The Mormon Trail: A Journey through Iowa
(Editors note:
This excerpt comes from the book entitled Iowa Past to Present by Dorothy
A. Schwieder, Thomas Morain and Lynn Nielsen.)
The Mormon church was founded in New York in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who believed that God had called him to establish a holy city, Zion. The Mormons were driven from place to place until they settled In Nauvoo, Illinois, across the river from southeast Iowa.
[Fleeing violence and religious persecution] the first Mormon wagons crossed the ice of the Mississippi River into Iowa in Feb. 1846. The main body of Mormons followed in March. They were very well organized. The first groups made bridges, marked roads, dug wells for later wagons and planted fields for the last groups to harvest. They established camps where weary travelers could rest and get supplies. Garden Grove in Decatur County and Mt. Pisgah in Union County were important stopping sites along the Mormon Trail.
When they reached the Missouri River, the Mormons made camp and built the town of Kanesville, which later became Council Bluffs. Across the river they set up winter quarters. From there, they prepared to make the long trip across the Great Plains to the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
As many as 30,000 Mormons set out on the Mormon Trail. Many died from hunger and sickness, but thousands followed their leaders to their new home in the west.
Eight years after the first group reached the Salt Lake Valley (in 1855), another 1,300 Mormon converts passed through Iowa. They traveled between New York City and Iowa City by rail. From Iowa City to Salt Lake City they walked, pulled handcarts loaded with their few goods.
Joseph Smith's son, also named Joseph Smith, who became leader of the sect of Mormonism known as The Reorganized Latter Day Saints, established the town of Lamoni in southern Iowa and founded Graceland College in 1895.