In its first year of existence, the Mormon Trails Association has promoted the mapping and marking of the route traversed by Brigham Young and the original 1847 party of pioneers.
The association was organized in September 1991 as an "umbrella organization" to coordinate the efforts of interested groups and individuals, including the National Park Service and other government agencies as well as historic, civic and Church-related organizations."We have focused this past year on refining maps of the entire trail and creating a standard set of maps," said William G. Hartley, association chairman and associate professor of history at BYU.
Funded by a National Park Service grant, he and Gary Anderson, a fellow BYU professor, traveled to Iowa and Nebraska last summer to verify questionable portions of the Mormon Trail.
"There are some fuzzy places where it's hard to tell if the trail was here or maybe a mile or two over there," he related. "Iowa has the most difficult stretch to map. It doesn't have landmarks in terms of mountains and peaks and major rivers, just a sequence of small streams, hills and prairie. It is farmland now. The diarists didn't have landmarks to record as they went across the plains, so it's hard to be extremely precise in identifying the trail."
At a November meeting, the association discussed mapping of the Utah portion of the trail in preparation for the state's centennial in 1996. About 70 miles of the roughly 1,300-mile trail are in Utah.
"The Utah Trails Consortium that meets monthly is geared up to mapping the Utah portion of the Mormon Trail exactly and putting markers at most of the campsites by the centennial," Brother Hartley explained. The association is also looking forward to the sesquicentennial of the trail in 1997.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, a group of Mormon Trail supporters is doing work that parallels similar efforts of the Utah Trails Consortium, and the group sent a report of its activities to the association.
Brother Hartley said the key person in the group and his wife own the land where the Mormon settlement at Garden Grove was located from 1846-52, and are interested in marking and memorializing that site. "Their group desires to promote the Mormon Trail as a historic resource, although I don't think any of them are Church members."
After the saints left Garden Grove, the settlement grew as a town. Although it has few Church members today, residents are conscious of the historical significance of their area, Brother Hartley noted. "Garden Grove is part of the Mormon Trail School District, and the name of the high school's teams is the Mormon Trail Saints. Residents of the area have built a covered wagon, which they call their Mormon Trail covered wagon, and they use it in parades and on civic occasions. Garden Grove also has a mural painted in gold and brown tones depicting a covered wagon, with words honoring the Mormon Trail Sesquicentennial, 1846-1996." (In Utah, the sesquicentennial of the trail will be observed in 1997, because the Pioneers arrived in 1847.)
Also discussed at the November meeting was the August 1994 convention in Salt Lake City of the Oregon-California Trails Association, a large organization. "The Mormon Trail will be a major theme, and we will be helping in that conference," Brother Hartley noted.
"We're waiting right now to see what happens with the new national historic trails that were just designated by Congress - the California Trail and the Pony Express Trail," he said. "We are interested to see if the National Park Service will be given jurisdiction over those trails. That will help us in marking and memorializing the Mormon Trail in Wyoming and Utah, because in some places, the trails coincide so closely."
Members of the association were provided this year with a copy of the Interpretive Plan, Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail prepared by the National Park Service. The plan recommends strategies and media for memorializing the trail. As stated on page 5, "The plan is intended to be used by the National Park Service, as overall trail administrator, and by the various trail cooperators, whether they are other federal agencies, state and local agencies, trail groups or interested individuals."
Interpretive media suggested in the plan include exhibits, video programs, motion pictures, sound/
slide presentations, wayside exhibits, and audiocassette programs.
The plan summarizes the historical significance of the Mormon Trail, stating in part: "The pioneer Mormon migration, one of the dramatic events in the history of American westward expansion, was unique in comparison to other migrations because of its purpose, organization and cultural impact. Its purpose was to maintain the cohesiveness of the Mormon community and thus became a permanent movement of a whole people."
Five major interpretive themes are suggested in the plan:
"The Mormon migration was an important part of the great westering movement.
"Unlike the Oregon and California migrations, in which the only common bond was the move West, the Mormon trek of 1846-47 was the opening thrust of the permanent movement of a whole people into frontier territories.
"The Mormon Pioneer Company was organized in a semi-military fashion, in contrast to most other wagon trains.
"The pioneer group improved conditions for those who would follow. Initially this consisted mainly of providing information, but later they established communities and improved roads, thus creating a permanent impact on the advancing frontier.
"Climate, topography, geology, wildlife, and vegetation figure prominently in the story as landmarks, travel conditions, and observations of change between the Mississippi and the Great Basin."
"We still have interest in other Mormon trails," Brother Hartley noted. "Our focus for the next couple of years will be on the Mormon Pioneer Trail of 1846-47. Later we will give attention to the Mormon Battalion Trail and many other Mormon-related trails."
The association meets quarterly. The next meeting will be in February. More information about the association can be obtained by writing to the Mormon Trails Association, 2011 E. Bryan Ave., Salt Lake City, Utah 84108.
