June 9, 1856 — On this day, 274 Mormons began their trek west for Salt Lake City. The group traveled 1,300 miles on foot and carried with them two-wheeled handcarts to haul their belongings. Four months later, the survivors reached Utah Territory. On the way, more than 200 of the emigrants died, crossing what’s now Wyoming as winter set in.

“Families pushed and pulled two-wheeled, shallow-boxed handcarts, built out of green lumber a short time before,” writes Annette Hein on wyohistory.org. “The hot sun and wind were hard on the emigrants and the handcarts. After a few weeks, the green wood began to shrink and crack. Poorly greased wooden wheels shrieked on their wooden axles.”

The Journey came to be known as the Mormon Handcart Movement, and this day marked only the beginning of the 1856-1860 trek — a period when nearly 3,000 Mormon pioneers made the journey to Utah, by foot.

Prior to the pilgrimage, Mormons were ostracized by outsiders. People felt politically and socially threatened by the group due its growth in number and diverging religious beliefs. These prejudices became violent and the need to migrate west became dire.

By the early 1850s, most American Mormons had already arrived in Utah, and the church began actively seeking converts in Europe. Church leaders organized a smooth transit system involving chartered steamships, riverboats up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and, later, railroad passage from the East Coast to central Iowa. Many emigrants’ passage was supported by the church.

Sources

• wikipedia/Mormonpioneers
• history.lds.org
• wyohistory.org/