podcast transcript
In the mid-19th century, thousands of followers of the new religion abandoned their homes, crossed rivers, endured harsh winters, and traveled thousands of miles through uncertain wilderness.
They weren’t looking for gold, land or adventure. They were trying to preserve a community that had been driven from place to place by suspicion, violence and fear.
It became one of the most important religious events in American history.
Learn more about the Mormon migration in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormonism, was founded by Joseph Smith in 1833. Book of Mormon.
Smith claimed that the book was a translation he completed after an angel came to him and showed him the gold plates. The book centers around pre-Columbian Hebrew settlement in America. Christ visited this settlement after his crucifixion, and his disciples built a church there.
According to the book, over the next few centuries the established Church was destroyed in a war between two tribes: the Nephites and the Lamanites. Despite this destruction, one of the Nephite members succeeded in burying the gold plates depicting the history of his people.
The gold plates, said to have been buried on a hillside in upstate New York, were eventually to be recovered and used to rebuild the Church of Christ in America.
Book of Mormon Many believers were drawn to Smith, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 1834. As the Church grew, people moved closer to the prophet. They believed they would build a Mormon city called New Zion that would be a spiritual heaven on earth.
Smith argued that the new Zion would be located on what was then the western frontier of Missouri. This led many Mormons to move to and around Missouri and help prepare cities.
Smith and his fellow church leaders were initially based in New York but moved to Missouri, settling first in Kirtland, Ohio, and then in Missouri.
The newly discovered Mormon population in the area gave many existing residents pause. Many people viewed the newcomers as an unorthodox religious group with clan-like tendencies and customs that deviated from acceptable religious norms.
On October 30, 1838, during violent clashes between Mormon settlers and opponents in Missouri, about 200 armed men attacked the Mormon settlement at Haun’s Mill, where many residents had gathered for protection.
The attackers killed 17 Mormons and wounded more than a dozen. The massacre occurred shortly after Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an order to expel Mormons from the state.
Smith was arrested and convicted of treason in 1838. He was sentenced to death, but Smith and his fellow Mormons escaped to Illinois before the treason charge could be carried out.
Mormons established a new settlement in Illinois known as Nauvoo. Located next to the Mississippi River, this settlement quickly became a popular destination for Mormons.
Thousands began moving into the city, and the population reached 20,000, briefly surpassing that of Chicago. A huge temple began to be built.
Within the city, Smith was the undisputed leader, controlling both political and spiritual life. By creating a Mormon militia, he was able to make the city largely independent from the rest of Illinois and give it great political power and authority.
The Mormon population also voted as a unit and trained openly with the militia, raising concerns among the non-Mormon population. These fears grew after Smith announced his intention to run for president.
In 1844, an anti-Mormon newspaper was founded to campaign against Smith and the Mormons. The press began reporting on the Mormons and Smith, hoping to tarnish their image and reduce their political influence. They mainly focused on the practice of polygamy, which Smith personally approved.
Smith destroyed the newspaper but did not escape without consequence. He was arrested in 1844 and charged with treason. He was killed when an anti-Mormon mob attacked the prison in June of that year.
As is often the case when religious leaders are murdered, Smith became more powerful through his death. The church portrayed the prophet as a martyr, giving the Mormons a successor. However, as hatred against the Mormons continued, the Mormons were driven out of Illinois in 1846.
This group was led by Brigham Young, a new prophet chosen by his fellow Mormons to lead. Young joined the Church in 1832. After converting to the faith, Young spent his time traveling and preaching. Because of his devotion to the Church, Smith named him one of the Twelve Apostles, senior leaders of the Church.
As mob violence continued to escalate and Nauvoo’s city charter was canceled, Young and the other Apostles had to quickly drive the Mormons out of Illinois. They began considering different options for where to move, including Canada, California, and Texas.
However, they ultimately decided to move to the Great Salt Lake Valley in what is today Utah. To build a new Zion, a large space was needed, and the location was better because they wanted isolation where they could freely practice their faith without interference.
Mormons began selling their homes and farms to purchase horses, cattle, and wagons for their travels. Young determined that approximately 3,000 families and 2,500 wagons would make the journey to their new homes.
Young used a pattern found in the Old Testament when the Jews crossed the Red Sea, dividing the migrants into smaller groups. These immigrants were named the Collective of Israel in his honor.
The Mormon migration was scheduled to begin in the spring of 1846, but began two months earlier, in February. The reason I left early was because my relationship with the locals was too strained to stay any longer.
The first group to escape from Nauvoo consisted of approximately 1,600 men. This initial group was dispatched early to establish temporary living quarters in eastern Iowa.
Acting as an advance party, these initial contingents focused on finding suitable campsites and building or restoring bridges and roads to facilitate passage for subsequent travelers. Moreover, they were responsible for setting up camps, planting crops, and building wells to sustain the rest of the migration.
The advance party eventually stopped in Omaha, Nebraska. The Mormons arrived there in June 1846. This area became known as the “Winter Quarters.”
This setup allowed the remaining travelers to come together for the next stage of their journey. This level of organization has proven beneficial to subsequent parties, including young people, the elderly, the sick and the injured, making arrival on site much easier.
But despite careful planning, staying in Winter Quarters wasn’t easy. Many migrants suffered from poor living conditions and food shortages. With the terrible winter conditions of late 1846 and early 1847, many members fell ill with scurvy or malaria. More than 600 people died before spring.
During the second part of the week, Young led an advance party of 25 wagons. The goal was to determine the most effective route across the Great Plains and mark the way for the rest of the group.
Because they feared interaction with non-Mormon travelers, they wanted to create a new route instead of the more commonly traveled Oregon Trail. This road became known as the “Mormon Road.”
During the widespread exodus, approximately 12,000 to 15,000 Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo and surrounding settlements.
The route they chose was much more hostile than the well-known Oregon Trail. The main difference was that the Mormons chose to cross the desert, which presented far more danger than the pleasant valleys their predecessors had chosen.
They were also warned not to settle in modern-day Utah. Young and other Mormons were informed that it would be difficult to begin farming due to desert conditions and hostile Native American tribes living in the area.
However, Young was drawn to the lack of population and ignored the danger. Moreover, because the number of nearby tribes was small, they were not considered a major threat.
Another reason this area was desirable was because the nearby mountain ranges contained freshwater springs that, when properly established, were perfect for irrigating farmland.
This decision meant that the group had to remain extremely organized. The leader of each group was responsible for recording and maintaining travel times to ensure that their fellow Mormons could travel as efficiently as possible.
Brigham Young and his initial group stopped on July 24, 1847, after a 111-day journey. When Young reached the Great Salt Lake Valley, he stopped, looked around, and decided it would be the perfect place to settle.
After the Salt Lake Valley was designated for settlement, the Mormons set out to build a new community. They dammed the valley, irrigated the land, planted crops, built new homes, and fortified the area.
In their new settlements, the Mormons were relatively safe from outside persecution and could live their lives and practice their religion without fear. By the end of the century, about 100 Mormon settlements had been established in the Salt Lake Valley.
When Mormons first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the area was still considered part of Mexico. However, during the Mexican-American War in 1848, the land was ceded to the United States.
In 1849, Young, seeing an opportunity, proposed to the U.S. government the creation of a new state called Desert. Young’s proposed state was massive, encompassing all of modern-day Utah, most of Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, California, and parts of Arizona.
Young thought that by establishing the region as a new state, he could use state government to protect their religious beliefs. Unfortunately for Young, the territory was deemed too large to meet the population requirements for admission to the Union.
As a consolation, the U.S. government established the Utah Territory in 1850, and Young was appointed its first governor. Young continued to submit bids to the U.S. government to make Utah a state, but his proposals were repeatedly rejected for not meeting the requirements.
The main reason Utah was denied statehood was because of the religious practices of the Mormons, as other states joined the union without meeting population requirements. Mormonism was foreign to outsiders, who saw their group as a dangerous voting bloc.
Another major reason why state proposals were rejected was the practice of polygamy. The majority of the American population was uncomfortable with this practice and considered it a sin.
Discomfort with Mormons in the United States at the time led to a war known as the Utah War in 1857 and 1858, in which the U.S. government sent troops to the area to establish federal control.
The conflict left about 150 people dead, the majority of them civilians, in the Mountain Meadows massacre. About 120 non-Mormons on a California-bound wagon train were killed by Mormon militia.
By the late 1840s, thousands of people had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Migration continued in the 1850s and 1860s. According to the National Park Service, approximately 70,000 Mormon pioneers traveled overland to the Great Salt Lake Valley from 1847 until the opening of the transcontinental railroad in Utah in 1869.
Utah eventually became a state in 1896. This change occurred only after Mormon leaders abandoned the practice of polygamy. Today the church claims membership among about 60 percent of Utah’s population, and independent polls show the figure is closer to 40 percent.
Mormon migration in the 1840s was more than a wagon journey. It was the relocation of an entire religious community and the culmination of a major conflict in the United States over religious freedom and political authority.
It also marked the beginning of a new struggle over land and power in the Great Basin. It preserved the Latter-day Saint movement, reshaped western settlement, and left a legacy that is central to the identity of Utah and the Mormon Church today.
