Survivors of Captain Edward Martin's Handcart Company of Mormon emigrants from England to Utah were rescued here in perishing condition about Nov. 12, 1856. Delayed in starting and hampered by inferior carts it was overtaken by an early winter. Among the company of 576, including aged people and children, the casualties numbered 145, insufficient food and clothing and severe weather caused many deaths. Toward the end every campground became a graveyard. Some of the survivors found shelter in a stockade and mail station near Devil's Gate where their property was stored for the winter. Earlier companies reached Utah in safety.
