Aiming to help preserve what historian Stanley B. Kimball called "the power of place and the spirit of locale," a group of history enthusiasts organized a Mormon Trails Association recently in Salt Lake City.
Formed as an "umbrella organization" for interested groups and individuals, the association has no membership requirements or dues, according to a proposal drafted by an interim committee."All potentially interested organizations that can be identified are invited to send representatives to all meetings, and all interested individuals are encouraged to attend," the committee noted. "The general philosophy of the proposed association is to be inclusive, not exclusive."
As described in the proposal, the association will share information and ideas concerning Mormon trails as it relates to research, identification, interpretation, utilization and preservation. It will not duplicate efforts of existing agencies, but rather, promote unity and cooperation between such agencies.
It was, in fact, an official of the National Park Service "who sparked us into doing this," said LaMar C. Berrett, interim committee chairman and a Church history professor at BYU.
Michael J. Duwe in the Rocky Mountain regional office of the National Park Service in Denver, Colo., is responsible for the administration of the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. He pointed out, Brother Berrett said, that he had no single group or organization with whom he could discuss the trail. That led to the formation of the Mormon Trails Association.
"Many Church members are not aware that the Mormon Pioneer Trail has been designated by act of Congress as a national historic trail," Brother Berrett noted.
Duwe was among more than a score of people who met in the board room of the Utah State Historical Society on Sept. 18 to organize the association. Among the groups represented at the meeting were the Church Historic Sites Committee, several federal and Utah state agencies, Sons of Utah Pioneers, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and Boy Scouts of America.
Elected as chairman of the association was William G. Hartley, associate professor of history at BYU. (Brother Barrett, the interim chairman, was not a candidate.) Other interim officers were retained in their positions: F. Garn Hatch, vice president; M. Dell Madsen, secretary; and Stanley B. Kimball, historian.
To illustrate the need for an organization such as the Mormon Trails Association, Brother Berrett showed several slides of various trail sites that have not been identified by a marker or monument. In some cases, existing markers bear inaccurate information or have been placed some distance away from the actual sites they identify, he pointed out.
"There is a big interest in trails across the whole country now," he told the Church News. "People are interested in these pioneer trails. And now we know right where these historic locations are. In the beginning we didn't know, but enough research now has been done that we can pinpoint their location."
He said at the meeting there are 20 known campsites of Brigham Young's original pioneer company, 17 outside of the Salt Lake Valley, and only one marker has been placed identifying a particular campsite.
Some points along Mormon trails have added significance, such as being sites for Pony Express stations, he said.
A major focus of the association will be the trail of Brigham Young's original 1847 company. But Brother Barrett, pointing out that the word "trails" in the association name is plural, said there are many other Mormon trails with which the association will be concerned.
They include the Booneslick Trail in Missouri, followed by Joseph Smith when he first came to Independence; the Zion's Camp trail; the Kirtland Camp trail in Ohio; the Mormon Battalion trail; the Carson Pass trail used by Mormon Battalion soldiers as they came from the gold fields of California; the San Bernardino trail also used by Mormon Battalion soldiers; the Santa Fe trail used by Mormons going to and from California; and a trail from Texas used by converts to the Church led by Preston Thomas in 1853.
