Map: Forced Migrations

Soon after publishing The Book of Mormon in 1830, Joseph Smith left his home in Palmyra, New York with several dozen followers. Over the next fifteen years, Smith's Latter-day Saints would travel beyond the boundaries of the United States as they searched for a permanent place to call home. By the time church faithful laid down the foundation for a temple in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, in Mexican territory, Smith was dead and his followers, though now more numerous, had been forced out of communities across the American continent.

Trace the Mormons' path from New York to Utah Territory in this interactive map.

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