Mormon Trail

The Mormon Trail is the thirteen hundred-mile (two thousand and ninety-two kilometer) route that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) travel from 1846 to 1868.

Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.

The Mormon Trail extends from Nauvoo, Illinois, which was the principal settlement of the Latter Day Saints from 1839 to 1846, to Salt Lake City, Utah, which is settled by Brigham Young and his followers beginning in 1847.

From Council Bluffs, Iowa to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, the trail follows much the same route as the Oregon Trail and the California Trail; these trails are collectively known as the Emigrant Trail.

The Mormon pioneer run begins in 1846, when Young and his followers are driven from Nauvoo.

After leaving, they aim to establish a new home for the church in the Great Basin and cross Iowa.

Along their way, some are assigned to establish settlements and to plant and harvest crops for later emigrants.

During the winter of 1846–47, the emigrants winter n Iowa, other nearby states, and the unorganized territory that will later become Nebraska, with the largest group residing in Winter Quarters, Nebraska.

In the spring of 1847, Young leads the vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley, which is at this time outside the boundaries of the United States and will later become Utah.

During the first few years, the emigrants are mostly former occupants of Nauvoo who are following Young to Utah

Later, the emigrants increasingly comprise converts from the British Isles and Europe.

The trail is used for more than twenty years, until the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Among the emigrants are the Mormon handcart pioneers of 1856–60.

Two of the handcart companies, led by James G. Willie and Edward Martin, meet disaster on the trail when they depart late and are caught by heavy snowstorms in Wyoming.

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