The Mormon Church was organized by Joseph Smith in 1830 in the town of Fayette, New York. After moving to Ohio and Missouri, the church settled in Nauvoo, Illinois where, between 1839 and 1846, the Mormon citizens built an attractive and economically successful community. Political and religious pressure from their neighbors, however, forced them to leave Illinois in 1846.
This time they decided to found a new community far to the West, near the Great Salt Lake. After assembling in their Winter Quarters, in what is now Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs Iowa, they set out on the long trail to Salt Lake. A small group, led by Brigham Young, made the trek in 1847. About 30,000 others followed over the next twenty years.
The Mormon trail followed the North banks of the Platte and North Platte Rivers, unlike the Oregon Trail which followed the South banks. West of Fort Laramie, however, the two trails united and followed the same track until the Mormon Trail turned southwestward toward the Great Salt Lake.
The early Mormon pioneers were mindful of those that would follow them on the trail to Utah. They planted crops and built homes near the Salt Lake, and traveled back along the trail to assist those that would follow them. They also made improvements to the trail, including the Mormon Ferry across the North Platte River near the present day town of Casper, Wyoming.
