With no more place to call home, Mormons set their eyes westward to the great frontier.Church members found increased faith and resilience as they followed the their prophet, Brigham Young, to the unforgiving and unfamiliar deserts of the Utah territory. In many ways, their journey west paralleled the wanderings of Moses and the Israelites.

Their new home was not as verdant and lush as the fruitful land of Missouri or Illinois, but, through hard work and faith, they made the desert bloom like a rose.Many converts to the faith from the eastern states and from Europe for years after followed the Saints to the desert land they called Zion, Deseret and later Utah. St. Louis played a critical role in their trek West.

“A stop in St. Louis was an economic necessity for many of the early Saints [members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints],” says Fred Woods, Brigham Young University professor of Church history. “Hundreds of the early travelers stopped there to regroup, to replenish their funds or to outfit wagons for their journeys west.”

The Missouri Republican newspaper, in 1851, noted that “our city is the greatest recruiting point for Mormon emigrants from England and the Eastern States, and the former especially, whose funds generally become exhausted by the time they reach it, generally stop here for several months, and not infrequently remain among us for a year or two pending the resumption on their journey to Salt Lake.”

Every week at the Museum of Westward Expansion under the Gateway Arch, Mormon interperters tell the story of the Mormon trail and the role Latter-day Saints played in the expansion of the West. The lds.org newsroom has a special feature story on the Mormon Interpreters, click here. The above photo is of Gary Pedersen who volunteers at the museum.