Mormon Colonization

In the later part of the 1800s the Mormon pioneers began their great relocation to the west. They trekked 1,400 miles from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake. This mass-Exodus brought about colonization in Utah, Nevada, the southwest corner of Wyoming, the southeast corner of Idaho, southeast Oregon, and a large portion of southern and eastern California.

• Many men, women, and children left the comfort of their homes, family, and friends to head west for a new home.  Their sacrifice was great, many paid the ultimate price, as they traveled the trails which would take them to areas of the unsettled west.  Many suffered from lack of food, clothing, supplies, and unimaginable hardships, and harsh weather conditions.

The women would gather together and help hold blankest to shelter over  women who happened to be giving birth while in a rain storm that pelting the new mother. The men and women a like shared the duties, the work, and caring for one another. The hardship was more than difficult, the weather was a huge factor, the lack of food and supplies were detrimental, the work was arduous, yet through it all they forged together for a new home, a new beginning, new territory that would be the carving out of the western United States of America.  They were men, women, and children that had the courage and fortitude to go where there was nothing but vast emptiness to start and settle a new land.

Many lost loved ones along the way.  Fathers and mothers buried their young children along the way.  Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children of all ages were lost on their trek but their remaining families were dedicated, driven to reach their new unknown community.  We owe a huge debt to these valiant people who tamed the desert, plowed the arid lands, and began to make the west what it has become today.