Saturday, June 14, 1997

Mormon followers faithfully retrace ancestors' pioneer trail

By Carri Karuhn / Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - It was the discovery of a tick on her ear lobe that thrust Merilyn Wright into a greater appreciation for even the little things her ancestors endured.

The Libertyville, Ill., woman had been riding horseback for five days with a wagon train, following a trail the Mormon pioneers blazed 150 years ago, when a friend noticed the bloodsucking bug - a hitchhiker from the long prairie grass underfoot.

"Her face started to twist all up and she had this expression that there was something wrong with me," said Wright, 53. "She said, 'Oh God, I thought you had one earring on, but it's a wood tick.' "

Wright plucked the insect, but soon noticed others on her scalp and legs. She found hundreds more on her horse.

The ticks were just part of the adventure. As she and others retraced the historic Mormon pioneer trail as part of the sesquicentennial celebration of the Mormon exodus - one of the largest forced migrations in American history - they also experienced fatigue, fever blisters, sore feet and cracked lips and hands from their time outdoors.

Despite such discomforts, the journey has provided the faithful travelers with rare glimpses into the challenges - large and small - their ancestors faced in the 1,300-mile journey in search of religious freedom.

"I came away feeling we're standing on their shoulders," said Wright, whose great-great-grandfather was among the original pioneers. "They all sacrificed to make life a little bit easier and a little bit better for all of us."

The commemoration, which retraces the Mormon's odyssey across the Midwest in 1846 and 1847, began last year. The first leg of the commemoration started June 24 in the original Mormon city of Nauvoo, Ill., and ended nearly three weeks later, in an area outside present-day Omaha, where the pioneers camped before resuming their journey.

During that part of the re-enactment, hundreds of Mormons, history buffs and trail enthusiasts got into the spirit of the adventure by donning traditional garb and traveling the same way the pioneers did - walking, riding wagons and horses and pushing handcarts.

This year, about 7,000 people are expected to similarly retrace the second part of the journey, according to officials organizing the event. That portion, which started April 17, is expected to culminate in Salt Lake City on July 22.

Throughout the commemoration, the wayfarers endure some of the same hardships as the pioneers - fatigue, sore muscles, rain, mud and temperature changes.

But they also pass names scrawled on bluffs, wheel ruts still visible from the original journey and cemeteries where the Mormons who never made it to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake are buried.

"It allows people to put their own feet in the shoes of their ancestors," said Mike Otterson, director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "That experience - when people are in the same location and going through the same experience (as their ancestors) - is something they will never forget. This will be a life-changing experience for many of these people."

This year's commemorative celebration was organized by Mormon Trail Wagon Train-150 Years, a non-profit organization comprised of three private wagon train companies, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Trail officials had to get special permission from private land owners and government agencies before the journey began because much of the land on which the original pioneers ventured is no longer publicly accessible, Otterson said.

Several activities, like dinners and festivals, are planned by officials through whose towns the wagon train passes.

Not everyone, however, goes the entire length of the journey.

Wright, for instance, only joined the wagon train for two weeks last year. This year, however, she and her husband, Jon, plan to accompany it for five weeks, joining the wagons in Wyoming and following them to Salt Lake City.

The Mormon exodus began in 1846, when several thousand Mormons walked or wagoned westward, fleeing Nauvoo, in search of a place where they could worship in peace.

The first leg of their exodus, which spanned 265 miles across Iowa to the Missouri River, was, perhaps, the most difficult. Generally unprepared and inexperienced for distance and harsh conditions, hundreds died along the way.

The Mormons eventually reached an area outside present-day Omaha, where they built a camp called Winter Quarters. In the spring of 1847, they resumed their journey, traveling 1,032 miles before settling in what is now Salt Lake City.

"There is no way we can even come close to what they went through," Wright said. "I felt a real kinship for them."

(c) 1997, Chicago Tribune.

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