Last updated: June 13, 2022
Article
Mormon Pioneer Trail Timeline
Quotations from contemporary diaries and letters describe those years.
February 4, 1846
First wagons leave Nauvoo and cross the Mississippi River.
"The great severity of the weather, and . . . the difficulty of crossing the river during many days of running ice, all combined to delay our departure, though for several days the bridge of ice across the Mississippi greatly facilitated the crossing . . . "
—Brigham Young, February 28, 1846
April 24, 1846
Garden Grove, the halfway point across Iowa, is reached. This was one of several semi-permanent camps set up for the use of later emigrants.
June 14, 1846
Brigham Young arrives at the banks of the Missouri River.
September 1846
Winter Quarters is set up on the Nebraska shore of the Missouri River. Approximately 4,000 people spent the winter here.
November 1846
Father Pierre de Smet, a Jesuit missionary, visits with the Mormons in Winter Quarters and provides information about the Great Basin area.
April 5, 1847
The first group, led by Brigham Young, leaves Winter Quarters.
"I walked some this afternoon in company with Orson Pratt and suggested to him the idea of fixing a set of wooden cog wheels to the hub of a wagon wheel, in such order as to tell the exact number of miles we travel each day."
—William Clayton, April 19, 1847
May 26, 1847
Emigrants pass Chimney Rock.
"In advance of us, at a great distance can be seen the outlines of mountains, loftier than any we have yet seen . . . their summits . . . covered with snow."
—Horace Whitney Jane, June 23, 1847
June 27, 1847
Mormons cross South Pass, the Continental Divide.
". . . and beholding in a moment such an extensive scenery open before us, we could not refrain from a shout of joy which almost involuntarily escaped from our lips the moment this grand and lovely scenery was within our view."
—Orson Pratt, July 21, 1847
July 24, 1847
Brigham Young arrives in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.