They were a people who felt called by God, chosen to create a New Jerusalem. It was fitting, then, that in order to realize the dream, the Mormons endured a 1,300-mile journey of Biblical proportions.
Time to Go
Mormons had been considering moving west -- beyond the borders of the United States -- since before Joseph Smith's 1844 murder, but his assassination made it clear that the period of relative calm the Mormon faithful had enjoyed in Nauvoo, Illinois, was coming to an end. In 1845 mob violence against the Mormon community increased, and the Illinois legislature revoked the city's charter.
Exodus, Part One
Brigham Young, who was emerging as the church's new leader, conducted a census that fall, counting more than 3,000 families and some 2,500 wagons. He then divided church members into smaller administrative groups of tens, fifties, and hundreds (following the pattern described in the Old Testament when, after crossing the Red Sea dry-shod, the Jews went through the wilderness searching for the Promised Land). Appropriately, Young named the collective the Camp of Israel. Although Young hoped to begin the migration in spring 1846, local hostility forced the Mormons' hand. The first wave of about 3,000 people began to leave Nauvoo in early February, and their suffering was intense. They crossed the frozen Mississippi River -- dry-shod. In one evening on the trek nine babies were born, their parents barely able to provide any shelter from the elements. Wagons collapsed, people died from exposure, and it took 131 days for the Mormon convoy to travel 310 miles to relative safety on the banks of the Missouri, where the river divided Nebraska and Iowa. Still, church members kept the faith throughout their tribulations. William Clayton, who had been ordered to travel ahead of his pregnant wife, was so overjoyed to learn of his son's birth that he wrote a hymn, "Come, Come, Ye Saints," that has become a Mormon standard. Its hopeful last line: "All is well! All is well!"
