This year marks the 150th anniversary of the 1856 rescue of the Martin and Willie pioneer handcart companies on the plains of Wyoming.

Ephraim Knowlton Hanks, traveling alone on his horse and leading a pack mule across Wyoming through the winter storms, brought food and hope to the two stranded companies. To the Martin company, especially, he was a godsend. Many of the group's original members had died of hunger and exposure, and the survivors were near the end of their food supply.

Hanks brought them buffalo meat and also tended to the sick, many of whom had frozen hands and feet.

He had been a member of the Mormon Battalion and made the march from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to San Diego. Later he rode with the Pony Express, crossing the plains more than 50 times. He also helped in settling several communities in Utah.

Hanks' numerous descendants will honor him in a family gathering on Monday in Sandy. The reunion will be at 1 p.m. in the Willow Creek Stake Center and Pavilion, 2350 E. Creek Road, Sandy. Participants must take their own lunch. A reunion meeting will take place at 2 p.m.

For more information on the Hanks family and its genealogy, go to www.hanksplace.net; call J. Philip Hanks, 801-943-8758; or e-mail Dan Hanks, dhanks@hanksplace.net.