Church Historian Inspires Youth on Trek Across the Wyoming Mormon Trail

Church Historian and Recorder Elder Kyle S. McKay and his wife, Jennifer, recently joined about 150 youth from the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake on the Wyoming Mormon Trail July 7-9, 2025, to relive a mid-1800s pioneer experience known today as “trek” by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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Between the 1840s and 1860s, some 70,000 Latter-day Saint pioneers seeking religious freedom crossed the central United States to settle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ten companies of pioneers traveled by handcart, but two of them — the Willie and Martin handcart companies — experienced great hardship on their journey.

The trail these youth walked, near Lander, Wyoming, follows the difficult path that about 400 pioneers trekked in the fall of 1856. It was on this trail that the pioneers of the Willie and Martin companies faced extreme weather conditions and dwindling resources and encountered the first rescue wagons sent from Salt Lake City.

“This is the first time we’ve opened up this trek in a decade or so,” Elder McKay said. “This trail has meant so much to me over the years, and I know the potential that this place has for providing an amazing experience. And so, when we were finally able to open the trail back up, I wanted to be here.”

This newly reopened trail route begins at the Sixth Crossing Visitors’ Center, where the pioneers crossed the Sweetwater River for the sixth time. It progresses over the rugged Rocky Ridge to end at Rock Creek Hollow. There, Latter-day Saints can walk in the footsteps of their pioneer ancestors.

“This is one of those places where you can say we walked where they went,” said President Robert Goates, who oversees the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites. “We know with a high level of certainty that as we cross these trails, you’re seeing what they saw; you’re experiencing what they experienced.”

President Goates and his wife, Cynthia, preside over a group of missionaries serving at these historic sites. Sister Goates said the missionaries’ responsibility is to “care for the visitors who come here, especially our trekkers and the guests.”

“We rely really heavily upon the trekking unit to prepare to tell stories, but our missionaries make such a difference,” said President Goates.

Senior missionaries are invited to apply for this sacred opportunity to serve. Church groups and families can make reservations for 2026 treks beginning in mid-September.

Finding Christ on the Wyoming Plains

“There are several purposes of trek, but there’s one overarching purpose that is more important than them all, and that is to come unto Christ,” Elder McKay said.

“This is sacred ground, but it becomes sacred for very personal reasons to those youth that feel the Spirit here, feel a deeper relationship with their Savior,” President Goates said.

Over three days, the youth trekking this trail became acquainted with the pioneer experience through both physical challenges and stories of the Latter-day Saints who endured the trail before them.

“You can feel and you can see God at work in the lives of His children,” said Sister McKay. “You can see the feelings and the experiences of those who have gone before us settling into the hearts of everyone here.”

“You can feel the Spirit here when you’re walking along these trails,” added Blake Hansen, a youth from the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake. “You can feel the love everyone has for each other.”

Lydia Burrows, another youth trekker, found herself walking in the footsteps of an ancestor of her own who ventured across the Wyoming plains.

“It makes me feel so much more connected,” she said. “And to realize that they went through really hard things, but through Jesus Christ, they made it.”

Likewise, trekker Emry Miller researched one of her pioneer ancestors prior to the trek and kept the name with her throughout the experience.

“I just think of her every single time that I walk,” Miller said. “I’m like, ‘Okay, she did harder things and went through so many more trials and sacrifices.’ And I’m here on a smoother road, and it’s hard, but I can do this.”

Added Elder McKay: “This trail whispers. And there are those who have gone on before, and we listen to their stories, and we read their stories and their testimony still reverberates in these sagebrush-covered fields.”

“What drove the people to do what they did was their love for God and their willingness to follow the prophet,” said Sister McKay. “That is what drives us. We love our Heavenly Father. We want to let God prevail.”

Identity, Commitment, Help

During a devotional with the youth on the second night of the trek, Elder McKay shared three principles drawn from personal experience and the stories of pioneers who suffered on this trail. The Church leader pointed to lessons about identity, commitment and help.

While emphasizing the principle of identity, Elder McKay related the story of George W. Grant, the teenage son of the captain of the first rescue party that set out to help the Willie and Martin handcart companies.

Overcome with sorrow after seeing the freezing pioneers huddled by a rickety cabin, Grant told them to stand back.

“Tonight,” the young Grant said, “I have the strength of a Grant.”

“And with one blow,” Elder McKay said, “according to one account, he hit the wall of that cabin, and with one blow, it came crashing to the earth. He cut up those logs and gave each family a piece, and nobody was cold that night.”

Elder McKay continued, “You are a child of God. Remember your identity. Feel the power of those who have gone on before. Above all, feel the power of God, who is your Father. You possess His power in you.”

Of commitment, Elder McKay related the story of Levi Savage, who helped lead the Willie handcart company. When invited to speak during their perilous journey west, Savage warned of the lateness of the season and pleaded with the company to stay back and wait out the winter.

“Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to be true,” Savage said, “but, seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you, and, if necessary, I will die with you. May God in His mercy bless and preserve us.”

Said Elder McKay: “That man spent the entire trek trying to save the people who were in trouble because they went against his advice. He was a man who understood commitment.”

Finally, Elder McKay illustrated the principle of help by sharing an experience he had with his family in Martin’s Cove, another landmark on the Wyoming Mormon Trail. He found himself deeply moved by the stories of these pioneers but struggled to feel a connection to them.

“I was also thinking — maybe with too much confidence in my outdoor skills — ‘I could have helped,’” he said. “Maybe I couldn’t have saved the day, but I could have comforted. I could have built a fire. I could have pitched a tent.”

Then, he recalled the words of his grandmother, who had dementia but in a moment of lucidity told him, “Go help now, Kyle. You’ll never be sorry.”

“I had a moment to recognize that, for whatever reason, it wasn’t my responsibility or lot or timing to be around when the Martin and Willie companies had their ordeal, and I couldn’t help them,” he said. “But I’m here now, and there are people who need help now.”

Ultimately, Elder McKay said, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ made the pioneers’ journey possible: “It is that act, and the power that comes through it and is accessible because of it, that made it so that any of the Martin and Willie company survived at all.”

To the youth on the trek, Elder McKay testified, “I bear witness of [God’s] power, of His goodness, of His kindness. I bear witness of it because I see it in you. Go and let the world see it. You’re a mighty force for good.”