Why did the Mormons cross the great plains?

Answer 1

Mormons crossed the great planes because they were being persecuted by mobs. Governor Boggs even signed an extermination order for the Mormons.

As with most religious flights, the Mormans wanted a place where they could exercise their religion freely.

Answer 2

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" church) was founded in upstate New York in 1830. Within a year, the number of converts in northern Ohio rivaled membership in New York, and it was decided that church headquarters would be moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and many New York members followed. While in Ohio, Church leaders proposed that Zion was located on the Missouri frontier, and many members were enlisted to move west to settle the Mormon Zion near Independence, Missouri. However, persecution in Missouri was so strong that the dream was never realized - the governor of Missouri even issued an Extermination Order, saying that Mormons were to be "exterminated or driven from the state". Mob violence against the Missouri Mormons grew, and they were forced to leave. Meanwhile, conditions in Ohio were not much better. Locals had begun to grow suspicious of the Mormons, and did not appreciate the sudden influx of outsiders. Finally, a new place was found, in Nauvoo Illinois, and most of the Mormons moved to the swamp near the Mississippi River.Illinois soon became annoyed and intolerant of the Mormons, who had begun to overflow the city of Nauvoo and settle in nearby towns. Non-Mormons became involved in arguments between apostate Mormons and Mormon leadership, leading to the arrest of the Prophet Joseph Smith. While Joseph awaited trial in the jail in Carthage, Illinois, he and his brother were killed by an armed mob of both apostate Mormons and non-Mormons. Of course this caused more tension between the practically warring factions, and the government of Illinois asked the Mormons to leave the state in order to protect the public peace.Being faced with violence across the United States and being denied asylum or assistance from the Federal Government, the Mormons found solace in a prophesy given by the now-deceased Joseph Smith - that the people of God would find peace and prosperity in the Rocky Mountains. Out of desperation, the Mormons left their homes and crossed the border into what was then Mexico and established themselves in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains - what is now Utah. However, only a few years later, the United States acquired the area through the Mexican-American war, and the Mormons were again in America.

Answer 3

Because they had been persecuted and kicked out of every other place they had lived. They were forced out of New York in 1831, forced out of Ohio in 1838, forced out of Missouri in 1838, and forced out of Illinois in 1846. They decided to move somehwere that nobody else wanted so that they wouldn't be bothered anymore.