Honoring the Sun Family and Cooking for 1,000

When members of the Riverton Wyoming Stake built a new monument in Martin’s Cove in 1992, Church members’ interest in visiting the area increased substantially.  Although the cove was on public land, access was greatly restricted for a few years because visitors had to cross the private property of the Sun Ranch to reach it.  Sun family members entered into negotiations for a number of years with the Church and terms for sale of a portion of the ranch were finalized in July 1996.  President Gordon B. Hinckley promised that the ranch would be forever known as the Sun Ranch and that the Sun name would be honored and remembered under the stewardship of the Church. 

 

After purchasing the ranch, the Church renovated the ranch house and made it into a visitors center.  One of the rooms of the visitors center is dedicated to the Sun family.  It was maintained by the family as something of a family museum while living in the old ranch house.  The artifacts, documents, and photographs in this room chronicle the Sun family’s life and work for four generations on their historic ranch.  The Sun family protected the sacred ground in the cove for decades.  Their generosity and cooperation played a key part in helping honor and remember the Willie and Martin handcart pioneers of 1856.  The bunkhouse, washhouse, blacksmith shop and barn are all original to the ranch and have been restored and preserved to tell the story of 1880’s ranch life here on the high plains of Wyoming.

 

When President Hinckley dedicated the Visitors Center on May 3, 1997 he spoke with members of the Sun family. Under an agreement with the family, the Church has purchased about a third of the 12,000-acre deeded land. This includes access to Martin's Cove, which is on Bureau of Land Management land, and most of the Sweetwater Valley owned by the Sun family.

"Please know of our very, very deep appreciation to the Sun family," President Hinckley told members of the family, which have owned the ranch for four generations. Tom de Beau Soliel (Sun) was the original owner. He arrived in the Sweetwater Valley in 1860, only four years after the handcart pioneers passed through the area.

"We make a pledge to you that we will take care of the property. This historic building will become the visitors center which will be visited by many thousands of people."

President Hinckley, in his dedicatory speech of the visitors center, referred to visitors hiking to the cove: 

 

"I make a plea, go in a spirit of reverence and respect, and know that you are walking on hallowed ground made sacred by the sacrifices of those who have gone before us…We hope that a spirit of peace and reverence and sacred remembrance will hover over this whole area as a beneficent cloud on a hot summer day, and that those who here perished will not have died in vain."

He mentioned the suffering of the handcart pioneers: "We remember all who traveled this way and suffered so much. Their pain was immeasurable. Hundreds died and were buried along this trail of tears. Their rescue was nothing short of heroic.  Their measure of sacrifice was greater than any of us can understand. Those who walked this way long ago came to know the sacrifices of Thy Son in a unique and wonderful way.”

With this amazing background, the mission began preparations in August to have the first ever “Sun Ranch Day” commemorating and celebrating 140 years since the founding and establishment of the Sun Ranch.  Having lots of experience in dutch oven cooking for groups, we were given the charge to prepare a dutch oven meal for the up to 1,000 people estimated to attend.  The menu we were requested to prepare was stew, fry bread and cobbler.  The word of Sun Ranch Day spread throughout the neighboring communities like wild-fire.  Somehow radio spots and newspaper announcements began appearing.  Not wanting to run short on food, we increased our preparations to provide food for 1,200.

Ours wasn’t the only activity associated with Sun Ranch Day.  Our event began at 10:00 am and concluded at 7:00 pm.  There were crafts at the Fort for children (mountain man necklace, yarn snakes, whirligigs and prarie dolls), games at the Trek Center (stick pull, hoop and stick race, wagon wheel and hoop catch), ham radio broadcasts from the Fort, handcart treks, pioneer stories every half hour, pioneer story videos, Pony Express Re-enactment and exchange, and entertainment every hour.  This all culminated with a chuckwagon dinner beginning at 5 pm with seatings every 30 minutes, and more wonderful entertainment. 

 

The preparations took weeks as we researched the best places to purchase food and ingredients for this mammoth task.  We contacted neighboring stakes to see how many dutch ovens were available from members and soon realized that preparing such a large amount of food would take many more and many larger dutch ovens than were available locally.  Ron began contacting friends and total strangers in the Salt Lake City area, requesting use of their giant ovens for this event.  Through the kindness and generosity of these individuals, and huge efforts of our son Donovan and missionary friends here who were traveling to Salt Lake City and Evanston with their pickup trucks, all this equipment was miraculously acquired for our use and transported here. 

A work crew of over 40 assisted throughout the week with preparations and then the day and evening of Sun Ranch Day.  All these efforts resulted in massive amounts of delicious food, prepared and served in dutch ovens to a hungry crowd numbering approximately 700.  We had surplus food for meals for the missionaries and another large event soon after this one was completed.  We felt blessed to have the strength to do all that was needed and to have an amazing support crew of senior missionaries and members of the Casper Stake working together to provide a wonderfully successful event. 

Just as President Hinckley promised, the Sun family name continues to be respected and honored here at this sacred place.