Handcart Companies

Not every pioneer could afford oxen and a wagon. Between 1856 and 1860, some three thousand Mormon converts—many of them poor immigrants from Britain and Scandinavia—walked to Utah pulling their belongings in two-wheeled handcarts, more than a thousand miles on foot. Most arrived safely. Two companies did not: the Willie and Martin handcarts left too late in 1856 and were trapped by early snow in Wyoming, where more than two hundred died before rescue wagons could reach them from the valley. It remains the deadliest chapter of the overland migration.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 3.1 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Emigration Canyon — 3.7 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 3.9 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 4.2 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views

More markers nearby

• The Overland Stage — steps away
• Willard Richards — steps away
• 1997 Sesquicentennial Trekkers — steps away
• Horace A. Sorensen — steps away