Mormon Trail

The original 1846-1847 Mormon Trail went from Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois to Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. The length of the wagon trail from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City was about 1,300 mile (2,092 km).

Background History
Nauvoo, Illinois from 1839 to 1845 was a gathering place for members of 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 "Winter Quarters" and in 1847 completed the journey to Salt Lake City in Utah Territory, their new gathering place.


 * Winter Quarters Project

Each of the following years until 1869 several areas in Nebraska, Iowa, or Kansas were used as staging areas for the four-month trip on the Mormon Trail across the plains into the Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City. Several sets of new wagon trains or handcart companies came each year to Salt Lake City. By the time the 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. See also Latter-day Saint Emigration and Immigration and Handcart Pioneers.

Other early routes to Utah. In 1846 a group of 43 from Monroe County, Mississippi planned to meet the Nauvoo members on the Mormon Trail. They arrived in Independence, Missouri on 26 May and made their way to the Platte River. Not finding Brigham Young, these Mississippi members mistakenly concluded they had fallen behind the main group, and from there hurried west. Past Chimney Rock in western Nebraska they realized their mistake and agreed to go to Pueblo, Colorado to spend the winter. These Southern members were not able to meet the main group until 3 June 1847 at Laramie, Wyoming. Several served as scouts after joining the main group. The next year a few returned and led about 200 more Mississippians to Utah.

Some pioneers reached Utah via California. A group of over 530 men called the "Mormon Battalion" were recruited off the Mormon Trail into the U.S. Army to help fight the Mexican War 1846-1847. Most of these men left their families at Council Bluffs, Iowa and marched to Fort Leavenworth Kansas, Santa Fe New Mexico, Tucson Arizona, and San Diego and Los Angeles, California where they were honorably dismissed from service. A few of these men participated in the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848.

In 1846 another group led by Samuel Brannan with 237 other Latter-day Saints sailed for six months on the first family passenger ship to California, the Ship Brooklyn, from New York City around Cape Horn to Hawaii to San Francisco. Brannan published the Sutter's Mill gold strike to start the Gold Rush. From California most of these pioneers found their way to Utah as individuals or in small groups. This included former soldiers hoping to reunite with the families they last saw in Iowa.

 Histories
 * Andrew Jensen. Day by day with the Utah pioneers, 1847 : a chronological record of the trek across the plains ; a revision of the account published April 6, 1897 to July 24, 1897 in the Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City,Utah: Salt Lake Tribune, 1934. FHL Digital Images
 * Richard E. Bennett. We'll find the place : the Mormon exodus, 1846-1848. Salt Lake City,Utah: Deseret Book, 1997. FHL 978 H2b
 * Howard R. Driggs. Mormon Trail: Pathway of Pioneers Who Made the Deserts Blossom. New York, New York: Amerian Pioneer Trail, 1947. FHL 979.2 A1 no. 30
 * William E. Hill.  The Mormon Trail: Yesterday and Today. Logan, Utah: Utah State University press, 1996. FHL 978 H2h
 * Preston Nibley.  Exodus to Greatness: the Story of the Mormon Migration. Salt Lake City, Utah: deseret Book,1947. FHL 289.309 N512e
 * Wallace Stegner. The Gathering to Zion: the Story of the Mormon Trail. Salt Lake City,Utah: Westwater Press, 1981
 * Erick Wadsworth.  The Last Outfitting Station - the Missouri River. 1864 to 1866: Wyoming, NT and the Nebraska City Cut-Off Trail. Trail Publishing, 2019.
 * Stanley B. Kimball and Violet T. Kimball. Villages on Wheels. A Social History of the Gathering to Zion. Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Koffard Books, 2011.
 * Tom Rea. Devil's Gate : owning the land, owning the story. Norman, Oklahoma : University of Oklahoma Press, c2006. FHL 978.793 H2r

Main Route
The Mormon Trail usually followed the north side of the North Platte River west through Nebraska and Wyoming to follow the Sweetwater River farther west. The trail went over South Pass, then worked its way through the mountains. Pioneers crossed the Green River at Lombard Ferry, headed for Fort Bridger, and forded the Bear River before reaching. Their last camp on the trail was often near the Old Fort at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City. The Mormon Trail overlapped parts of the Oregon Trail and California Trail which normally stayed on the south side of the North Platte River. The Oregon Trail took a more northerly route after the Green River into Idaho and Oregon. The California Trail continued west from Salt Lake City (or from the Oregon Trail at Fort Hall, Idaho) into Nevada and California. The exact route of the Mormon Trail varied over the years. Most often it passed through:
 * Stanley B. Kimball. The Mormon Pioneer Trail:MTA 1997 Official Guide. Salt Lake City,Utah: Mormon Trails Association, 1997. FHL 289.373 H2k 1997
 * Stanley B. Kimball. Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and other Great Western Trails. Urbnba,Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1988. FHL 973 E6ks
 * William Clayton.The Latter-day Saints' emigrants' guide : being a table of distances ... from Council Bluffs to the valley of the Great Salt Lake ... St. Louis, MO.: Republication Stean Press, Chambers & Knapp, 1848. reprint. Daughtesr of Utah Pioneers, 1962? FHL 289.3 A1 no. 12


 * Iowa (in later years sometimes Kansas) [[Image:Sites Along the Mormon Trail.png|thumb]]
 * Nebraska
 * Wyoming
 * Utah

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints provides an interactive website titled the Pioneer Story, which includes an interactive map of the historic trail, allowing you to search the trail from the beginning or allowing one to go to a specific location along the trail. A variety of personal accounts of some of the pioneers are included with each of the stops along the trek west from Nauvoo, Ilinois to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Connecting migration routes. The Mormon Trail linked to other migration routes at each end. The migration pathways connected at the east end included:


 * Mississippi River
 * Missouri River
 * California Trail 1841 from western Missouri to central California overlapped the Mormon Trail most of the way to Utah
 * Oregon Trail 1843 from western Missouri to the Willamette Valley of Oregon overlapped the Mormon Trail to the Green River (Wyoming) area
 * Mormon Trail 1846-1847 from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah
 * Union Pacific Railroad 1865 from Omaha, Nebraska and extending its way slowly west to Ogden, Utah in 1869

The migration pathways connected at the west end of the Mormon Trail included:


 * western leg of the California Trail 1846 from western Missouri to Sacramento, California
 * Mormon Trail 1846-1847 from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah
 * Mormon Trail to Southern California 1848 from Salt Lake City, Utah to Cedar City to Las Vegas to Los Angeles, California
 * Union Pacific Railroad 1869 from Ogden, Utah to Omaha, Nebraska
 * Central Pacific Railroad 1869 from Ogden, Utah to Sacramento, California
 * Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 1889 Ogden, Utah to Denver, Colorado

Modern parallels. The modern roads that roughly match the Mormon Trail from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah are listed in an online edition of a National Park Service publication about the Mormon Trail:


 * National Park Service - Trail Map, Brochure and Auto Tour Interpretive Guides


 * Auto Tour Route - Illinois


 * Auto Tour Route - Iowa
 * Montrose Landing- National Park Service
 * Garden Grove - National Park Service
 * Mount Pisgah - National Park Service


 * Auto Tour Route - Nebraska
 * Winter Quarters - National Park Service


 * Auto Tour Route - Wyoming
 * Fort Bridger - National Park Service


 * Auto Tour Route - Utah

Records and Lists of Pioneers
No complete list of pioneer settlers who travelled the Mormon Trail is known to exist. However, a variety of sources exist which can be used to identify most of them.

Pioneer Databases


 * Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel 1847-1868 lists birth, death, age, pioneer company, and sources. It is the most comprehensive listing available of individuals and companies that traveled the Mormon Trail by the Church History Library.
 * Early Latter-day Saints - A Mormon Trail Pioneer Database BMD, parents, spouses, and family groups by Nauvoo Land and Records Office and Pioneer Research Group
 * Family History Research. A Guide to Overland Pioneer Documents. Oregon-California Trails Association
 * Paper Trail. A Guide to Overland Pioneer Names & Documents. Oregon- California Trails Association

Winter Quarters
 * Lyndon W. Cook. Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852. Orem,UTah: center for Research of Mormon Origins, 1990. FHL 977.771 V2c
 * Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp. Kanesville Conditions. Ogden,Utah:M.S. Hyde, 1997. FHL 977.771 B38h
 * Susan Easton Black. The Best of the Frontier Guardian. Provo,Utah: BYU Studies, 2009. FHL 977.771 B38b

Perpetual Emigration Fund. Pioneers who received financial assistance immigrating to Utah were expected to repay their debt. In 1877 a list of persons who still owed money was created. For details see the Perpetual Emigration Fund Wiki page.
 *  Names of Persons and Sureties Indebted to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund from 1850 to 1877 Inclusive. Salt Lake City: Job Printing Office, 1877

Censuses also can be used to identify pioneers who traveled the Mormon Trail:


 * (actually 1851 for Utah)
 * Registry of names of persons residing in the various wards as to bishop's reports, 1852-1853 (Typescript). WorldCat entry..
 * Bryan Lee Dilts, 1856 Utah census index : an every-name index (Salt Lake City, UT : Index Pub., 1983). WorldCat entry..

Local and county histories and biographies in Utah also may help identify additional pioneers. For example:


 * Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah: comprising photographs, genealogies, biographies (Salt Lake City, Utah : Utah Pioneers Book, 1913). Digical version Vol 1 Pt 1 FamilySearch Digital Library and Vol 1 Pt 2 FamilySearch Digital Library.
 * Andrew Jensen. ''Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 volumes. Salt Lake City, 1901-1936. reprint Salt Lake City, Western Epics, 1971. Digital Images.
 * International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City, Utah : International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, c1998). WorldCat entry..
 * Biographical record of Salt Lake City and vicinity : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present (Chicago, Illinois : National Historical Record, 1902). WorldCat entry..
 * E. Merrell Gomm. contributed by. Pioneer men of Utah Territory : pioneer men who came to Utah Territory between July 22, 1847 and May 10, 1869. Manuscript. 1997 sesquicentennial projoct National Society Sons of Utah Pioneers. FHL Digital images
 * Utah Pioneer Biographies. 44 volumes. (1935-1944) FHL 979.2 D3v
 * Index to Utah Pioneer Biographies. Salt Lake City,Utah: Family History Library, 2015. FHL 979.2 D3u index
 * Utah Pioneer Biographies - Surnames by Volume
 * Utah. Semi-centennial Commission.The book of the pioneers who arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847 : including the names, ages, autographs and location of all the survivors who could be found on July 24, 1847, "the year of the Jubilee!" Salt Lake City, Utah: Geo. Q Connon & Sons Co., 1897?

Utah State Historical Society 
 * Finding Aid MSS B 289, Work Progress Administration (Utah Section) Biographical Sketches, Ca. 1930-1941.
 * Pioneer Personal History Questionnaires Digital Collections -Searchable Images

Utah State Archives 
 * Book of the Pioneers Questionnaires - Digital Images

Some Mormon Trail pioneers also settled in Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, or California. Local histories and biographies from those places may also include some pioneers to travelled the Mormon Trail.

Settlers along the trail. Only a tiny fraction of pioneers settled along the Mormon Trail before reaching Salt Lake City, mostly in Iowa or the Omaha area. Only a few may have stayed three to five years before continuing to Utah. It was uncommon to remain much longer.

1848 List of Church Leader in Camps along the Mormon Trail. FS Library film 007794

Deaths along the trail. Mormon pioneer companies experienced less than half the mortality rate on the trail compared to the Oregon Trail or California Trail. One of the better indexes about this is:


 * Bashore, Melvin L. [Database of] Mormon Trail Deaths 1847–1868. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historical Dept., 1998-. Each entry includes the person’s full name, sex, age, death date, death place, source and notes. The Church History Library and Archives staff will search the current database for you.

Written Accounts of the Journey descriptions are found in order by year and pioneer company in Melvin L. Bashore, and Linda L. Haslam, ''Mormon Pioneer Companies Crossing the Plains 1847–1868. Narratives. 3rd rev. ed.'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historical Dept., 1990). WorldCat entry. .
 * Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869. BYU Harold B. Lee Library
 * Carol Cornwall Madsen, comp. Journey to Zion : voices from the Mormon Trail. Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book, c1997. FHL 978 H2ma
 * Will Bagley, ed. The pioneer camp of the Saints : the 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail journals of Thomas Bullock. Spokane, Washington : Arthur H. Clark, 1997. FHL 289.373 H2b v. 1