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Iowa Mormon Trails Association, 515 East Jefferson, Highway 2 East, P. O. Box 104, Corydon, IA (2026)

10/04/2026

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
HANDCART COMPANIES IN IOWA
By: Loren Horton

In 1856 and 1857 a total of seven Mormon handcart companies made the journey from Iowa City, across the Great Plains to Utah. A total of 2,340 persons, with 529 handcarts and 31 wagons were involved in the movement. During the trips, more than 250 persons died, though most of those deaths occurred in Companies 4 and 5, who got late starts and were caught in the high plains in winter. Most of these members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in the United States aboard eight ships, landing either in New York or Boston, and almost half of them had their passage paid by the Perpetual Emigration Fund. More than half of the members of the handcart companies came from England, with significant numbers also coming from Wales, Denmark, and Scotland.
When these immigrants arrived at the ports on the east coast, they travelled by train as far as the railroad was built at that time, Iowa City, Iowa. They then went into camp west of town, on the banks of Clear Creek, south of Coralville. While in camp they were divided into companies, the handcarts were built, supplies accumulated, and preparations were made for the arduous task of pulling the handcarts on to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Many of the handcarts were made in haste, not always by skilled workman, and the amount of baggage per person strictly limited. Most carts were of green lumber, made without iron, other than thin tires, and even the wheels were sometimes wrapped in rawhide. About 400 pounds of food, clothing, cooking utensils, and tents were loaded on. With these insubstantial vehicles, five companies departed in 1856 and two more in 1857.
Several diaries survive from persons who made the trip, and from those first hand accounts we can learn of the deaths and burials in camp and on the trail. Archer Walters was a carpenter, and was often called upon to make coffins, as well as carts. His diary entries are testimony to the times.
4 June 1856; Made a coffin for a
child dead in camp.
6 June 1856; Made another
child’s coffin.
15 June; coffin for William Lee,
aged 12, and another for Sister
Prator’s child.
17 June 1856; coffin for Job
Welling’s son.
21 June 1856; coffin for Brother
Bowers.
26 June; coffin for Emma Sheets
aged two and a half.
26 June 1856; coffin for Brother
Card’s daughter.
26 June 1856; Brother Henry
Walter struck by lightning in the
very middle of the train. Buried
without a coffin because no
boards available.
The diary of John D.T. McAllister is equally poignant.
16 May 1856; 4 o’clock Sister
Catherine…was delivered of a
daughter dead….During the
morning an adopted daughter
of John Taylor died of croup-
aged 5 months. The two were
buried in the camp graveyard
about a quarter mile from camp
19 May 1856; 10 o’clock Sister
Maria wife of James Shinn died
of consumption aged 60 years.
20 May 1856; Sister Shinn was
buried at 7 o’clock.
The diary of Daniel D. Cather contains similar entries.
7 June 1856; At 8 o’clock this
morning Jane, daughter of
Ralph and Elisabeth Ramsey,
departed this life at the
encampment, Iowa City, Iowa
age 7 days, buried in the
evening at the same place,

From these few examples , we can understand the experiences of the Saints as they left their homes in Europe, traveled to the United States on sailing vessels, and then walked from Iowa City to Utah. This short paper illustrates the difficulties encountered, resulting in deaths and burials . Even for the survivors ,undoubtedly it was an experience that they could never forget, and was a shaping force on their characters for the rest of their lives.

“Handcart Expeditions are a phase of the Mormon Trails even if not the 1846 route “, Loren Horton.

This article was taken from the Iowa Mormon Trails Association Quarterly Newsletter Wheel Writes
Volume 7 Issue 3 Spring 2000

Map created by Jane Briley. Founding Member of the Iowa Mormon Trails Association.

09/26/2026

THE RUTS AT MURRAY

After hosting the wagon train at Garden Grove, our family went to Murray to share in their activities. We had heard about the ruts west of the town of Murray. There had been “Mormon Trail Days” at Murray where tours to the ruts had been given. We had intended to go, but hadn’t made it yet.
At Murray on July 5th, we went to the log cabin in the heart of town. It was cozy, clean and creatively filled with items for sale. We boarded the school bus from there to see the ruts. When we arrived, there were the covered wagons, some lined up actually in the ruts, some along the shaded part of the pasture. The field had been mowed and in general prepared for the event.
The ruts in question were in the up hill side of Seven Mile Creek, but from our vantage point, you could see across the creek valley to the down hill side as well. Someone had taken the time to mow the trail not only on our side, but also on the other side. What a view! It was impossible to stand there and not hear the creaking of the wagons of long ago as they braced their way down the far slope and pulled up the near slope.
We walked in the ruts where some of the modern day pioneers had camped for the night. The land was six to nine inches deeper there than on either side of the seven foot depressed area.
Some of the younger of our group walked down the slope and found the spring near the creek. It had been marked well. I wondered how many teams of animals it had taken to pull each wagon up the hill. I wondered how many snakes they had encountered. I wondered how the night and day had gone for them in 1846.
Back at Murray, we enjoyed the music and the square dancing until the darkness came and the night settled upon us. We were going back our beds for the night.

This article was taken from the Iowa Mormon Trails Association Quarterly Newsletter The Wheel Writes. Volume 4, Issue 1 Fall 1996 Edition

The photo included with this article was taken at the rut site on the Mike Jackson farm near Murray in August of 2026. Pictured is long time IMTA treasurer Brenda DeVore standing in the middle of one of the wagon ruts.

09/23/2026

The Salem Vanguard: The Ashby Family Odyssey

When Erastus Snow looked out over the flatbed wagons in the freezing winter of 1846, he wasn't just checking his own team. He was looking out for the Ashby family—the civilian contingent that occupied the eastern half of his brick duplex back on Parley Street. The Ashbys were New England royalty. Nathaniel Ashby Sr. was a hard-headed, highly successful Salem, Massachusetts shoemaker and property owner, and a direct descendant of the Mayflower's Governor William Bradford. When the Mormon message arrived in Salem, it crashed into the Ashby home like a thunderbolt. Nathaniel didn't just accept the doctrine; he fully leveraged his financial logistics. He threw open his doors, housed Erastus Snow's family rent-free for two years, and handed over $500 in gold to construct a fortified, two-family stronghold in Nauvoo. By 1843, the Ashbys had burned their bridges. They sold the Salem business, packed up their twelve children, and occupied their half of the duplex. But their frontline deployment lasted a mere three years. When the order came to evacuate Nauvoo in early 1846, the Ashbys moved out into the bitter Iowa mud.

The Casualties of the Wilderness: 1846–1847

The Western Trail was a meat grinder. For the affluent Ashbys, the transition from urban Massachusetts to the raw elements of the Iowa prairie was catastrophic. Just six miles west of Bonaparte, Iowa, the physical stress broke Nathaniel Ashby’s constitution. He collapsed with a raging fever and died on the trail, leaving his widow, Susan Hammond Ashby, alone in command of a massive, grieving household. The journals of the Ashby children provide a raw, close-up look at the sheer grit required to survive the subsequent 1,000-mile march to the Rockies. The children recorded the daily tactical realities of the trail:

The Slog Through the Mire: The wagons routinely sank to their axletrees in the black Iowa mud. The children, some barefoot, walked alongside the teams, tracking their progress not in miles, but in agonizing yards.

The Searing Heat and Dust:

As the seasons shifted from the freezing rains of winter to the blinding summer heat of the Great Plains, the children's diaries note the suffocating dust kicked up by the oxen—dust so thick it choked the throat and blinded the eyes of the young drovers.

The Guarding of the Cattle:

Susan, operating without a husband, relied heavily on her children to handle the heavy draft animals. The young Ashby boys and girls stood guard during freezing night watches, keeping a vigilant lookout for stampeding buffalo herds and marauding raiders.

The Squeeze of Survival: 1848

Against all operational odds, Susan Ashby held her column together. In 1848, she ordered her children into the wagon beds, gripped the reins herself, and drove her family across the final mountain passes into the Salt Lake Valley. They arrived battered, destitute, but intact. The battlefield bond forged between the Snow and Ashby families in that Nauvoo duplex was cemented for eternity on the frontier. Years later, one of those very diary-keeping children who had survived the dust and death of the plains—Elizabeth Rebecca Ashby—married Erastus Snow, uniting the two pioneer families who had shared a roof on the banks of the Mississippi and a destiny on the American trail.

09/20/2026

THE KNIGHTS IN THE SPRING EXODUS FROM NAUVOO

Part 3-Newel Knight’s Suprise Call to the Rockies

By William Hartley

Here we resume an account of the Newel Knight family crossing Iowa during Latter-Day Saints massive spring exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, based on Newel’s informative diary. On May 25 the Knights and relatives named DeMille had caught up with Brigham Young’s group, who had been at Mt. Pisgah since May 18.
Newel’s first thoughts were to stop, build a cabin, plant crops, leave his family there, and go back to Nauvoo to bring his aged father and other relatives to Mt. Pisgah. However, when Newel looked up Brigham Young, the leader greeted him with a question: “How do you do brother Knight? Have you brought your mill with you?” “No sir,” Newel answered, l lacked team so left the mill.” “Are you going over the mountains with us to build another?” “If you say so, I will,” Newel said. “I say so,” President Young instructed. Newel agreed to go with a 100 wagon company that would head for the Rocky Mountains once the Saints crossed the Missouri River.
For such a long trip, Newel needed a better team. He tried to borrow a yolk from the DeMilles. Newel promised that when his company reached its destination, he would prepare a place for the DeMilles to come to, and then help them get there. Freeborn DeMille said no. Newel, who had “put himself to a great many inconveniences” for the DeMilles, made a reasonable offer. Freeborn could “take my horse and harness, a stove, some chairs, and a few other articles “ to trade for another team during fall and winter, “and let me have in return one yolk of oxen.” Freeborn wasn’t interested, and even “censured “ Newel for leaving him behind. “I could get no assistance from him at all,” Newel said. The DeMilles stayed at Mt. Pisgah for the next three years. Among those at Mt. Pisgah was Newel’s half-sister Sarah Jane Peck and her husband Charles C. Rich. President Young installed Rich as president of the Mt. Pisgah settlement. During the next weeks several Knight relatives also arrived at Mt. Pisgah, including Newel’s father, Joseph Knight Sr., who died there that winter.
On June 2 most of Brigham Young’s company resumed its westward trek, and a week later, the Knights left Mt. Pisgah to try to catch up. They passed the Orson Pratt and John Smith companies. When the Knights reached the Pottawattamie Indian village by the East Nishabotna River (near present Lewis, Iowa), Indians “came out in great numbers to see us pass, and expressed every mark of friendship.” Seeing “these red men of the West” caused Newel to wax reflective once more. In his diary he pondered prophecies in his church’s Book of Mormon about the Indians becoming righteous and a great people. “Great blessings are in store for them,” he wrote.
Moving on, the Knights passed John Taylor and William Clayton companies, and reached the Missouri on June 16. By then the Knights’ provisions were running out, so Newel and a friend headed for Missouri settlements forty miles to the south and beyond. They traded personal belongings for cows and grain, and they shelled corn and packed up grain, and then returned to the Mormon camps on June 21.
Homeless and hard-pressed, Newel felt resentment that his family had been forced to leave Nauvoo and civilization: “We are true born Americans, our fathers have fought and bled for liberty, and their children are rightful heirs to the freedom and liberty they so nobly won.” On July 8, Newel ferried his wagons across the river and on July 23 became captain of 1 of 3 wagon companies ordered to push for the Rockies. However, near Grand Island, they received orders from President Young to stop and camp. But, being in an Indian war zone, they accepted an invitation from friendly Ponca Indian chiefs go due north and winter among the Ponca (near present-day Niobrara, Nebraska).
No Mormons reached the Rockies that exodus year. All had to find place to ride out the winter. Of some 14,000 to 15,000 Latter-day Saints going west, 500 were at Ponca Camp, including the Knights, some 5,000 encamped with Brigham Young at Winter Quarters, 500 were at Mt. Pisgah, 500 at Garden Grove, 5,000 to 6,000 camped in western Iowa up and down the Missouri River, and another 1,500 ended up in St. Louis.
At Camp Ponca, Newel Knight died (probably pneumonia) that January, never to see the Rocky Mountains. In 1850 widow Lydia Knight took their 7 children west to Utah. There son Jessie Knight became a millionaire industrialist, and in 1908 he erected a 16-foot high marble monument near the Ponca site, honoring his father and other Saints who died that winter.

This final installment of this story came from the quarterly Iowa Mormon Trails Association newsletter Wheel Writes Volume10 Issue 1 Winter 2003

09/13/2026

THE KNIGHTS IN THE SPRING EXODUS FROM NAUVOO

Part 2: Alternate Route to Mt.Pisgah
Continued,

William G. Hartley

An Alternate Mormon Trail

Just beyond Bloomfield, the little company left Brigham Young’s south-turning route and took an alternate course heading more directly west. Probably the two riders recommended this shortcut. (Regarding the alternate routes to Mt. Pisgah, see Stan Kimball, Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails, 35-39.) The new route, not well marked, followed high ground east of the Chariton River, crossed the river near today’s town of Chariton, crossed White Breast Creek, and intersected the Camp of Israel’s route again south of today’s Osceola. This route bypassed the just being formed LDS community of Garden Grove.
“The traveling was so bad and my loads so heavy we traveled but little” Newel wrote. Rains made their loads damp, so on the 9th “we dried them and fitted them up again.” On May 10 they crossed Soap Creek in Appanoose County. Near it they passed a Sister Allen , who was lying in a tent very ill, supposedly dying. The next day they rolled up onto a broad and extensive prairie, where an amazing panorama suddenly burst into view: “Here we could look forward for miles,” Newel said, “and behold the prairie spotted with wagons, cattle, horses, and sheep, women and children who all seemed to be in good spirits as if nerved for the journey by His omnipotent arm.” Newel rejoiced that so many Saints were out of Nauvoo and safely away from “their oppressors.” He felt buoyed up:

“The rich and variegated prairie looks as if nature had done her best to cheer the weary and attract the admiration of the traveler while our children amuse themselves with the sweet and beautiful flowers which grow spontaneous. It gives a refreshing fragrance to all and serves to cheer us on our way.”
On May 12 the Knights and DeMills traveled some , then stopped to bake and do laundry. The next day they passed “the last house where white man lives,” then camped for two days , stopped by rains. On May 15 they restarted. The next day they became confused by a fork in the road. Deciding against trace, or light trail, they chose instead a larger road, where they saw other wagons going. A day later, Newel realized they were off course, too far north, so they worked their ways back towards the trace. They traveled a full day on the 18th and only a few miles on the 18th, then stopped, still lost. “Took my horse and went to find the road that led to the camp,” Newel said, meaning Mt. Pisgah; found it and returned to my wagons and family a little before night.” Rains kept them encamped for the next day-and-a-half. On May 21 they moved a little, then got in two good travel days.

Warm Welcome at Mt. Pisgah

Finally, on May 24, a Sunday, they almost reached Mt. Pisgah. Within two miles from it, Newel was delighted to see two of his friends, Apostles George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman, ride up to greet them. Newel declined their offer to es**rt his three wagons to camp: “I thanked them but told them as the day [had] been some rainy we had not washed and changed our clothes and I thought we had better stop, stay overnight and make ourselves clean, and prepare to go in to the great Camp of Israel on the following morning.” The next morning, “we arose and after a very heavy shower milked our cows, eat our breakfast, and started in good spirits for the camp, Newel recorded.
The Camp of Israel had been at the Mt. Pisgah site only a week, and Newel was amazed by what he saw. Brigham Young’s company was creating a settlement there, like the one they had just built in Garden Grove, “for the benefit of the poor, and such as were unable, for the want of teams, to proceed further.” Newel noted the “the busy hum of the plowman, the sound of the axe, the industry of the brethren all seemed to say the wilderness will soon blossom like the rose 🌹 and become a fruitful field.” He “saw the smiling countenance of many a friend and heard their kind salutations that truly made the wilderness seem like the garden of Eden.” Newel’s group “drove on a short distance and pitched our tents and considered ourselves at home.” Newel expected to stop at Mt. Pisgah, build a cabin, plow and plant for his family, and then head back to Nauvoo to bring his elderly father west. But, he soon learned Brigham Young had other plans for him and his family, in the opposite direction.

Next issue Part 3 (Newel’s Surprise to the Rockies).
This story was taken from the IMTA newsletter the Wheel Writes Volume 9 Issue 4 Autumn 2002

09/08/2026

THE KNIGHTS IN THE SPRING EXODUS FROM NAUVOO

Part 2: Alternate Route to Mt. Pisgah

By William G. Hartley
In Part 1 of our story, published in the last Wheel Writes, the Newel and Lydia Knight family, after a complicated process of closing down their home and businesses in Nauvoo, finally crossed the Mississippi and camped near Montrose. Six days later, on April 24, 1846, they started across Iowa’s width. It would take them four weeks to catch up with the Brigham Young company, at Mt. Pisgah.

Three Wagon Company

Lydia said her and Newel’s vehicles were “two wretched wagons,” and that one carried “a few necessary utensils and the provisions for three months” and the other carried passengers. Lydia’s smallest children were too little to be able walk and keep up with the wagon, so they rode. Joseph was 5, Newel 3, little Lydia almost 2, and Jesse only 7 months. The other two children could walk: Sally was 9 and James 7. Father Newel was then 45 and Lydia 34. Using wagon three, the DeMilles, who traveled with the Knights, included Freeborn, age 52, Anna (Newel Knight’s sister) 46, Lora Ann 17, Oliver 16, Adelia 13, Elias 8, and Lovina Esther, almost 3.

Newel’s Pensive Benediction

On their first travel day, the Knight-DeMille party ascended small bluffs some two miles from the river. From there , they took a thoughtful farewell look back at Nauvoo. Dominating the view, Newel said, was “the magnificent temple, rearing its lofty tower towards the heavens.” The scene triggered strong emotions. Newel devoted pages of his diary to expressing his feelings from Nauvoo, the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and being forced from their homes. He praised God and besought Him to bless the exiled Mormon to be able, like the ancient Children of Israel, to find a Promised Land in the west. “Let thine angels guard us on our journey, and thy presence go before us,” he prayed. The Knights and DeMilles fell asleep that night where, when, or how the Saints would build their next city and temple.

Early Spring Travelers

Newel’s diary is one of the best penned by anyone participating in the Spring Exodus (10,000to 12,000 people). “We resumed our journey until nearly night,” Newel wrote on April 24, “when we stopped and camped by the wayside.” For a while they were following the Camp of Israel’s basic route through southeastern Iowa Territory. The next day they “arose in good spirits and after breakfast was over our cattle well fed and all things in readiness, we started on traveled about 5 miles from [before] Farmington and camped for night.” On the 26th they plodded through tiny Farmington. “Considerable of a town” Newel said. “The roads are extremely bad,” he complained; “I broke one of my wagon wheels fixed in some false spikes and about 2 miles west of this place, and drove on to a convenient place for camping.” On April 27 they drove into Bonaparte, “a little town” Newel called it, where Brigham Young’s company had forded the Des Moines River in early March. Newel said he “pitched my tent in the bank of the Des Moines and stayed overnight.” He repaired a wagon. During the night “rain poured down like torrents.” The next day it “rained all day,” halting travel. Four days of rain raised the river “so high we could not cross.” Finally, on Sunday, May 3, they crossed and drove 12 miles. Apparently they followed the Camp of Israel’s route from Bonaparte around Richardson’s Point and along the Fox River. Rainy weather continued. “We traveled a few miles over the worst road I ever saw,” Newel wrote on May 4th. During the next two travel days they met two Mormons riding horse back to Nauvoo. “It truly rejoiced my heart,” Newel said to “hear good news from the Camp of Israel.” Newel’s May 5th notation says that “the road is almost impassable on account of frequent rains.” The next day they camped close to Pearson’s Western Hotel, apparently in Bloomfield, the last town they would see in Iowa Territory. “In the morning my wife sold some crockery towels etc. to recruit ours and Brother DeMille’s provisions,” Newel noted.

Due to space restrictions in “Wheel Writes part two of this interesting three part article will be continued in the next issue.

This article was taken from the IMTA archived Wheel Write Quarterly Newsletter Volume 9 Issue 3 Summer 2002

08/23/2026

Leaving Nauvoo Was Not As Simple as It Sounds

Part 1

The Knights in the Spring Exodous from Nauvoo: was complicated as explained in “The Iowa Mormon Trail”, most Latter Day Saints, 10,000 to 12,000, left the Nauvoo area in the spring of 1846, not in the winter with Brigham Youn’s group of 2,000 to 2,500. Once the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated April 30 and May 1, they began pouring across Iowa. When ready, they left on their own, traveling in small groups of 2 to 25 wagons. Newel Knight’s diary (LDS Archives, Salt Lake City) contains one of the best accounts of someone in the Spring Exodus, and Lydia in her Lydia Knight’s History supplements it. Their records show that the act of leaving town was not as simple as it sounds.

Departure Difficulties

Newel and Lydia Knight had 2 sons and 4 daughters plus an extended family of some 20 couples with children. Most of them lacked sufficient cash to buy wagons, animals, and supplies they needed because they could not sell or trade their property and belongings or could get only a fraction of actual value. Before they could leave, the Knight’s had to pay off obligations. Newel, a miller, had business debts. To pay back Elijah Fordham $250, he traded his gristmill, house, and barn, in total worth $1,000, in return for oxen, cows, a wagon and cash. Lydia, meanwhile, “got our tent, wagon covers, sacks, etc, all in readiness, provisions and goods packed, and all things about ready for the journey.” But then a creditor with a $200 note demanded payment in cash. So, Newel sold the items he had just traded for. By early April he managed to round up an outfit of 3 yoke of oxen, 2 wagons, and 3 cows for the the trek west.

Go With or Without Relatives?

In April Newel recorded that “some of my cousins called upon me, this evening, and said they knew no way that they could move, they could not bear the idea of my going and leaving them.” He wanted to help. “I asked God to give us wisdom, to devise a plan for their good.” He came up with an idea-a shuttle method of transport whereby the most able men and teams would travel about 200 miles west, taking farming tools and equipment and as many families as possible. They would stop, plant a crop,and leave some men there to tend things, while other men and teams go back and retrieve those left behind. At first, some relatives liked the plan. Lydia, disappointed to be slowed down by it, nevertheless “cheerfully consented.” Most , however, backed out, except for two families, brother-in-law Freeman DeMille, somewhat crippled, and Newel’s elderly father, Joseph Knight Sr. Newel agreed to help the DeMilles move to central Iowa, then go back to help his father move.

Ten Days to Cross a River

On April 13, Newel and Lydia visited the temple (2 weeks before its dedication) “ to take our last view.” The next day he laid out covers on his wagons and “got ready for to load them.” But then the DeMilles slowed their departure by more than a week. Freeborn had but one yoke of oxen and a “very light wagon.” To make room for DeMille’s belongings, Newel unloaded items from their wagon and Lydia “left some things by the road.” He gave Freeborn lumber and irons for a wagon box, and money to buy nails. He traded a new saddle, r***e, a pair of blankets, and bedding for a horse “to help us along.” By then, Lydia wrote later, the Knights had given up “mills, house, barn, and all their possessions.” On April 15, Newel finished loading their wagons and drove to the river ferry. But, high winds prevented a crossing. So, they went back and helped the DeMilles load. On the 17th, Newel arose before sunrise , fed and yoked his cattle , “bade farewell to our comfortable home, “ and started again to the ferry. So Newel “went to see my father and bade him farewell, and also left him sufficient means for his support, until I could return for him.” Finally, on April 18, at sunrise, the Newel Knight family ferried across the Mississippi. Near Montrose, they drive back from the landing and waited for the DeMilles. But, once more winds made waters to treacherous. I remained the balance of the day with my family, “ Newel wrote, “pitched a tent, felt to offer thanks.” The next day, Sunday, he recrossed the river “and once more had the satisfaction of walking through the streets of the City of Joseph, and beholding the great works, he had so nobly reared before his martyrdom.” Newel helped the DeMilles , then returned to his family. Three days later on Wednesday April 22, Elder Wilford Woodruff, still in Nauvoo, recorded that there was “much excitement “ about threats being made by the mob. Perhaps this excitement convinced Freeborn it was time to get out of town, for that evening the DeMilles finally crossed the river , with Newel’s help. They camped near the Knight’s tent. After another day and night encamped , the Newel Knight family started from Montrose on their journey across Iowa on April 24th, six days after they left Nauvoo.

This article was written By Bill Hartley for the IMTA Newsletter the “Wheel Writes” Volume 9 Issue 2 Spring 2002 edition

08/20/2026

ORIGINAL MORMON TRAIL SIGNS ACROSS IOWA

There were 142 “Mormon Trail” signs erected across Iowa in 1938 by Roy Chastain of the Iowa Conservation Commission. His map showing the route is now in the Historical Library in Des Moines. The signs were made of walnut 24” by 13” by 2 1/4” thick on 6” square posts. The inscription was simply “Mormon Trail” with carved lettering and scrollwork at the bottom. J.D. Armstrong of Ames did research on this project in the summer of 1933 for Iowa State University. An article in the Corydon Times Republican 11/11/1937 states: “State Planning Board employees today prepared to start placing 142 signs across southern Iowa along what the board says a research project has disclosed to be the original Mormon Trail. The signs were manufactured in a Works Project Administration project at Dubuque. The planning board said its research staff went over the entire route and was aided in its work by copies of a diary obtained from the Mormon Church at Salt Lake City, Utah”

Quoted with permission from the book “Mormon Trails Across Appanoose County”

This article was taken from the IMTA Newsletter Wheel Writes Volume 4 Issue 3 Spring 1997

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