I spent most of Tuesday September 8 at the Martins Cove Visitor Center. It is a great place to actually experience some of the pioneer activities.

Martins Cove marks the location of an 1856 pioneer winter tragedy. However it is now regarded as a sacred place to celebrate faith, courage, strength, endurance and sacrifice for others.

A ranch in this area was established by Tom Sun, a French-Canadian frontiersman who later became a pioneer cattleman. The Sun family owned and operated the ranch for the next 130+ years but they never plowed or disturbed the land. It is now essentially the same as it was during Pioneer times and you can still see the indented wagon trails worn into the prairie.

The Mormon Church purchased a portion of the Sun Ranch and established a permanent, year around visitors center using many of the Sun Ranch buildings. It is staffed by Senior Couple Missionaries who do a great job teaching and demonstrating all Pioneer and Ranch activities that took place there. They give you an opportunity for a real hands on immigrant experience. Everyone is welcome and it is free. You can resupply water but there is no food, bring your own.

There are handcarts that you can check out and pull along the old Mormon Trail. I checked one out and pulled it about 3 miles. Then I parked it and walked along a trail that took you through Martins Cove. You even get to cross the Sweetwater River (luckily they have built a bridge).

Every year the Missionary Couples sponsor and support youth groups who come and pull handcarts along the Mormon Trail. It can be a life altering experience for modern teenagers. They must learn to cooperate and get along with others in their "Company". They pull, camp, prepare meals, sing & dance and try to do all the things that the pioneers did before them for a one week period. However I don't think that 1 in 6 of them die like the pioneers experienced.