Disgusting! pure discusting disrepspect!

[Omaha Steve]

145. "Tragedy at Winter Quarters"

I grew up in Florence. I saw kids playing on the base from time to time for years. At least it doesn't get covered with graffiti.

Tragedy at Winter Quarters

Size: 1/4 Life, 22", Bronze
Issue: 75

A companion piece to New Frontiers, A Tragedy at Winter Quarters is one of the most moving works of Avard Fairbanks. The monument stands near Omaha, Nebraska, at the Pioneer Mormon Cemetery. This work depicts a pioneer father and mother standing over the open grave of their child. Roughly 6000 Latter-Day Saints lost their lives while crossing the plains between 1846 and 1849. Three of the ancestors of Avard Fairbanks were buried at this cemetery. This monument stands as a memorial to those who experienced the tragedy at winter quarters.


http://www.historicflorence.org/PublicArt/TragedyX.php





Marta and I own the Graveyards of Omaha site. Another view and history. Marta got upset when her photos started showing up on find a grave and elsewhere without proper credit. So now her photos have a owners mark on them.

http://www.graveyardsofomaha.com/mormon_pioneer/mormon_history.html



Here you see the huge statue that dominates the cemetery, depicting a grieving Mormon couple as they stand over the grave of their child. The statue is very moving; even as a child I cried when I saw it. Nearly all the 600 graves in this cemetery are unmarked, and most are the graves of children, who were not hardy enough to live through the rough conditions, so strictly speaking there isn’t a lot to see in the cemetery itself.

According to a 1970 North Omaha Sun article by Mr. Gail Holmes, only 67 of the 5,000 people living at the Florence Winter Quarters in the winter of 1846-1847 are buried here. Most of the burials came from settlers living in the Florence area after the Mormons moved west. There have been virtually no burials in it since the early 1900’s. The last person buried there, in 1953, was given special permission by the Mormon Church, so that she could be buried with her family.