The Mormon Pioneers
Since it was founded in 1830, members of the LDS church, known commonly as Mormons, were often faced harsh treatment by their neighbors due to their beliefs. The members were forced time and time again out of their settlements in multiple states, including Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, until it was decided to move and settle in the west. After the death of their prophet Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844, his successor Brigham Young was directed to call for the members to leave their homes in their settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois, and head west to the frontier into what was then a territory of Mexico. They began to leave in February and established the temporary community of Winter Quarters in Nebraska.
Since the saints left Nauvoo rather quickly, and with limited supplies, they decided to create the encampments of Winter Quarters in Nebraska, and Council Bluffs in Iowa. Thomas L. Kane, an influential non-Mormon, helped the church receive permission from the federal government to occupy Indian lands along the Missouri in exchange for promising to enlist 500 men into the Army to fight in the war with Mexico (Later known as the Mormon Battalion). The Latter-day Saints traded actively with the local Native American tribes and with trading settlements in northern Nebraska and Iowa. Even with this trade, the lack of fresh vegetables in the diets of these settlers often left them susceptible to scurvy. Several other illnesses plagued the camps, including tuberculosis and malaria. After a little more than a year, Brigham Young sent the first advance party to break the trail to the Rockies in April 1847.
The vanguard party left Winter Quarters on April 5, 1847 with orders to break the trail for the main group, gather information concerning water and the local Native American tribes, and eventually select the location where the later parties would gather in the Great Basin. The company consisted of 143 men, including three blacks, three women, and two children. The train consisted of 73 wagons, draft animals, and livestock. The group was provisioned with enough supplies for one year. The party arrived at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, on June 1, where they were joined by members of the Mormon Battalion who had been relieved of duty due to sickness, as well as a group of saints from Mississippi. They decided to take the better established Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger. Along the trail, Brigham Young met legendary mountain man Jim Bridger, with whom he discussed possible routes into the Salt Lake Valley, and about the possibility of establishing viable settlements in the Great Basin. The company ferried across the Green River and arrived at Fort Bridger on July 7, where they were joined by twelve more members of the Mormon Battalion who were granted leave due to illness.
After arriving at Fort Bridger, Brigham Young had a choice to make regarding the trail to take into the Great Basin. He decided upon the trail that the Donner-Reed party had used while journeying to California the year before. Along the trail, the party decided to split into three groups. A small scouting party was sent ahead of the main detachment, while a sick group lagged behind with several of the men who were suffering with fevers generally thought to have been brought on by wood ticks, including Brigham Young himself.
The first two members of the scouting party, Erastus Snow and Orson Pratt, entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 21, 1847. On July 23, Orson Pratt dedicated the land for the use of the Latter-Day Saints. On July 24, Brigham Young saw the valley for the first time from the sick wagon, and stood and declared the famous words, “This is the right place. Drive on." This day would later become of the date of the Pioneer Day holiday celebrated in Utah. The company quickly began to settle the valley and build what would become Salt Lake City, Utah, at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, and to plant the first crops of potatoes and turnips. Brigham Young established the future building site of the Salt Lake Temple, and afterwards promptly returned to Winter Quarters to begin the large scale migration of the Nauvoo saints into the Salt Lake Valley.
As the settlement began to spring up, Brigham Young wasted no time returning back to the main body of pioneers in Nebraska and Iowa. The next year, he led thousands more of the saints over the Rockies to the Salt Lake Valley, and by the year 1852, more than 16,000 members had congregated in the valley, traveling by wagon and by handcart. By 1869, 80,000 saints had made the trek to the valley.
After winning the war with Mexico, the United States took the area the church had settled and declared it the Territory of Utah. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore chose Brigham Young to be the first territorial governor of Utah. While settlement of the valley went very well during this time, relations between the church leadership and the federal government became increasingly strained over the issue of polygamy, which the church had publicly sanctioned in violation of federal law. Young himself had 20 wives at the time. In 1857, President James Buchanan removed Young as territorial governor and sent 2500 federal troops to install a non-LDS governor. After a conflict known as the Utah War, in which no actual battles were fought, Brigham Young yielded control of the territory and Alfred Cummings assumed control of the territory on April 12, 1858.
One of the most famous events in the history of the Utah territory occurred on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah. This was the day when the final spike was driven on the First Transcontinental Railroad in Promontory, Utah. This fairly well signaled the end of the pioneer era in Utah, as people began to pour into Utah seeking opportunities in many different industries that Utah had to offer.