One of the most interesting, and it may be, remarkable events of our day, is the proposed removal of the Mormons from their city of Nauvoo, across the continent, to the Pacific. They will go, not as ordinary emigrants, but as a distinct people... [Mormonism] has grown as no other sect has in the history of the world, and, so far from dying out, as it was predicted it would, with the death of the Smiths, it has grown more vigorously... Next spring will witness their flitting. The Mormons propose going in bodies as large as can find sustenance, and the broad prairies of the West will be covered with their long processions of men, women, and children, their flocks, [and] their herds."1

After the death of Joseph Smith the Mormon pioneers were forced to leave Nauvoo and their Mormon temple in 1846 during one of the worst winters the area had seen. The first 310 miles from Nauvoo to settlements in western Iowa and Nebraska took them 131 days. Many Mormon pioneers died along the way. It was during this journey that William Clayton wrote the song "Come, Come Ye Saints," after hearing that his wife had delivered a healthy baby boy. The ending words "All is well, all is well!" 2 were an anthem that gave the Mormon pioneers courage on their trek and has come to signify the Mormon migration to the west.

While encamped in Iowa the United States army requested a battalion of Mormons to fight in the Mexican-American War. A group of 600 men, women, and children joined the Army and became known as the Mormon Battalion. The money that the soldiers were paid was used to buy supplies for the Mormon pioneers going west. Brigham Young promised the soldiers "If you obey this counsel, attending to your prayers to the Lord, I promise you in the name of the Lord God of Israel that not one soul of you shall fall by the hands of the enemy." 3 The members of the Mormon Battalion did not fight in any battle but were instrumental in building roads and establishing forts in the west.

Because the trek from Nauvoo to Iowa took so long the rest of the journey was delayed, until the spring of 1847 when Brigham Young led a group of Mormon pioneers west. Using experience gained from the previous year the next 1,000 miles took the average Mormon pioneer wagon train only 111 days. Upon reaching the Salt Lake Valley Brigham Young said, "This is the right place. Drive on." 4

The wagon trains were well organized. "Special committees were designated for hunting, trail marking, and road improvement. Everyone had an assignment, everyone felt personally essential to the company's higher purpose. Taking everything into account, the Pioneer Company was probably the best-supplied, best-armed, and most trail-experienced group to go west up till then. Even so, being led by a determined man armed with a dream probably made all the difference."5

Life on the trail was not easy and many of the Mormon pioneers lost their lives but the dream of Zion kept them going. Ultimately 70,000 Mormon pioneers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would cross the Great Plains in wagon or handcart companies. Besides Salt Lake City Mormon pioneers settled in one of 600 communities stretching from Canada and Mexico. The Latter-day Saints truly "were one of the principal forces in the settlement of the West." 6