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Mormon Trails

Pioneer Pathways to Zion, 1846–1890

Contents

    Into the Wilderness, 1846Routes through California, 1846–1848Route to the Great Salt Lake, 1847The Trail in the 1850sFrom Wagon Roads to Railroads
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    • An exhibit in the Church History Museum highlights pioneer pathways to Zion over time.
    • Into the Wilderness, 1846

    • Beginning in 1846, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints left homes, friends, and families and endured the rigors of travel by ship, wagon, handcart, and train to gather with fellow Saints in the Rocky Mountains of North America. An exhibit in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, highlights their efforts of faith and commitment through objects they brought with them between 1846 and 1890. This online version supplements the museum’s exhibit with additional artifacts and monuments on display at Church historic sites from Nauvoo, Illinois, to San Diego, California. 

    • Brigham Young Home, Nauvoo, Illinois
    • Thousands of Latter-day Saints crossed Iowa Territory in 1846.
    • Brigham Young led the Camp of Israel out of Illinois in the snows of February 1846. These 2,500 Latter-day Saints journeyed 300 miles across Iowa Territory. Deep mud and swollen streams slowed their progress. They arrived at the Missouri River in May, too late to continue farther west. 

    • Blacksmith Sidney Carter brought this anvil to Utah from Iowa.
    • About 700 Saints remained in Nauvoo, many of them ill and without means to travel. Mobs forced them out of the city in September 1846. Rescue teams returned east to help them rejoin the Saints at Garden Grove, Mount Pisgah, and other settlements across Iowa. 

    • The first temporary Mormon settlement in Iowa was Garden Grove.
    • Monument at Mount Pisgah Cemetery, Iowa
    • Mormon settlements in Council Bluffs, 1846–1853
    • Winter Quarters was the principal settlement for Latter-day Saints who gathered along the Missouri River in 1846. After 1847, Kanesville (present-day Council Bluffs) became the local headquarters for almost 90 Mormon settlements in the area. 

    • Cabin setting at the Mormon Trail Center in Omaha, Nebraska
    • Routes through California, 1846–1848

    • The sailing ship Brooklyn left New York Harbor in February 1846, bound for California under the leadership of Samuel Brannan. The Brooklyn carried 239 Latter-day Saints and supplies for anticipated Mormon settlements in the West.

      That summer, the United States declared war on Mexico in hopes of adding California to its territory. About 500 men and several women and children volunteered to march from Iowa to the Pacific Ocean in what became known as the Mormon Battalion. Their service helped provide funds that enabled many of their fellow Saints to gather to Zion.

    • The Brooklyn was like many sailing ships that carried Latter-day Saints across oceans in the 1840s.
    • Sailor’s thimble from the ship Brooklyn
    • The ship Brooklyn traveled 24,000 miles from New York to San Francisco.
    • “On Saturday, before taking up the line of march, President Young [and others] . . . gave us their last charge and blessing, with a firm promise that on condition of faithfulness on our part, our lives should be spared and our expedition result in great good.”
      —William Hyde, 1846
    • Battalion uniform on display at the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa
    • Private Jesse Johnstun wore this silk neckerchief while he marched with the Mormon Battalion.
    • Latter-day Saint volunteers in the Mormon Battalion sent their army pay back to Winter Quarters to help their families. Besides the money they were paid, soldiers gained experience on the march to California that helped them lead others across the continent to the Rocky Mountains. 

    • Route of the Mormon Battalion
    • Private Jacob Earl’s tin canteen on display at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in San Diego, California.
    • The bulk of the battalion soldiers mustered out at Fort Moore in Los Angeles, California, in July 1847. To reach Utah, some took a southern route across Death Valley; others went north to Sutter’s Fort and followed the California Trail eastward.

    • Mormon Battalion Historic Site, San Diego, California
    • Route to the Great Salt Lake, 1847

    • In January 1847, Brigham Young received a revelation now included as section 136 in the Doctrine and Covenants. Besides practical advice about organizing wagon companies for traveling, the Lord also urged His Apostles to rely on Him along their way. Strengthened by this revelation, Brigham Young’s vanguard company set out in April and arrived at the Great Salt Lake Valley in July. This company of 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children kept careful records that benefited all who followed.

    • Tragedy at Winter Quarters, by Avard Fairbanks, in Omaha, Nebraska
    • Headstone from the pioneer cemetery at Winter Quarters
    • “If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.”
      —Revelation to Brigham Young at Winter Quarters (D&C 136:29)
    • Brigham Young’s wagon was in one of 13 companies traveling west in 1847.
    • This cup belonged to Green Flake, one of three African American slaves in Brigham Young’s vanguard company.
    • According to its inscription, this plow turned the first half-acre of ground in the Salt Lake Valley.
    • Ox-drawn wagon on display at the Mormon Trail Center, Omaha, Nebraska
    • Mississippi converts began their journey in the spring of 1846, wintered in Fort Pueblo, Colorado, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.
    • After just two weeks in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and other members of the Quorum of the Twelve returned to the camps along the Missouri River to prepare their families for the journey west. As they traveled east, they passed westbound wagons that had left Winter Quarters in June. About 2,100 pioneers in 13 wagon companies journeyed to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Most arrived in September or early October. 

    • Brigham Young Monument, Salt Lake City, Utah
    • The Trail in the 1850s

    • Beginning in 1840, Latter-day Saint agents at Liverpool, England, chartered boats for large companies of emigrating Saints. In 1852, agents in Copenhagen, Denmark, began making similar arrangements for Danish and other Scandinavian converts—later joined by German, Swiss, Italian, and French converts. Beginning in 1852, many European Saints emigrated using contributions to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund—a revolving loan system that subsidized travel costs. As a result of improved organization and funding, the 1850s included the busiest years for the Mormon Trail. 

    • Sailing from Liverpool to New Orleans took about two months. Sailing from Liverpool to New York City took about one month.
    • Jean Rio Baker brought her violin from England to Utah in 1851.
    • This graphic compares a wagon company in 1856 with a handcart company traveling the same year.
    • Handcart companies provided determined Saints with an alternative, economical way to reach Zion. Out of about 70,000 Mormon pioneers who traveled before 1869, only about 3,000 used handcarts. Yet their dramatic stories of faith and perseverance have become emblematic of the pioneer spirit.

    • Handcart trail from Iowa City to Salt Lake City
    • Handcart pioneer Maria Linford’s wedding dress
    • Handcart on display at the Mormon Handcart Visitors’ Center at Martin’s Cove, Natrona County, Wyoming
    • Handcart Pioneers, by Torleif Knaphus, at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah
    • Handcart Pioneers, by Franz Johansen, at the Mormon Trail Center, Omaha, Nebraska
    • From Wagon Roads to Railroads

    • After 1860, Church-sponsored down-and-back wagon trains replaced handcarts as an inexpensive way for impoverished Saints to reach Zion. Most pioneers during the 1860s came to Zion in companies using this economical method of gathering until the Transcontinental Railroad arrived in Utah in 1869. After that, the combined steam power of ocean liners and rail locomotives made it possible for European Saints to travel from their homelands to the Rocky Mountains in just over three weeks and for a fraction of the cost. 

    • Route for down-and-back wagon trains
    • The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Utah Territory in May 1869.
    • These iron sheep shears belonged to Thomas Morgan, who came to Utah in 1862.
    • George Trowbridge brought this porcelain figurine from England to Utah in 1871.
    • The Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand were the homelands of hundreds of Saints by 1890. Like the approximately 55,000 British and 25,000 Scandinavian converts, many Pacific Saints traveled by sail, trail, and rail across ocean, mountain, and desert to reach Zion. 

    • Routes across the Pacific Ocean to Utah
    • By 1890, Church leaders had begun encouraging Saints to build stakes of Zion in their homelands around the world.
    • Mormon Trail sign near the Sweetwater River in Natrona County, Wyoming
    • “The days of pioneering in the Church are still with us; they did not end with covered wagons and handcarts. . . . [The pioneers] marked the path and led the way. Ours is the obligation to enlarge and broaden and strengthen that path until it encompasses the whole earth.”
      —President Gordon B. Hinckley
    • Explore Further

      Gospel Topics

      Museum Treasures series

      Mormon Handcart Historic Sites

       

      Revelations in Context

      Revelations in Context series

      Chad M. Orton “‘This Shall Be Our Covenant’: D&C 136,” Revelations in Context series, Feb. 25, 2015, history.lds.org

       

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