I needed to go to Wyoming yesterday. Driving home via I-80, I noticed all the pioneer hand carts and porta-potties—rows and rows of them. Apparently, in the olden days, there weren’t porta-potties, so early trek recreations didn’t have them. However, now that thousands participate in Trek, modern sanitation is a must!

I’m told a number of years ago, a live turkey was killed, dressed, and eaten. But, alas, Trek now has prepared meals.

Ah Trek! What a powerful way to mythologize a part of Mormon history. Testimony meetings galore! Sanitized outhouses and church history, and a sense of we are the chosen youth.

The Wyoming Cowboy’s Boner

Put-lipstick-on-a-pig-anyone?-ly yrs,

S

Why don't they start as far East as Nebraska or Iowa Where the handcart trails really began? Would add an air of authenticity!

In 24 years of migration (during which handcarts were used for just four years, I read), just a tenth of immigrant Mormons arrived in Salt Lake City this difficult way.

So sad to see the gravestones of those who were buried along the way. Yes, markers are out there.

Recreating history like it never was.

Doggone it...Probably explained by me being a nevermo, but I got all excited that new Star Trek stuff might be coming.

It would probably be safer to send those kids on a SpaceX rocket than to have them do the handcart nonsense.

I been on a few trek reenactments and have fond memories. There is one funny memory I will never forget.

I was standing next to a row of porta-potties with a few other leaders when a girl comes out of one of the porta-potties complaining that the soap won't lather. We didn't have the heart to tell her that it wasn't soap, it was the deoderorizer cake, and that wasn't a sink it was in, it was a urinal. Oh boy was it hard to keep a straight face.

OMG. That's too funny. :)

Yeah - romanticizing an extremely brutal and dangerous period of Mormon history. Romanticizing helps whitewash and inoculate the youth to the truth of the horrors of the Mormon Trail.

Don't laugh too much at this simpleton, but what is the Trek really supposed to accomplish?

I haven't the slightest idea of how this is supposed to "galvanize" the youth or motivate them to be excited about church history.

Some 25 years ago, I served a mission and never heard a single word about a "Trek". I heard some amusing stories about scouting, the misery of early morning seminary and the drudgery of Saturday service projects.

Looking back, maybe the pricks and a-holes that served as my zone leaders were Trekkers, but I was not worthy enough to see their Trek-imonies.

I don’t think Trek was around 25+ years ago. My wife participated with one of the first Trek experiences. She went to DI and bought Pioneer-style clothing. The only thing modern was the footwear. She asked me if I wanted to go. I replied, no—it’s not my heritage.

Most of her down time was spent in quiet contemplation. And yes, there was the turkey incident—she gagged. Many of the first participants were adults. If memory serves correctly, Trek was organized, then, by a BYU entity.

The purpose is enculturation. IMO, Mormonism thrives on its persecution complex. So, participant both are made to feel sacrifice and persecution. Of course, the experience is mythologized so the “correct” history is recounted.

A couple of years after my wife did Trek, the wards and stakes started doing it. Now, I think it’s pretty much a church program. Best wishes!

My Mormon ancestors didn't trek....they sailed from New York to San Francisco.

Next up for trek…

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1892192

Yeah bro....treking woulda sucked without porta-potties and bottled water stands.....

Shouldn't they be doing it in the dead of winter?

Bunch of sissies.

Shummy Wrote:
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> Shouldn't they be doing it in the dead of winter?
>
Can you say "Donner...party of 50?...errr, 49..."

I thought you were talking about star trek and I got a little excited.

Remembering my green flannel trekker bandolier given to me back when I had no idea it was really in commemoration of saintly popsicles.

When will LD$ Inc. reenact MMM ?

About the same time they make an apology.

I wondered why the menstruating girls weren't allowed to use tampons or sanitary napkins on trek, but had to use cloth, like in olden times, and wash them out every night. I felt like this was akin to voyeurism. The men made the rules, after all. Girls and guys weren't allowed to used deodorant or tooth paste either. Young Men and Young Women were assigned to be "husband and wife" to each other, too. Some adult leaders must have gotten their perverted jollies from all this.

I wonder if those rules have changed.

The leaders and the kids loved it whenever someone cried or broke down--especially during the campfire testimony fests.

I don't understand why Mormons think it's necessary to break someone's spirit, in the first place? How does this help in any way? I suppose it helps the brainwashing process. Perhaps it's like "breaking" a horse into obedience. Any way you look at it, trek is weird and sick, just like the temple rituals for the dead, just like polygamy, just like the cult as a whole.

Wait...WHAT? That really happened?

It wasn't only the Mormons who pioneered.

Maybe they're the few left who commemorate it.

Who else has Pioneer Day besides them?

Well ya know Ron your ancestors must have been more valiant in the pre-existence.

:o)

Shumms, that IS funny!