SNOW!!
On this date in 1856 snow began falling on both the Willie Handcart Company at Ice Slough, and on the Martin Company as they crossed the North Platte River for the last time in the area of present-day Casper, Wyoming.
The Martin Company lost 14 people after that cold river crossing, many of them men who had given their meager ration of flour to their starving wives and children.
The company continued pushing westward in the snow, and after five freezing, stormy days they had only gone 10 miles to the area of Bessemer Bend and Red Buttes. They could go no further, and as they camped there in the snow, 56 members of their company died.
After searching for nearly 50 miles beyond Devil's Gate, express riders finally saw a footprint in the snow that led them to the Martin Company.
Although they had no supplies to offer the starving pioneers, they gave them HOPE, and let them know that rescue wagons loaded with food and other supplies were on the way . . .
IF they could just keep going!
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