Ephraim Hanks: Painless Amputations, Frozen Limbs Healed, and Buffalo That Appeared Instantly in Answer to Prayer

Ephraim Knowlton Hanks (March 21, 1826 – June 9, 1896) was born in Ohio, left home at 16, worked on the Erie Canal, served in the United States Navy, and was converted to the Church after his brother Sidney joined in 1845. He marched with the Mormon Battalion to San Diego, served as a U.S. mail carrier, and became a Pony Express station master before the rescue of 1856.

Brigham Young called him 'a man always ready to lay down his life for the authorities of the Church as well as for the cause of Zion and her people.'

After the miraculous nighttime voice and the providential buffalo (already documented), Hanks arrived at the Martin Company's camp and immediately began administering priesthood blessings. His own account records what happened next:

'Many of the Saints had frozen hands and feet. I found many such, which I washed with water and castile soap until the frozen parts would fall off.'

For those with frozen limbs that required amputation, Hanks anointed them with oil and prayed that the procedure could be done without pain. He then performed the amputations himself with his hunting knife, held to the fire to cleanse it. 'Many with tears in their eyes said they hadn't felt a thing.'

Hanks reported on the extraordinary abundance of buffalo during the rescue: 'The most remarkable thing about it was that I had traveled that road more than fifty times, and never before saw so many buffaloes in that part of the country. There was not a member of the party but what believed that the Lord had sent them to us in answer to prayer.'

At the camp he also administered a priesthood blessing to a man named William Read who appeared to be dead. Read revived. His wife, according to the account, cried out: 'Praised be the name of God. The man who brought the buffalo meat has healed him.'

Hanks was ordained a Patriarch by the Church and died at Floral Ranch, Wayne County, Utah in 1896. A geological feature in Capitol Reef National Park, EPH Hanks Tower, bears his name. He is the subject of the 2013 LDS film *Ephraim's Rescue* by T.C. Christensen.