The Mormon Trail is the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) long route from Illinois to Utah that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled from 1846-47. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah. At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas. The Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of this war.
Winter Quarters was an encampment formed by approximately 2,500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they waited during the winter of 1846–47 for better conditions for their trek westward. It followed a preliminary tent settlement some 3½ miles west at Cutler's Park. Members of the LDS faith built more than 800 cabins at the Winter Quarters settlement. Located in present-day North Omaha overlooking the Missouri River, the settlement remained populated until 1848.
The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple is the 104th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is located in Florence, now a neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, USA, and formerly an independent city.
Florence is a neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska, United States on the city's north end and originally one of the oldest cities in Nebraska. It was incorporated by the Nebraska Territorial Legislature on March 10, 1857. The site of Winter Quarters for Mormon migrants traveling west, it has the oldest cemetery for people of European descent and oldest standing gristmill in Nebraska. Florence was the site of an illegal territorial legislature in 1858. Given the high concentration of National Register of Historic Places in the neighborhood, it is regarded as "the historic front door to Omaha as well as the state."
Cutler's Park was briefly the headquarters camp of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established by 2,500 members as they were making their way westward to the Rocky Mountains. It was apparently created in August 1846 and covered all around what is now the intersection of Mormon Bridge Road and Young Street in Omaha, Nebraska, though it appears to have been completely vacated by December 1846, before even Nebraska Territory came into existence. Historic Florence, Nebraska was built on its site, making use of what had been left when it was abandoned.
North Omaha, Nebraska has a recorded history spanning over 200 years, pre-dating the rest of Omaha, encompassing wildcat banks, ethnic enclaves, race riots and social change. North Omaha has roots back to 1812 and the founding of Fort Lisa. It includes the Mormon settlement of Cutler's Park and Winter Quarters in 1846, a lynching before the turn of the twentieth century, the thriving 24th Street community of the 1920s, the bustling development of its African-American community through the 1950s, a series of riots in the 1960s, and redevelopment in the late 20th and early 21st century.
The Prospect Hill Cemetery, located at 3202 Parker Street in the Prospect Hill neighborhood of North Omaha, Nebraska, United States, is believed to be the oldest pioneer cemetery in Omaha. It is between 31st and 33rd Streets and Parker and Grant Streets.
Florence Mill, also known as the Weber Mill, is a historic mill located at 9102 North 30th Street near the 30th Street exit on I-680 in the Florence community in North Omaha, Nebraska. It was built in 1846 and operated into the 1960s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Weber Mill in 1998. The mill is also known as the Mormon Mill, Grist Mill, and Old Pink Mill. It is now operated as the Winter Quarters Mill Museum and ArtLoft Gallery.
Chauncey Walker West was a Mormon pioneer and was a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory. He was among the church's first missionaries to preach in Sri Lanka.
Jesse Carter Little was a Mormon pioneer and a member of the presiding bishopric of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
North 30th Street is a two-way street that runs south–north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, historically significant sections include those from Dodge to Lake Street, from Fort Street to Laurel Avenue, and from Weber to Bondesson Streets.
Rebecca Burdick Winters was a Mormon pioneer who with her family left the eastern United States to emigrate to the Salt Lake Valley with other Latter-day Saints. In August 1852, en route to present-day Utah, she died of cholera near present-day Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Her grave, located in the Rebecca Winters Memorial Park, has become a popular landmark along the Mormon Trail and is a Nebraska State Landmark.
Significant events in the history of Omaha, Nebraska, include social, political, cultural, and economic activities.
The Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument is a private cemetery and memorial. It is the burial site of Brigham Young, and his legal, non-plural wife, Mary Ann Angell, along with other wives and family members. Part of the property was dedicated to the Mormon pioneers who died making the journey to Utah from Illinois and other parts of the world between 1847 and 1869.
Henry Heath was a Mormon pioneer and lawman in the Utah Territory, United States.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nebraska refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Nebraska. The official church membership as a percentage of general population was 1.29% in 2014. According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, roughly 1% of Nebraskans self-identify themselves most closely with the LDS Church. The LDS Church is the 6th largest denomination in Nebraska.
The Kanesville Tabernacle was a large, hastily constructed log building in Council Bluffs, Iowa that was created specifically for the event of the reorganization of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in late 1847.
The Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters is a museum and visitors' center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in the Florence neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The museum interprets the story of the Mormon Trail along with the history of a temporary Mormon settlement known as Winter Quarters, which was located in the Florence area between 1846–1848.
Death in 19th-century Mormonism involved several unique religious rituals, cultural customs, and eschatological beliefs. In the years of the Church of Christ and, later, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, death played a prominent role in the lives of members due to various diseases, forced removal from settlements, the harsh nature of life on the American frontier, and the lack of medical knowledge at the time. Mormon mortality rates climbed through most of the century until a permanent settlement in Utah Territory was established and advances in medical science were made. Before these improvements, the commonality of death in Latter-day Saint communities produced a distinct culture surrounding the death of a member of the community. The dying were either blessed to be healed or to be received into heaven, depending on the person's wishes. A phenomenon known as the "beautiful death" set forth traditions such as family and friends gathering around a person's deathbed to witness their transition into the next life. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints came to terms with the frequent deaths of loved ones – especially those of infants and children – by turning to the teachings offered by their religion.
