The telephone rang final week on the Busy Bones Butcher store in Darr, halfway between Lexington and Cozad.
It was a stranger, with an odd request.
Any downside with us parking our lined wagon at your house and tenting on the market tonight?
Kent Guthard didn’t hesitate. “I stated, ‘Nope, in no way.’ I advised them to deal with it like they personal it.”
A short time later, a pair of mules pulling a wagon got here clop, clop clopping down the shoulder of U.S. 30. Joe and Marcyne Blythe had been making Nebraska headlines since mid-Could, however Guthard had no thought who they have been, or why the couple’s slow-motion mission throughout the Plains was so essential to them.
Now he’s following alongside, holding every day observe of their progress.
“It was all form of superior to see,” he stated. “It’s neat to see folks chase their dream.”
Joe Blythe’s ancestors saved journals. About their lives in Nauvoo, Illinois, amongst 1000’s of different Mormons. And about their exodus in 1837, after they adopted Brigham Younger to the Valley of the Nice Salt Lake.
Forty of his family members began the journey; possibly 30 survived it and made it to Utah.
In his residence south of Salt Lake Metropolis, Blythe learn their accounts and thought of their hardships. What they needed to endure to flee non secular persecution, and what that meant for him, 170 years later.
“A few of them died for what I take pleasure in, for me being in Utah, for non secular freedoms, stuff like that. I knew I couldn’t assist my ancestors out, however I might honor them.”
The thought hit him 5 years in the past. He was going to retrace their journey, beginning in Illinois and ending in Utah, 175 years to the day after the unique Latter-day Saints landed there.
However he didn’t have a wagon. He’d by no means pushed a staff. And he didn’t know what to anticipate as soon as he hit the Mormon Path.
Joe and Marcyne Blythe camped someplace alongside U.S. 30 final week, and waited for the storms to roll in.
“You possibly can’t simply go ask your buddy, ‘What number of miles are you able to go in a day? How do I get hay? How do I get water?’ There’s rather a lot that goes into it, and also you’re simply guessing till you’ve achieved it.”
Nonetheless, he discovered outdated Studebaker wagon operating gear, the muse for a wagon, and had the metal rims changed with extra forgiving rubber. He’d learn that two of his ancestors couldn’t afford to purchase wagons, in order that they’d constructed their very own. Blythe, an engineer whose firm builds bridges across the West, spent two years of his spare time designing and assembling his personal, too.
He purchased a pair of mules — Doc and Roxy — in Mississippi and, on his means residence, stopped at a draft horse ranch in Colorado for a fast lesson in hitching up and dealing with a staff.
He’s since discovered extra from the animals. “They’re affected person with me, and so they taught me methods to drive them.”
They made the primary leg of their journey in September, 315 miles from Nauvoo to the Mormon’s Winter Quarters in what’s now the Florence neighborhood of Omaha.
Hundreds of Latter-day Saints spent the winter of 1873-1874 there, and a whole lot died of scurvy, malaria and cholera and different illnesses, together with a half-dozen of Blythe’s family members.
They returned to Nebraska in mid-Could for the 1,000-mile stretch to Salt Lake Metropolis. Blythe was completely happy to be again behind his staff, and on the wagon he named the Path Dreamer.
“Final yr once we stopped, I wished to maintain going. This yr, we nonetheless have lots of miles to go, however I’m nonetheless anxious to maintain going.”
He feels nearer to his ancestors now, following their path 175 years later. He is aware of they left tangible proof, carving their names in Chimney Rock, and Independence Rock in Wyoming.
He is aware of he’ll roll previous the unmarked graves of family members who didn’t make it. The journals he learn solely include imprecise descriptions of the place his persons are buried; so many days journey after crossing the Elkhorn, for instance, or how lengthy after passing Chimney Rock.
He additionally is aware of he has it a lot simpler than his predecessors, regardless of not all the time figuring out the place they’re going to camp that night time. “I don’t have to fret about marauders, or getting stampeded by a buffalo herd, or making an attempt to cross a stream.”
Joe and Marcyne Blythe jumped on U.S. 30 at Kearney final week. However it’s a little bit too busy for his or her liking. “It is not our favourite,” Joe Blythe stated. “And we can not wait to get off it.”
And his ancestors didn’t have the assist he has.
A few of it, he deliberate: His longtime pal and former co-worker, Bret Durrand, saddles up because the outrider, staying forward of the wagon and anticipating bother. Different mates are following in a pickup, pulling a horse trailer with feed and water.
However a lot of it was a shock.
They didn’t anticipate a lot consideration and generosity, so many strangers providing to feed them — pulling over on the freeway to offer them baggage of apples or drinks or doughnuts — or granting them protected locations to camp and heat meals.
They attempt to discover rodeo grounds or metropolis parks for his or her overnights, however they’re usually reliant on chilly calls, sending their assist car forward to discover a pleasant farm or enterprise.
Joe and Marcyne Blythe cease for provides after they can.
“Typically, it’s a knock on a door and so they say, ‘We’ve got a lined wagon coming; can we spend the night time in your property?’ For essentially the most half, they’re excited for us to be there.”
Like Guthard, the Busy Bones Butcher, who despatched the Blythes and their crew down the street with exhausting tack, smoked string cheese and bones for his or her canines.
Or the younger farm household close to the North Platte airport, who insisted they park their wagon and horse trailer of their shed to maintain dry, and who refueled them the following morning with a breakfast of venison steak, eggs and juice.
“At first, we have been primarily fearful about logistics. Inside about two days of our launch, this actually got here to be about assembly the folks.”
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock gives many various views.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock in a July thunderstorm.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock framed by fence posts.
Chimney Rock
The solar units on Chimney Rock.
Chimney Rock
Sharon Henderson and a companion photographed Chimney Rock daily in 2016 and posted the work for followers who adopted their Fb web page.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock, illuminated with vacation lights.
Chimney Rock Christmas Tree
Sharon Henderson, a photographer from Scottsbluff who has chronicled Chimney Rock, photographed the Capitol Christmas Tree because the truck carrying it to Washington, D.C., handed the monument in mid-November 2018.
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