In 1847, after years of persecution, the Mormon pioneers would finally have a place of their own where they could live and practice their religion in peace. The north-bank trail ended in eastern Wyoming, forcing the Mormon company to cross the North Platte River at Fort John (soon to become Fort Laramie) and merge with the general emigration on the Oregon Trail. Brigham Young led the first mass migration over the Mormon Trail to the Great Salt Lake in 1847. On July 29, a large group of the Mormon Battalion entered the valley. For more than twenty years during the mid-nineteenth century, between 1846 and 1868, thousands of Mormons traversed southern Nebraska, going east and west, utilizing a network of trails aggregating well over 1,800 miles, considerably more than the famous 1,300-mile-long Mormon Trail from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Please collaborate on a specific year's (1847-1868) project page. Check out current news, events, special projects, new research, and more! View trail photo galleries, connect on social media, explore deeper on mobile apps, watch videos, and check out other digital media! National Trails Read More. The historic Mormon Trail developed in two stages: (1) from Sugar Creek across Iowa to Council Bluffs in the winter and spring of 1846, and (2) from Winter Quarters near Council Bluffs to the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1847. Main Command TRAIL DATE 20 Mar 1847 DEDICATION DATE before 2008 GPS COORDINATES 33° 36.464’ N 117° 41.612’ W WGS84 by Michael Kindig, 22 June 2008 Mormon Battalion Marker Sycamore Park, Mission Viejo, Orange County, California Description This rectangular rock and concrete marker bearing a bronze plaque, flanked by an Moreover, the 1847 vanguard company would be limited to a handpicked party of 144 men, three wives, and two small boys. The length of the wagon trail from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City was about 1,300 mile (2,092 km). The previous year, the California-bound Donner-Reed Party had gone this way and grubbed a new wagon track through the Wasatch Mountains to reach the Salt Lake Valley. Quantity 81 boxes, (35.25 linear feet) Collection Number ACCN 0444 Summary The Reed C. Durham papers (1828-1998) consists of research materials about the Mormon pioneers and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church) … The Battle of the Alamo (1836) #5. From 1847 to 1868, when the transcontinental railroad reached Utah, nearly 70,000 Mormons would follow the trail to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail In 1849 Gold Rushemigrants h… On July 24, 1847, Young’s carriage rolled into the Mormon camp located in today’s downtown Salt Lake City. 1847. National Trails Across the monotonous, undifferentiated, rolling central lowlands of Iowa, the Mormon Trail of 1846 generally followed primitive territorial roads as far as Bloomfield, Davis County, and then vague Pottawattamie Indian and trading trails along ridges from one water source to another, always within fifty miles of the present Missouri state line. Other projects are organized by year of departure. The original Brigham Young-led pioneer company has a separate project page. The Brooklyn carried 239 Latter-day Saints and supplies for anticipated Mormon settlements in the West. Those leaving from southern California blazed the trail that came to be called the Mormon Trail to southern California. Most of the pioneer families either followed the Oregon-California Trail or the Mormon Trail. Description. In 1847 members of the Mormon Battalion were honorably discharged at Los Angeles, California from their service in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. This would be the primary route for Mormon emigrants over the next two decades, and within a few years it also would become the preferred route of non-Mormons heading west. PO Box 728 Learn more about where you can go, historic sites you can visit and more! The Gadsden Purchase (1853) #9. The original 1846-1847 Mormon Trail went from Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois to Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. The Father of Public Education - Horace Mann On July 27, Amasa M. Lyman, Sam Brannan, Rodney Badger, and Roswell Stevens arrived into the valley on horseback and probably made their own trail to the camp on City Creek. On June 21 the Mormons paused to clamber up Independence Rock, one of the most famous landmarks on the trail, and offer prayers. The well-traveled Oregon Trail crossed Nebraska along the south side of the Platte and North Platte Rivers, but Young kept his company on an old fur-trade trace along the north bank, hoping to avoid clashes with anti-Mormons who might be bound for Oregon or California. A Jewish historian wrote, “Wherever Mormon influence prevailed, race prejudice was notably absent.” (The Pinkos, 1935) Several years later, Mormon pioneer Fred T. Perris developed the train route through the Cajon Pass that caused the immigration to Southern California in1886 that equaled the Gold Rush, ending the state’s pioneer era 1847 July 24 Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley After 17 months and many miles of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 pioneers into Utah’s Valley of the Great Salt Lake. The California Gold Rush (1849) #8. Hear from trail staff about how we define these important parts of history. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. "This is the right place, drive on." Although records of the Mormon immigration seem to be better than those of most migrations in the U.S., the records are not complete. Some made their way from various places in California to Salt Lake City, Utah. His people were already at work digging irrigation ditches and planting crops for … We Need Your Help. The main difference between the pioneers of 1846-1847 and subsequent Mormon emigrants was that each year the trek became a little easier as a result of experience, established (and enforced) discipline, better roads, ferries, bridges, and the ever-increasing number of trailside services like blacksmithing, medical assistance, military installations, trading establishments, and the telegraph. His people were already at work digging irrigation ditches and planting crops for the oncoming emigration. The Mormon Trail is the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) long route from Illinois to Utah that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled for 3 months. Depicting members of the Mormon Battalion on their arrival at the Pacific Ocean near San Luis Rey, California on 27 January 1847 after trekking 2,138 miles down the Santa Fe Trail and across the southwestern deserts at the beginning of the Mexican-American War. James C. Brown, May 29. An American Exodus Explore the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail across five states to see the 1,300-mile route traveled by Mormons who fled Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1846-1847. On April 5, the first Mormon wagon train rolled out of Winter Quarters. Mormons and Missourians leap-frogged, sometimes helping each other and sometimes competing, as they continued west. Over the winter, Brigham Young collected travel reports and cross-examined men who had been west along the trail. They would start in early spring, soon followed by the main body of emigrants. Utah Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database, 1847-1868. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) #6. Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail This project covers all 2,157 Mormon pioneers that arrived in Utah in 1847. The Mormon Trail (1830)/The Mormon Church (1847) #4. The source for this table is the Historical Resource Study: Mormon Pioneer National Historical Trail, pages 136-150 by Stanley B. Kimball, Ph.D, May 1991, United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. Database from the LDS Church History Library containing a compilation of names obtained from rosters and other reliable sources of individuals who immigrated to Utah during this two-decade period. Many were unprepared for a many month-long journey in the harshest of winters, and the hottest of summers. Mortality on the Mormon Trail, 1847–1868. (The first group arrived on July 24, 1847) (Kimball 1988:49) While many think that the Mormon migration occurred in one swoop across the plains in 1847, in actuality, Mormons crossed the plains from various points over a twenty-three year span. The Annexation of Texas (1845) #7. On July 26, nine men were chosen to accompany Brigham Young and explore such places as the warm springs (present-day location of Wasatch Plunge) and Ensign Peak. TRAIL SEGMENT 2. (Their labors cost them 18 days, causing them later to become trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada.) The Mormons followed and improved their track over the most rugged 116 miles of the entire westward journey. Now began the long climb to the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. As they traveled, the Mormon pioneers made improvements for those to follow. Melvin L. Bashore BYU Pioneer Mortality Team H. Dennis Tolley. The Crow family caught up with Brigham Young's pioneer company at Ft. Laramie in 1847 and accompanied it to the valley. Charting the 1846 trail across Iowa has proved to be a most difficult task, much more difficult than tracing the trail across Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, because there are several “Mormon trails… THE MORMON TRAIL. On July 24, 1847, Young’s carriage rolled into the Mormon camp located in today’s downtown Salt Lake City. [The Mississippi Saints were a group of 14 families and slaves mostly from Mississippi that followed the Oregon Trail through Many folks wonder what a national historic trail actually is. Two years later gold was discovered in California, and thousands of "Forty-Niners" rushed across the continent. Explore the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail across five states to see the 1,300-mile route traveled by Mormons who fled Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1846-1847. Learn about important points along the Mormon Trail through place descriptions, maps, and journal entries from pioneers who experienced the journey. Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846–1869 is a collection of the original writings of 49 voyagers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote while traveling on the trail. Historians have estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 Mormons crossed the plains between 1847 and 1868.6That is a wide range, and by its very breadth evidences the incompleteness of the existing records. Santa Fe, NM There on July 9 the Mormons branched off the Oregon Trail onto the Hastings Cutoff, angling southwesterly toward today’s Utah. May 24, 1847. followed by the sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion under command of Capt. For thousands of Mormons, the great pioneer trail along the north bank of the Platte which paralleled the river about a mile south of here was an avenue of escape from persecution and a roadway to a new life. 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. Young led the first migration of Mormons up the Platte River Valley in 1847 to what is now the state of Utah. The name and dates of an ancestor can be printed up and put into the frame attached to an artificial rock resembling a headstone. The next year Jefferson Hunt, one of these former soldiers, and others made the return trip to California to pick up supplies. From the east approached a fast-moving wagon train from Missouri, the state that had violently expelled the Latter-day Saints in 1838. With a ground rolling tape measure from the nearby Mormon Trail Center, visitors can find their ancestor's gravesite on the map grid, according to Hoyt W. Brewster, the Mormon Trail Center director. Authors. Do you want to experience the trail? The race was on! Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers were forced to leave Nauvoo, Illinois. They apparently turned north at the canyon mouth, then headed west, crossing Red Butte Creek a… Abstract. Along this stretch of trail, Brigham Young became very ill and fell behind the main company, which entered the Salt Lake Valley two days ahead of him. Pioneer Companies that Crossed the Plains 1847-1868 . The Mormon Trail starts from Nauvoo, Illinois, which was the major settlement of the Latter Day Saints from about 1839 to 1846, to Utah's Salt Lake City, which was settled by their leader Brigham Young and his followers beginning in 1847. The Second Great Awakening #10. PO Box 728 87504. Mormon pioneers began their trek to Utah in 1847 to escape religious persecution. 87504. Six days later, the third anniversary of the assassinations of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the company crossed South Pass and continued toward Fort Bridger, a trading post in southeastern Wyoming. Santa Fe, NM The Mormon Trail from Ft. Kearney to Salt Lake City generally remained the same throughout its use. - attributed to Brigham Young. Take a look at interactive, historic, and trip planning maps to learn more about locations along the trail. The Great Trek, 1847 The most famous of all Mormon treks began on 5 April 1847 when Heber C. Kimball moved a few wagons about three miles west of Winter Quarters, but it was not until April 19 that the whole group of pioneers, one hundred forty-three men, three women, and two children were organized and under way on their one-thousand-mile exodus. The Mormons, due to persecution and suffering, left Nauvoo in 1847. 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