Rescue of the Martin Handcart Company

In October 1856, the Martin Handcart Company became stranded in early winter storms in present-day Wyoming. Upon learning of their peril, Brigham Young immediately organized rescue parties who braved severe conditions to reach the suffering Saints.

Despite tremendous losses, many survivors later testified of divine interventions during their ordeal — including accounts of angels walking beside them, supernatural strength to continue, and providential discoveries of shelter and fuel. The rescue itself was described as miraculous in its timing and execution.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Chad M. Orton, “The Martin Handcart Company at the Sweetwater: Another Look,” BYU Studies 45, no. 3 (2006)):

On November 4, 1856, members of the beleaguered Martin Handcart Company reached the Sweetwater River. Members of a relief party that had arrived a few days earlier from the Salt Lake Valley were at the river to assist the Martin Company across. The best-known account of the crossing of that cold November day was written by Solomon F. Kimball: After they [Martin Company] had given up in despair, after all hopes had vanished, after every apparent avenue of escape seemed closed, three eighteen-year-old boys belonging to the relief party came to the rescue, and to the astonishment of all who saw, carried nearly every member of the illfated handcart company across the snowbound stream.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Chad M. Orton, “The Martin Handcart Company at the Sweetwater: Another Look,” BYU Studies 45, no. 3 (2006)):

On November 4, 1856, members of the beleaguered Martin Handcart Company reached the Sweetwater River. Members of a relief party that had arrived a few days earlier from the Salt Lake Valley were at the river to assist the Martin Company across. The best-known account of the crossing of that cold November day was written by Solomon F. Kimball: After they [Martin Company] had given up in despair, after all hopes had vanished, after every apparent avenue of escape seemed closed, three eighteen-year-old boys belonging to the relief party came to the rescue, and to the astonishment of all who saw, carried nearly every member of the illfated handcart company across the snowbound stream.