Tragedy and Triumph: The 1856 Willie and Martin Handcart Companies

By Howard K. Bangerter and Cory W. Bangerter

There are two well-known Handcart Tragedies: The Willie Handcart and the Martin Handcart, both of which end with the name tragedy. But there were other handcart trains that traveled sucessfully across the wide expanse between St. Louis and the Great Salt Lake Basin. Actually, my reading tells me that even before Brigham Young came up with the idea, there were people traveling along the gold rush trails and over the prairies pushing wheelbarrows and various types of handcarts. This book should help give us perspective about why the Wille and Martin Handcart trains suffered such losses. I suspect the biggest problem had to do with the materials used to make the handcarts and the time of the year when the march began. This book should give the final work balance.