This is the Place!

Spring of 1847 found Brigham Young with 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children, along with 73 wagons, moving across the Plains to settle in a new Zion.  Young followed the north bank of the Platte River rather than along the south side which was the Oregon Trail and full of "Gentiles" of which he wanted no contact with.  Wet weather made traveling miserable in April, but by May they were hunting buffalo - "sweet and tender like veal". 

Side Note:  The Mormons invented a "roadometer" with wooden cogs geared to a wagon wheel that recorded the miles covered on a journey!  The first odometer!

Spring found the travelers jovial and high-spirited, so much so that Young was forced to remind them that "joking, nonsense, profane language, trifling conversation and loud laughter do not belong to us.  Suppose the angels were witnessing the hoe down the other evening, listening to the haw haws, would they be ashamed?"  (Must have been a fun trip!?) 

Properly chastened , the Mormons reached Casper in modern day Wyoming where they built two ferries to cross the river.  Crossing was free if you were a Mormon, but expensive for all Gentiles. 
On June 27, they crossed the South Pass into the Rockies. 

In the Rockies they received advice from several mountain men, among them Jim Bridger who said that late spring frosts were a threat to agriculture around the Great Salt Lake.  He even said he'd give a $1000 for the first bushel of corn they grew.  Young was not deterred. 

On July 9, 1847 a scouting party got their first glimpse of Great Salt Lake.  Young was sick with mountain fever which had devastated the group, so it was 5 days until he got his first look.  Reportedly he said "This is the place.  The spirit of light rests upon me and hovers over the valley. I feel the saints will find protection and safety here"  They had found their new Zion.

Next time: Building a Religious Community
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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On June 15, 1840, Francis Parkman, one of the first serious historians to study the American West, arrives at Fort Laramie and prepares for a summer of research with the Sioux.