Historic Iowa City / Mormon Handcart Trail - 1856
Marker Front:
The land on which Iowa City is located was a wilderness when it was selected and surveyed for the capital of the Territory of Iowa in 1839. The cornerstone of the new capitol building was laid by Governor Lucas on July 4, 1840. The Legislative Assembly met first in a frame building in 1841; the following year it moved into the new stone capitol -- now one of Iowa’s most prized historic shrines
Iowa City served as capital for sixteen exciting years. Here five sessions of the Legislative Assembly and six sessions of the General Assembly met to enact Iowa laws. Here the Territorial and State Supreme Courts met to pass on these laws. Here three Constitutional Conventions were held -- in 1844, in 1846, and in 1857.
The State University was established at Iowa City in 1847 but the first classes did not open until 1855. The State Historical Society of Iowa was established by law at Iowa City in 1857. The Constitution of 1857 moved the capital to Des Moines, leaving the University and Historical Society in Iowa City.
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Marker Reverse:
In 1857, some 1,300 Mormon converts from Europe, many of them wards of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company, reached the railroad “End-of-Track” in Iowa City. Their money exhausted, Brigham Young declared: “Let them come on foot, with hand-carts or wheel-barrows; let them gird up their loins, and walk through and nothing shall hinder them.”
The Mormons encamped at what is now Coralville, while awaiting the completion of their handcarts. The first company of 226 Mormons set out bravely from Coralville on June 7, pushing or pulling their carts through Homestead, Marengo, Newton, Des Moines, Adel, and historic Dalmanutha. It joined the Mormon Trail of 1846 at Lewis and crossed the Missouri River north of Council Bluffs. The Mormon Bridge at North Omaha stands as a symbol to their trek across Iowa.
Meanwhile, two other companies followed close on the heels of the first Handcart expedition, all three reaching Salt Lake City safely before cold weather set in. The fourth and fifth Handcart companies suffered untold hardships and death before they reached their Zion in president-day Utah.
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Marker can be reached from Interstate 80 at milepost 270, 1 miles west of Rose Avenue (County Highway X64), on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
