Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail

12/12/2024

Take a step back in time!

152 years ago, Grand Island was incorporated on December 10, 1872.

About a decade later, photographer J.R. Moeller captured the hustle and the bustle on then-dirt Third Street.

📷: Stereoview of Grand Island, Nebraska. RG3451-3-20

12/12/2024

Happy Birthday Scotts Bluff National Monument!

Happy 105th birthday to Scotts Bluff National Monument! in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation creating the monument using power and authority vested in the President by section two of the Act of Congress entitled "An Act for the preservation of American antiquities." A few months ago, monument volunteer Doug Kent brought in a copy of the legislation that had been found by his son-in-law. To read the text of the enabling legislation, check it out here: https://ow.ly/mmet50SXMcg. Perhaps the most interesting part of the legislation is the first statement which reads "Whereas Scotts Bluff is the highest known point within the State of Nebraska..." In actuality, Scotts Bluff is not the highest point within the State of Nebraska. That honor belongs to Panorama Point which lies south of the monument in Kimball County, near to the tri-state point where the boundaries of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado all converge.

Image- Volunteer Ranger Doug holds a copy of the enabling legislation that created Scotts Bluff National Monument. Saddle Rock can be seen in the background. NPS/Eric Grunwald

12/09/2024

12/09/2024

12/02/2024

Wow! Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication in sharing about the trail 😀

What a great day to tour the Iowa Mormon Trail! Richardson’s Point welcomed a large group of young missionaries and four senior missionaries this morning. Originating from Nauvoo and traveling westward they stopped this morning and we all talked history and hogs! What a fun group. Thanks for stopping and we hope you enjoy the rest of your journey.

12/02/2024

Check it out!

https://www.nps.gov/places/mount-pisgah-historic-site.htm

The Iowa Mormon Trail Association would like to announce that a Historical Site designation has been given to the Mount Pisgah Park near Thayer in Union County by the National Park Service. Mount Pisgah was a pivotal stop for Saints traveling westward to Salt Lake City from 1846 into the early 1850s. Used as a Way Station this site also contains a Mormon cemetery. Mount Pisgah has been lovingly maintained by the Brown family and the Union County Conservation through the years. As you travel the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail this is beautiful site to stop and learn the history.

07/29/2024

On the day before he finished his trek west, William Clayton summarized the desire of many who had and would join the Mormon exodus to the Salt Lake Valley.
"When I commune with my own heart and ask myself whether I would choose to dwell here in this wild looking country amongst the Saints surrounded by friends, though poor, enjoying the privileges and blessings of the everlasting priesthood, with God for our King and Father; or dwell amongst the gentiles with all their wealth and good things of the earth, to be eternally mobbed, harassed, hunted, our best men murdered and every good man's life continually in danger, the soft whisper echoes loud and reverberates back in tones of stern determination; give me the quiet wilderness and my family to associate with, surrounded by the Saints and adieu to the gentile world till God says return and avenge you of your enemies." - July 22, 1847

This early sketch from ca. 1853 by an unknown artist, entitled "Salt Lake City - Die Mormonen-Stadt," shows what the early city looked like. Image courtesy of Missouri Historical Society.

07/27/2024

Transportation technology makes an appearance at Scotts Bluff National Monument along the Oregon National Historic Trail, Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, California National Historic Trail, and Pony Express National Historic Trail.

Hmmm… if the race included handcarts, covered wagons, pony express riders, and people walking I wonder which mode of transportation would win? 🤔🤣🤣

(NPS Photos/Scotts Bluff NM view/solar cars)

National Park Service American Solar Challenge

07/25/2024

Stop by Scotts Bluff National Monument this coming Friday or Saturday to see the solar cars competing in the American Solar Challenge (ASC)! The American Solar Challenge is a competition to design, build, and drive solar-powered cars in a cross-country time/distance rally event. Teams compete over a 1,500-2,000 mile course between multiple cities across the country. The event has had over two decades of organized events in North America.

The route for this year's event begins in Nashville, Tennessee and concludes in Casper, Wyoming. Scotts Bluff is the last checkpoint before the final leg of the journey to Casper. We hope you'll come out to see the amazing technology in action and appreciate the hard work of the competitors.

Solar vehicles are set to arrive at the monument on Friday starting at 8:30 am. On Saturday, teams will charge their vehicles from 7 until 8:30 am. Then they will depart for the final leg of their journeys.

Image- A solar car passes Eagle Rock and a covered wagon during the 2022 American Solar Challenge. NPS Photo.

07/01/2024

Echo Canyon, Utah, on the final stretch of the Mormon Trail.
"There is a very singular echo in this ravine, the rattling of wagons resembles carpenters hammering at boards inside the highest rocks. The report of a rifle resembles a sharp crack of thunder and echoes from rock to rock for some time. The lowing of cattle and braying of mules seem to be answered beyond the mountains. Music, especially brass instruments, have a very pleasing effect and resemble a person standing inside the rock imitating every note. The echo, the high rocks on the north, high mountains on the south with the narrow ravine for a road, form a scenery at once romantic and more interesting than I have ever witnessed.” - William Clayton, July 16, 1847

NPS photo of Echo Canyon, 2014
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06/27/2024

Grave markers were commonly seen by emigrants on the California, Mormon, and Oregon trails; too many to be ignored. They offered a reminder of lost dreams, plans, and loved ones. Many would record these monuments' and their impact on them. William Clayton wrote:
"At seven o'clock the camp moved forward and immediately after saw a graveyard on the left of the road with a board stuck up with these words written on it: ‘Matilda Crowley. B. July 16th, 1830, and D. July 7, 1846.’ On reflecting afterward that some of the numerous emigrants who had probably started with a view to spend the remainder of their days in the wild Oregon, had fallen by the way and their remains had to be left by their friends far from the place of destination, I felt a renewed anxiety that the Lord will kindly preserve the lives of all my family, that they may be permitted to gather to the future home of the Saints..." - June 23, 1847, west of Devil's Gate, Wyoming

NPS photo of Mormon emigrant Rebecca Winters's grave just east of Scotts Bluff National Monument (seen in the background), 1935.
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06/21/2024