Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, reminded us to have “faith in our Heavenly Father's plan” and “conform our will to His.” “He” will make us equal to our tasks! Elder Holland reiterated the council from Elder Steven E. Snow that "remembering the past strengthens our faith and courage." He told the inspirational story of Sister Arabella Jane Coombs and her husband Joseph Stanford Smith recalling the memorable “Hole in the Rock Pioneer Expedition" in Southern Utah. He said as people, “We SHOULD BE "Simple and Deep," NOT "Complex and Superficial."
Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition
1879-1880
The quarterly conference of the Parowan Stake in December 1879 witnessed the call of forty-nine men and their families to a new mission. The call came from President John Taylor and the Twelve through Elder Erastus Snow. Later, others from nearby settlements joined the final company. What followed became the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, an epic in LDS Church history. Two hundred fifty people, with eighty wagons and hundreds of loose cattle and horses, cut their way through the rough, unknown country of southeastern Utah. The area traversed remains one of the least-known regions of the world today. Their objective was the San Juan country. In addition to desert cliffs and canyons, the forbidding Colorado River gorge stood in their way. No highway bridge crossed that gorge until 1934. No commercial airline flew from Utah to Arizona, near their route, until 1959.
Seeking the shortest route, Mormon explorers found a narrow slit in Glen Canyon. The river ran two thousand feet below the red cliffs. This “Hole in the Rock” seemed to offer the shortest route.
Only a slit in the sheer cliffs, the hole was too narrow for teams, or in some places even for a man. Sheer drops of as much as seventy-five feet made it impossible even for a mountain sheep, let alone loaded wagons. In December 1879, after having left the Parowan and Cedar valleys the previous April, the Saints began to cut a precipitous, primitive road with blasting powder and tools. Elder Platte D. Lyman, leading the party, found that if a road could be built, it would drop eight feet every sixteen and one-half, the first third of the way to the river. Thereafter came several sheer precipices. But the party was prepared. With faith, they were equipped not only for blasting cliffs and carving passages, but for building a raft-boat capable of carrying teams and wagons across the river.
A road was built and a boat made by January 25, 1880. Now came the effort to get families and the first forty wagons, camped at the rim, down the “Hole.” The others, back at Fifty-Mile Spring, would follow later.
Kumen Jones has left a description of the method of descent. Twenty men and boys would hold long ropes back of each wagon. The wheels were brake-locked with chains. Otherwise, rolling wheels would pitch, unchecked, into the struggling team. On January 26, 1880, a month later, Platte D. Lyman recorded in his journal: “Today we worked all the wagons in this camp down the Hole and ferried 26 of them across the river. The boat is worked by 1 pair of oars and does very well.”
The family of Joseph Stanford Smith and his wife, Arabella, was the last wagon to descend that day. Stanford Smith had helped the preceding wagons down that long day. His outfit had evidently been forgotten. Deeply disturbed, he climbed the two-thousand-foot incline. He found Arabella sitting on a quilt, holding the baby, patiently waiting. His outfit and their two other children in the wagon were hidden behind a huge, mountainous rock.
Stanford Smith moved his load to the edge. A third horse was hitched to the rear axle. Stanford and Arabella looked down the “Hole.” He said, “I am afraid we can’t make it.”
Bella replied, “We must make it.”
Stanford said, “If we only had a few men to hold the wagon back we might make it, Belle.”
With incredible faith Bella replied, “I’ll do the holding back.”
A quilt was laid on the ground. There she placed the baby between the legs of three-year-old Roy. “Hold little brother til papa comes for you,” she said. Ada, the older girl, was placed in front of them. Behind the wagon Belle Smith grasped the reins of the horse hitched to the rear. Stanford started the team down the “Hole.” The wagon lurched downward. The rear horse and Belle were thrown from their feet. Recovering, she hung back, pulling on the lines with all her strength and courage. A jagged rock cut a cruel gash in her leg from heel to hip. The horse behind the wagon fell to his haunches. The half-dead animal was dragged down most of the way. The gallant woman, clothes torn, with a grievous wound, later said, “I crow-hopped right along!”
On reaching the bottom, Stanford and Arabella heard a faint call from the children. Joseph Stanford Smith climbed to the top to get them. They were safely in place. Carrying the baby, the other children clinging to him and to each other, he led them down the rocky crack. As they approached the river’s edge, they saw five men carrying chains and ropes in the distance. The Smiths had been missed. The men were coming to help. Stanford called out, “Forget it, fellows. … Bella here is all the help a fellow needs!”
~ Excerpts taken from G. Homer Durham, “The Future History of the Church,” Ensign, May 1982, 67. Also see David E. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock: An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1959, pp. 101–18.
Amazingly Bella Smith performed the work that had previously taken 20 men to do for all the other wagons! Her undying faith gave her the strength and courage to perform a task that seemed impossible. I KNOW she was not alone on the arduous slope of jagged rock. I believe she had an army of angels helping her bear her heavy load!
We live in perilous, troubled times, in a way much more difficult than those of our pioneer ancestors. They had a heavy physical burden of survival, while we are faced with the subtle temptations of Satan and his angels who want us to fail the test we have been given. Our trials and challenges may not always be on the outside, but may instead be battles within. The slippery slopes of trial we often bear are none more jagged and treacherous than that of Stanford and Bella Smith. ALL of us can do the impossible through our faith in Jesus Christ and His redemption. Sometimes we are required to take life by the reigns and do difficult things, but with faith in God we can be “equal to our tasks!” I bear testimony that we can have the strength to do the impossible if we have faith, trusting in His plan.
As President Boyd K. Packer, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said in his concluding remarks, "The Lord's voting for you, and Satan's voting against you … But your vote is the only one that counts! "
“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.” ~ Alma 34:32
“And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” ~ Alma 32:21
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