Congress inched closer Thursday to completing a bill directing the federal government to sell The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints land in the Wyoming highlands where Mormon pioneers died in an 1856 blizzard.
Martin's Cove, an island of prairie surrounded by high walls of pink granite, is part of the history of the Mormon church, which has sought for years to acquire the land where nearly 150 pioneers died.
But others say the deaths of the pioneers is a story that resonates among all Americans, not just Mormons. Fearing the area's secular history could be lost under Mormon management, they point out that the California, Oregon and Pony Express trails are all within a mile of Martin's Cove.
At a hearing Thursday before a House subcommittee that oversees public lands, top leaders of the Mormon church told Congress they could accept minor changes _ reducing the size of the parcel from 1,640 acres, and agreeing to protect non-Mormon relics _ sought by history advocates and the Bush administration.
The House Resources Committee, chaired by the bill's author, Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, could vote as early as next week to approve the bill and send it to the floor of the House. Hansen and six other co-sponsors are Mormons.
The story of Martin's Cove is a story about poverty-stricken pioneers, who packed their children and belongings onto carts that they pushed by hands over 1,300 miles, headed for the Mormon colony at Salt Lake City.
Two companies of pioneers, all European converts to the Mormon church, were caught by a snowstorm in the mountains of central Wyoming in late fall 1856. Bogged down and strung out over several miles, dozens died of cold and starvation. Others died in Martin's Cove, a pocket of prairie encircled by pink granite cliffs, where the freezing, hungry pioneers huddled before wagon parties sent from Salt Lake rescued them.
They wrapped their dead in blankets and left them under deep snow in Martin's Cove.
Lloyd Larsen, president of the Riverton, Wyo., stake of the Mormon church, called the cove "hallowed ground," and compared it to Arlington National Cemetery.
"This is a story of dedication, determination and death," said Bishop H. David Burton, who oversees Mormon church property. "The courage and sacrifice of these marooned pioneers in 1856 _ and their rescuers _ is one of the great heroic stories of the American pioneer era."
Under questioning by committee members, Burton agreed on behalf of the church to guarantee public access to Martin's Cove, protect Indian and any secular historic finds, and potentially reduce the acreage the church would buy. But the bill still has its detractors.
Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said she would vote against the bill because so many in Wyoming oppose the transfer of the land from the Bureau of Land Management. The church already has everything it wants, except title, through an existing agreement with BLM, she said. She said she saw no reason the change anything.
"My vote on this bill will not be a vote about the LDS church, which I greatly admire," Cubin said. "Rather, (it's) a vote to maintain the status quo in the management at Martin's Cove."
Passage in the Resources Committee is likely. Hansen won an endorsement of the bill from the Democrat's senior Democrat, Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
May 16, 2002
