Halloween 2019 treat: Kingston United Order plus a Messianic California cult leader plus Lake Bonneville stone & coal mine rails = Kays Cross?

With Halloween just around the corner, it's time to think about the mystery of Kay's Cross again. And do we have a whopper of a development today! Late last night, relatives of Malvern Hansen wrote to share with me with a detailed account of the building of Kay's Cross: I understand there's a...

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Olive Oatman: Mormon pioneer girl who lived with Native Americans for five years

We interrupt our current mystery--which itself is interrupting our main mystery, discovering the builders of the infamous Kay's Cross--to bring you a fascinating story of a Mormon pioneer girl who spent years living with Native American people in Arizona. Olive Oatman, 1838–1903, by Benjamin F....

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A Handcart Trek Mystery - Part 2: Mary Mathieson and the Luggage Disaster

Our exploration of the life of William Heaton and his family in Part 1 of A Handcart Trek Mystery solved a few mysteries but raised a few more. Among those: Who was Mary Mathieson and why was she living and traveling with the Heatons in 1856? This is a mystery that turns out to have a very interesting...

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William Heaton and A Handcart Trek Mystery - Part 1

William Heaton was my great-great grandfather. I have been doing a little research into him because of some minor mysteries about his life: What was he doing between August, 1853, when his missionary journal ends, and March 1856 when he and his family boarded the ship Enoch Train for America? Where...

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