Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, January 1996 In the winter of 1848 word spread through the eastern states that gold had been discovered in California’s Sierra Nevada. The following spring over 25,000 fortune hunters headed west. This number increased the next summer to 50,000. In 1851 it fell to 5,000 when more realistic reports stated that 19 out of 20 miners …
Handcart Companies
William G. Hartley Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 By the mid-1850s LDS church leaders needed less expensive ways to move poor immigrants to Utah. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund that loaned to the needy was depleted, and costs for wagons and ox-teams were high. Therefore, Brigham Young announced on 29 October 1855 a handcart system by which the church would provide carts …
This Is the Place
The Mormon Trail: A Photographic Exhibit Stan Layton After leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846, the Mormons headed west. They spent the winter of 1846–47 in Winter Quarters near Omaha and at various places in Iowa, resuming their journey in the spring. First to leave Winter Quarters that spring was the advance party under the personal direction of church president Brigham …