Dear HCN,
I am
writing this letter to let you know how disappointed I was to read
the article, “This land holds a story the church won’t tell” (HCN,
9/30/02: This land holds a story the church won’t tell). I might
expect such a poorly written article to be found in a scam paper,
such as the National Enquirer, but not in your paper, which I have
come to value for its well-written, carefully researched and fairly
reported articles.
First of all, understand that
I am in principle opposed to the selling of national treasures on
public lands to private interests. But Martin’s Cove, by the
writer’s own admission, is not a national treasure. He reports that
“more then 100,000 tourists reportedly came through here last year,
and almost every one was a Mormon.” This is clearly an LDS church
treasure, not a national treasure, and the church simply wants to
be able to fully develop and protect the site so that it may not be
sold by congressional approval in future years for other
purposes.
The writer is obviously harboring
negative feelings about the LDS church and religious faith in
general, and has used this venue to vent – although subtly – those
feelings by misrepresenting facts. He insinuates that the handcart
participants had been driven out of their homes, “during the stormy
pilgrimage years, 1847 to 1869.” The truth is that the stormy years
were in the 1840s, when for many reasons – some their fault, but
mostly the intolerance of “uncivilized” people on the borders of
civilization – they were driven out of their homes and towns and
were struggling for survival.
By the mid-1850s,
the people crossing the plains to go to Utah were no longer
struggling for survival, no longer running from enemies; instead,
they were answering the church’s call to gather in Utah. Many left
comfortable homes in Europe, against the advice and pleading of
family and friends, to answer the call to gather. The Willie and
Martin handcart companies were desperate only because they had
started late, were indeed poor, and did not want to waste what
resources they had staying the winter in a safe
place.
The writer’s concluding paragraphs, which
give a somewhat true, but at the same time somewhat distorted
account of the origins of the church, have nothing to do with that
church’s desire to purchase and protect what they feel is a holy
site to them, but have all to do with his disdain for that
church.
Fred Ash
Sandy,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Martin’s Cove essay was distorted.
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