cutler's camp at the big grove on silver creek - Brigham Young ...

en&, Hiram and Rachel (Kelsey) Murdock, lived when
<strong>the</strong>y returned <strong>the</strong>re from Winter Quarters in 1848 imme-
di<strong>at</strong>ely after Brigham Young performed <strong>the</strong>ir marriage. I
wonder if this is where <strong>the</strong> teenage Ann Janette Burdick,
my gre<strong>at</strong>-gmt-grandmo<strong>the</strong>r, fell in love with her life-
long husbaml (<strong>the</strong> deer hunter mentioned above) and
wh<strong>at</strong> it must have felt like for my people to w<strong>at</strong>ch <strong>the</strong>ir
kinfolk depart this place for <strong>the</strong> West while my ancestors
remained in Iowa Perhaps my ancestors suspected, but
<strong>the</strong>y certainly did not kxmw <strong>the</strong>y would never see <strong>the</strong>ir
kinfolk in this life again
Francis Lewis Whiting andAnn Janette Burdick Whiting
courtesy of Danny L. Jorgensen
A few o<strong>the</strong>r people also care about this obscure and
little-known Mormon site in southwestern Iowa for similar
reasom.6 Some of <strong>the</strong>m are descendants of those
who made it to Utah7 Clare Christensen, for instance,
devoted <strong>the</strong> last years of his life to lovingly preserving
<strong>the</strong> story of <strong>the</strong>se Mormon families.* For <strong>the</strong>m, like me,
this place is pe~sanal and almost sacred. It is a m<strong>at</strong>ter of
situ<strong>at</strong>ing and defining our very selves in cultural time
and space. O<strong>the</strong>r people have been <strong>at</strong>tracted to <strong>the</strong> his-
tory of Cutler's Camp <strong>at</strong> Silver Creek as part of <strong>the</strong>
L<strong>at</strong>ter-day Saints' story or th<strong>at</strong> of Iowa and <strong>the</strong> region9
For <strong>the</strong>m, this is not a m<strong>at</strong>ter of kinship identity. R<strong>at</strong>her,
<strong>the</strong> story of this place and its people is a source of self-
definition aml social identific<strong>at</strong>ion in terms of religious
ethnicity and human geography.10
The Silver Creek story is not a <strong>big</strong> part of American,
Midwestern, frontier, or Iowa history; nor is <strong>the</strong> story a
major facet of Mormon history, th: Saints' epic migra-
tion to <strong>the</strong> West, <strong>the</strong> Mormon trek across Iowa, or even
L<strong>at</strong>ter-day Saint settlements along <strong>the</strong> Missouri in <strong>the</strong>
l<strong>at</strong>e 1840s.11 Yet it is a part, no m<strong>at</strong>ter how small, of all
<strong>the</strong>se concerns. I do not claim th<strong>at</strong> this g<strong>at</strong>hering on
Silver Creek is typical or represent<strong>at</strong>ive of <strong>the</strong>se Mormon
en<strong>camp</strong>ments. Certain fe<strong>at</strong>ures of <strong>the</strong> story are r<strong>at</strong>her
emrdmuy, while o<strong>the</strong>r aspects of it provide a glimpse
of more ordinary, mundane, everyday life affairs. It is,
however, a story of a certain place and people. Their
story-<strong>the</strong> meaning of <strong>the</strong>ir existence and wh<strong>at</strong>ever sig-
nificance it may have for Mormon history-is enhanced