The Mormon Pioneer Trail

The Mormon Pioneer Trail. A Fork In The Road. , 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 there 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 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 or the new Zion on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountain., Following a rough trace blazed by earlier explorer, fur trader 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 pioneers established ferries, campsites, bridges and supply depots – improvements that earned the route it name “The Mormon Trail”., A Fork in the Road , The route of the Mormon Pioneer Trail west as not a single path. Hundreds of Mormons began their journey from numerous Mississippi and Missouri River locations. For any number of reasons; including driving herds of livestock, storms, fires, floods, unpredictable terrain, etc., wagons occasionally broke off from the main party – seeking the path of least resistance as they moved west along the Platte River Valley. Those who started out on the south side of the Platte were likely to stay there all the way across Nebraska., For those who followed the great bend of the Ox Box Trail along the south bank of the Platte River in the 1850s and 60s, two rock ledges in the stream bed here at Ashland provided a shallow ford across Salt Creek, one above and one below the nearby bridge. The ledges made “Saline Crossing” a popular ford for emigrants bound for Oregon, California and Utah. Wagon Trains choosing this “south side” route in 1850 had a devastating encounter with cholera here at Salt Creek.,

Margare A. Frink, May 16, 1850 , “We encamped at night on Salt Creek, which runs northeast into the Platte River. Here Mr. Avery, the man who had joined our party at the camp below Savannah, caught a fine lot of catfish, which we enjoyed very much for supper.”, Wilford Woodruff, June 28 and 29, 1850 , “We crossed Salt Creek today. Br Samuel Smith Died of Cholera at 8 o'clock at night Aged 43 years…Laid him on the ground in his tent. But we had but just got it done until A tremendous thunder Storm over took us. Blew the tent down. We had to cover over the corpse and let it lie until morning…”, Susan Almelia Cranston, May 11, 1851 “Crossed Salt Creek and encamped near the bottom where there is good grass wood and water… Salte creek derived is name from the saltness of the water which is not for use although our stock drank it without perceptible injury.”, These excerpts taken from thousands of pioneer journals