Mormon Pioneer
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Handcart_Mormon_Pioneers.jpg
The Mormon Pioneers were a westward migration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, beginning in February, 1846, ending with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. They settled in the Great Basin, in what would become Salt Lake City, Utah. The exodus was led by Brigham Young and originated due to the persecution in Nauvoo, Illinois and in neighboring Missouri, where Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an extermination order against all Mormons living in the state. In 1844 Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, had been murdered while in custody in the city of Carthage, Illinois. In 1846, religious tension had reached its peak and mobs burned the Latter-day Saint temple in Nauvoo. For his role as the leader of this modern day exodus, Brigham Young would be called the "Moses of the West." The pioneers traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Great Basin using wagons, handcarts, and, in some cases, hand carrying their belongings. Their trail along the Platte River and over the Sweetwater River became known as the Mormon Trail.
After the initial departure of the Latter-day Saints living in Illinois and Missouri, converts to the church from other areas in the United States and from Europe followed the initial trail to join the main body of the church in Salt Lake City. From the initial settlements around the Salt Lake Valley, groups of Latter-day Saints were sent as far north as Alberta, Canada and as far south as Mexico, settling many communities and cities well-known even today.
In all, nearly 70,000 Mormon pioneers crossed the plains. Because of fatalities, suffering and sacrifices endured by these early Mormon Pioneers, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers many of the graveyards and campsites along the trail to be hallowed ground.
External links
- Mormon Pioneer Story (http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/pioneerstory.htm)
- Trails of Hope: Diaries of the Mormon Pioneers (http://overlandtrails.lib.byu.edu/)