Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a standard crossing-the-Plains narrative: Pioneers traversed the Mississippi River on the ice led by Brigham Young. Everything was well organized, and everyone was well behaved. They trekked hard by day and prayed together at night. They sang “Come, Come, Ye Saints” around the campfire and then delighted in dancing to the tunes of fiddles.
Sure, there was hardship, so the story goes, but all the suffering was mostly ennobling. The names varied but the stories for these religious migrants were pretty much interchangeable.
For Latter-day Saint historian Ardis Parshall, however, the pioneer saga is so much wider, richer and, at times, even more entertaining when members search for and honor experiences that differ from the oft-repeated accounts.
Parshall, who revels in being a historical sleuth, seeks out the little-known and unexpected episodes in the faith’s past.
In advance of Utah’s Pioneer Day on Thursday, July 24, she shares some of the gems she has discovered about the Latter-day Saints’ epic 19th-century pilgrimage.
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