Mormons Enter Salt Lake Valley: A City Founded
Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, reportedly rising from a sickbed in his wagon to survey the landscape and declare "This is the right place." He led 148 Mormon pioneers who had traveled 1,300 miles over 111 days from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, fleeing religious persecution that had already driven them from New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Young chose the barren valley precisely because no one else wanted it: the desert location between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake offered isolation from the hostile communities that had murdered their prophet Joseph Smith. Within months, irrigation canals were running and the settlement that became Salt Lake City was taking shape.
July 24, 1847
179 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Utah
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Salt Lake City
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Mormon
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Mormons
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Brigham Young
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Salt Lake Valley
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Pioneer Day (Utah)
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Days of '47 Parade
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Brigham Young
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Mormons
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Salt Lake Valley
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Salt Lake City
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Mormon pioneers
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the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Mormonentum
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Großer Salzsee
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