Wagon Train!

History will repeat itself this year when an honest-to-goodness wagon train arrives to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first large group of settlers to San Bernardino.
The county Board of Supervisors approved a $9,000 agreement to allow the Heritage Trails Association to use the Glen Helen Regional Park from June 28 to July 1.
During those three days, as many as 60 wagons will arrive after a trek of more than 600 miles from Salt Lake City.
Planning has been going on for a year, and for the past six months scouts have been figuring out the route the wagon train will take, a route that will follow the original trail as much as possible, said Marilyn Mills, of Heritage Trails Association.
"They want to be as historically accurate as possible," she said.
In 1851, a wagon train of 437 Mormons and two dozen blacks set out to establish a way station between San Pedro Harbor and Utah, she said.
They came down the Cajon Pass and spent some time at the site of what is now Glen Helen Regional Park. Getting permission from the county to use the park was a major milestone in planning the elaborate re-enactment, she said.
Organizers expect as many as 200 people at a time to be walking or riding with the wagon train, with some tagging along for a few days.
Education will be a top priority and the group hopes to provide video of the trip for people to follow on the Internet. and schools will be invited to see the wagon train as it moves through towns in Utah, Nevada and California.
"We're going to go as high-tech as we can to bring history alive," Mills said.
A web site, www.heritagetrails.cc, should be up soon. Besides history and other information, the site will allow people to register for the trip online.