"This is supposed to be where she was going to have a final resting place. And it's a little heartbreaking, I think, for the whole family," Jacob Oscarson says.
A descendant of a pioneer who died as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints journeyed west amid persecution nearly 170 years ago wants her grave, which is under threat of removal, to remain along the Mormon Trail.
Historians believe Rebecca Winters died of cholera in Nebraska in 1852 during the handcart trek to Utah.
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"A member of the wagon party actually carved her name into an old, metal wagon tire and buried that with her, so it marked the grave," said Jacob Oscarson, Winters' fourth great-grandson.
The grave has since remained in the area where Winters died in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
But now, because the county that owns the land where the grave resides doesn't want to maintain it and has suggested fencing it off, Oscarson said, plans to move it are in place.
Story by Ashley Imlay; images by Kenneth Mays, Deseret News.
