October 23, 1856 - 158 YEARS AGO TODAY!

CROSSING ROCKY RIDGE
The Most Disastrous Day!

 

As the Willie Handcart Company continued along the trail they took refuge from the snowstorms in some willows close to the Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater River.  They were completely out of food, but had gained some hope when express riders found them the day before. 

The supply wagons were told that the Willie Company had been found, and they proceded eastward to reach them.  However, they were eventually caught in the same snowstorms that hit all the companies, and not knowing the desperate situation of the Willie Company, they also took refuge in willows several miles off the trail.

Captain James G. Willie could not wait for the supply wagons to find his freezing, starving company of saints, so he and Joseph Elder rode their horses over Rocky Ridge to find them.   Instead of going the 12 miles they had expected, they had to ride 27 miles in a blizzard to find the supply wagons.

Thanks to a rescuer named Harvey Cluff, who wisely followed a prompting to place a sign on the trail pointing to the camp of the rescuers, Captain Willie and Joseph Elder found them, and early the next morning they hurried back to find the Willie Company.

The morning of October 23, 1856, began a day that would test the Willie Handcart Company like no other!  They started from camp early that morning and for some, the day would not end for 27 hours - until almost sunrise of the following day.

It began with the climb up and over Rocky Ridge, a climb of 600 vertical feet and a distance of about 16 miles.  They were cautioned not to stop to rest, as they would surely freeze to death.

 

When they finally arrived at their campsite, the situation was grim.  Few tents were pitched.  Wagons continued bringing all those they could throughout the night.  Some were badly frozen, some were dying, and some were already dead.

 

The following morning it was discovered that 13 people had died during the ordeal, including four children: 

Samuel Gadd, age 10,

Niels Nielsen, age 6,

 Bodil Mortensen, age 10 - a young girl traveling with the Nielsen family and helping to care for their little son . . .

. . . and James Kirkwood, age 11, who carried his younger brother Joseph, age 4, much of the way over Rocky Ridge and then collapsed at his family's campfire and died.

A mass grave was dug and the bodies were all placed into it.  Two of the men who assisted with the digging of that grave died later on that same day and are buried nearby.

In spite of this tragic loss of life, the company had to continue westward.  As they did so, more and more supply wagons met them, and eventually they were all able to ride into the Salt Lake Valley, arriving on November 9, 1856.

About 67 members of the Willie Handcart Company died along the trail at some point.