The Wild West: KUED Documents the Story of the Mormon Battalion By Bobbi Parry Media Credit: Lonny Danler Ken Verdoia, senior producer at KUED, orchestrates the Mormon Battalion as they march through the desert just east of Delta, Utah. Media Credit: Lonny Danler Verdoia consults with volunteer students from the nearby high school. Some of the actors are re-enactment hobbyists and others are first time participants. Media Credit: Lonny Danler Gary Tunier, U graduate and KUED cinematographer, works to get the right angle. Verdoia’s production crew goes to great legnths to get the best shot. Media Credit: Lonny Danler Will Montoya, audio engineer, is part of a small production crew which consists of a producer, associate producer, cinematographer and a few production assistants. Media Credit: Lonny Danler Verdoia has produced more than 20 full-length documentaries for public television and is the recipient of more than 100 regional, national and international awards for journalistic and broadcast excellence. His documentaries typically examine little known chapters of western history. Ken Verdoia gets excited just talking about it. In 1846, members of the recently formed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had just been driven out of Nauvoo, Ill., set up refugee camps in Iowa. "They were spread out, broken in spirit," said Verdoia, a producer with the U's KUED Channel 7, when the U.S. government approached them about forming a detachment to fight in the Mexican-American War. Thus began a forgotten odyssey in the history of the United States, the story of the Mormon Battalion. It's an intriguing yet under-told story, one Verdoia calls the "quintessential American story, common men and women participating in uncommon events." It was not a journey of war, but of discovery—the discovery of the American West. Now, Verdoia is setting out to tell it, with his new documentary "Battalion," which is currently being shot. On a pleasant October morning, Verdoia, his film crew and cast are just outside of Delta to film footage of the battalion marching. Verdoia truly looks the part of the director, complete with floppy sun hat and megaphone. He calls out directions to his cast: the two lines of men who make up the battalion, the covered wagon and trail of laundresses and wives. Overall, it's a scene incongruous with the movie cameras and the cars and trucks parked alongside the road, yet weirdly appropriate in the desolate country. "Okay, we're going to try this again," Verdoia says into his ever- present megaphone. "Watch your spacing. If you have a replica, keep it on your left shoulder." The replicas are wooden cut- outs of rifles some of the men shoulder, though most have the real thing. The men portraying the battalion come from all over. Some are members of a local Mexican-American War re-enactment group, others are Delta residents. The costumes of the locals are an interesting amalgamation of past and present. Some wear jeans with their white shirts and suspenders, Nike symbols seen under a few pant cuffs. The re-enactors all have authentic gear, either hand-made or purchased through a company specializing in reproductions, said Jared Cornell, one of captains of the group. Cornell has one of the few assigned roles in the documentary—he plays the U.S. Army colonel sent to accompany the battalion in their journey across the West. The battalion started out in Ohio and marched west in a circular route. "Ninety percent of the people who went West made a one-way trip," Verdoia said. The 500-member battalion was unique. It began in Council Bluffs, Iowa, went to California and down to New Mexico before heading home. It was an arduous journey, across all sorts of landscapes. The men sometimes had to travel 60 miles without water. The only battle they engaged in was against a herd of cattle, but they never knew when the Mexican army would be just over the horizon. About 20 men died, mainly from disease, and they were buried along the way. The men witnessed the gold rush, and they were the first U.S. troops to garrison in San Diego as a U.S. possession. Film crews will follow the battalion's trail west, shooting in chronological order. The footage from Delta will serve for desert scenes in states such as California and New Mexico. The re-enactors spend the first half the morning snaking through a variety of sandy hills before Verdoia decides it's time to move onto the next scene—the sick being loaded into the back of the wagon. "Now don't jump into the wagon like you could jump over it," he warns one boy slated to play an ill soldier. A few different shots of this, and it's back to marching. The real battalion marched across half a country—today, this re-enactment will cover about two to three miles, Cornell said. Verdoia jokes with the men as he sets up a shot. "This is me on a good day," he says, as he plans out the route this particular shot will include. Everyone is ready—they wait for a truck to pass by before they begin shooting. After this, it's time for lunch, which is set up down the road near where they will shoot campfire scenes later in the afternoon. At lunch, Verdoia selects people to play individual parts. A local boy and girl are selected to play the parts of a young newlywed, each of whom made the entire journey. Verdoia says he also needs a man and two women to play a polygamous family and the crowd titters nervously before two women volunteer. This particular shoot has lasted about two days and the documentary is about halfway done. The real trek took about nine months to complete, Verdoia said. He hopes to capture the voices and experiences of the men and women who made the journey using their journals and histories, as well as correspondence of the leaders of the time, President James K. Polk and LDS leader Brigham Young. bparry@chronicle.utah.edu