Book Review: The Undaunted: The Miracle of the Hole-in-the-Rock Pioneers

Aug 2009 Issue

By Gerald N. Lund
The king of LDS fiction is back after a nearly decade-long absence. Gerald Lund, who penned the bestselling The Work and the Glory series, returns with another great pioneer saga, The Undaunted: The Miracle of the Hole-in-the-Rock Pioneers (Deseret Book, Hardcover, $34.95).

Lund is the No. 1 bestselling LDS fiction author of all time, with more than 3 million books sold.

In The Undaunted, he explores a little-known yet miraculous chapter in Utah history known as the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition.

Nearly 250 men, women, and children journeyed and traversed the roughest terrain imaginable in some 80 wagons. The name “Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers” originates from a nearly impossible challenge they faced – guiding 80 wagons through a narrow crevice in a rock ravine that led to a 45-degree plunge down 2,000 treacherous feet to the Colorado River. What was supposed to take just six weeks dragged on for six months—longer than the entire westward trek walked by handcart pioneers.

At least one veteran of the Willie Handcart company was able to compare the two expeditions.

“As extreme as the handcart ordeal was, the trek through the Hole-in-the-Rock was more severe,” recorded Jens Nielson, who survived both expeditions.

Known as a master storyteller, Lund weaves fictional characters into the history and events that began in the coal mines of England and ended in Southern Utah.

This October marks the 130th anniversary of the start of the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition.