Map: Forced Migrations

The Right Place
Great Salt Lake Valley, Mexico
1847 - present

"It's a Biblical landscape. You pass through mountains, a valley opens before you, and it's a harsh landscape."
-- Ken Verdoia, journalist

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About this Place
The desolate terrain of the Great Salt Lake valley had attracted no permanent settlements. Spanish and Mexican explorers had passed through the Mexican territory in forging westward trails. John C. Fremont, a lieutenant with the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, had surveyed the area in several expeditions from 1843 through 1846. Brigham Young bases his decision to relocate the Mormons partly on Fremont's surveys.

Mormon Developments
On July 24, 1847, after 111 days of travel, Brigham Young's advance party reaches a barren desert spot near the Great Salt Lake. Young declares, "It is enough. This is the right place." The first group sets up streets on a grid, defines lots by number and reserves a central area for their temple.

At the outset, the Mormons struggle: the first crop yields potatoes the size of grapes, livestock falls to wolves and Indian raids, and the first spring crops are ravaged by insects. A larger second wave of Mormons arrives in the summer of 1848. The Mexican-American War has ended and the settlement is now United States territory.

The Mormons want to name the territory Deseret, after a Book of Mormon word meaning "honeybee." The United States names it Utah after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. In 1850, the U.S. appoints Brigham Young governor of the Utah Territory.

Building a Community
During the rest of the 19th century, the Mormon migration into Salt Lake continues at the rate of several thousand new arrivals per year. But it will not be until 1896, after years of conflict between the Mormons and the Federal government, that Utah will become the 45th state of the United States. Today, a large majority of the state's residents are Mormons.