A Day For Pioneers

Around here this is a day for celebrating.  In 1847 the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had finally found a place of safety in the valleys surrounding the Great Salt Lake.  I am sure that when their prophet Brigham Young declared, “ This is the Place!”  there were quite a few that inwardly thought , “It is?  This barren, sagebrush filled spot, is the place where we have been led?” 

It had to be with mixed feelings that they walked down  the mountain canyons into that arid area, feelings of relief, gladness that their journey had come to an end, disappointment that the place did not offer the promises of any ease or luxury. In July it was probably a day to wipe sweat from their brows.  After all, these pioneers were human, they had crossed the Great Plains, the deserts in the tops of the Rocky Mountains, they knew eking a living from this sort of surroundings would not be easy. 

Some of them had been city dwellers, accustomed to a different type of life. They had traveled through Missouri, Iowa, etc. and had seen the rich farm lands of the Midwest.  On they came, following divine direction.  Past Indians, crossing deep rivers, noting the scarcity of civilization, just Ft. Laramie and then Ft. Bridger. 

I so admire the faith of those people, who set to doing, to living, meeting the many challenges that came their way  so that it truly became The Place.  After a few years they had made a spot thriving with education, culture and  many of the finer things that they had left behind.

Being a convert to the faith I cannot claim those Utah pioneers.  But I still celebrate, thinking not just of the Utah pioneers, but those of my own.  Settling Wyoming in the 1800’s.  Two ancestry lines go back to the 1600’s in the claiming of the eastern seaboard in Massachusetts,  Connecticut, South Carolina, All these  people had to have more than grit and determination.  All had to have a goodly measure of faith to help them carry on in the face of the things at that time in history that could deter them from accomplishing dreams.  All came with the hope of a better life than the one left behind.

When we step into the unknown, whatever it might be, it is a pioneering step.  The step will affect others coming behind us, particularly those of our family.  Today is my pioneer day too, so glad my forebears made the choices that placed me in this land.