IF YOU ARE A MORMON, OR FROM JUAB COUNTY, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF THE MARTIN HANDCART TREK TO UTAH. HERE IS MY VERSION OF WHAT HAPPENED.

If one is to study the early LDS pioneers of Juab County, the story of the handcart expedition is an  important part of that history. Like many things in life, I don't always accept things as they are taught or told, so I travel to look and feel in order to come up with my own conclusions. Such is the case of what I did a few years ago.  The typed pages tell the story of the Mormon pioneers coming to Utah, and of a segment of those folks who trekked on to Nephi, Utah. The first photo is the original photo of Martha Jackson Jones. The second document is the death notice of Martha. After the reading, the photo of the digging area becomes more understandable, as that was the area assigned to me, for the archaeological dig at Martins Cove. The next photo should show me pointing to the name of 50 year old Ann Jackson, who is the mother of Martha Jackson Jones. The last photo is of the Sweetwater River beneath Independence Rock. Although splendid and serene at the time I took the photo, it is the same bone chilling ice water where many of the handcart folks perished.