Most of the people in the Christian Christiansen handcart company were Scandinavians (Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes). They numbered about 330 souls, including a girl with a wooden leg and a 60-year-old blind woman. Because the Perpetual Emigrating Fund was exhausted, the emigrants had to purchase their own outfits with pooled resources. They had 68 handcarts, 3 wagons, 10 mules, and 1 cow. The cow soon died but others were purchased along the way. Likewise, the travelers purchased a fourth wagon and oxen to pull it. Elder J. P. Park, a Scotsman, was the company captain, but he had to communicate with his charges through an interpreter because he could not speak nor understand their language. Also, he was reportedly unsympathetic towards them. "The less said about this unfortunate choice of a leader for such a people as us," wrote an emigrant, "the better for him."
Parks and the wagons usually traveled so far ahead of the handcarts that the emigrants sometimes took a wrong road. The company left Iowa City June 12, with many of the people leaving prized personal possessions behind-clothing, bedding, books, and so on-because they could each take only 17 pounds of luggage. One man, however, kept a few books. The emigrants believed that a Church wagon would later bring their things to Utah, although this never happened. Later, the captain had individuals reduce their freight to 15 pounds. For the first week or so, progress along the trail was slow because many were sick. Almost daily some of these fell by the wayside and had to be gathered up in the evening by the wagons or by handcarts that had been unloaded and shuttled back to the camp. Nevertheless, some invalids complained that they had to wait long hours for a ride because the wagons were overcrowded and had to make more than one trip. Young, healthy men sometimes took turns carrying the faint on their backs. They also carried many of the infirm across rivers. It was hot and it rained frequently. The roads were muddy; curious settlers occasionally lined the road, asking questions and making comments in English, but the travelers did not understand them. June 21 an elderly woman died and was buried. The company crossed the Des Moines River on a long bridge and on July 2, it reached Council Bluffs via Glenwood Road. Here, officials refused to allow the train into the city, claiming that the emigrants had smallpox, which was not true. The next day, after taking the long way around, the party crossed the Missouri via a steam-driven ferry. At Omaha, Scandinavian settlers greeted the travelers; here, too, the emigrants saw their first American Indians.
At Florence men from Utah visited and spoke encouragingly to the company. Here, too, the travelers shared some of their food with visiting Indians. Elder Christian Christiansen, a native of Denmark who had lived in Utah and who was returning from a Church mission in the Midwest, now became company captain. This change in leadership was universally welcomed. One emigrant said Christiansen was like a father to the company. Another recalled that he was a capable leader and inspired his followers with confidence. A third reported that the captain often helped pull her cart up hills. A fourth said he was liked and respected by all. Again, he was gentle and fatherly. The train left Florence on July 7. Almost immediately one of the handcarts broke a wheel and had to return to town for repairs. At Papillion Creek, Captain Christiansen inspected the emigrants and insisted that all who were unhealthy or not adequately prepared should return to Florence and wait for the next year's emigration. Some of those who remained behind sold their equipment to emigrants who had been waiting at Florence for an opportunity to go west. At least one young emigrant left her family in Florence and pursued her westward journey alone. But a Swede who was told to remain in Florence because his wife was too weak trailed along behind the train just out of sight until the company was too far along to turn him back. Then he rejoined the train.
July 9 the travelers reached and crossed the Elkhorn. Two days more and they were on the Platte. The Loup Fork was a major obstacle; it was about a mile wide and filled with quicksand, shifting holes, and sandbars. The emigrants raised the wagon boxes to keep their cargos dry and then employed local Indians to transport the women across on horseback and to guide the vehicles over. Multiple teams pulled the wagons while the strongest men dragged empty handcarts through the treacherous currents. The crossing took two days. Fortunately, there were no accidents. The night after this crossing, there was a severe rainstorm, accompanied by thunder and lightening. Because of illness, two families now dropped out of the company. Between Loup Fork and Wood River the travelers suffered greatly for lack of water. At Wood River a woman slipped away from camp long enough to deliver a baby girl, returning with the infant wrapped in her apron. She got to ride in a wagon for a while. Somewhere on the sandy plains of Nebraska another baby girl died and was buried, with a sieve covering
her face. As the company toiled on, men and women weakened and again lightened their loads. The strong accepted the burdens of the weak. When shoes wore out travelers wrapped their feet in burlap or cut rawhide from carcasses of dead cattle to make new footwear. Unfortunately, the rawhide often got wet, then dried hard. Feet became chafed and bloody.
On August 3 a 36-year-old man died, his feet so swollen that he could no longer walk. The travelers often saw Indians but had no trouble with them. They witnessed a prairie fire but escaped harm. When the company reached the vicinity of Fort Laramie on August 9, it stayed north of the Platte and quickly moved on into the Black Hills. August 22, the train was at Devil's Gate. Here another man died. Water was a constant concern. Often, men or boys had to walk great distances to fetch it. One young man got lost while carrying water and ended up spending a rainy night alone. A second boy,returning to camp after dark and wearing for shoes old socks to which his mother had attached canvas soles, walked into a patch of prickly pear, and when he sat down to extract the painful spines, he sat on a clump of the cactus. Thirsty men sometimes forgot their manners; one grabbed a container from a water boy and satisfied his thirst before allowing nearby women or children a drink. An old man got lost while trying to find a shortcut to water. He was gone for a day, ate berries, and was rescued by trappers who led him back to the train.
Hunger stalked the travelers almost constantly. At one point, some of them were so hungry that they killed, cooked, and ate a crow. An old man, unacquainted with American wildlife and with no sense of smell, bludgeoned a skunk to death with his cane and brought it into camp. All the others scattered. At the Sweetwater, the commissary of Johnston's army, then marching to put down the "Mormon Rebellion" in Utah, took pity on Christiansen's followers and gave them a lame ox to slaughter. This was the first meat the company had had in weeks. Though they passed through vast buffalo herds, these emigrants killed only one; it had become separated from the herd. Otherwise they feared that a stampede would destroy them all. East of South Pass, relief wagons from Salt Lake met the train. The travelers purchased flour, offering their handcarts as security. These wagons then carried the weakest members of the party back to Salt Lake. Those who remained with the carts bought more flour at Fort Bridger. In Echo Canyon rain, hail, and a very cold night made life miserable for the company. Ice on mountain streams lacerated already abused feet.
Thirty miles from Salt Lake, wagons loaded with bread, cake, and fruit met the company. As the train crossed Big and Little Mountains, the people had to help the exhausted mules reach the summits. Then, with the Danish flag flying from the lead handcart, the company arrived in Salt Lake City on September 13. One emigrant said that the first time he saw his image in a mirror, he was shocked at how tanned and skinny he was. Approximately 15 people died on the journey.