The Mormon Migration

• The Mormon migration was one of the most well-planned and well-executed migrations of the American West
• The Mormons were a religious group that believed in a new form of Christianity
• The Mormons believed that their founder Joseph Smith had discovered golden plates in the USA that changed Christian traditions dramatically
• Other Christians persecuted the Mormons, particularly because of the Mormon belief in polygamy
• By 1838, the Mormons had fled Missouri and established Nauvoo in Illinois
• In 1845, the Mormons were ordered to leave Illinois after rioters had murdered Joseph Smith
• Brigham Young believed that God had called on the Mormons to take to the Oregon Trail and move to the Salt Lake Valley
• The Salt Lake Valley was a hostile environment where nobody else wanted to live and was outside of US territory
• The Mormons migrated to the Salt Lake Valley between 1846 and 1847
• Reasons for Mormon persecution


  • Belief in polygamy
• Characteristics of Salt Lake Valley

  • Broad and barren plain, hemmed in by mountains, blistering in the burning rays of the mid-summer sun, no waving fields, no swaying forests, no green meadows, seemingly endless waste of sagebrush, paradise of the lizard, the cricket
• Source: 'A description of Salt Lake Valley written by one of the first settlers: "A broad and barren plain hemmed in by mountains, blistering in the burning rays of the mid-summer sun, no waving fields, no swaying forests, no green meadows, but on all sides a seemingly endless waste of sagebrush, the paradise of the lizard, the cricket"'
• Main events of the 1847 migration

  • Brigham Young led an advanced party of around 150 Mormons to scout out the route and prepare it
  • Prepared river crossings and left stores of food along the route
  • Planted crops and vegetables for migrants to harvest
  • Main Mormon wagon train of 1,500 migrants left Illinois in July 1847
  • Main Mormon wagon train reached Salt Lake Valley in August 1847
  • Between 1847 and 1869, 70,000 Mormons made the journey
• The Mormons were a religious group who had faced persecution in the 1830s to the 1840s
• The Mormons migrated to the Salt Lake Valley to start anew and make their own model civilization
• The Mormons prepared their migration in great detail in 1847, learning from the mistakes of the earlier Donner Party
• The first Mormon wagon train of 1,500 migrants arrived at Salt Lake Valley in August 1847
• The Mormon migration was well planned and very successful
• The Mormons succeeded in establishing a city in the inhospitable environment of Salt Lake Valley