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Primary Source Sets
Mormon Migration
An 1846 map by Augustus Mitchell “of Texas, Oregon and California, with regions adjoining.”

An 1846 map by Augustus Mitchell “of Texas, Oregon and California, with regions adjoining.”

Augustus Mitchell’s map was the latest and most accurate map available to westward travelers in 1846. Brigham Young bought copies of Mitchell’s map to use in planning the Latter-day Saints’ departure and route. The Salt Lake Valley, located in a region the map called “Upper or New California,” was the Mormons’ intended destination, in part because of its geographic isolation. The starting point for the Mormon migration was Nauvoo, Illinois, on the western border of Illinois between Burlington, Iowa and St. Francisville, Missouri, just above the 40° latitude line on this map’s right-hand edge. Although Nauvoo is not noted on the map, it was located approximately where the “Mi” in “Mississippi River” is printed.

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Citation Information
Mitchell, S. Augustus, “New map of Texas, Oregon, and California with the regions adjoining,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/8082a546e25a2bd15e5196be27c0d751.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth.

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Item 1 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Mormon Migration

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An 1846 map by Augustus Mitchell “of Texas, Oregon and California, with regions adjoining.”
An excerpt from a report from Illinois Governor Thomas Ford reporting on “Mormon difficulties,” December 1846.
A letter from Eliza R. Snow to Elizabeth Ann Smith Whitney and Vilate Murray Kimball, June 30, 1846.
A plan of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, during the winter of 1846 to 1847.
An excerpt from the trail diary of Mormon pioneer William Snow, 1850.
A paisley shawl brought by Eliza Kittleman from Philadelphia to Utah on the Ship Brooklyn, 1849.
An excerpt from a roster for Company A of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican-American War, 1846.
An 1897 map of the route of the Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo to Salt Lake.
An excerpt from William Clayton’s booklet, “The Latter-day Saints’ Emigrants’ Guide,” 1848.
A trail roadometer designed and used by William Clayton, 1847.
A color lithograph from 1866 called The Rocky Mountains: Emigrants Crossing the Plains.
An illustration showing a view of the Utah Valley in 1850.
A printed page showing the Deseret Alphabet, around 1850.
A photograph of Zion’s Commercial Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) in Salt Lake City, with Native Americans on horseback, 1869.
A photograph of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869.

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