Mormon Trail

Mormon Trail, in U.S. history, the route taken by Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Salt Lake in what would become the state of Utah. After Mormon leader Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob in 1844, church members realized that their settlement at Nauvoo was becoming increasingly untenable. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, proposed a 1,300-mile (2,100-km) exodus to the west. Beginning in 1846, thousands of Mormons traversed a route that would later be called the Mormon Trail. Following existing pioneer trails through Iowa, the group established winter quarters in Omaha, Nebraska. From there the first wave of settlers followed the Platte River west across Nebraska and into Wyoming, at which point the Mormon Trail frequently coincided with the Oregon Trail. The Mormon Trail broke south just to the west of the Continental Divide, and it terminated to the southeast of the Great Salt Lake, in what is today Salt Lake City. The route was designated a national historic trail by the U.S. National Park Service.