On the bronze memorial listing the names of those buried here, we noticed the name of Mary C. Burnham 19 yrs, and 9 month child Mary Lowery Burnham.
You see from the ages that so very many were children.
Because of the wind and rain and because of such a beautiful, spacious and comfortable room at the Holiday Inn just 6 miles from the Temple, we elected to stay another day in Omaha.
Despite the continuing cold wind and rain, we went back over to the Mormon Trail Information Center across from Temple so we could complete the presentation the Sister missionaries started to share with us yesterday. Before going in to the information center we walked over to the Pioneer Cemetary located on the Temple grounds. This cemetary is the burial place of many of those who died while at Winter Quarters in 1846-47. Many of these were children who could not survive the harshness of the winter and the diseases that swept the encampment.
This monument by noted LDS sculptor Arvard Fairbanks is on the cemetary grounds, directly north of the Temple. It depicts a pioneer father and mother standing over the grave where they have just laid their child to rest.
One picture of any of these subjects cannot begin to capture to fullness of what is being portrayed. You must walk about and look from all sides. The authenticity of detail and the energy so evident in each and every part is so remarkable!
What great work! How splendid and worthwhile and meaningful it is to have captured the time, place and events of our pioneer past in this enduring way. It is a work of great integrity.
We had been privilaged to see some of these pieces during their creation in clay by the artist at his studio in South Jordan, Utah. To see them here in their final full display in bronze was so special!