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Mormon Migration
A plan of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, during the winter of 1846 to 1847.

A plan of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, during the winter of 1846 to 1847.

The Mormon clerk Thomas Bullock drew this map of the Mormon town of Winter Quarters, located just north of present-day Omaha, Nebraska, probably in December 1846. The community’s layout shows the influence of Joseph Smith’s urban-design model called the Plat of Zion. Winter Quarters served as temporary headquarters for Brigham Young and many of the apostles. Mormons called their migration the “Camp of Israel,” likening themselves to Jews seeking a promised land in Israel, as as chronicled in the Bible’s book of Exodus. Since the population of Winter Quarters never exceeded four thousand, Bullock’s map suggests that more than seven thousand other westward-moving members established themselves in ninety other known communities on the east side of the Missouri River, or in a variety of temporary Mormon settlements spread across Iowa. Winter Quarters was abandoned in 1848.

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Citation Information
Bullock, Thomas, “Plan of Winter Quarters of the Camp of Israel on their journey to the West, Winter of 1846-1847,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/85ba8c40ab601080c81e671f5edb3b8b.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Brigham Young University - Harold B. Lee Library via Mountain West Digital Library.

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Item 4 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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