The Mormon Pioneer Trail / Halfway To Zion

The Mormon Pioneer Trail, also, Halfway To Zion. . , Fleeing heated religious and political hostility and persecution, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) abruptly fled their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois in February 1846. Unprepared for the cold of winter, these pioneers traveled 265 agonizing miles in four months. Heavy spring rains that year turned the rolling plains of southern Iowa into quagmire of axle-deep mud. Sheer exhaustion and a lack of provisions continually hampered their efforts triggering the decision to stop and winter over near the banks of the Missouri River. In the spring of 1847, after a respite and an opportunity to make better travel plans, 143 men, three women and two boys started across Nebraska for the new Zion on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains., Following a rough trace blazed by earlier explorers, fur traders and missionaries, this pioneering group began laying out a route to the West that would later be used by thousands of other Mormons and Forty-niners. These first pioneers established ferries, campsites, bridges and supply depots , improvements that earned the route its name "The Mormon Trial.", Crawling slowly up the north bank of the Platte River, the Mormon Pioneers peered eagerly ahead for their first view of Chimney Rock, the most famous of all the landmarks on the "Great Platte River Road." An impressive curiosity today, it was a "Grand and splendid object" to 19th century emigrants who had never seen the geological wonders of the American West., Excitement reigned among the Pioneer Company when they finally reached a point opposite this landmark on May 26, 1847. Not only was Chimney Rock the psychological halfway point on their long trek to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, but it provided an opportunity to check the accuracy of the mileage on John C. Fremont's 1844 map, which they carried. Orson Pratt took astronomical observations of their location and tried to estimate the height of the chimney, though his estimate of "260 feet from its bast to its summit" fell about 100 feet short of its probable height in the 1840s., Captions: , The Pioneers of the Mormon Trail struggled across mid-America crossing the Iowa prairie, traversing the Great Plains across Nebraska, climbing the backbone of the continental divide at South Pass, Wyoming and descending the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Great Salt Lake Valley of Utah., The arrow indicates your present location and the dots mark the sites of other interpretive panels across the state. For a brochure with more detailed route information, contact the nearest tourist information office. . This historical marker is in Bayard in Morrill County Nebraska