Walking in Their Shoes
CRANBERRY TWP — A group of youths from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints left Butler County and the surrounding areas last week to walk in the shoes of Brigham Young and their Mormon forefathers.
For three days, the young "pioneers" got a taste of what life was like for the Mormon faithful who crossed the Great Plains in the largest migration of people in U.S. history.
From 1847 to 1868, more than 70,000 Mormon pioneers used wagons and handcarts as they trekked some 1,300 miles on the Mormon Pioneer Trail from Nauvoo, Ill., to their new home in the Salt Lake Valley.
The Mormon Pioneer Trek attempted to recreate that journey July 23 to 25 on the 4,200-acre Marriott Family Ranch near Hume, Va.
Travelers from Western Pennsylvania included about 100 youths and 30 adult chaperones, referred to as the Mas and Pas. Grouped in small family units, the travelers assembled wooden handcarts, loaded them with supplies and pulled them for hours on end in a grueling but rewarding experience across rough terrain in the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills.
Richard and Lynne Arrington of Cranberry Township served as trek directors for the Pittsburgh North Stake. The stake is a collection of eight wards, including Butler and Cranberry, within the Pittsburgh region that currently has about 2,500 members.
The stake is similar to a diocese in the Roman Catholic faith, and wards are like the parishes of the church.
The Pioneer Trek was part of the Pittsburgh North Stake's annual youth conference.
Although treks are very popular in the Western States as many are done on the original Mormon Pioneer Trail, organizers said they are gaining popularity in the eastern United States.
Lynne Arrington, whose daughters, Jaelyn, 15, and Brooke, 17, both participated, said the event was the first such undertaken in the Pittsburgh region.
The trip took more than two years of planning, which was especially hectic in the last six months. During that time, every aspect of the trip needed to be coordinated, including tasks like making the costumes and getting all the supplies, Arrington said.
Girls' costumes consisted of homemade cotton dresses with bloomers while the boys donned cotton or wool pants, cotton shirts and straw hats. No modern day conveniences were allowed.
Those who attended found the experience to be physically demanding, but also a learning experience that bonded the families and brought to the surface their physical and inner strengths.
Ana Johnson, 17, of Cranberry Township said it was a tough, but awesome experience.
"It was really humid, and the girls were wearing heavy 1840s-era material dresses and pushing the heavy handcarts," she said.
Johnson said the first day was the hardest because the family had to travel eight miles with the carts."The worst part was you didn't know when you were going to stop," she said.Johnson attended the trek with her entire family, including her siblings, Joel, 19, and Sarah, 15.Audrey and Bill Eberle of Butler served as a Ma and Pa for a group of 12 youths who ranged from 14 to 19 years old."They weren't allowed anything from the 20th century: no cell phones, no iPods and things like no toothpaste. It was all back to the basics," Audrey Eberle said."Our role was to encourage the youths as they walked and relate what they were doing to the challenges along the trail," she said.Pushing the heavy carts, which Bill Eberle estimated weighed more than 500 pounds when fully loaded with gear for the trip, was both physically and mentally demanding on the youths."They learned that they had to rely on each other," he said.The Eberles' son, Charlie, 17, admitted he wasn't too excited about the trek when it first began because there were no cell phones are other modern amenities.But as the trip progressed, Charlie said he bonded with others who attended."It helped us become more reliant on ourselves and better understanding our strengths and weaknesses," he said.Logan Holland, 16, of Slippery Rock explained how, after preliminary instructions, the youths assembled the handcarts without adult assistance.With carts assembled, they walked in single file down their trail, not knowing how far or where they were traveling."It was a lot harder than I expected," he said. "The first day was definitely the hardest."That evening, a heavy rain poured down on the pioneer families and continued for the following day. The next morning after a light breakfast of oatmeal, the families trekked another couple hours before setting up camp again.The families participated in pioneer-era games like shooting black powder guns and playing stickball, while later in the evening, there was an old-fashioned hoedown.All food was prepared like the pioneers would have prepared it with cooking utensils like the Dutch oven.Saturday morning was a spiritual time for the youths, who were given some solo time to go out by themselves with their scriptures, prayers and reflect on what they had read and seen.There also was a testimony meeting in which the youths stood up and talked about their experiences during the trek, Holland said.Following that, the family groups trekked another couple miles to their final destination."Although we all came from different walks of life, we had to work together," Holland said. "If we didn't, we couldn't pull the cart. And although it was hard, we found our strength."
