Mormon pioneers

At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory comprising present-day Utah was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas.

The well-organized wagon train migration began in earnest in April 1847, and the period (including the flight from Missouri in 1838 to Nauvoo), known as the Mormon Exodus is, by convention among social scientists, traditionally assumed to have ended with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869.

The wary Young insisted the Mormons should settle in a location no other colonizers wanted, and felt the Salt Lake Valley met that requirement, but would provide the Saints with many advantages as well.

[2] The U.S. Army captured Santa Fe de Nuevo México and the colonized parts of Alta California in late 1846, but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo would not cede northern Mexico to the United States until February, 1848.

In late February, plans were made to gather portable boats, maps, scientific instruments, farm implements and seeds.

Given the needs of the large volume of Saints who would travel west, church leaders decided to avoid potential conflicts over grazing rights, water access and campsites.

The train contained 73 wagons, one cannon, 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, 19 cows, 17 dogs and some chickens, and carried enough supplies to fully provision the group for one year.

Journal records show that Young actively managed the journey, supervising details and occasionally giving reprimands when evening and Sunday recreation became rowdy or group members failed to complete their tasks.

William Clayton was appointed company scribe and was expected to record an accurate description of their journey and the distance they traveled each day.

While much time was spent on traditional activities such as cooking, sewing, and tending children, several women served as scribes and diary keepers.

While at Fort Laramie, the vanguard company was joined by members of the Mormon Battalion who had been excused from service due to illness and sent to winter in Pueblo, Colorado.

Seizing the opportunity to both help future travelers and increase the cash available to the migration, nine men under the direction of Thomas Grover were left behind to construct and operate a ferry at that location.

He told Young that local Indians raised good crops, including corn and pumpkins, but that there was ever-present danger of frost.

Shortly after leaving Fort Bridger, the group met trapper Miles Goodyear, who owned a trading post at the mouth of the Weber River.

The small sick detachment lagged behind the larger group, and a scouting division was created to move ahead on the designated route.

Pratt wrote: ...we could not refrain from a shout of joy, which almost involuntarily escaped from our lips the moment this grand and lovely scenery was within our view.

On July 28, Young established a location for the future Salt Lake Temple and presented a city plan to the larger group for their approval.

The pioneers traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Great Basin using mainly large farm wagons, handcarts, and, in some cases, personally carrying their belongings.

As the oxen weakened under the strain, wagons were lightened by discarding prized possessions, including book collections, family china, and furniture.

In 1847, just east of the Rocky Mountains, the Kimball family dug a large hole, wrapped their piano in buffalo skins and carefully buried it.

[8] Several later companies were largely made up of people with fewer resources, who pulled or pushed handcarts (similar to wheelbarrows) holding all of their provisions and personal belongings.

Leaving Iowa in July 1856, they did not reach Utah until November, suffering many deaths due to winter weather and the lack of adequate supplies.

In November 1845, Samuel Brannan, newspaperman and small-scale publisher of the Mormon paper The Prophet (later the New York Messenger), was directed by church elders to charter a ship that would carry its passengers away from the eastern United States to California, which was then part of Mexico.

Brannan negotiated a fare of $75 for adults and half-fare for children with the Captain Abel W. Richardson, master and a principal owner of the ship Brooklyn.

Augusta Joyce Crocheron, a passenger on the ship Brooklyn, described the voyage: As for the pleasure of the trip, we met disappointment, for we once lay becalmed in the tropics, and at another time we were "hatched below" during a terrific storm.

At that time the LDS Church was urging new members to gather to Utah, which led these early converts to make emigration plans.

While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed in all directions.

Church members eventually headed south into present-day Arizona and Mexico, west into California, north into Idaho and Canada, and east into Wyoming, settling many communities in those areas.

[18] Ute chief Wakara suggested the pioneers instead move into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah, where they established the community of Manti.

In 1855, efforts to subdue and evangelize to local Native people led to outposts in Fort Lemhi on Idaho's Salmon River, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central of present-day Utah.