Handcart Pioneers (sculpture)

Handcart Pioneers
Handcart Pioneers
Handcart Pioneers Monument
Artist	Torleif S. Knaphus
Year	1926
Medium	Bronze sculpture
Dimensions	1.8 m × 1.2 m × 3.0 m (6 ft × 4 ft × 10 ft)
Location	Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
	40°46′10.6″N 111°53′34.2″W / 40.769611°N 111.892833°W

Handcart Pioneers (also known as the Handcart Pioneers Monument) is a 1926 bronze sculpture by Torleif S. Knaphus, installed in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square, in the U.S. state of Utah.

Description

The sculpture measures approximately 6 x 4 x 10 feet and rests on a stone base which measures approximately 1 x 5 x 12 feet. It depicts people moving a handcart; most are pulling the loaded cart, apart from one young boy who is pushing from the rear. A nearby plaque reads:

Handcart Pioneer Monument / The Handcart Pioneer Monument is a / tribute to the thousands of hardy Mormon / pioneers who, because they could not / afford the larger ox-drawn wagons, walked / across the rugged plains in the 1850s / pulling and pushing all their posses / sions in handmade all-wood handcarts. / Some 250 died on the journey, but nearly / 3,000, mostly British converts, completed the 1,350-mile trek from Iowa City, Iowa, to / the Salt Lake Valley. Many Latter-Day Saints / today proudly recount the trials and the triumphs of their ancestors who were among the Mormon handcart pioneers.^[1]

History

The artwork is administered by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints' Museum of Church History and Art. It was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture" program in 1993.^[1]