Reenactors Pull Handcarts Through Salt Lake

Reenactors Pull Handcarts Through Salt Lake


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Alex Cabrero ReportingRush hour traffic is always a problem, but drivers really can't complain, they have it easy. That's because they're still going to get home within a half hour, maybe 45 minutes. If they really think getting around is tough, they should try doing it, pulling a handcart.

In today's day and age getting around Salt Lake City with a handcart just seems silly. With cars and TRAX as faster modes of transportation, why bother with a handcart?

Brent Lorimer, Holladay: "It's very important we teach our children about who these people were."

Brent Lorimer knows he could do that teaching with a book, but because today is the 150th year anniversary of handcarts first coming into the Salt Lake valley, this way seems to work best.

Montell Seely, Castledale: "An event like this just causes people to be filled with the spirit of their heritage."

Some 500 pioneer reenactors, and close to a hundred handcarts made their way from This is the Place State Park to the LDS Conference Center. That's about three miles, a lot less than the real pioneers. Their trek is just mind boggling.

Janell Beagley, Castledale: "I try to. I try to, really hard, to think of how they felt when they came in."

You could only bring your bare essentials, roughly 17 pounds worth of stuff because pulling anything more would be even tougher.

Besides being a lesson, though, today was all about not forgetting.

Jerry Magleby, Salt Lake City: "Well, we have to remember our history. It's very important, absolutely. It makes us what we are today."

Of course, you don't have to be Mormon to appreciate what the pioneers went through to settle what would become our great city. It certainly wasn't easy.

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