Council Bluffs, Winter Quarters and My Decision to Rest for a Season

Brigham Young thought it would take merely a few weeks to cross Iowa. But he miscalculated the elements and the weather. In 1846 it took his advance party four grueling months! Bitter cold, deep mud, and lack of significant preparation slowed progress at almost every mile. Additionally, the lead party took time at every stop to make trail improvements and plant crops. Upon reaching the Missouri river and the end of Iowa, Brigham decided to let the Saints rest for a season.


Brigham would be impressed with my modern day progress along the Trail. Walking around 20 miles a day and getting rides for an additional 10, I've been able to average 30 miles a day. After ten days of traveling I've transversed Iowa in just 10 days! Despite my swift progress, I too am deciding to stop here at Winter Quarters, Nebraska and rest for a season.


The decision to halt my journey has been difficult to make, and one which I have been considering since I crossed the Nishnabotna river a few days ago. At that crossing the Saints originally used a ferry. Below is the ferry house.


Although this trip has been amazing, one part of it that I admit I planned wrong was trying to do it alone. Despite the scores of wonderful people I have met to punctuate the journey thus far, still the bulk of my time has been spent alone. I have seen and felt amazing amazing things, but have had no one with me to divide the story. I thought it would be enough to record my experiences and share them later, but I have rediscovered how immediate companionship is not only valuable but also essential. It can lighten what's occasionally heavy, deepen what may otherwise be trivial, and sear into your heart what sometimes might be fleeting. Realizing this, I have decided that if I am ever to continue the Trail someday, I won't do it alone. I can't do it alone. (Yes, this trip has also taught me some much needed humility).


With that said, what a journey I have had! It has been amazing. In these last 300 miles through Iowa I have done what I always dreamed about doing. I have walked in the footsteps of my heroes: Parley, Brigham, Orson, Heber and so many others. And in a little, tiny way I felt some of what they felt--both the sorrow and the joy. The sorrow of leaving what I loved on the banks of the Mississippi. And the joy of catching Parley P. Pratt's vision of Zion at Mt. Pisgah. And so many more experiences...


Even though this has turned out to be a relatively short trip, much shorter than I anticipated, I'm so happy I went. And so grateful to God for what I have seen and felt and learned. I'm on my way home and will be returning shortly. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers and support. I couldn't have made it this far without you.



Council Bluffs
:

Here was a major outfitting point for Latter-day Saints and countless others heading west during most of the overland emigration period. Across the Missouri River from Winter Quarters, Council Bluffs was one of the most significant Latter-day Saint settlements during the late 1840s and early 1850s.


The Latter-day Saints named this outfitting point in honor of Thomas L. Kane, an influential ally during their darkest years in Nauvoo. Following the departure of the Saints, it was renamed Council Bluffs in 1853. Up to 90 Latter-day Saint settlements were scattered throughout Pottawattamie County, Iowa, of which Kanesville was the most significant.


One of the most important events to take place here was in December 1847 when Brigham Young was sustained as the second president of the Church, and the First Presidency was reorganized with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as counselors to President Young.


Since the death of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Brigham Young had led the Church in the capacity of president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On December 5, 1847, nine of the Twelve met at the home of Orson Hyde and effected the reorganization, an action that was ratified December 27 at a general conference of the Church at Kanesville.


Here, during October 1848, Oliver Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses, returned to the Church and was rebaptized.

It was also from this location that the members Mormon Battalion began their long march to San Diego in July 1846.

Mormon Battalion

Never in American history has there been an equivalent military march: 600 men, women, and children, recruited by the U.S. Army from a mass exodus of Latter-day Saints then struggling across the plains of Iowa fleeing religious persecution in Illinois. They never engaged in armed conflict, yet they played a key role in securing from Mexico much of the present American Southwest in their 2,000-mile march across half a continent.


Zadok Judd
"This was quite a hard pill to swallow—to leave wives and children on the wild praries, destitute and almost helpless, having nothing to rely on only the kindness of neighbors, and go to fight the battles of a government that had allowed some of its citizens to drive us from our homes..." (Autobiography of Zadok Knapp Judd).


Winter Quarters
:

An instant city on the plains, Winter Quarters served as the headquarters of the Church for less than a year, until the leadership moved west in 1847. By Christmas 1846, Church members had constructed a large stockade and about 700 homes ranging from solid two-story structures to simple dugouts in the bluffs.


At the end of 1846 there were along the trail about 3,500 Mormons divided into twenty-two wards at Winter Quarters, over 200 across the Missouri River in Iowa, remnants at Nauvoo and in the Montrose area, and wards at Mt. Pisgah and Garden Grove. Other thousands were scattered in the United States and Canada, and England. Altogether there were perhaps 50,000 Latter-day Saints by the end of 1846.


Winter Quarters was a sad place for many of the Mormon Pioneers. The rigors of the Iowa crossing, exposure to the cold, and poor nutrition and sanitation proved too much, and several hundred saints died during the winter of 1846–1847.


Iowa: Bitter Beginning

Of the entire trek to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, it was the first 300 miles across Iowa that most tried the stamina, courage and equipment of the Latter-day Saint pioneers. Mere weeks into the journey—through sleet, blizzard, and mud—it became apparent to Brigham Young that his people would never reach the Rocky Mountains in the time or in the manner that most had hoped for.


So throughout the spring of 1846, thousands of refugees trudged across the windswept Iowa prairies, preparing the way for those yet to come: building bridges, erecting cabins, planting and fencing crops. By mid-June, nearly 12,000 Saints were still scattered across Iowa. The Rocky Mountain entry would be postponed.


The Vanguard Pioneer Company:

Brigham Young, as the presiding Elder of the Church following Joseph Smith's death, set out for the West from Winter Quarters with an advance company of 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children on 5 April 1847. Traveling in pleasant, if not too warm, summer weather, their journey of 1,050 miles was a relatively easy one, considering the trails they had already traveled. Crossing the Wasatch mountain range, however, Brigham became sick with mountain fever and entered the Salt Lake Valley on 24 July, three days behind the advance party. From his supine position in the back of a wagon, he surveyed the valley for only moments before announcing, "This is the right place. Drive on." By October of that year, another 2,000 pioneers had reached their new mountain refuge.


Trail a Two-Way Road:

Brigham Young had been in the Great Salt Lake Valley only 32 days when he and a number of companions turned and headed back to aid the Saints in Winter Quarters. Thus was inaugurated the most prominent two-way road in nineteenth century western America. Within weeks of the valley arrival, missionaries were on their way back to the Eastern states and Europe, and a constant stream of wagons was moving both directions on the trail. Following two handcart tragedies in 1856, Brigham Young sought to revive interest in that option by sending a group of 70 missionaries back to the East pulling the carts.


Norton Jacob:
"The whole Camp of Winter Quarters was divided into two Bishoprics under the direction of the High Council for the purpose of taking care of the poor, which included the wives of those men who volunteered and went into the army last July—about 500 men. This was a measure that seemed to be necessary in order to turn away the jealousy of the general government and secure its protection in some degree to the Saints" (The Record of Norton Jacob, ed. C. Edward Jacob and Ruth S. Jacob, Family and Church History Department Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, [n.d.], 29).
6 April 1847:
"The anniversary of the rise and organization of the Church. A special conference was held in Winter Quarters, Brother John Smith presiding. Brother Brigham addressed the congregation a short time, said that on the morrow he intended to start on his journey west, then proposed that [the] conference proceed to do its business."
7 April 1847:
"About noon I left my family and started on the great expedition with the pioneers to the West. President Young and his teams started at the same time. We also had the cannon along, a 6-pounder. We traveled about 10 miles on the divide up the river and camped about sunset near a small grove in a hollow, where we were somewhat shielded from the north wind which was very cold" (The Record of Norton Jacob).


Thomas Bullock
"[I] went through the City—where, nine weeks ago there was not a foot path, or a Cow track, now may be seen hundreds of houses, and hundreds in different stages of completion—impossible to distinguish the rich from the poor. The Streets are wide and regular and every prospect of a large City being raised up here" (Thomas Bullock, as quoted in Richard E. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri).


Margaret Phelps:
"Winter [1846–1847] found me bed-ridden, destitute, in a wretched hovel which was built upon a hillside; the season was one of constant rain; the situation of the hovel and its openness, gave free access to piercing winds and water flowed over the dirt floor, converting it into mud two or three inches deep; no wood but what my little ones picked up around the fences, so green it filled the room with smoke; the rain dropping and wetting the bed which I was powerless to leave" (Margaret Phelps, as quoted in Richard E. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri).