by Andrew Olsen

Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints quickly recognize “The Willie and Martin Handcart companies” as a group of people who made their journey to Zion so late in the season that they suffered a terrible price, lost lives, and endured crushing hardship. Yet few know the complete story of the stirring details that make this trek one of the Church’s most inspiring sagas.

In the new book The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers (Deseret Book, Hardcover, $23.95), author Andrew Olsen carefully details the people, their leaders, and their rescuers while unfolding an amazing story of grief and joy, despair and hope, abandonment and faith. The book delivers the most comprehensive and accessible account ever written of this epic journey—from Liverpool to the Salt Lake Valley.

Woven into the larger story of the journey west, stories of individuals and their families inspire readers, recounting miracles and revealing how these pioneers were able to endure such adversity.

Perhaps the story of the Handcart companies is so inspiring because of the raw emotions recorded at the hand of pioneers. Olsen says, “To see these people doubt and then rally their faith, to see them err and then make amends, to see them triumph despite their weaknesses is an important source of the power in these stories.”

The Price We Paid also details what happened to many of these pioneers after the handcart trek. Readers will be impressed at how many stayed true to the faith.
The Price We Paid is available at Deseret Book, deseretbook.com, or wherever LDS books are sold.