Most people here with an opinion will talk about it — but usually not for publication and not without determining individual sympathies for one position or another.

Call it political correctness on the prairie or "prairie PC" — it has become a part of life in Natrona County.

While all have their reasons for coming here, few leave without learning in some way about the handcart pioneers who met disaster on the Mormon Trail in October 1856, when exhaustion, hunger and exposure to snow, sleet and sub-freezing temperatures killed hundreds of those in the Willie and Martin handcart companies as they tried to make their way to Salt Lake City.

Spurred by a firm conviction to their new LDS faith, most of the ill-fated were converts from Great Britain, strangers to braving the elements for extended periods. As they pulled their handcarts mile after mile from Iowa, their food supply dwindled, their clothing and shoes wore out and the cold caught them unprepared.

Scores of those in the Martin Company died in what has been named Martin's Cove, now federal land that abuts the LDS Church property. The cove was recently leased to the church after lengthy congressional hearings and some local opposition.

Church officials wanted to provide access to the land as another piece of "living history," much like it has done with church-owned sites in Palmyra, N.Y.; Nauvoo, Ill.; and Kirtland, Ohio, where key events in church history took place. Those venues now draw thousands of LDS pilgrims annually, intent on confirming the history of their faith with a visit to where it all began.

Martin's Cove has become yet another draw, particularly for LDS teens, many of whom have come to consider a handcart trek a rite of passage. They come seeking a personal taste of the suffering, courage and eventual rescue of the handcart pioneers — stories that have become some of the most beloved tales of faith and heroism in LDS history.

Volunteers here become emotional sharing stories of individual transformation they have witnessed in young people who participate. They believe the experiences can be life-changing. "The impact that these young people experience on these treks is just phenomenal. They grow up in the cities, then spend three days stepping back in time. It has a miraculous effect in their lives," according to Eldean Holliday, director of volunteer operations at Martin's Cove.

The trek experience has become so popular with youth and family groups that reservations are now being taken through 2013.

Yet it has only been in the past few decades that this area was formally recognized as historically significant.