"A lot of young people find themselves when they come out here," he said. "Young people are often very confused by all the messages around them. In just three days, they have a great attitude change."

Max Bruff, a summer volunteer and vice president of a farm management company in Salt Lake City, echoed the statement.

"Going through these experiences (at the cove) helps teenagers relate to their parents," Bruff said. "It humbles them."

During the summer, the center gets hundreds of visitors a week. Many of them are families looking for a little old-fashioned fun and family bonding time.

"When we take the families out, we have them all help pull the handcarts" across the bumpy ground, Holliday said. "Some of the carts can easily weigh 500 pounds when they're loaded up with food and clothes. There is a point in the trail where it gets sandy and a little steep, making it more difficult to pull. At this point, we take the men and boys aside and have them watch as the women and girls try to pull the cart by themselves. It's difficult, and they struggle, but the men are not allowed to help. Watching their family members struggle is very difficult for the men. It changes them and gives them more compassion."

This kind of compassion can't be learned from books and TV and the Internet, he said.

"The experience we offer helps people who want to live moral and chaste lives," Holliday said. "We promote family unity."

Like many volunteers at the center, Holliday has ancestors who were Mormon handcart settlers. His great-grandfather, John Comish, was in the handcart party that was stranded at the cove during the October 1856 blizzard in which some 200 people died from starvation and exposure before rescue teams arrived from Salt Lake City.

Holliday's wife, Peggy, also had ancestors who traveled with handcarts during that time.

"There are not a lot of areas any more where we can be pioneers," Peggy Holliday said. "The courage of our ancestors is what makes America great. They made a lot possible for us."

The Hollidays have had to give up a lot of modern conveniences to work at the cove, where they also live.

"We all have to make sacrifices, even if it's not easy and not convenient," Peggy said.

She said living at the cove is "an opportunity to step back in time and remember the challenges and sacrifices that early settlers made."

Most of the volunteers share an interest in their ancestors and a desire to help young people appreciate history, she said.

"I have confidence that their appreciation of history will deepen," ElDean said. "If the challenge is there, people will rise to the occasion."