Five hundred Mormon handcart pioneers leave Iowa…

June 1856 CE

Five hundred Mormon handcart pioneers leave Iowa City on June 9, 1856, and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.

Motivated to join their fellow church members in Utah, but lacking funds for full teams of oxen or horses, nearly three thousand Mormon pioneers from England, Wales, Scotland and Scandinavia will make the journey from Iowa or Nebraska to Utah in ten handcart companies between 1856 and 1860.

The trek will be disastrous for two of the companies that start their journey dangerously late and will be caught by heavy snow and severe temperatures in central Wyoming.

Despite a dramatic rescue effort, more than two hundred and ten of the nine hundred and eighty pioneers in these two companies will die along the way.
 

Locations
Iowa City Johnson Iowa United States View →

Groups
United States of America (US, USA) (Washington DC) View → Mormons, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints View → Iowa, State of (U.S.A.) View → Utah, Territory of (U.S.A.) View →

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Faith View → Movements View →

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