The Mormon Trail
Mormons traveled the Great Platte River Road to fulfill a religious mission. In the 1840s members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.(Mormons) moved westward to escape religious persecution. Beginning in 1847 they crossed the Plains to establish their New Zion in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley. To avoid contact with those who did not share their faith, the earliest Mormon emigrants followed the north bank of the Platte, which is often called the Mormon Trail. By the 1850’s and 1860s, however, non-Mormons were also using the north bank route, while many Mormons followed trails south of the Platte.
Some of the Mormon emigrants used handcarts to carry their belongings, enabling poorer converts to make the journey west. Some handcart pioneers died on the trail from starvation or cold when they left too late in the season. In all, more than 70,000 Mormons went west on the Great Platte River Road.
Marker is on West A Street near West Second Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
