Handcart Trek Training

Why Use Company Captains

 Using Company Captains is useful for several reasons. 

• Authenticity

• Leadership

• Vignettes

• Order in trek progression – eliminates jockeying for position and racing

 We trekked in honor of the 1^st five companies to cross the plains: Ellsworth, McArthur, Bunker, Willie, & Martin.  We gave each company captain a flag representing one of the countries the pioneers came from.  At the trailhead, we announced the company captains, gave a bit of history of his company and issued the company flag to the captain.  This ended up being a really fun part of the trek.  And the kids really like having a flag.

There were 3 families per company and the company captain looked after each family in his company.  If a family had trouble, the captain would assist.

Trek companies proceeded in the order the companies actually crossed the plains.  This was  an important factor in maintaining order as the trek progressed.  There was never any worry about jockeying for position or racing.

Each company was assigned to present a vignette which represented an experience the pioneers encountered on their journey.  The vignettes were assigned prior to trek, but because we didn’t want to divulge who is in what family, vignettes were more of an impromptu.  The impromptu concept work out well because the vignettes were not intended to be the focus of the trek, nor were they intended to be skits.  They were intended to depict actual pioneer experiences and lend to the authenticity of the activity.  Vignettes were very informal and only lasted a couple of minutes each.  The vignettes we assigned were:

1. Giving life on the trail.

2. Death on the trail

3. History of Come Come Ye Saints

4. Crossing the Sweetwater

5. October General Conference

Video of a short vignette...

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