WINTER QUARTERS: TRAGEDY OR TRIUMPH? 12/19/81 G Holmes
Reflect for a minute on the aura of tragedy surrounding the historic name of Winter Quarters. Here in the Missouri
Valley 135 years ago, historians say, 'hundreds of Saints
sickened and died. While thousands lived in drafty little
log cabins, some survived in tents through the winter of
1846-47. Food was scarce and of dangerously limited vari-
ety. Corn and wheat were cracked by some with primitive
mortar and pestle for food, meal after dreary meal.
While
the hard-pressed Saints cooperated to pull together enough
supplies and equipment for the 1000-mile trek from here
to the Salt Lake Valley, Indians scattered and killed some
of the oxen needed to pull the heavily loaded covered
wagons of the migrating Saints.
