The Mormon Pioneer Trail
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Frontier Mail Carriers

The Mormon Pioneer Trail, also, Frontier Mail Carriers. . , The Mormon Pioneer Trail. 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 a quagmire of axle-deep mud. Sheer exhaustion and lack of provisions continually hampered their efforts triggering he 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 stayed 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 Trail." , Frontier Mail Carriers. Before the postal service established mail routes on the frontier, wagon trains and travelers often exchanged letters to be carried to their destinations or to a post office. On May 4, 1847, the Mormon Pioneer Company and a small band of fur traders from Fort Laramie made such an exchange about eight miles west of this location. Fur trader Charles Beaumont crossed the Platte River and offered to carry letters east to the Missouri River. , John Brown and two other men later crossed the Platte to talk with the traders. Brown reported that the traders said the grass was better on the south side and recommended that the Mormons cross over. Brigham Young called a council, which voted to stay on the north side until they got to Fort Laramie for the sake of those who would follow, showing that the Latter-day Saints were determined to have their own road west. , Farther west, the pioneers wrote messages on scraps of paper for travelers who would come later and stuck them to trees, posts, and the bleached skulls of buffalo, the famous "Bulletin of the Plains." , (sidebar) , These excerpts, selected from thousands of faded Pioneer journals, tell us how it was on the trail for the Mormon Pioneers, who in spite of daily toil, hardships, and death, left us a thousand windows into the past.

Wilford Woodruff, May 4, 1847. “We traveled 3 miles and saw some wagons on the opposite side of the river going down the Platt. Soon one of the men waded the Platt and came to us to see who we were and c. Informed us they were traders from fort Laramie. ... He would take letters to us to Sarpet who lived near winter quarters. So the camp stopped and wrote 52 letters to our familys.”

Wilford Woodruff, May 4, 1847. “We took into consideration the situation of the next company thousands that would follow after ... we thought it best to keep on the north side of the river and brave the difficulties of Burning Prairies and make A road that should stand as a parmanant rout for the saints indipendant of the old emmigration road ...”

Thomas Bullock, June 8, 1847. “I left a Buffalo Skull written on ‘Pioneers,, Double Teams, 8 June 1947. Camp all well. Hail Storm last night. Fine morning. T. Bullock. No accident.’”