Handcart enthusiasts trek in Nebraska

KEARNEY, Neb. — With an original 1856 handcart in the lead, and covering a segment of the original Mormon Trail, a train of pioneer descendants and enthusiasts trekked four miles in Kearney Saturday during the second and final day of an observance of the 150th anniversary of the handcart chapter in LDS history.

The group traversed four miles from the Great Platte River Archway Monument, scene of the celebration, to Kearney's Trails and Rails Museum, where they were welcomed by "Brigham Young," portrayed by Kearney resident and event organizer Joseph Carlson. They pulled handcarts constructed locally for the occasion or borrowed from historic sites or museums in Nebraska and Wyoming for what Carlson called the largest assemblage of handcarts in the state since the 1850s.

Paul Willie, a stake president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Mendon, Cache County, was in the lead. He is a direct descendant of Captain James Willie, who led one of two famous ill-fated handcart companies that suffered intense suffering and death in Wyoming in late 1856.

"I want no Job-sayers among us," Paul Willie declared, invoking the words of his ancestor at the time the 1856 company held a council in Florence, Neb., to decide whether or not to continue.

"I hope as we have this handcart experience, you'll get to feel the spirit of your ancestors," Willie said.

At his side leading the trek was Tony Clapier of Rupert, Idaho, owner of the original handcart, which his father, a rancher, purchased many years ago while the two were in town for a cattle auction.

"The best information we have, we think the cart came to Utah the first year," said Clapier, whose great-great-great-grandfather was a survivor in the Willie handcart company. He said his family has dated the handcart by the oral history that came with it and by examining the materials and method of construction.

"The hub and axle fit the time period that it was claimed to have been built," he said, as well as the type of joinery of the wood.

The celebration at the Archway continued through Saturday afternoon with musical entertainment, storytelling, an oxen demonstration, children's pioneer games and firing of a cannon and rifles by soldiers from the nearby Fort Kearney State Historic Site.

Bill Hartley, associate professor in the history department at Brigham Young University and a recognized trails expert, gave a history of the 1856-60 handcart saga.

Handcarts were a far more efficient and less expensive means of overland travel than covered wagons for bringing LDS converts west to Utah, he said.