Location:
Winter Quarters
Distance: 266 miles from Nauvoo

An instant city on the plains, Winter Quarters served as the headquarters of the Church for less than a year, until the leadership moved west in 1847. By Christmas 1846, Church members had constructed a large stockade and about 700 homes ranging from solid two-story structures to simple dugouts in the bluffs. For many, however, the rigors of the Iowa crossing, exposure, and poor nutrition and sanitation proved too much, and several hundred saints died during the winter of 1846–1847.

Iowa: Bitter Beginning

Of the entire trek to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, it was the first 300 miles across Iowa that most tried the stamina, courage and equipment of the Latter-day Saint pioneers. Mere weeks into the journey—through sleet, blizzard, and mud—it became apparent to Brigham Young that his people would never reach the Rocky Mountains in the time or in the manner that most had hoped for. So throughout the spring of 1846, thousands of refugees trudged across the windswept Iowa prairies, preparing the way for those yet to come: building bridges, erecting cabins, planting and fencing crops. By mid-June, nearly 12,000 Saints were still scattered across Iowa. The Rocky Mountain entry would be postponed.

The Vanguard Pioneer Company

Brigham Young, as the presiding Elder of the Church following Joseph Smith's death, set out for the West from Winter Quarters with an advance company of 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children on 5 April 1847. Traveling in pleasant, if not too warm, summer weather, their journey of 1,050 miles was a relatively easy one, considering the trails they had already traveled. Crossing the Wasatch mountain range, however, Brigham became sick with mountain fever and entered the Salt Lake Valley on 24 July, three days behind the advance party. From his supine position in the back of a wagon, he surveyed the valley for only moments before announcing, "This is the right place. Drive on." By October of that year, another 2,000 pioneers had reached their new mountain refuge.

Trail a Two-Way Road

Brigham Young had been in the Great Salt Lake Valley only 32 days when he and a number of companions turned and headed back to aid the Saints in Winter Quarters. Thus was inaugurated the most prominent two-way road in nineteenth century western America. Within weeks of the valley arrival, missionaries were on their way back to the Eastern states and Europe, and a constant stream of wagons was moving both directions on the trail. Following two handcart tragedies in 1856, Brigham Young sought to revive interest in that option by sending a group of 70 missionaries back to the East pulling the rigs. They literally trotted into Florence 48 days later.

Norton Jacob

25 November 1846

"The whole Camp of Winter Quarters was divided into two Bishoprics under the direction of the High Council for the purpose of taking care of the poor, which included the wives of those men who volunteered and went into the army last July—about 500 men. This was a measure that seemed to be necessary in order to turn away the jealousy of the general government and secure its protection in some degree to the Saints" (The Record of Norton Jacob, ed. C. Edward Jacob and Ruth S. Jacob, Family and Church History Department Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, [n.d.], 29).

6 April 1847

"The anniversary of the rise and organization of the Church. A special conference was held in Winter Quarters, Brother John Smith presiding. Brother Brigham addressed the congregation a short time, said that on the morrow he intended to start on his journey west, then proposed that [the] conference proceed to do its business."

7 April 1847

"About noon I left my family and started on the great expedition with the pioneers to the West. President B[righam] Young and his teams started at the same time. We also had the cannon along, a 6-pounder. We traveled about 10 miles on the divide up the river and camped about sunset near a small grove in a hollow, where we were somewhat shielded from the north wind which was very cold" (The Record of Norton Jacob, 29, 32).

Thomas Bullock

"[I] went through the City—where, nine weeks ago there was not a foot path, or a Cow track, now may be seen hundreds of houses, and hundreds in different stages of completion—impossible to distinguish the rich from the poor. The Streets are wide and regular and every prospect of a large City being raised up here" (Thomas Bullock, as quoted in Richard E. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852: "And Should We Die . . . " [1987], 80-81).

Lucy Meserve Smith

December 1846

"We moved down to Winter Quarters when my babe was two weeks old. There we lived in a cloth tent until December, then we moved into a log cabin, ten feet square with sod roof, chimney and only the soft ground for a floor and poor worn cattle beef and corn cracked on a hand mill, for our food. Here I got scurvy, not having any vegetables to eat. I got so low I had to wean my baby and he had to be fed on that coarse cracked corn bread when he was only five months old. We had no milk for a while till we could send to the herd and then he did very well till I got better. My husband took me in his arms and held me till my bed was made nearly every day for nine weeks. I could not move an inch. Then on the 9th of February I was 30 years old. I had nothing to eat but a little corn meal gruel. I told the folks I would remember my birthday dinner when I was 30 years old. My dear baby used to cry till It seemed as tho I would jump off my bed when it came night. I would get so nervous, but I could not even speak to him. I was so helpless I could not move myself in bed or speak out loud. . . . When I got better I had not a morsel in the house I could eat, as my mouth was so sore. I could not eat corn bread and I have cried hours for a morsel to put in my mouth. Then my companion would take a plate and go around among the neighbors and find some one cooking maybe a calf's pluck. He would beg a bit to keep me from starving. I would taste it and then I would say oh do feed my baby. My appetite would leave me when I would think of my dear child. My stomach was hardening from the want of food.

The next July my darling boy took sick and on the 22nd, the same day that his father and Orson Pratt came into the valley of the great Salt lake my only child died. I felt so overcome in my feelings. I was afraid I would loose my mind, as I had not fully recovered from my sickness the previous winter" ("Origional Historical Narrative of Lucy Meserve Smith: 14 Aug. 1884–1889" typescript, Family and Church History Departmetn Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Stainst, 7–8).

Margaret Phelps

Winter 1846–1847

"Winter [1846–1847] found me bed-ridden, destitute, in a wretched hovel which was built upon a hillside; the season was one of constant rain; the situation of the hovel and its openness, gave free access to piercing winds and water flowed over the dirt floor, converting it into mud two or three inches deep; no wood but what my little ones picked up around the fences, so green it filled the room with smoke; the rain dropping and wetting the bed which I was powerless to leave" (Margaret Phelps, as quoted in Richard E. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852: "And Should We Die . . . " [1987], 79–80).

Journal photographs courtesy of Infobases, Inc.

Painting: Winter Quarters by C.C.A. Christensen
Courtesy of Jeanette Taggart Holmes