Battalion Trek - Adventures and Aha Moments Hiking the Mormon Battalion Trail

This is the VIP Tour you'd get if you visited Ft. Leavenworth and asked about Mormon Battalion history.  You’ll want to close your eyes and imagine the scene as Jeff Wingo paints a picture of what the Battalion experienced at historic Fort Leavenworth. We think you’ll also enjoy the other tidbits of history he shares in these two episodes.

 12-10-21  AN UPDATE TO OUR FT LEAVENWORTH PODCAST!

The Fort Leavenworth Historian, Dr. Joe Bailey, came over to Jeff Wingo's office with an answer to Kevin's question about Army accommodations for women during the era of the Mormon Battalion.  His reference is a book entitled, The Old Army, A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898, by Edward M. Coffman.  Chapter 3, "Companions of Our Exile, Women and Children, 1815-1860, delves into Kevin's question.

In our last episode you may have heard Kevin say,  “Local historians have all the good stuff.” So… we invite you to sit back and let one regale you with the stories of Weston, MO.

One of the treats about going down the trail was the MANY local historians we met along our way. We have fond memories of sitting at their feet hearing tidbits most folks will never know. We were fortunate enough to have Sandy Miller, author and historian come to our campfire and sit with us (and a group of scouts) sharing her knowledge of Weston MO. We set up my computer on a chair, put a headset on her, and were fortunate to capture the stories she so willingly shared for our benefit that evening. We’re happy we can now share them with YOU!

As of 10-2-21 I was able to find a copy of her book "Memories of Weston MO - A Visual History  1837 - 1992 on Amazon.

Video version of this will be on Battalion Trek's YouTube channel.

Here is modern information about this historic town:  https://www.westonmo.com/

In 1846 Missouri was the western boundary of the United States--truly the wild west. Kevin & Bob Tingey discover the location of a “pop-up town” mentioned in Battalion journals – which had never been located!

Bob Tingey's bumping into Battalion Trek was an undeniable miracle.   Join us as our Chairman of the Board, reminisces about the days he spent with us in Missouri, Tucson, and San Diego.   A great Trek friend - another rut nut that "gets us."

There will be another episode devoted specifically to his memories and thoughts about the challenges our 501c(3) faced in preparing for the Trek.

For pictures of the memories he describes visit the Battalion Trek YouTube Channel.  (we hope you'll subscribe)

We encourage you to explore Kevin's intepretive map of the Mormon Battalion Trail to find Jamestown and other significant locations along the route. 

What would you do if you were hiking the Mormon Battalion Trail and a Hallmark photographer and makeup crew invited themselves (and guests) to dinner?  Holly Hansen shares her memory of our “almost” moment of fame. Mother nature provided the beautiful photo shoot background and we provided the food. We were true Battalion women – so they didn’t bring makeup artists!

The lessons she's gained from learning about her own ancestor's experience has impacted the way she approaches her own lifes challenges.

See Battalion Trek's YouTube channel for the video version of this podcast.

To see Kevin's interactive interpretive map - go to https://www.mormonbattalion.com/view-the-virtual-trail

We joked about our "smokeless communicators" along the trail but they came in handy. As I listened to this episode and our 'high tech' 2008 options comparing it to today's technology, I thought we sounded like we were using smoke signals.

Nothing much to show on a video here -  on this one you'll just have to "listen and learn."

What would you pack for a 7 1/2 month 2,000 mile trek across a variety of terrains - much of the time knowng you'd be miles away from civilization?  Well, that is the question we had to answer.  I think the original Battalion would have beeen incredulous to see the amount of "stuff" and types of vehicles we had on our "essentials list" but we had some different eventualities to prepare for.

Battalion Trek 2008 was a research effort, not a true reenactment but... we did want to have some authenticity in terms of equipment.  Then inviting people to come and march with us as "Cooke's Cadre"  sent us on an interesting quest to find guns, packs, belts, tents, and accoutrements to outfit ten people.  We wanted to give them a taste of what traveling the Mormon Battalion Trail may have been like in 1846-7..  

Here we talk about the equipment we gathered, and two times where it was enjoyed by others.

To see the equipment that is described here.  We encourage you to subscribe to Battalion Trek's YouTube channel.

The Battalion ate in "messes" and had different cooking pots and eating utensils than we do and...  didn't have the luxury of kitchen cupboards to store them.  We had food 'boxes' that stored our cooking gear. We talk with Brent Jensen and Phil Smart who built those for us, and share a bit more about the kind of things the Battalion used to prepare their meals.

Just when we needed it most, Tiffany McLaws and family are kind enough to track us down at the end of the first day's hike in Glenwood, Iowa and share their family's journal by Henry Standage.  He served in the Mormon Battalion, Company E and some of his journal entries pull at your heartstrings.   You can hearTiffany's story and a few journal entries during this episode. Tiffany has promised to share a few more with us so we can sprinkle them into our podcast throughout the trail experiences we highlight. 

 I thought it was interesting that Henry saw his first buffalo about the same dates, Kevin and I were entering the Buffalo reserve in Kansas and I wrote about it in MY journal.

Mother nature created a special send-off for us the morning we left Council Bluffs, IA that none of us will ever forget.   Peter Guilbert, from California helps us remember the first day leaving from Sarpy's Trading Post area near Council Bluffs, how we met,  happenings of the first day, and what it was like to hike in his ancestor's footsteps.