The Mormon Trail Wagon train this afternoon received a rousing welcome in the Summit County town of Henefer. It came after a hot, grueling day on the trail. News Specialist Duane Cardall joins us live now from Henefer. Duane, when did the wagon train arrive?

About 4 o'Clock and this normally quiet town of Henefer has never seen anything quite like it. People from all over waited hours then cheered with emotion as the wagon train rumbled down the town's Main Street. This is the first and only Utah town to host the wagon train before it reaches Salt Lake next Tuesday. The parade ended a long hot day on the trail.

Down a road that parallels Interstate 80 for the most part the old Lincoln Highway. Here the transportation systems of yesteryear and today converged. At one point the wagons went along the Union Pacific right of way road within feet of the busy track. That required extraordinary cooperation between the railroad and the wagon train.

The heat took a toll today even though water trucks occasionally hosed down the walkers. Some 20 of them dropped off the trail mainly from heat exhaustion but we're told no serious injuries.

Along the way today the wagon train passed the once wild and woolly town of Echo. News Specialist John Hollenhorst tells us more about this village where once you could find bodies buried in the basement.

Echo Canyon echoes with history. The great transportation corridors of Western History converge here. The Mormon Trail, the Transcontinental Railroad, the California Trail, the Donner Party, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, Lincoln Highway, Interstate 80. At the mouth of the canyon the Wagon Train shuffled into the town of Echo. Population, 65.

((SANDRA ALLEN, ECHO CANYON VISITOR CENTER: "AT IT'S PEAK, IT WAS AROUND 7-THOUSAND."))

Echo never lived up to expectations. To put it mildly. An old church, and a few other buildings remain, remnants of a brief population explosion that started with the first railroad crews in 1869. Brigham Young, Jr, bought the whole town for 200-dollars, expecting it to grow into a metropolis. Instead, it grew into an embarassment.

((SANDRA ALLEN, ECHO CANYON VISITOR CENTER: "JUST BECAUSE OF THE DRINKING AND CAROUSING AND SHOOTING THAT WAS GOING ON THERE."))

((JOHN HOLLENHORST REPORTING: "A NEWSPAPER WRITER AT THE TIME COMMENTED ON THE CULTURE SHOCK FOR EARLY MORMONS. HE SAID THE ARRIVAL OF THE RAILROAD CAMPS SEEMED LIKE AN INVASION OF ZION BY THE DRUNKEN HORDES OF BABYLON."))

((FRANK CATTELAN, ECHO CAFE: "THEY SAID A WOMAN DARED NOT WALK THE STREETS OF THIS TOWN."))

Frank Cattelan owns the Echo Cafe, where the modern Wagon Train stopped. The unsavory reputation was still there when he moved to town 51 years ago.

((FRANK CATTELAN, ECHO CAFE: "IT WAS ROUGH. WELL THEY HAD THE OLD SALOON HERE IN TOWN, THEY CALLED JOE STORER'S SALOON. AND WHEN THEY MOVED IT, THEY FOUND SIX BODIES UNDERNEATH THAT SALOON. THAT'S HOW ROUGH IT WAS."))

Times changed, the freeway made access difficult, Echo shriveled up.

((FRANK CATTELAN, ECHO CAFE: "WELL, IT'S NOT EVER GONNA BE A BIG-TIME TOWN. BUT IT'S QUIET AND PEACEFUL HERE."))

((SANDRA ALLEN, ECHO CANYON VISITOR CENTER: "THEY STILL GET THE TRAINS THROUGH ON A REGULAR BASIS. BUT THERE'S NO REASON FOR THEM TO STOP THERE."))

Even the latest wagon train only stopped for about a half an hour. John Hollenhorst, KSL News, Echo Utah.

The church has been restored into a museum. Efforts are currently underway to restore a historic school. The wagon train will spend the night in Henefer. So if you want to see the train, head to Henefer tomorrow (Thursday). There will be alot to do there, but the highlight tomorrow evening will be a concert by the Utah Symphony. For the latest information on the wagon train, dial 538-1847.