Where did the Mormons journey west start from and end?

Answer 1

AnswerStarted in Nauvoo Illinois. Ended in the Salt Lake Valley.


The previous answer leaves far too much of the story omitted. Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844) organized the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830 in Fayette, New York (located in the Finger Lakes Region). After persecution persisted and Smith dictated several revelations he claimed were from God, he and his followers moved to Kirtland, Ohio in Feburary 1831. Kirtland was, and still is, a small community in northeastern Ohio. He continued to reside in Kirtland until early 1838. Before then Smith established a "branch" of his followers in what he called Zion, or in Jackson County, Missouri on the western edge of the state. After persecution proliferated in both locations the church collected in the northern counties of Missouri and remained there for a very short interim. In October 1838 Smith was taken prisoner by the Missouri Militia and his followers were forced out of the state under Governor Lilburn W. Bogg's infamous "extermination order." They then settled in Nauvoo, Illinois in approximately March 1839 and remained there for some years. Smith was martyred in Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844, and two years later the largest majority of his followers, then numbering nearly 20,000, were forced out of the State of Illinois. Under the guidance of Brigham Young the church (which had by then been renamed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) treked west to what is now the Great Salt Lake Valley and began to establish their New Haven in the western territories of the United States.