DEVIL'S GATE WYOMING MARTIN'S COVE SWEETWATER RIVER AND HAND CARTS

Devil's Gate, Wyoming

Devil's Gate in Wyoming, is a natural rock formation, a gorge on the Sweetwater River a few miles southwest of Independence Rock, Wyoming. .

It is accessible today from Wyoming Highway 220 (mile marker 57) between Casper, Wyoming and Muddy Gap, near the Mormon Handcart Historic Site and Martin's Cove, Wyoming.

The earliest surviving photograph of this landmark was made in 1858 by Samuel C. Mills, a photographer with the Captain Simpson Expedition.

The site, significant in the history of western pioneers, was a major landmark on the Mormon Trail and the Oregon Trail although the actual routes of travel did not pass through the very narrow gorge

Part 5 of 6

YouTube Video Courtesy of: http://byutv.org/watch/905-100

In November 1856, about 500 Mormon emigrants in the Martin Handcart Company were halted for five days in the Cove by snow and cold while on their way to Salt Lake City. The Martin Handcart company had begun its journey on July 28, 1856 which was dangerously late in the season and would ultimately lead to the disaster. Although the number who died in the Cove is unknown, more than 145 members of the Martin Company died before reaching Salt Lake City.

A few days prior to their arrival at Martin's Cove, the company was met by a small rescue party with food, supplies, and wagons that LDS Church President Brigham Young had sent from Salt Lake City, Utah. On November 4 the company and rescuers forded the bitterly cold Sweetwater River and sought shelter in the cove. That evening a powerful north wind blew the tents to the ground. The tents were set up again, but a blizzard brought heavy snow. The company remained in the camp for five days, unable to proceed due to the snow and cold. A number of the company's cattle died there and were preserved in a frozen state.

When the weather warmed, on November 9, the company was able to move on toward Utah. With assistance from the original rescue party and from additional rescue parties that met them along the way, the survivors finally reached Salt Lake City on November 30.

Later many other emigrants would pass by the Cove on their way to Utah, California and Oregon along with Pony Express Riders. During the 1870s, Tom Sun, a French-Canadian frontiersman, purchased the area around the Cove and established Sun Ranch.