Talk:Mormon Trail

message: I've been doing a little research on the trail.  I was a bit surprised at how little information seems to be available about two of the most important sites on the trail, the locations where members of the rescue party first found the Willie and Martin companies.
According to Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies by Bartholomew and Arrington, the Willie Company was stopped by snow (and had run out of flour) "near the Fifth Crossing of the Sweetwater."  I haven't seen any indication that there is any marker or identifier of the site.  There is a marker for the Willie Company and an LDS memorial site located at Rock Creek, but Rock Creek is two or three days travel further west and would have been reached with the assistance of the rescuers.
The Martin Company was halted for 9 nine days near "Red Buttes" (called "Red Bluff" or "Red Bluffs" in some of the accounts), which apparently is about 10 miles west of the last crossing of the North Platte near Casper.  The accounts say 56 emigrants died there, food was running out, and hope was running out. Again, I haven't found of any indication that there may be a marker near that site, and in fact the Wyoming Web site mentions a proposal for open pit gravel mines in the area. However, there is a memorial and LDS information center at Martin's Cove near Devil's Gate, where the party was halted by another storm about a week after the rescue.  
My assumption is that the Rock Creek and Martin's Cove sites have been memorialized because the specific locations could be identified, while the location of the camps near the Fifth Crossing and near Red Buttes where the rescue parties found the pioneers are unknown.
I've also noticed a lot of resulting misinformation on various Web sites.  For example, several sites say that the rescuers found the Martin Company at Martin's Cove, though the actual location was some 65 miles east.    
The Wyoming site on emigrant trails is quite good.BRMo 04:03, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sites of rescue of Willie and Martin handcart companies 

message: Some good edits are being made, most are without references.  While the article is still young, it would be good to add references to all of the content additions.  This will help the article be stable and of high quality. The article is already setup with a reference system; just include notes/references with  & . uriah923(talk) 05:30, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

message: A map of the trail would help this article greatly.  If anyone has a properly licenced one we could use, please put it in the article. Tom Stringham 02:22, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map 

message: Should we produce a paragraph on the initial company under Brigham Young -- which blazed the trail, kept a distance record, established "mailboxes" and organized a ferry?  Could be a good transition from the background section into the list of sites.  And there are a number of good primary and secondary references.  WBardwin 05:31, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds like a good idea to me. uriah923(talk) 13:50, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I began a section Vanguard Company of 1847 in Mormon Pioneer -- and I have quite a bit more information.  How much material on this topic should be included in this article?  Two or three paragraphs summarizing the larger body of material?  Opinions and comments welcome.  WBardwin 08:28, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that sounds like a good idea.  It would fit nicely as a subsection under The Trek West. Just include the "main article" tag pointing to the info on Mormon Pioneer. uriah923(talk) 16:02, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

text: added a slightly condensed version on the Vanguard Company to the article, blending it with some of the previous information.  It feels long to me and I think it could propably be condensed further, so everyone feel free.  With as much information as is available, is a seperate article on this company justified?  Comments and edits welcome.  WBardwin 18:41, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll take a look at the additions to see if I can shorten it.  The best thing to do is probably to write a separate article on the company and then link to "more details" from here (and from Mormon Pioneer).  uriah923(talk) 14:35, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vanguard Company 

message: I think it's important that we get something in for each stop on the trail, so I'll fill it in with information from LDS.org, unless someone else sticks in info from a better source before the end of the month.  In the future, anyone with corroborating sources for the LDS.org information should feel free to replace it. uriah923(talk) 22:06, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

message: Thanks to all those who helped out with the collaboration on this article.  The improvements were significant. If you're interested, the collaboration selection for June, 2006 is Anti-Mormonism. uriah923(talk) 13:45, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thanks for the collaborating 

message: Congratulations on the GA.
There is one little thing I think should be addressed is the Sites along the trail section which IMHO should become a brilliant prose maybe sectionning it into the states and thus dumping the nice list already there onto another article. Lincher 03:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, I'm glad my nomination went through.  One question though: did you add it to the list of Good Articles?  I couldn't find it, but I might have missed it. Tom Stringham 17:59, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: GA awarded