What are the Mormon Trails?
What are the Mormon Trails?
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. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
What was the role of Mormons in westward expansion?
Brigham Young (Mormon leader) sent advance ‘pioneers’ ahead, to plant crops, build houses, set up staging posts for the travellers. The journey – the Mormons faced a journey of 2,250km, which made them ‘weary and footsore’. They endured ‘stormy weather’ in winter and ‘excessive heat’ in summer.
Who were the Mormons westward expansion?
The Mormon pioneers were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah.
Where did Mormon Trail begin?
November 10, 1846Mormon Trail / Established
What was life like on the Mormon Trail?
The journey along the Mormon Trail (as it later became known) was treacherous, and many pioneers were met with disaster. Rattlesnakes, blizzards, confrontations with Native Americans, and starvation were just a few of the challenges they faced.
When was the Mormon Trail?
Beginning in 1846, thousands of Mormons traversed a route that would later be called the Mormon Trail. Following existing pioneer trails through Iowa, the group established winter quarters in Omaha, Nebraska.
What did the Mormon pioneers do?
During the entire period, emigrants traveled in organized wagon trains and in independent companies. Many people also joined freight wagon trains that were delivering goods to Utah. From 1856 to 1860, handcart companies were organized as a more economical means of travel.
How were the Mormons successfully able to live and settle in the West?
Young declared that the Church owned all land and that everyone had to work together for the community. The Mormons became almost entirely self-sufficient. They built complex irrigation systems to give them access to clean water for drinking and to water their crops.
When did the Mormon pioneers move west?
The period of overland emigration of the Mormon pioneers is generally defined as 1847 through 1868. That is when organized companies traveled to Utah by wagon or handcart. After the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, Latter-day Saint emigrants who traveled to Utah generally came by train.
When did the Mormon Trail start and end?
This journey for these immigrants began in 1846 in Nauvoo, Illinois, and ended in Salt Lake City, Utah.