Martin's Cove has messages for 2 types of visitor

MARTIN'S COVE, Wyo. (AP) — Most people who visit Martin's Cove in southwestern Natrona County are interested in learning the Mormon history surrounding the tragic winter of 1856.

But some visitors to the cove, which sits on public land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and is leased to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, want to visit the site for its historic and natural beauty and avoid any religious messages.

For ElDean Holliday, director of Mormon handcart sites in Wyoming and chief caretaker of Martin's Cove, this poses a problem for the church: How can the church provide a strong, religious and moral experience for followers interested in the spiritual history of a site considered sacred and at the same time provide a secular experience for nonfollowers?

"We're the only LDS site in the world that doesn't proselytize," Holliday said. "I instructed our guides to only tell about the historic stories and not to go into detail about religious topics. If visitors ask the guides specific religious questions, they will answer them, but they're not here to preach."

The process has not been easy.

A public access parking lot and trail bypass the LDS visitor center and join the main trail leading to the cove, but in the warmer months and especially during the summer, hundreds of church members dressed in period costumes inhabit the whole area.

"We had 43 couples move in in April, and they will stay here for six months," Holliday said.

The couples live in their own trailers at a nearby missionary village and spend most of their time working around the visitor center and cove, he said.

"Most of the volunteers are retired people," Holliday said. "Dentists, orthodontists, college professors, farmers, ranchers and contractors all work together toward a common goal. (The work they do here) gives people a chance to relive history and step out of the current hustle-bustle of life.

"I think a lot of our older volunteers serve because they enjoy helping people," he said.

Holliday, who is from Preston, Idaho, began his two-year church mission at the cove in January. This will be his seventh mission for the church. Besides telling a good, clean joke, he enjoys talking about one of his 17 grandchildren, Jared Hess, director of the film "Napoleon Dynamite."

While Holliday has a small cameo in the film, he really enjoys how the movie promotes decent values without using any bad language. Relating to young men and women and helping them accept the faith in their lives is a continuing challenge for the church, especially in today's modern world.