MORMONS RE-CREATE CROSS-COUNTRY TREK

Caisa Pope traded her everyday clothes for a period costume Saturday as a group of Mormon Church members observed the group's sesquicentennial celebration of Mormon Pioneers during a special event held at the trail of Tears State Park.

It was 150 years ago this week that the Mormon Pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley on travels from communities in Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

"My great-great grandmother was in a group that traveled from Nebraska to the Salt Lake Valley," said Pope. "She was just an infant at the time."

Pope was portraying her ancestor at the Saturday gathering, held in the Scout area of the park.

Pope's grandmother was Julia Huston Tratt Gardner, the daughter of a noted Mormon leader, Parley Tratt, who helped organize a number of treks to Salt Lake Valley over a 10-year period, starting in 1847.

"When she was 10 years old, she was helping nurse the sick," said Pope. Her grandmother, who married one of the patients she tended in sickness, had 14 children before her husband died in 1895.

Pope, who previously lived in New Mexico and Illinois, has lived in Cape Girardeau the past year. Her husband, Verl Pope, is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University. He also had a number of relatives who made marches to their new home.

A number of Mormons recently re-enacted the "Mormon March" of 150 years ago, traveling in covered wagons and handcarts pulled by the pioneers.

"We recently traveled the same route by car," said Pope. "We had a family reunion in Utah, and drove the route."

During Mormon Pioneer March, more than 10,000 Mormon refuges from Illinois crossed Iowa to what is now Council Bluffs and on into the Salt Lake Valley.

Between 1846 and their final departure for Utah in 1856, the Mormons established more than 80 communities along the Missouri River.

The trek of the refugees along the Mormon Trail opened up the west to the thousands that followed, both Mormons and non-Mormons.

The exodus across Missouri and Iowa is the trek that was recreated this summer.

There's nothing to mark the Mormon march rout, no buildings or monuments. Members of the Mormon Trail Association used witching rods to trace the tracks of the wagons and handcarts to determine the route.

The Mormon church, officially known as the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has grown to more than 9.7 million members.

Mormons from a wide area attended the Saturday meeting at Trail of Tears Park, north of Cape Girardeau, where demonstrations and exhibits depicted pioneer lifestyles and activities.

Many of those participating in the celebration Saturday wore period costume.

Included on the list of activities were sack races, shoe tossing, and crafts, all topped off with a potluck picnic luncheon.

"We were hoping for more people," said Dan Smith of Poplar Bluff, who helped organize the event. "But with the extreme hot weather, some people didn't make it."

Between 70 and 80 people did attend the celebration, including members of Mormon congregations from Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Fredericktown, Farmington, Cape Girardeau and Carbondale, Ill.

Brent Metcalf of Carbondale demonstrated blacksmithing. A number of young boys lined up to take their turn at turning the handle of the forge.

Also on hand at the event were a couple of handcarts, like those used by the Mormons to transport goods during the long march.

"The carts ranged from small to large," said Verl Pope. "Some carts carried as much as 2,000 pounds of supplies, requiring the use of six to eight men -- pulling and pushing -- to transport."

Two people could handle the smaller carts.

During the movement to Salt Lake Valley, the government asked for a Mormon battalion to help in the fight against Mexico.

"The Mormon Battalion consisted of about 500 men," said Verl Pope. "And, it completed a long military march to San Diego, where it placed the U.S. flag."

Campaigns of the Mexican War -- 1846-1848 -- took place chiefly in California, Mexico and Texas.