Saturday, June 20, 2009 MARTINS COVE AND LUSK, WY

Today we went to Martin’s Cove north of Rawlings. It was a stopping point for pioneers as they crossed over to Salt Lake City. The area was much bigger than we expected. We spent most of the day there. Many artifacts from the Pioneers, many stories of people involved. Many missionary couples there and such nice people. They have lots of art depicting the crossing and one whole wall of names of people who passed through and their ages. The names were in white and the ones who died were in yellow. So many died and it was sobering to read their names. The pic above of a statue of a man holding a child was really neat, but I was disappointed that on the computer what you can't see is the infant in the crook of his right arm. It was really cool. The pic of the river is the Sweatwater. This is the second one the had to cross in the freezing water. And of course you recognize the other Wright couple, Ralph and Betty!

While here we heard an impressive story about Ephriam Hanks. He was out on the plains in the snow and cold and was very hungry. He knelt down to pray for the Lord to help him find food or shelter and when he finished his prayer and opened his eyes there was a buffalo right in front of him. He shot it and cleaned it, packed up the meat and wore the buffalo skin for warmth. As he started to travel again, suddenly there was another one in front of him. He shot and cleaned that one also. He travelled a short way and came across the cold and starving Saints near Martin’s Cove. He had about 700 lbs of meat he shared with them. They say at first he was cutting pieces off and handing them to people in a line. Then he said “this is too slow.” He handed the knife over and the saints and they helped themselves. He remarked how impressed he was that these starving people only took small pieces so others would have food also.

We also heard about a widowed woman who had her two children travelling with her. When they came to the half frozen Sweetwater River she didn’t wait for help but took her 5 year old boy in her arms and crossed the freezing water placing him on the other side. When she turned to go back across and get her 2 year old daughter, the boy was afraid she was leaving him and started to follow into the water. She went back to him and tied him to a tree using her apron. Then she crossed, got her daughter and crossed again. Remember this is ice water! Such amazing stories we heard about amazing people.

After Martin’s Cove, we drove on to Lusk, WY and spent the night. Cute little tiny town. The RV Campground had about 10 or 12 spaces and was clean, grassy and pretty. The owners were really nice too. We had the most expensive (but delicious) Pizza for dinner.