically exceeded the average for overland companies, despite the fact that the Mormons traveled but half the distance covered by the much more numerous immigrants to California and Oregon. Most of the 3,000 handcart travelers treated the journey as a heavenly ordained test of their faith; Roberts, making compelling use of their diaries and other records, considers it a criminal fiasco imposed on the innocent migrants by the arrogant, unbending leaders of their church. Throughout "Devil's Gate," Roberts shows great sympathy for the travelers but none for those who set them in motion. He demonstrates that Young's handcart scheme was based on a gross underestimate of the labor involved in pushing carts 1,300 miles across plains and over mountains. The plan was also poorly executed, with most of the carts hastily constructed of green wood that warped and shattered on the road. Young's hurry to populate Utah with Mormons prevented the laggards from stopping for the winter and thereby condemned some 220 persons to death, mainly by exposure. Roberts is by no means the first person to tell the handcart story, which was broken by the survivors themselves. But it remains a gripping tale, and one that bears retelling. Whether Roberts' account will seriously challenge the mythical version, however, is open to doubt. The handcart migration revealed inflexibility and short-sightedness, but it also brought out enormous courage and perseverance. Those who remember and honor the latter traits may be willing to forgive or forget the former. No such positive interpretation is possible regarding another, almost contemporary episode in early Mormon history. During the summer of 1857, an emigrant wagon train from Arkansas crossed Utah heading for California. The train had nearly cleared Mormon territory, reaching Mountain Meadows in the southeastern part of the settled region of Utah, when it was attacked by a band of Paiute Indians. Several members of the train were killed, and the survivors circled their wagons to defend themselves. After a few days of siege, a party of Mormons appeared and offered to escort the Arkansans past the Paiutes to safety. The Arkansans accepted the offer and filed out. A short distance from the wagons, the Mormons fell on the emigrants and massacred 120 adults and teenagers of both sexes, sparing only the young children. For decades the leaders of the Mormon community concealed what happened at Mountain Meadows. They blamed the Paiutes, and when that story fell apart, they scapegoated John Lee, head of the group directly responsible for the killing. Only recently has anything approaching a comprehensive account of the massacre become possible. But no one has done a more thorough, even-handed job of reconstructing the killing and the complex events that surrounded it than Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard in their riveting new book, "Massacre at Mountain Meadows." Walker is an independent author who has written on Mormon history; Turley is assistant church historian for the Latter-day Saints; Leonard previously directed the LDS museum of history. The three bring to their subject unusual expertise as well as a sympathy for the Mormon cause that renders their unflinching telling of this awful story all the more persuasive. Yet even these authors cannot provide a definitive answer to the most pressing question: Why? They recount the rising tension in Utah that season, resulting from the thoroughly plausible fear that the government of the United States was about to declare war on the Mormon community. The Mormons had been driven out of every previous home they had tried to establish for themselves; Young determined that they would make a stand in Utah. "If the United States send their army here and war commences," he told his followers, then wagon trains "must not cross this continent." The authors note the wealth of the Arkansas train, compared with the poverty of the Mormons living in southern Utah; the temptation of the Mormons to relieve the invading infidels of their money, cattle and equipment was powerful. The Arkansans were hardly the most considerate of guests, not least because they didn't consider themselves guests. Like most non-Mormons of that era, they deemed the polygamous Mormons an abominable and threatening cult that didn't deserve, and didn't legitimately own, the resources it had taken from the American public domain. But much the same can be said of other wagon trains traveling through Utah that season. Why this train? The authors probe the minds of those responsible for the massacre, but they wisely stop short of offering a single, overriding reason, beyond the capacity of some people, under some circumstances, to do wicked things. It's an old story, and a discouragingly perennial one. H. W. Brands is the author of "The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream." His biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Traitor to His Class," will be published next month. Reviewed by H. W. Brands, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Review: " This disturbing account of the Mormon immigrants who in 1856pushed handcarts for more than 1,000 miles from Iowa to SaltLake City is narrative history at its best. It's also pertinent to ourtime, for David Roberts shows how, in the cover-up of the mostdeadly catastrophe in the history of Western migration, politicaland religious leaders turned failed experiments into triumphs andtragedies into hymnals. Roberts has swept away the cobwebs inhis stirring book." — Ted Morgan, author of Wilderness at Dawn and A Shovel of Stars Review: "Devil's Gate is the chilling story of the greatest disaster in the history of American westward settlement: the Mormon handcart tragedy. With meticulous research and elegant writing, Roberts tells a gripping story of impoverished Europeans brought to the New World with a promise of hope, who died in the wilderness of the American West under the most appalling circumstances. It is more than just history: it is an indictment of fundamentalism itself. This book is proof that people who are serenely certain they know the mind of God are not only presumptuous, they are dangerous. Devil's Gate is a book of history with an important message for the modern world." — Douglas Preston, author of Blasphemy and The Monster of Florence About the Author David Roberts is the author of seventeen books on mountaineering, adventure, and the history of the American Southwest. His essays and articles have appeared in National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Table of Contents Contents1 Patience 1 2 Finding Zion 32 3 The Divine Handcart Plan 84 4 Savage Advice 121 5 Troubles on the Platte 151 6 Rocky Ridge 179 7 Martin's Cove 225 8 The Mormon Mayflower 259 9 A Day of Reckoning 301 Acknowledgments 335 Notes 339 Bibliography 375 Index 381
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781416539889
- Subtitle:
- Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy
- Author:
- Roberts, David
- Publisher:
- Simon & Schuster
- Subject:
- United States - 19th Century
- Subject:
- United States - State & Local - West
- Subject:
- Frontier and pioneer life
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- United States - 19th Century/Old West
- Subject:
- Christianity - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (
- Subject:
- Christianity - History - Protestant
- Subject:
- Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)
- Subject:
- Overland journeys to the pacific
- Copyright:
- 2008
- Publication Date:
- September 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 402
- Dimensions:
- 9.25 x 6.125 in
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