Apostle Marriner W. Merrill's Miraculous Preservation in North Mill Creek Canyon
Published October 13, 2026 at 6:07 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
While working in North Mill Creek canyon in January 1855, Marriner W. Merrill was loading pine logs onto a bobsled on an icy side hill. A heavy log slipped, pinning him face-down across other logs, with his legs trapped under the heavy timber. He struggled and prayed, eventually losing consciousness. He regained consciousness half a mile down the canyon, finding himself miraculously moved, seated on his loaded bobsled with the logs securely chained and his tools in place, though his body was severely bruised and sore.
In his account published in the Juvenile Instructor (October 15, 1892), Merrill provided further context, noting that the incident occurred during an extremely cold spell when a dense winter fog hung over the valley. He mentioned that he had ignored his wife's entreaties not to go into the canyon that day because of the weather. Additionally, Merrill specified that his oxen had been chained to a stump while he worked, and that the logs were red pine, approximately thirty feet long and ten inches thick at the butt end.
In Their Own Words
“In the winter of 1855, I worked in what was then called North Mill Creek canyon. The only team I had at that time was one yoke of oxen. With this team I hauled logs to the city. One day in January, 1855, it was very cold, and there was a dense fog in the valley. My wife tried to persuade me not to go to the canyon that day, but I felt that I must go, as I needed the wood. I went, and after reaching the canyon, I chained my oxen to a stump, and commenced loading my bobsled with red pine logs, which were about thirty feet long and ten inches thick at the butt end. I had three logs on the sled, and was trying to put on the fourth. I had one end of the log on the sled, and was prying the other end up, when the log slipped, and I was caught between the log I was loading and the ones already on the sled. I was pinned face down, and my legs were caught under the heavy timber. I began to think that I was thus doomed to perish in the canyon. I struggled desperately to release myself, but every effort seemed to bind me the more firmly beneath the terrible load which seemed crushing my very bones. While thus struggling for relief I also prayed earnestly to the Lord for assistance, and while doing so I lost consciousness. When I next regained my senses I was a half a mile down the canyon from the place where I began to load, and was seated upon the logs, which were loaded in the exact position that I had designed to put them—three on the bottom and two on the top of the three. All were nicely bound with chains; I was sitting upon my sheep-skin with the woolly side up; my whip was placed on the load carefully so it could not lose; my overcoat, home-made jeans, lay across the load in front of me, but within my reach. I looked at the load and found I had the five logs on the sled, three on the bottom and two on the top, nicely bound, my ax sticking in the top log, my whip lying on the load by my side, my sheepskin (with the wool on, which I used to sit on) also on the load and I sitting on it. I made an effort to get off the load and put on my overcoat but found I could not do it, as I was so sore in my legs and breast that it was with great difficulty that I could move at all. I put my overcoat on in a sitting position as I was, and wrapped it around my legs the best I could and started on down the canyon. My oxen being gentle and tractable and the road smooth and all down hill, I arrived home without difficulty.”
— Marriner W. Merrill, as published in the Juvenile Instructor, October 15, 1892
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 27 April 1905 (Vol. 67, No. 17). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1905-04-27_67_17 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Lawrence R. Flake, Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), 411–13. https://rsc.byu.edu/prophets-apostles-last-dispensation/marriner-wood-merrill; Juvenile Instructor, 15 October 1892. https://historicalgeneralconferences.weebly.com/marriner-w-merrill.html; Jeaneen Merrill Anderson, 'Pioneer moments: Pinned to the ground,' Church News, 6 Sept 1997. https://www.thechurchnews.com/1997/9/6/23251766/pioneer-moments-pinned-to-the-ground/ Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 67, No. 17 (April 27, 1905) https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1905-04-27_67_17
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