The Mormons followed existing trails and used maps and accounts from previous explorers to plan their route west. Many years have passed since the advent of the Mormon Trail. 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. Although the carts were very inexpensive, pulling one was such backbreaking work that they stopped using them. As times change, so do styles and techniques related to food preparation. Some 70K people travelled it from 1847 until the train got to Utah in 1869. The bulk of the battalion soldiers mustered out at Fort Moore in Los Angeles, California, in July 1847. Out of about 70,000 Mormon pioneers who traveled before 1869, only about 3,000 used handcarts. From the Missouri River, Mormon companies followed the broad, flat valleys of the Loupe and Platte rivers for some six hundred miles to present-day Casper, Wyoming, then the Sweetwater River for about ninety-three miles to South Pass, thence along branches of the Sandy River and Blacks Fork to Fort Bridger, finally zigzagging through a series of canyons into the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The sailing ship Brooklyn left New York Harbor in February 1846, bound for California under the leadership of Samuel Brannan. Although the trail was not blazed by the Latter-day Saints, and parts of it have at times been known as the Council Bluffs Road, the Omaha Road, the Great Platte River Road, or even the North Branch of the Oregon Trail, the entire route is today almost universally known as "The Mormon Trail" because the Latter-day Saints used it for twenty-three years in such large numbers (at least seventy thousand; no one knows just how many), because of the high drama of their "Exodus," and because they developed separate strands or trails and wove them into their great road (see Immigration and Emigration). Respect for life and death 10. Mobs forced them out of the city in September 1846. This story focuses on the southern route of the Pioneer Trail, which is also called the Brigham Young Trail. Handcart companies provided determined Saints with an alternative, economical way to reach Zion. Roughly 80,000 headed to Oregon; approximately 80,000 came to the Salt Lake Valley and 350,000 went to California. The Mormon migration was a movement of a community. In Wyoming, however, with proper maps much of this old trail can still be found because the harsh terrain has held the ruts better and agriculture has obliterated little. These 2,500 Latter-day Saints journeyed 300 miles across Iowa Territory. This part of the trail was used extensively from 1847 until completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Trails are compared with nearby trails in the same city region with a possible 25 colour shades. The pioneers mostly traveled the Mormon trail by foot as they pushed handcarts or drove wagons pulled by a team of oxen to carry their meager possessions. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z, https://eom.byu.edu/index.php?title=Mormon_Pioneer_Trail&oldid=3231. Trailforks scans ridelogs to determine which trails are ridden the most in the last 9 months. Oregon Trail - Oregon Trail - Missionaries, Mormons, and others: The first missionary group to the West left Independence in 1834. Into the Wilderness, 1846. 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. When available, this information was used to get a full name, sex, age, death date, place of death, sources of the information in the Ancestral File, and additional notes. That summer, the United States declared war on Mexico in hopes of adding California to its territory. See this page in the original 1992 publication. The first leg of the journey was from Nauvoo, Illinois, another 265 miles. The Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand were the homelands of hundreds of Saints by 1890. Pony Express riders, freighters, soldiers and stage coach drivers also used the same well-worn Wyoming paths linking East and West. The initial movement of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake occurred in two segments: one in 1846 and one in 1847. The Mormons traversing this trail route generally used wagons as a means to transport their essential goods and other needs. This company of 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children kept careful records that benefited all who followed. Most arrived in September or early October. General Albert Sidney Johnston also used this trail during 1857-58 for dispatching various detachments and the supplies for over 5,000 soldiers with which he had been ordered to subjugate the Mormons, who had defied the authority of the National Government. Today the Mormon Trail is a part of the U.S. National Trails System, called the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 ended extensive use of the trail as the railroad tracks followed essentially this same route. Strengthened by this revelation, Brigham Young’s vanguard company set out in April and arrived at the Great Salt Lake Valley in July. The Mormon … 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. This journey for the Mormon immigrants began in 1846 in Nauvoo, Illinois and ended in Salt Lake City, Utah. They largely followed the Platte River. Between 1848 and 1868, LDS immigrants traveling west from the Missouri River developed or utilized at least a dozen other points of departure and followed many other trails, such as the Oxbow Trail (1849-1864), the Mormon Grove Trail (1855-1856), and the Nebraska City Cutoff (1864-1866). The Mormon Trail was a 1,300 mile path from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City Utah, used between 1846 and 1857 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Deep mud and swollen streams slowed their progress. Traveling in military-style "companies," they made improvements to the trail and built support facilities to aid those following. In one way or another, however, all these trails eventually intersected the Mormon Trail. In Nebraska, as in Iowa, there is little left today of the Mormon Trail, but modern roads do parallel the old trail closely. When that happened, they made their way across Iowa to a place near present day Council Bluffs. To reach Utah, some took a southern route across Death Valley; others went north to Sutter’s Fort and followed the California Trail eastward. Chad M. Orton “‘This Shall Be Our Covenant’: D&C 136,” Revelations in Context series, Feb. 25, 2015, history.lds.org, Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. This part of the trail was used extensively from 1847 until completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Led by Jason Lee, its members joined a party headed by New England merchant Nathaniel Wyeth. The Latter-day Saints did very little trail-blazing. They followed territorial roads and Indian trails across Iowa; various segments of the Oregon Trail from the Missouri River to Fort Bridger in present western Wyoming; and the year-old trail of the ill-fated California-bound Reed-Donner party from Fort Bridger into the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The approximately 1,032-mile-long trans-Missouri River segment from present North Omaha (one-time winter quarters) and Florence, Nebraska, across Nebraska and Wyoming, into Utah. In Utah, although modern roads follow the trail closely, very few of the original ruts remain. A three-step approach was used to do the study of the Mormon Trail. A half-million people moved out West using the dusty corridor. The route was designated a national historic trail by the U.S. National Park Service. Beginning in 1840, Latter-day Saint agents at Liverpool, England, chartered boats for large companies of emigrating Saints. The Mormon Trail is 1,032 miles from Winter Quarters (near Florence Nebraska) to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Nebraska Mormon Trail Association is eyeing a historical trail site near Alda as a possible spot for a special marker. The trail became one of the great roadways to the west, used by Mormons, military expeditions, gold seekers and settlers. The Iowa Mormon Trail: Legacy of faith and courage Paperback – January 1, 1997 by William G. Black, Susan Easton;Hartley (Author) 4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings This was one thing that slowed the Donners down and led to their, um, unpleasantness in California’s snowy Sierra Nevadas. 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 … Many of Nebraska’s highways today, including Interstate 80, are on or near routes used over one hundred years ago by explorers, fur traders, covered wagon pioneers, and many others. In 1827, 21-year-old Joseph Smith announced that he had unearthed a set of golden plates, inscribed with the tenants of God’s true church. Winter Quarters was the principal settlement for Latter-day Saints who gathered along the Missouri River in 1846. After 1860, Church-sponsored down-and-back wagon trains replaced handcarts as an inexpensive way for impoverished Saints to reach Zion. Each name identified with a death on the trail was then researched in the LDS Church’s Ancestral File for additional information. The approximately 265-mile-long section from Nauvoo on the Mississippi across Iowa to present-day Council Bluffs on the Missouri. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-mormon-trail.html 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. Mormons on their trek from Illinois to … By the end of this September, the first 12 of an eventual 24 National Park Service monuments will mark important trail sites in Iowa. Today this part of the Mormon Trail is difficult to follow, not because of the terrain but because modern roads seldom parallel it and because the plow has destroyed most vestiges of it. Rescue teams returned east to help them rejoin the Saints at Garden Grove, Mount Pisgah, and other settlements across Iowa. 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