Heritage Gateways

Official Sesquicentennial K-12 Education Project
sponsored by the Utah State Board of Education, the BYU-Public School Partnership and the Utah Education Network

Osamu Sekiguchi Journals

May 24, 1997

Image courtesy of: Heritage Gateway Project Images, These images have been gathered to support the Sesquicentennial celebration of the immigration to Utah.

Location: Ash Hollow (Lewellen) - 633 miles left, Nebraska - Location: 41:19:53N 102:08:36W (south side of the river. So named from a grove of timber growing on it. It occupies a space of about fifteen to twenty acres, and is surrounded by high bluffs.)

Summary: Saturday, May 24, 1997 (rain 67.1F)

Journal entry: [Translated by Tomoko Nakayama]

Altitude: 3583ft (Lewellen)

Latitude: 41 degrees 19.422" Longitude: 102 degree 08.331"

When I got out from the tent, it was very foggy. Shapes of everybody folding their tents appear in the hazy fog, like shadows.

We have a meeting every morning at 6:30, and the father of the child who was kicked by a donkey the other day gave a comment while holding the child. The little boy is about two years old. Even though he was kicked in his face so badly, he just had a small bruise the size of a thumb nail under his eye, and he didn't even break his nose or hurt his cheekbone. It was totally amazing.

Also, Japanese American Walter Okamoto, who fell from a horse and everybody thought he had broken his bones, had only slightly sore muscles, and he had already returned to the trail. He will ride on a horse again from Monday. It was a chance to remember the words of special prayer which Mr. Russel.M. Ballard offered at North Platte the other day. I often feel that it is a miracle that no one has been injured badly regardless of the many accidents.

Lewellen is a small town, whose population is 300. It is a small town next to Ash Hollow, when I saw it was drizzling, I hurriedly pitched our tent. It rained really hard so I checked the groundsheet under the tent many times through night and worked hard to stay dry. I didn't sleep well, but it was much better than getting wet.