Re: Monday answer. Brrrrrr
John and Gary knew of this and get stars for their forehead. Although I am perplexed by the Stephen Sheperd link from Gary.
Answer: This was a scheme sponsored by Brigham Young to get people to Salt Lake City. For about $60 in gold the devout could make arrangements to come from Liverpool, England to Salt Lake to populate the area. To do it conditions on board were likened to a �slave ship�, and once in the U.S. rations were tight and the travel after Iowa City where the trains stopped was by you-pull/push wooden two wheel handcarts with the low, low cost raw hide wheel rims no less. The wooden handcart army was a series of groups of Mormons (Church of the Latter Day Saints/LDS) headed for Salt Lake City. For the group in the trivia, they started in late July headed for their promised land. In the ill fated group there were 575 of some original 1300 �pilgrims� led by an Edward Martin. With little contingency for error, guilt and faith precluding dissent of any type, they were allowed only 17 pounds of goods per person, and almost no one anticipated taking winter clothing. They started walking, headed west with their full family. The trip was variously called the �Devine Handcart Scheme, also the �Martin Saints�, and also the �March of the Saints�. Besides the miniscule 17 pounds of personal possessions they were permitted less than 1 pound of flour per adult person per day and eight ounces for children (they badly misjudged the number of days it would take, the caloric intake needed to walk the terrain, and the capacity of working children to eat). By now the carts were falling apart. When the first snow fell in October the handcart group was fording the North Platte River in water near freezing and up to their armpits (the goods were floated across). Their clothes froze after exiting and they went to bed that way�only some in tents, and more than a few broke up their carts for fire wood. From there they traveled another sixty five miles in severe cold into the mountains until they were again snowed in, sheltered only by the mountain cove itself, and the snow they formed to get out of the wind. Wood was by now impossible to find even if they were strong enough to hunt for it. Between October and Mid-November, they suffered mightily. Help arrived from Salt Lake City when officials realized that their people were still out there. When rescue arrived they found that occurances of deceased cannibalism and live self cannibalism had taken place, frostbite was rampant, all were starving, and about 240 fewer people were there to rescue. The March of the Saints is not completely forgotten, but owing to the relatively closed mouth, stoic Mormon culture, and the fact that the blame was directly with high church administration who forced the trip to be as frugal as possible, it never was published like other prarie history. There is a certain amount of revisionism too as the current writings ought not be about the �heroic� rescue, but the situation that required a rescue. The whole mess, whatever it is called, continues to be the worst land migration tragedy in our history.