Mormon Trail: Difference between revisions

Nauvoo, Illinois from 1839 to 1845 was a gathering place for members of [http://lds.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] (sometimes called "Mormons"). In 1846 hostile neighbors forced an exodus of the main group out of Nauvoo across Iowa to the area near where Omaha, Nebraska would eventually be built. Most Mormon pioneers stayed there in "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Quarters_%28North_Omaha,_Nebraska%29 Winter Quarters]" and in 1847 completed the journey to Salt Lake City in Utah Territory, their new gathering place.<ref name="PioSto">"The Pioneer Story : The Mormon Pioneer Trail" in ''The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'' at http://lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/pioneerstory.htm (accessed 8 July 2011).</ref>  

Each of the following years until 1869 several areas in [[Nebraska, United States Genealogy|Nebraska]], [[Iowa, United States Genealogy|Iowa]], or [[Kansas, United States Genealogy|Kansas]] were used as staging areas for the four-month trip on the Mormon Trail across the plains into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains Rocky Mountains] to Salt Lake City. Several sets of new [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_trains wagon trains] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handcart_company handcart companies] came each year to Salt Lake City. By the time the [[First Transcontinental Railroad|transcontinental railroad]] was completed to Utah in 1869 about 70,000 pioneers had walked, pulled a handcart, or ridden a wagon or carriage to [[Utah Genealogy|Utah]].<ref name="PioSto" /> See also [[LDS Emigration and Immigration|LDS Emigration and Immigration]] and [[Handcart Pioneers|Handcart Pioneers]].<br>  

Some pioneers reached [[Utah, United States Genealogy|Utah]] via [[California, United States Genealogy|California]]. A group of over 530 men called the "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Battalion Mormon Battalion]" were recruited off the Mormon Trail into the U.S. Army to help fight the [[Mexican War, 1846 to 1848|Mexican War 1846-1847]]. Most of these men left their families at Council Bluffs, Iowa and marched to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Leavenworth,_Kansas Fort Leavenworth Kansas], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico Santa Fe New Mexico], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucson,_Arizona Tucson Arizona], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego,_California San Diego] and [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles, California]] where they were honorably dismissed from service. A few of these men participated in the discovery of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush gold at Sutter's Mill] in 1848.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Mormon Battalion" in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Battalion (accessed 9 July 2011).</ref> <br>  

== Main Route  ==