The handcart pioneers traveled over 1,300 miles, and the journey usually took four to five months.

Instead, she asked her grandmother, Mary Ann Stucki Hafen, who had walked across the plains with the handcart pioneers.

He was involved in the rescue of the Willie and Martin Companies of Mormon handcart pioneers.

Emma suffered the hardships of a handcart pioneer, crossing the plains and mountains to Utah with the Willie and Martin companies.

She pushed the cart herself for the entire 1,400 mile walk, as one of the many Mormon handcart pioneers.

Journal entries reflect the optimism of the handcart pioneers, even amid their hardships:

And so it was that handcart pioneers added their strength, spirit and indomitable will to Utah's legacy in its struggle for statehood.

Prairies, mountains, ravines, canyons, deserts, rivers blocked their path, but the handcart pioneers conquered them or died in the attempt.

Upon arrival in Utah, the handcart pioneers were given or found jobs and accommodations by individual Mormon families for the winter until they could become established.

In the winter of 1856, Kimball helped a company of handcart pioneers stranded near the Sweetwater River, in response to a request from Brigham Young.