“Contents,” Ensign, Aug. 1997, 1
Ensign
August 1997
Volume 27 Number 8
On the cover: Trail of Sacrifice—Valley of Promise, by Clark Kelley Price, oil on masonite board, 18″ x 24″, 1995.
Inside front cover: Path of Courage, by Glen S. Hopkinson, oil on canvas, 30″ x 72″, 1996. Courtesy of Franklin Quest Incorporated. Between 1856 and 1860, ten Latter-day Saint handcart companies pushed and pulled across the rugged American Plains as they journeyed to the Salt Lake Valley. These often poor Saints could make the 1,300-mile trek west in three to four months. Nearly 3,000 pioneers successfully reached the valley through this mode of travel.
Inside back cover: Eliza R. Snow at the Platte River, by Beth Jepson, mixed media, 18″ x 14″, 1996. On Thursday, 26 August 1847, while spending some time on the bank of the Platte River en route to the Salt Lake Valley, Eliza R. Snow wrote in her journal of the pioneer experience: “Beneath the sparkling concave / When stars in millions come / To cheer the pilgrim strangers / And bid us be at home, / Beneath the lovely moonlight / Where Cynthia [the moon] spreads her rays, / In social groups we gather / We join in songs of praise.”