The Monuments
The monuments at Martin's Cove, the Willie Rescue Site and Rocky Ridge were designed by Dan Barrus. Each weighs about nine tons and is covered in a veneer of moss rock. Originally members of the Riverton Wyoming Stake estimated that one flatbed load of rock would be sufficient. Brother Chuck Carper served as mason on the monument and donated extensively of his time and talents in their construction. He approached the stone work like everything else that had been done. If it wasn't perfect, it wasn't good enough. He therefore rejected most of the rock hauled until he had the perfect stones.

Being independent and wanting to do the entire monument project with people of the Stake, President Lorimer asked Brother Ron Fabrizius if he could cast the bronze plaques that would be placed atop the monuments. Brother Fabrizius had a little experience with mold making and pouring bronze castings but nothing so large and complex as the monument plaques. In a moment of faith, he said he could do it.

It was decided that the bronze plaques needed to have some artwork at the top. While in Dubois for a Branch Conference, President Lorimer felt impressed to ask President Monte Baker, the Branch President, to carve a handcart scene out of a piece of walnut. President Baker declined but said he would carve a scene in the bowl of a moose antler. President Baker researched handcarts and found that the although some handcarts did not have hoods, the Willie and Martin Handcarts did.

Beginning the Plaques
On Memorial Day, 1992 Ron Fabrizius, President and Sister Lorimer, Rich Gard and his family all met in the Gard's cabinet shop. A shallow wooden box was built and letters placed as they would appear on the plaques. Prior to this meeting Bishop Gary Anderson had created a computer program to count each letter used in the wording on the plaques. The letters were expensive and only the letters needed were ordered. Sister Lorimer placed each letter for all the plaques until her fingers bled from the sharp edges.

After the lettering and artwork were secured in the box, rubber was poured into the box to create a mold for the wax to later be poured into. To melt enough wax to fill the rubber molds women of the Stake donated their electric skillets knowing they would be ruined and unfit to cook with after. It was joked that in Kirtland the women sacrificed their fine china and in the Riverton Wyoming Stake it was their electric skillets.

Wax Work
With the Fabrizius and Starks' shop entirely taken over with slurry and bronze work, the Lorimer family garage, patio and gazebo became the location where wax positives were made. Every morning, except Sunday, Luke Lorimer, age 9, and Autumn Lorimer, age 7, would rise at 5 a.m. They would kneel in prayer and then begin heating approximately 20 electric skillets. At 6 a.m. the wax would be melted and Lorimer family would pour the rubber molds full of the liquid hot wax. At lunch rubber mold would be pealed away to see if they had been successful. Any faulty wax positives were then broken up to be melted again.

When the first waxes were removed from the rubber molds it was found that they contained many small trapped air bubbles. If the bubbles were not prevented, tiny holes would be seen in the face and lettering of the waxes and ultimately in the bronzes themselves. While the wax was still hot, a group would gather around a plaque and chase the bubbles off the lettering with toothpicks. Those bubbles that were left in the wax were later fixed with dental tools donated by the Stake's dentists. Night after night the Lorimer and Fabrizius mothers and daughters would sit at tables and fill in bubble holes with small pieces of wax heated over candles. Static electricity made this difficult as the wax would jump from the dental tool onto the wax plaque and create a small blemish that would have to be repaired.

After touch up the wax positive would be taken to the Starks' shop and be dipped in slurry and sprinkled with silica sand till a shell 1/2 inch thick surrounded it completely. There were to be four plaques. Three of which would be 83 lbs. The fourth would weigh 129 lbs. To cast such large, flat plaques sufficient bronze had to be melted at the same time. At the time there were no facilities large enough and keeping with President Lorimer's request to keep the work in the Riverton Wyoming Stake, Brother Fabrizius created a kiln from a 55-gallon drum and lined it with firebrick to withstand the heat. He researched how to create the proper oxygen mixture to swirl around the crucible and the tongs to lift out the crucible at the time of pouring.