The Story Behind "Ascending Rocky Ridge"

Bedard copyrighted

"Ascending Rocky Ridge"

Artist: Michael Bedard

The day we ascended Rocky Ridge “I’ll never forget as long as I live. It was a bitter cold morning in October as we broke camp. . . Father and Rueben were on the burial detail. Mother, who was helping to pull the heaviest cart, had stayed behind until they could finish their sad work. After a short service we, with my cart, ran ahead to catch the rest of the company, and Mother and Rueben started to follow. Father collapsed and fell in the snow. He tried two or three times to get up with Mother’s help, then finally he asked her to go on and when he felt rested, he would come on later, Mother knew in her heart that he had given out, but perhaps, she said in a few minutes with some rest he could come on. She took the cart and hurried to follow us.”  Later the next day their father was among the deceased.

- William James, Willie Handcart Company

"The Coldest Hour of the Twenty Four" 

Artist: Michael Bedard

“Truly an act of courage and love not to ever be forgotten;  

Brother David P. Kimball, George W. Grant, and C. Allen Huntington, during ‘the coldest hour of the twenty-four,’ carried many of the ill-fated Martin Company across the Sweetwater River at Devil's Gate to Martin’s Cove.” 

- Patience Loader, Martin Handcart Company