I just finished reading
The Undaunted by Gerald
Lund, the author of
The Work and The Glory series. I really enjoyed
The Work and the Glory books because they helped me understand church history, and the names and places that we have learned about in Sunday School became real to me. But I had even more reason to be excited about
Lund's new book,
The Undaunted, because it is about the harrowing "Hole in the Rock" expedition. Ever heard of it? Most people haven't, but for us, tales of "the Hole" are part of our family lore. My mother's grandfather was one of only 3 babies born on that remarkable pioneer journey. So when my mom heard what
Lund's new book was about, she bought us all a copy.
It took me a little while to get to it because, frankly, I was
daunted by
The Undaunted - it is 800 pages long! But once the holidays were finally over and I had a bit more time for reading, it was the first book I wanted to read. To tell the truth, I was a little frustrated because I was almost 400 pages into the book before
Lund finally started getting to the meat of the book - the expedition. He spent the first half of the book setting up his fictional story, which was interesting and all, but I wanted to read about the expedition, so I was glad to finally get the preliminaries over with.
The "Hole in the Rock" expedition took place in 1879-80. Several families from Southern Utah were called on a mission to settle the San Juan valley in the Four Corners area . They sold their homes and businesses to follow the call. My ancestors, Mons and Olivia Larson, were not actually part of these "San Juan missionaries." Brigham Young had actually called the
Larsons to settle Arizona, but were friends of Silas Smith, the leader of this expedition, and so decided to travel with this group and then continue on to their own destination.
After it had been established that a Northern route and a Southern route were both infeasible, the group set forward on a direct route Eastward. But once they had gone a ways, they realized that the way they were going was some of the roughest country anywhere - even impassible. But it was late fall, and the pass that they had come through already was now stopped up with snow and they could not turn back. It reminds me of the children's game "can't go over it, can't go under it, got to go through it!" They decided that their only options were to wait out the winter there in the desert with little resources, or move forward. They prayerfully chose to move forward.
Their first and most major obstacle was the "Hole in the Rock" for which the expedition was named. They were up on a high plateau and had to cross the Colorado river which was thousands of feet down steep cliffs below them. It seemed that there was no way down, until they discovered a deep cleft in the rock cliffs that might just be turned into a road. It took 6 weeks of blasting and road building, and a whole lot of Mormon ingenuity and hard work, but they finally were able to create a road wide enough to allow wagons to descend. It was extremely steep, 45-50 degrees, and absolutely frightening for all involved, especially the horses! Amazingly, all 80+ wagons made it down safely. My great great grandmother, Olivia, walked down the
trecherous Hole, holding a baby in each arm, and was only a few weeks away from giving birth again. Remarkable!
But once they were finally down the Hole, their problems were just beginning. They had to cross the river, build roads back up the cliffs on the other side of the river, just to find more deep ravines, cliffs, rivers, slick mud, deep sand, thick forests, scarce water, and lots and lots and lots of big rocks. But there were also a good many miracles as well, and testimony building right along with the road building.
My grandparents were mentioned a few times in
Lund's book. In Chapter 66, the fictional character records in her journal "Great joy in camp today in spite of snow. Olivia Larson, (wife of Mons Larson) gave birth to a baby boy today. Named him John Rio Larson - Rio is Spanish for river- because near here is a magnificent view of the San Juan River far below the mesa."
And in the footnote of the chapter
Lund gives much more information about Olivia and Mons and the remarkable circumstances of the birth. Olivia gave birth in the middle of a harsh blizzard on the spring seat of the wagon while her husband was trying to put up the tent. Later, after giving birth, she was in the tent when a huge wind came and lifted it up and she reached up and held the tent down herself. Not the most comfortable of circumstances for giving birth.
It was actually the people in the company that gave my great grandfather his name. He spelled it John
Reo, not John Rio, but he was indeed named after the San Juan River. My brother named his son after this good and stalwart man, my mom's grandfather.
The footnotes also mention that because of Olivia's "unusual vitality" she was up and traveling again over the rocky terrain in just a few days with her new baby. "If it wasn't snowing she would bathe him," it said, "otherwise, this wise mother of 23 years old, who now had three babies, rubbed him well with flannel instead of bathing him."
I was so excited to have my great, great grandmother (and personal heroine) mentioned in this way. Her story is remarkable.
There was one part of
Lund's book that bugged me a bit. In one part the fictional character David, and another boy, were kicked off of a ferry by spooked livestock and into the freezing river. This event did happen, only it was Mons Larsen, my great great grandfather, who was knocked into the river, and not the fictional character. In fact, Mons rescued the other boy and saved his life. I understand why
Lund would have his fictional character do it instead, of course, but there was no footnote on that. Perhaps
Lund didn't know. But now you know. That was Grandpa.
In the end, the company took 6 months to make the "impossible" journey, but they DID make it, against all odds, and remarkably, without any loss of life. And when the journey was over for the rest of the company, my ancestors still had a long trip ahead of them and still faced many harrowing experiences (especially with Indians!) when they were on their own - just Mons, Olivia, and 3 small children. It took them 11 months to reach their new home.
I was enthralled with the book, and amazed by what these people went through. Fortunately,
Lund created a great interactive website
http://www.undaunted-thenovel.com/ that is really interesting. It has maps, pictures, and video to really give you a better idea of what he is describing in the book. It is a great source of information about this remarkable piece of Mormon history. I kept referring to it while reading the book.
When I was finished with the book, I had to pull out my
family history and read that account of Mons and Olivia's story. It all made much more sense to me, and my love and appreciation for these good people really grew. Not only were they people in church history that became real to me, but people in
my own history.
It was interesting to me that on the same day I was reading about their experiences in the wilderness, I was also reading in 1
Nephi where
Lehi's family is traveling through the wilderness and their wives are blessed with strength like unto men and they were able to deliver healthy babies in the wilderness and have plenty of milk for them. I saw so many parallels. It also was the same weekend that we had stake conference. I had complained about my calling and how hard and time consuming it is all the way to the temple on Friday night. Yep, I was murmuring. Then I went to the temple, where I became painfully aware of my own murmuring. That was reinforced the next evening at the adult session of Stake Conference when President
Stearman and President
Stanger spoke on our need to be willing to serve and to sacrifice for the Lord and his church. Many words were spoken that I needed to hear. Then I finished
The Undaunted, the very next day, followed by my family history, where I read about these people and their commitment to fulfill their callings at all costs.
In the Larson family history it says that in preparation of the move, Mons' "property was disposed of with considerable sacrifice, yet the thought of not honoring the call had never entered his mind."
And later Olivia stated about her Hole in the Rock experience "All in the world that carried us through was knowing that we were on a mission. We tried to fulfill it and the Lord cared for us and protected us, so I never worried." What a marvelous statement!
All of this has really given me a lot to think about. What a great example she, and all of these pioneers are to me. What do I have to complain about, really? Sure, being
YW president and raising 6 boys is tough, but not impossible. I cannot say that I am 'Undaunted'. I need to come at it with a better attitude. The Lord sent me six boys, and the Lord, knowing this, also called me to be
YW president (a calling I do love, by the way. I really do love those girls. It is just all of the time involved and the stress it puts on me and my family that I whine about.) I need to remember, like my great great grandmother did, that the Lord is caring for me and my family and the girls and I should not worry either.
(It sounds almost ridiculous of me to even be comparing my calling to what these pioneers went through, doesn't it? So why on earth do I whine as much as I do? Ugh. I bet Olivia wouldn't have complained about seven straight Saturdays being filled with
YW stuff during roadshow season. A walk in the park.)
I cannot say that from now on I will be undaunted, but I hope to be a little
less daunted. I cannot promise to stop my whining (sorry Dennis, mom, and my presidency), but I want to try harder to have the right attitude about what the Lord has called me to do, and then dig in and do a little
road building of my own.
In stake conference Pres.
Stanger promised us that if we keep our covenants and fulfill our callings, our children will be blessed. I know that is true
because my ancestors, Mons and Olivia Larson did, and I have been truly blessed for their undaunted faith and sacrifice.
