1.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
2.
Iowa
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Iowa is a U. S. state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west. Surrounding states include Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, in colonial times, Iowa was a part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana, its state flag is patterned after the flag of France. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in area and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines, Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live. Its nickname is the Hawkeye State, Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east, the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west, Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed entirely by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties, but 100 county seats because Lee County has two, the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowas bedrock geology generally increases in age from west to east, in northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old, in eastern Iowa Cambrian bedrock dates to c.500 million years ago. Iowa is generally not flat, most of the consists of rolling hills. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils, topography, Loess hills lie along the western border of the state, some of which are several hundred feet thick. Northeast Iowa along the Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Zone, consisting of steep hills, several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, and East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake, man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, and Rathbun Lake. The states northwest area has remnants of the once common wetlands. Iowas natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture, crops cover 60% of the state, grasslands cover 30%, as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Meads milkweed, prairie bush clover, the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. Iowa has a continental climate throughout the state
3.
Nebraska
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Nebraska /nᵻˈbræskə/ is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Its area is just over 77,220 sq mi with almost 1.9 million people and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. The state is crossed by many trails and was explored by the Lewis. Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867 and it is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan. Nebraska is composed of two major regions, the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of rolling hills. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, characterized by treeless prairie, the state has a large agriculture sector and is a major producer of beef, pork, corn, and soybeans. Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska, the half of the state has a humid continental climate, and the western half. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration. The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, when European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, by 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a force of Pawnees and Otoes. The massacre of the Villasur expedition effectively put an end to Spanish exploration of Nebraska for the remainder of the 18th century, in 1762, during the Seven Years War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Frances withdrawal from the area left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi, by 1773, later that year, Mackays party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV, near present-day Homer. In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U. S. Army post west of the Missouri River, the army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement did not begin in any numbers until after 1848, on May 30,1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, the territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha
4.
Wyoming
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Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
5.
Utah
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Utah is a state in the western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the U. S. on January 4,1896, Utah is the 13th-largest by area, 31st-most-populous, and 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Utah has a population of more than 3 million, approximately 80% of whom live along the Wasatch Front, Utah is bordered by Colorado to the east, Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast, approximately 62% of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS, which greatly influences Utahn culture and daily life. The LDS Churchs world headquarters is located in Salt Lake City, Utah is the only state with a majority population belonging to a single church. The state is a center of transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, in 2013, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated that Utah had the second fastest-growing population of any state. St. George was the metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah also has the 14th highest median income and the least income inequality of any U. S. state. A2012 Gallup national survey found Utah overall to be the best state to live in based on 13 forward-looking measurements including various economic, lifestyle, the name Utah is derived from the name of the Ute tribe. It means people of the mountains in the Ute language, according to other sources Utah is derived from the Apache name Yudah which means Tall. These Native American tribes are subgroups of the Ute-Aztec Native American ethnicity and were sedentary, the Ancestral Pueblo people built their homes through excavations in mountains, and the Fremont people built houses of straw before disappearing from the region around the 15th century. Another group of Native Americans, the Navajo, settled in the region around the 18th century, in the mid-18th century, other Uto-Aztecan tribes, including the Goshute, the Paiute, the Shoshone, and the Ute people, also settled in the region. These five groups were present when the first European explorers arrived, the southern Utah region was explored by the Spanish in 1540, led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, while looking for the legendary Cíbola. A group led by two Catholic priests—sometimes called the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the coast of California, the expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. The Spanish made further explorations in the region, but were not interested in colonizing the area because of its desert nature, in 1821, the year Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, the region became known as part of its territory of Alta California. European trappers and fur traders explored some areas of Utah in the early 19th century from Canada, the city of Provo, Utah was named for one, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah was named after Peter Skene Ogden, in late 1824, Jim Bridger became the first known English-speaking person to sight the Great Salt Lake. Due to the salinity of its waters, Bridger thought he had found the Pacific Ocean
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
Nauvoo, Illinois
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Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa. The population of Nauvoo was 1,149 at the 2010 census, the city and its immediate surrounding area are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Nauvoo Historic District. The area of Nauvoo was first called Quashquema, named in honor of the Native American chief who headed a Sauk, by 1827, white settlers had built cabins in the area. By 1829 this area of Hancock County had grown sufficiently so that a post office was needed and in 1832 the town, however, the honor was awarded to a nearby city, Carthage. In 1834 the name Venus was changed to Commerce because the settlers felt that the new name better suited their plans, the name Nauvoo is derived from the traditional Hebrew language with an anglicized spelling. The word comes from Isaiah 52,7, “How beautiful upon the mountains. ”It is notable that “by 1844 Nauvoos population had swollen to 12,000, after Joseph Smiths death in 1844, continuing violence from surrounding non-Mormons forced most Latter-Day Saints to leave Nauvoo. Most of these refugees, led by Brigham Young, eventually emigrated to the Great Salt Lake Valley, in 1849, Icarians moved to the Nauvoo area to implement a utopian socialist commune based on the ideals of French philosopher Étienne Cabet. At its peak the colony numbered over 500 members, but Cabets death in 1856 caused some members to leave this parent colony, in the early and mid 20th century Nauvoo was primarily a Roman Catholic town, and the majority of the population today is Catholic. Guided tours are available at the churchs Joseph Smith Historic Site, located at the end of the town. The LDS Church owns most of the historic sites in Nauvoo, including the homes of Brigham Young. Kimball, and other members of the church, as well as other significant buildings. Most of these sites are open to the public, with demonstrations and displays and these tours are free, as are the stage and riverside theatrical productions. There is a visitors center complete with two theaters and a relief map of 1846 Nauvoo. The creation of Nauvoo as a tourism destination was largely a result of the work of J. LeRoy Kimball. Kimball was a descendent of early Mormon leader Heber C, Kimball, and bought his ancestors home in 1954 with the intention of restoring it. He was the president of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. from 1962 to 1986, an LDS congregation was established in Nauvoo in 1956, from its inception consisting largely of elderly LDS couples serving as missionaries and historical guides. The City of Joseph Pageant, a musical produced by the LDS Church. An LDS stake was organized with headquarters at Nauvoo in 1979, in addition to the many homes that had been restored, the Relief Society Memorial Garden was dedicated in 1978, featuring statues designed by Dennis Smith and Florence Hansen
8.
Salt Lake City
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Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city lies at the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front and it is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin. The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young, Isaac Morley, George Washington Bradley and numerous other Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named Great Salt Lake City—the word great was dropped from the name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. Today, however, less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper are members of the LDS Church. It was traversed by the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, in 1913, Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing, and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the banking center of the United States. Before Mormon settlement, the Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute had dwelt in the Salt Lake Valley for thousands of years. The land was treated by the United States as public domain, the first U. S. explorer in the Salt Lake area is believed to be Jim Bridger in 1825, although others had been in Utah earlier, some as far north as the nearby Utah Valley. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845, the Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, had traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley in August 1846. The first permanent settlements in the date to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints on July 24,1847. Upon arrival at the Salt Lake Valley, president of the church Brigham Young is recorded as stating, This is the right place, Brigham Young claimed to have seen the area in a vision prior to the wagon trains arrival. They found the broad valley empty of any human settlement, four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the building site for the Salt Lake Temple, which would eventually become a famous Mormon and Salt Lake City landmark. The Salt Lake Temple, constructed on the block that would later be called Temple Square, construction started in 1853, and the temple was dedicated on 6 April 1893. The temple has become an icon for the city and serves as its centerpiece, in fact, the southeast corner of Temple Square is the initial point of reference for the Salt Lake Meridian, and for all addresses in the Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon pioneers organized a new state called Deseret and petitioned for its recognition in 1849, the United States Congress rebuffed the settlers in 1850 and established the Utah Territory, vastly reducing its size, and designated Fillmore as its capital city. Great Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the capital in 1858
9.
National Trails System
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The 1968 Act also created two national scenic trails, the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest, and requested that an additional fourteen trail routes be studied for possible inclusion. In 1978, as a result of the study of trails that were most significant for their associations, a fourth category of trail was added. Since 1968, over forty trail routes have been studied for inclusion in the system, of these studied trails, twenty-one have been established as part of the system. These National Trails are more than just for hiking, many are open for horseback riding. As Congressionally established long-distance trails, each one is administered by an agency, either the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service. Two of the trails are administered by the BLM and the NPS. Occasionally, these agencies acquire lands to protect key sites, resources, National Recreation Trails and connecting-and-side trails do not require Congressional action, but are recognized by actions of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture. All of the National Trails are supported by private organizations that work with the various federal agencies under the Partnership for the National Trails System. The Act is codified as 16 U. S. C, however, it has been amended numerous times since its passage, most recently on October 18,2004. National Scenic Trails are established to access to spectacular natural beauty. The National Scenic Trail system provides access to the crest of the Appalachian Mountains in the east, on the Appalachian Trail, there are eleven trails designated in the United States. National Historic Trails are designated to protect the remains of significant overland or water routes to reflect the history of the nation and they also commemorate the forced displacement and hardships of the Native Americans, on the Trail of Tears. Most of them are scenic routes instead of non-motorized trails, the act also established a category of trails known as connecting and side trails. Timms Hill Trail Anvik Connector The first National Geologic Trail was established by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Timeline of environmental events National Park Service U. S
10.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
11.
Latter Day Saint movement
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The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 15 million members, the vast majority of adherents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with their predominant theology being Mormonism. The LDS Church self-identifies as Christian, based on the teachings of this book and other revelations, Smith founded a Christian primitivist church, called the Church of Christ. The Book of Mormon attracted hundreds of followers, who later became known as Mormons, Latter Day Saints. In 1831, Smith moved the headquarters to Kirtland, Ohio. After the church in Ohio collapsed due to dissensions, in 1838, Smith and the body of the moved to Missouri. After Smiths death in 1844, a crisis led to the organization splitting into several groups. The largest of these, the LDS Church, migrated under the leadership of Brigham Young to the Great Basin, the LDS Church officially renounced this practice in 1890, and gradually discontinued it, resulting in the Utah Territory becoming a U. S. state. This change resulted in the formation of a number of small sects who sought to maintain polygamy and other 19th-century Mormon doctrines and practices, other groups originating within the Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. For the most part these groups rejected plural marriage and some of Smiths later teachings, the largest of these, the Community of Christ, was formed in Illinois in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smiths son, Joseph Smith III. Most existing denominations that adhere to the teachings of Smith have some relationship with the movement. The driving force behind and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, Smith and Cowdery also explained that the angels John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John visited them in 1829 and gave them priesthood authority to reestablish the Church of Christ. The first Latter Day Saint church was formed on April 6,1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York towns of Fayette, Manchester, the church was formally organized under the name of the Church of Christ. In 1844, William Law and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Smiths secret practice of polygamy in the Nauvoo Expositor, the city council of Nauvoo, Illinois, led by Smith, subsequently had the printing press of the Expositor destroyed. In spite of Smiths later offer to pay damages for destroyed property, critics of Smith, some called for the Latter Day Saints to be either expelled or destroyed. These various claims resulted in a succession crisis, many supported Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, others Sidney Rigdon, the senior surviving member of the First Presidency. These various groups are referred to under two geographical headings, Prairie Saints and Rocky Mountain Saints. Today, the vast majority of Latter Day Saints belong to the Utah-based The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the second-largest denomination is the Missouri-based Community of Christ which reports over 250,000 members
12.
Brigham Young
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Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877 and he founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah, Young was dubbed by his followers the Lion of the Lord for his bold personality and was also commonly called Brother Brigham by Latter-day Saints. Young was a polygamist and was involved in controversies regarding black people and the Priesthood, the Utah War, and the Mountain Meadows massacre. Young was born to John Young and Abigail Nabby Howe, a family in Whitingham, Vermont. Young was first married in 1824 to Miriam Angeline Works, though he had converted to the Methodist faith in 1823, Young was drawn to Mormonism after reading the Book of Mormon shortly after its publication in 1830. He officially joined the new church in 1832 and traveled to Upper Canada as a missionary, after his wife died in 1832, Young joined many Mormons in establishing a community in Kirtland, Ohio. In 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young opposed this reasoning and motion, the majority in attendance were persuaded that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was to lead the church with Young as the Quorums president. Many of Youngs followers would later reminisce that while Young spoke to the congregation, he looked or sounded exactly like Smith, Young was ordained President of the Church in December 1847, three and a half years after Smiths death. Rigdon became the president of a church organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Repeated conflict led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, then to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico. Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24,1847, Youngs expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks. On August 22,29 days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, after three years of leading the church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was declared president of the church on December 27,1847. As colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City, Young was appointed the territorys first governor, during his time as prophet, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, Young organized the first legislature and established Fillmore as the territorys first capital. Young organized a Board of Regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley and it was established on February 28,1850, as the University of Deseret, its name was eventually changed to the University of Utah
13.
Council Bluffs, Iowa
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Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from what is now the larger city of Omaha. Council Bluffs was known until 1852 as Kanesville — the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail, Council Bluffs population was 62,230 at the 2010 census. Council Bluffs is more than an older than Omaha. The latter, founded in 1854 by Council Bluffs businessmen and speculators following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, has grown to be a larger city. The first Council Bluff name was actually on the Nebraska side of the river at Fort Atkinson about 20 miles northwest of the current Council Bluffs and it was named by Lewis and Clark for a bluff where they met with the Otoe tribe on August 2,1804. Sauganashs English name was Billy Caldwell and the came to be called Caldwells Camp. The group was called the Bluff Indians. The U. S. Dragoons built a fort nearby. In 1838–39, the missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet founded St. Josephs Mission to minister to the Potawatomi, De Smet was appalled by the violence and brutality caused by the whiskey trade, and tried to protect the tribe from unscrupulous traders. However, he had success in persuading tribal members to convert to Christianity. During this time, De Smet contributed to Joseph Nicollet’s work in mapping the upper midwest, De Smet produced the first European-recorded, detailed map of the Council Bluffs area, it detailed the Missouri River valley system, from below the Platte River to the Big Sioux River. As more native Americans were pushed into the Council Bluffs area by pressure of European-American settlement to the east, the US Army built Fort Croghan in 1842, to keep order and try to control liquor traffic on the Missouri River. However that fort was destroyed in a flood the same year, by 1846 the Pottawatomi were forced to move again to a new reservation at Osawatomie, Kansas. In 1844, the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party crossed the Missouri River here, beginning in 1846, there was a large influx of Latter-day Saints into the area, although in the winter of 1847–1848 most Latter-day Saints crossed to the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. Initially, the area was called Millers Hollow, after Henry W. Miller, Miller also was the foreman for the construction of the Kanesville Tabernacle. Built at or next to Caldwells Camp, Kanesville became the outfitting point for the Mormon Exodus to Utah. Edwin Carter, who would become a noted naturalist in Colorado and he helped supply Mormon wagon trains
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Fort Bridger
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For the census-designated place, see Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Fort Bridger was originally a 19th-century fur trading outpost established in 1842, on Blacks Fork of the Green River, in what is now Uinta County, Wyoming and it became a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail. The Army established a military post here in 1858 during the Utah War, a small town, Fort Bridger, Wyoming, remains near the fort and takes its name from it. The post was established by the mountain man Jim Bridger, after whom it is named, Bridger, perhaps the most picturesque figure in early Wyoming, was often called the Daniel Boone of the Rockies. Bridger’s Pass, which he discovered, was named for him. The ill-fated Donner-Reed Party followed that route, along which they were met by a rider sent by Hastings to deliver letters to traveling emigrants, with the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in 1847, disputes arose between Bridger and the new settlers. By 1853, a militia of Mormons was sent to arrest him for selling alcohol and firearms to the Native Americans and he escaped capture and temporarily returned to the East. Near the existing fort, the Mormons established their own Fort Supply the same year, in 1855, Mormons took over Fort Bridger, reportedly having bought it for $8,000 in gold coins. The Mormons claimed, over Bridgers denials, they had purchased the fort from Vasquez. There was a deed dated August 3,1855, recorded October 21,1858, in Salt Lake City in Records Book B. p.128, that ostensibly sold Fort Bridger to the LDS Church. Bridger and Vasquezs names were signed by H. F. Morrell in the presence of Alinerin Grow and William Adams Hickman, Bridger was absent from the area in 1855, acting as guide for Sir St. George Gore. Relations deteriorated between Mormon leaders in Utah Territory and federal authorities in Washington, D. C. Following the election of President James Buchanan, the United States Army was ordered to Utah to install a new governor, replacing Brigham Young, as the army advanced, the Mormons in the Green River valley withdrew, burning Fort Supply and Supply City. On the night of October 7,1857, Wild Bill Hickman set fire to Fort Bridger to keep it from falling into the hands of the approaching United States Army during the Utah War, the army wintered near Fort Bridger. In June 1858, as the majority of Johnstons Army set off for Salt Lake City, the other troops continued on and eventually established Camp Floyd south of Salt Lake City. In 1858, William A. Carter was appointed as post sutler at Fort Bridger, perhaps more than any other individual, the history of the post revolves around this civilian merchant who remained at the center of the posts activities for its entire history. At the end of the hostilities, the United States Congress rejected Brigham Youngs claim to the fort, the historical Fort Bridger has several interesting old buildings still standing, the old Pony Express barn and the Mormon protective wall. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, all the troops in Utah Territory were withdrawn to fight the Confederate States Army in the east
15.
Oregon Trail
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The Oregon Trail is a 2, 170-mile historic east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the state of Kansas. The western half of the trail spanned most of the states of Idaho. The Oregon Trail was laid by fur traders and traders from about 1811 to 1840, by 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. From the early to mid-1830s the Oregon Trail and its offshoots were used by about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers. The eastern half of the trail was used by travelers on the California Trail, Mormon Trail. Use of the trail declined as the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, making the trip west substantially faster, cheaper, and safer. Today, modern highways, such as Interstate 80 and Interstate 84, follow parts of the same course westward and pass through towns originally established to serve those using the Oregon Trail. Although Lewis and William Clark found a path to the Pacific Ocean, it was not until 1859 that a direct and practicable route, the first land route across what is now the United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806. On the return trip in 1806 they traveled from the Columbia River to the Snake River and they then traveled overland up the Blackfoot River and crossed the Continental Divide at Lewis and Clark Pass and on to the head of the Missouri River. This was ultimately a shorter and faster route than the one they followed west and this route had the disadvantages of being much too rough for wagons and controlled by the Blackfoot Indians. They did show the way for the men, who within a decade would find a better way across. Founded by John Jacob Astor as a subsidiary of his American Fur Company in 1810, two movements of PFC employees were planned by Astor, one detachment to be sent to the Columbia River by the Tonquin and the other overland under an expedition led by Wilson Price Hunt. Hunt and his party were to find possible routes and trapping territories for further fur trading posts. Upon arriving at the river in March 1811, the Tonquin crew began construction of what became Fort Astoria, the ship left supplies and men to continue work on the station and ventured north up the coast to Clayoquot Sound for a trading expedition. While anchored there, Jonathan Thorn insulted an elder Tla-o-qui-aht who was elected by the natives to negotiate a mutually satisfactory price for animal pelts. Soon after the vessel was attacked and overwhelmed by the indigenous before being blown up, killing all the crew, from there they went over the Teton Range via Teton Pass and then down to the Snake River into modern Idaho. They abandoned their horses at the Snake River, made dugout canoes, after a few days travel they soon discovered that steep canyons, waterfalls and impassable rapids made travel by river impossible
16.
California Trail
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The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 3,000 miles across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. In the present states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, by 1847, two former fur trading frontier forts marked trailheads for major alternative routes through Utah and Wyoming to Northern California. The first was Jim Bridgers Fort Bridger in present-day Wyoming on the Green River, from Salt Lake the Salt Lake Cutoff went north and west of the Great Salt Lake and rejoined the California Trail in the City of Rocks in present-day Idaho. From Fort Hall the Oregon and California trails went about 50 miles southwest along the Snake River Valley to another parting of the trail junction at the junction of the Raft. The California Trail from the junction followed the Raft River to the City of Rocks in Idaho near the present Nevada-Idaho-Utah tripoint, the Salt Lake and Fort Hall routes were about the same length, about 190 miles. From the City of Rocks the trail went into the present state of Utah following the South Fork of the Junction Creek. By following the crooked, meandering Humboldt River Valley west across the arid Great Basin, emigrants were able to get the water, grass, the water turned increasingly alkaline as they progressed down the Humboldt, and there were almost no trees. Firewood usually consisted of broken brush, and the grass was sparse, few travelers liked the Humboldt River Valley passage. Humboldt is not good for man nor beast, an alternative route across the present states of Utah and Nevada that bypassed both Fort Hall and the Humboldt River trails was developed in 1859. In addition to immigrants and migrants from the East, after 1859 the Pony Express, Overland stages, the main routes initially were the Truckee Trail to the Sacramento Valley and after about 1849 the Carson Trail route to the American River and the Placerville, California gold digging region. Starting about 1859 the Johnson Cutoff and the Henness Pass Route across the Sierras were greatly improved and developed and these main roads across the Sierras were both toll roads so there were funds to pay for maintenance and upkeep on the roads. The Johnson Cutoff, from Placerville to Carson City along todays U. S. Route 50 in California, was used by the Pony Express year-round and in the summer by the stage lines. It was the overland route from the East to California that could be kept partially open for at least horse traffic in the winter. After about 1848 the most popular route was the Carson Route which, while rugged, was easier than most others. The trail was used in the summers until the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 by the Union Pacific. Trail traffic rapidly fell off as the trip was much quicker and easier by train—about seven days. The economy class fare across the western United States of about $69 was affordable by most California-bound travelers, the trail was used by about 2,700 settlers from 1846 up to 1849. These settlers were instrumental in helping convert California to a U. S. possession, fremonts California Battalion assisted the Pacific Squadrons sailors and marines in 1846 and 1847 in conquering California in the Mexican–American War
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Westward Expansion Trails
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In the American Old West, trails were used by immigrants from the eastern United States, between 1830 and 1870. These colonists began to settle various regions of North America west of the Interior Plains, settlers following these Westward ways were spurred by various motives, among them including persecuted Mormons seeking freedom of religion. After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1849, there were many new enticing American conquests, legislation like the Donation Land Claim Act and critical events like the California Gold Rush further incited colonists to travel overland west. There were two major networks, one based typically out of Missouri and the other out of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. Three of the Missouri-based routes were known as the Emigrant Trails, the Oregon, Mormon. The trip was arduous, fraught with risks from infectious diseases, dehydration, injury, malnutrition and these trail networks have become embedded in the folklore of the United States as one of the significant influences that have shaped the content and character of the nation. The remains of many trail ruts can be observed in scattered locations throughout arid parts of the American West, travelers may loosely follow various routes of the trail network on modern highways through the use of byway signs across the western states. Travelers across what became the Western United States in the 19th century had the choice of several routes, some of the earliest were those of the Mexicans in the southwest. American trade with Northern Mexico created the Santa Fe Trail between St. Louis and Santa Fe following an 18th-century route pioneered by the Spanish Empire. From Santa Fe, American traders followed the old El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro southward to Chihuahua by way of El Paso del Norte. Branching off from that route, some settlers southwestward on the California Trail from Fort Hall, Oregon Territory to Sutters Fort, also branching off to the south was the Mormon Trail from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. During the twenty-five years 1841–1866,250,000 to 650,000 people pulled up stakes, about one-third immigrated to Oregon, one-third to California and one-third to Utah, Colorado, and Montana. The trails from these cities converged in the mostly empty flatlands of central Nebraska near present-day Kearney, in the vicinity of Fort Kearney. The most common vehicle for Oregon and California-bound settlers was a wagon pulled by a team of oxen or mules in the dry semi-arid terrain common to the high plains in the heat of summer. In later years, following the advice of Brigham Young, many Mormon emigrants made the crossing to Utah with handcarts, in many treeless areas, buffalo chips were the most common source of fuel. It crossed what was then the northernmost part of Mexico until the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, during the California Gold Rush the routes to California used were increased by the Siskiyou Trail from Oregon. In the south the forty-niners used the Cooke Wagon Road, until some found a short cut, in 1856, as part of an improvement of the route as a military road, a cutoff was built to Cookes Spring from Mesilla. From Cookes Spring the road ran to the Yuma Crossing into California and this route became the Southern Emigrant Trail
18.
Mormon pioneers
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At the time of the ceasefire and planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory was owned by the Republic of Mexico, which soon after went to war with the United States over the annexation of Texas. Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of this war and these and other reasons caused the body of the Church to move from one place to another--to Ohio, Missouri, and then to Illinois, where church members built the city of Nauvoo. Sidney Rigdon was the First Counselor in the LDS First Presidency, and as its spokesman, Rigdon preached several sermons in Missouri, including the Salt Sermon. These speeches have sometimes seen as contributing to the conflict known as the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. As a result of the conflict, the Mormons were expelled from the state by Governor Boggs, Rigdon was released on a writ of habeas corpus and made his way to Illinois, where he joined the main body of Mormon refugees in 1839. In 1844 Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum Smith were killed by a mob while in custody in the city of Carthage, in 1846, religious tensions reached their peak, and in 1848 mobs burned the Latter-day Saint temple in Nauvoo. During the winter of 1846-47, Latter-day Saint leaders in Winter Quarters and Iowa laid plans for the migration of the number of Saints, their equipment. It was here that Brigham Young first met Thomas L. Kane, Kane obtained permission for the Mormons to winter on Indian territory, and the site was originally called Kanesville. Brigham Young continued to trust Kane throughout his own lifetime, particularly as an intermediary with the often hostile Federal government and this major undertaking was a significant test of leadership capability and the existing administrative network of the recently restructured Church. For his role in the migration, Brigham Young is sometimes referred to as the American Moses. The wary Young insisted the Mormons should settle in a no one else wanted. The initial company would select and break the trail with the expectation that later pioneers would maintain. It was hoped that the group could, wherever possible, establish fords and ferries, in late February, plans were made to gather portable boats, maps, scientific instruments, farm implements and seeds. Techniques for irrigating crops were investigated, a new route on the north side of the Platte River was chosen to avoid major interaction with travelers using the established Oregon Trail on the river’s south side. Given the needs of the volume of Saints who would travel west, Church leaders decided to avoid potential conflicts over grazing rights, water access. In April 1847, Young consulted with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who had returned from the British mission. John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde brought money contributed by the English Saints, fremont’s recent western expedition, and instruments for calculating latitude, elevation, temperature and barometric pressure. Chosen members of the group were gathered together, final supplies were packed
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Great Basin
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The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes/ecoregions, and deserts, the term Great Basin is applied to hydrographic, biological, floristic, physiographic, topographic, and ethnographic geographic areas. The name was coined by John C. Frémont, who, based on information gleaned from Joseph R. Walker as well as his own travels, the hydrographic definition is the most commonly used, and is the only one with a definitive border. The other definitions yield not only different geographical boundaries of Great Basin regions, the Great Basin physiographic section is a geographic division of the Basin and Range Province defined by Nevin Fenneman in 1931. The United States Geological Survey adapted Fennemans scheme in their Physiographic division of the United States, the section is somewhat larger than the hydrographic definition. The culture area covers approximately 400,000 sq mi, or just less than twice the area of the hydrographic Great Basin, the hydrographic Great Basin is a 209,162 square miles area that drains internally. All precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes, as observed by Frémont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. The region is bounded by the Wasatch Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges to the west, the south rim is less distinct. The Great Basin includes most of Nevada, half of Utah, substantial portions of Oregon and California and small areas of Idaho, Wyoming, the term Great Basin is slightly misleading, the region is actually made up of many small basins. The Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake, and the Humboldt Sink are a few of the drains in the Great Basin, the Salton Sink is another closed basin within the Great Basin. The Great Basin Divide separates the Great Basin from the watersheds draining to the Pacific Ocean, the southernmost portion of the Great Basin is the watershed area of the Laguna Salada. The Great Basins longest and largest river is the Bear River of 350 mi, Lake Tahoe, North Americas largest alpine lake, is part of the Great Basins central Lahontan subregion. The hydrographic Great Basin contains multiple deserts and ecoregions, each with its own set of flora. The ecological boundaries and divisions in the Great Basin are unclear, the Great Basin overlaps four different deserts, portions of the hot Mojave and Colorado Deserts to the south, and the cold Great Basin and Oregon High Deserts in the north. The deserts can be distinguished by their plants, the Joshua tree and creosote bush occur in the hot deserts, the cold deserts are generally higher than the hot, and have their precipitation spread throughout the year. The climate and flora of the Great Basin is strongly dependent on elevation, as the elevation increases, because of this, forests occur at higher elevations. Utah juniper/single-leaf pinyon and mountain mahogany form open pinyon-juniper woodland on the slopes of most ranges, stands of limber pine and Great Basin bristlecone pine can be found in some of the higher ranges
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Winter Quarters (North Omaha, Nebraska)
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It followed a preliminary tent settlement some 3½ miles west at Cutlers Park. The Mormons built more than 800 cabins at the Winter Quarters settlement, located in present-day North Omaha overlooking the Missouri River, the settlement remained populated until 1848. Wintering Saints had left their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois on relatively short notice, conditions at the settlement remained primitive the first month, with pioneers living in tents while the men put up hay, found water and managed the cattle. Due to arguments among the Oto and Omaha tribes over use of the land, there they built cabins and sod houses for the winter. One group of cabins became known as Kimball Row and it consisted of thirteen adjacent cabins, with the homes of church leaders Heber C. Kimball and Newel K. Whitney at either end, Young Mormon men also produced handcrafted items such as willow baskets and washboards for sale. Church funds also allowed the community to build a much needed water-powered gristmill, even with trade, diet in the camp was mainly corn bread, salt bacon and a little milk, with occasional fresh game or domestic meat. Scurvy, known as blackleg during this period, became a major problem, Missouri potatoes and horseradish found at old Fort Atkinson helped ease the level of disease, but all residents lacked fresh vegetables in their diet. Tuberculosis, malaria, and unidentified fevers and chills also plagued the temporary settlement, church member Louisa Barnes Pratt recalled in her memoirs, I hired a man to build me a sod cave. He took turf from the earth, laid it up, covered it with willow brush, built a chimney of the same. I paid a five dollar gold piece for building my sod house,10 x 12, a long cold rain storm brought more severely again the chills and fever. These with scurvy made me helpless indeed, neither could I go to see their remains carried to their final resting place where it was thought I would shortly have to be conveyed. Brigham Young supervised construction of the Florence Mill, today it is reportedly the only surviving building in the area to have been built by Mormons. The settlers needed a mill to grind corn, wheat, and rye to create cornmeal, constructed next to Turkey Creek, later called Mill Creek, which flowed into the Missouri River, the original structure was started in the fall of 1846. It was completed by spring of 1847 at the cost of $3000, brigham Young sold this mill to John Neff, who left it when he also moved to Salt Lake City. Later settlers renovated and used the mill for years, evidence of the original construction techniques has been found in the surviving Florence Mill. Today, the area that was once Winter Quarters is part of the community of Florence, the pioneer community is remembered with several attractions, including the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, Cutlers Park, Mormon Trail Center and the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Bridge. The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple was dedicated there in April 2001, the Story of the Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, Deseret Book Co
21.
Salt Lake Valley
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Salt Lake Valley is a 500-square-mile valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U. S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, brigham Young said this is the place, when he and his fellow settlers moved into Utah after being driven out of several states. The Valley is surrounded in every direction except the northwest by steep mountains that at points rise 7,100 feet from the valley floors base elevation. Every entrance into the valley is narrow and often congested. Flowing from Utah Lake in Utah Valley in the south, the Jordan River runs north through a gap in the Traverse Mountains, the Jordan River, along with numerous mountain streams and reservoirs, provides irrigation water to the rapidly growing Valley. This southwestern expansion is typified and will be facilitated by the Mountain View Corridor, some experts are claiming that the Valley will be urbanized rim-to-rim within the next 50 years. The first development, known as the Daybreak Community, has substantial portions already completed and it will focus on transit-oriented development (it already has service by TRAX light rail and will also feature a ski resort in the Oquirrh Mountains and a university campus. The Interstate 215 belt route, State Route 154, State Route 201, the Utah Transit Authority operates an extensive bus system across the Wasatch Front, including the Salt Lake Valley, in addition to three light rail lines in the Valley. A commuter rail line known as FrontRunner runs north to Pleasant View in Weber County, mormon Trail Salt Lake County, Utah
22.
British Isles
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The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have an area of approximately 315,159 km2. Two sovereign states are located on the islands, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland, Ireland and North Wales and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres, and Lough Neagh, the climate is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic Drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the average for the latitude. This led to a landscape which was dominated by temperate rainforest. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC, Hiberni, Pictish and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-controlled Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD43, the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century and eventually dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by permanent settlements. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, the term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term, as a result, Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has had limited use among a minority in academia, while British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are sometimes referred to as these islands. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost, however, later writings, e. g. Avienuss Ora maritima, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, the British Island, and Prettanoi, the Britons. Strabo used Βρεττανική, and Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί, the shift from the P of Pretannia to the B of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
23.
First Transcontinental Railroad
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The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 mi of track from Oakland/Alameda to Sacramento, the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California constructed 690 mi eastward from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. And the Union Pacific built 1,085 mi from the eastern terminus at Council Bluffs near Omaha. The railroad opened for traffic on May 10,1869 when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold Last Spike with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. The coast-to-coast railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West and it brought the western states and territories into alignment with the northern Union states and made transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast considerably quicker and less expensive. Paddle steamers linked Sacramento to the cities and their facilities in the San Francisco Bay until 1869. The roads rail terminus was moved two months later to the Oakland Long Wharf about a mile to the north, Service between San Francisco and Oakland Pier continued to be provided by ferry. The CPRR eventually purchased 53 miles of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit to Ogden, the transcontinental line was popularly known as the Overland Route after the principal passenger rail service that operated over the length of the line until 1962. In 1847 he submitted to the U. S. Congress a Proposal for a Charter to Build a Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean, Congress agreed to support the idea. Under the direction of the Department of War, the Pacific Railroad Surveys were conducted from 1853 through 1855 and these included an extensive series of expeditions of the American West seeking possible routes. A report on the explorations described alternative routes and included an amount of information about the American West. It included the natural history and illustrations of reptiles, amphibians, birds. The report failed however to include detailed maps of potential routes needed to estimate the feasibility, cost. This in part motivated the United States to complete the Gadsden Purchase, the U. S. Congress was strongly divided on where the eastern terminus of the railroad should be—in a southern or northern city. Three routes were considered, A northern route roughly along the Missouri River through present-day northern Montana to Oregon Territory and this was considered impractical due to the rough terrain and extensive winter snows. A central route following the Platte River in Nebraska through to the South Pass in Wyoming, following most of the Oregon Trail, snow on this route remained a concern. A southern route across Texas, New Mexico Territory, the Sonora desert, connecting to Los Angeles, surveyors found during a 1848 survey that the best route lay south of the border between the United States and Mexico
24.
Mormon handcart pioneers
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The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used handcarts to transport their belongings. The Mormon handcart movement began in 1856 and continued until 1860, the trek was disastrous for two of the companies, which started their journey dangerously late and were caught by heavy snow and severe temperatures in central Wyoming. Despite a dramatic effort, more than 210 of the 980 pioneers in these two companies died along the way. John Chislett, a survivor, wrote, Many a father pulled his cart, with his children on it. They continue to be recognized and honored in such as Pioneer Day, Church pageants. The Latter Day Saints were first organized in 1830, early members of the Church often encountered hostility, primarily due to their practice of withdrawing from secular society and gathering in locales to practice their distinct religious beliefs. Their neighbors felt threatened by the Churchs rapid growth in numbers, its tendency to vote as a bloc and acquire political power, its claims of divine favor, and, later, the practice of polygamy. Violence directed against the Church and its members caused the body of the Church to move from Ohio to Missouri, Brigham Young said that he had received divine direction to organize the church members and head beyond the western frontier of the United States. Soon after the first Mormon pioneers reached Utah in 1847, the Church began encouraging its converts in the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe to emigrate to Utah. From 1849 to 1855, about 16,000 European Latter-day Saints traveled to the United States by ship, through the states by rail. Contributions to expand the fund were encouraged, Young also believed it would speed the journey. Young proposed the plan in a letter to Franklin D. Richards, President of the European Mission and his letter was published in the Millennial Star, the Churchs England-based periodical, on December 22,1855, along with an editorial by Richards endorsing the project. The cost of the migration was expected to be reduced by one-third, the response was overwhelming – in 1856 the Perpetual Emigration Fund supported the travel of 2,012 European emigrants, compared with 1,161 the year before. Built to Brigham Youngs design, the handcarts resembled a wheelbarrow, with two wheels five feet in diameter and a single axle four and a half feet wide. Running along each side of the bed were seven-foot pull shafts ending with a crossbar at the front. The crossbar allowed the carts to be pushed or pulled, cargo was carried in a box about three feet by four feet, with 8 inch walls. The handcarts generally carried up to 250 pounds of supplies and luggage, carts used in the first years migration were made entirely of wood, in later years a stronger design was substituted, which included metal elements. The handcart companies were organized using the handcarts and sleeping tents as the primary units, five persons were assigned per handcart, with each individual limited to 17 pounds of clothing and bedding
25.
James G. Willie
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James Grey Willie is one of the most well-remembered leaders of the Latter-day Saint handcart pioneers. Willie was born at Murrell Green in Hampshire, England and he emigrated to the United States in 1836 and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1842. He first came to Utah Territory in 1847 in Jedediah M. Grants Mormon pioneer company, in 1852, he returned to England as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was at the end of his time as a missionary that he became a leader in the movement of Latter-day Saints to Utah Territory. He led the fourth company which was one of the two that was stuck in present-day Wyoming in the late autumn of 1856 and had many members die. He had previously been the presiding elder over the Latter-day Saints on the Thornton on its journey from Liverpool to Boston, many of the people on this journey became part of his handcart company. Later, he was one of the settlers of Mendon. He served at times as mayor and postmaster of the town, in 1863, Willie founded the first Sunday School in Mendon. He also served as a counselor in the bishopric and ran a co-operative store, Willie has been fictionalized in many books, including In the Company of Angels by David Farland. James G. Willie died on 09 Sept 1895, the entire town of Mendon, Utah turned out for his funeral which was held on 13 Sept 1895
26.
Joseph Smith
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Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon, by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, in 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communalistic American Zion. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, during the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the expensive Kirtland Temple. In 1844, Smith and the Nauvoo city council angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that had criticized Smiths power, after Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, he was killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. Smith published many revelations and other texts that his followers regard as scripture and his teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. Joseph Smith Jr. was born on December 23,1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Sr. a merchant, after suffering a crippling bone infection when he was seven, the younger Smith used crutches for three years. During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm, although Smiths parents disagreed about religion, the family was caught up in this excitement. Smith later said he became interested in religion at about the age of twelve, he participated in church classes, as a teenager, he may have been sympathetic to Methodism. With other family members, Smith also engaged in folk magic. Both his parents and his grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. Smith said that although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, years later Smith said that in 1820 he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. While praying in an area near his home, he said that God, in a vision, had told him his sins were forgiven. Smith said he told the experience to a preacher, who dismissed the story with contempt, but the experience was largely unknown, even to most Mormons, until the 1840s. Although Smith may have understood the event as a conversion, this First Vision later grew in importance among Mormons. Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him, Smith reported that during the next four years, he made annual visits to the hill but each time returned without the plates. Meanwhile, the Smith family faced financial hardship due in part to the November 1823 death of Smiths oldest brother Alvin, Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period
27.
Kirtland, Ohio
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For other places with the same name, see Kirtland Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,866 at the 2010 census, Kirtland is famous for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saints movement from 1831–1837 and is the site of the first Mormon temple, the Kirtland Temple, completed in 1836. The city is also the location for many parks in the Lake Metroparks system, after the founding of the United States, northern Ohio was designated as the Western Reserve and was sold to the Connecticut Land Company. The area was first surveyed by Moses Cleaveland and his party in 1796, Kirtland is named for Turhand Kirtland, a principal of the Connecticut Land Company and judge in Trumbull County, the first political entity in Ohio that included Kirtland township. Kirtland, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, demonstrated both breadth of vision and integrity in his dealings with the local Native Americans. He was known for his bravery, resourcefulness, and passion for justice, dr. Jared Potter Kirtland was the son of the former, he helped to found a medical college in nearby Willoughby, Ohio, and he compiled the first ornithology of Ohio. The bird Kirtlands warbler is named for Jared Kirtland and this rare species has been documented in the city during migration, but it does not nest in Ohio. Being less well suited to agriculture, the forested, clay soiled, high, hilly, land of Kirtland was settled later than surrounding townships, Mentor in 1798. Kirtlands first European settlers were the John Moore family, soon followed by the Crary family who came to Kirtland in 1811, in 1893 Christopher Crary wrote a memoir of his Kirtland life, which provided a great deal of material for Anne B. From 1831 to 1838 Kirtland was the headquarters for the Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith moved the church to Kirtland in 1831, shortly after its formal organization in April 1830 in Palmyra, New York. Latter Day Saints built their first temple there, a landmark that is now owned and operated by the Community of Christ. The temple was built with a degree of opulence, considering the nature of the area. Many attending the Kirtland Temple dedication in 1836 claimed to see multiple heavenly visions and appearances of heavenly beings, for this and other reasons, Kirtland remains a place of importance to those of all Latter Day Saint denominations. Many sections from the Doctrine and Covenants, considered modern revelations and canonical by most denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, today, besides giving tours, the Community of Christ church allows others to use the temple for special meetings. After the majority of the Latter Day Saints departed Kirtland in 1837-38, Crary recalls the last rattlesnakes being killed on Gildersleeve Mountain in the 1830s. During this period most of the areas near Kirtland were cleared for agriculture, with corn. In the early 20th century, Kirtland School was built to consolidate 3 school houses, one of the old school houses can still be found at the corner of Baldwin and Booth Roads in Kirtland Hills. Kirtland saw few changes until after World War II when several subdivisions were built
28.
Independence, Missouri
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Independence is the fifth-largest city in the state of Missouri. It lies within Jackson County, of which it is the county seat, Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2010, it had a population of 116,830. Independence is known as the Queen City of the Trails because it was a point of departure for the California, Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. Independence was also the hometown of U. S. President Harry S. Truman, the Truman Presidential Library and Museum is located in the city, and Truman and First Lady Bess Truman are buried here. The city is also sacred to many Latter Day Saints, with Joseph Smiths 1831 Temple Lot being located here, Independence was originally inhabited by Missouri and Osage Indians, followed by the Spanish and a brief French tenure. It became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Lewis and Clark recorded in their journals that they stopped in 1804 to pick plums, raspberries, and wild apples at a site that would later form part of the city. Named after the Declaration of Independence, Independence was founded on March 29,1827, Independence immediately became a jumping-off point for the emerging fur trade, accommodating merchants and adventurers beginning the long trek westward on the Santa Fe Trail. In 1831, members of the Latter Day Saint movement began moving to the Jackson County, Missouri area. Shortly thereafter, founder Joseph Smith declared a spot west of the Courthouse Square to be the place for his temple of the New Jerusalem. Tension grew with local Missourians until the Latter Day Saints were driven from the area in 1833, several branches of this movement gradually returned to the city beginning in 1867, with many making their headquarters there. These include the Community of Christ, the Church of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, Independence saw great prosperity from the late 1830s through the mid-1840s, while the business of outfitting pioneers boomed. Between 1848 and 1868, it was a hub of the California Trail, on March 8,1849, the Missouri General Assembly granted a home-rule charter to the town and on July 18,1849, William McCoy was elected as its first mayor. In the mid-19th century an Act of the United States Congress defined Independence as the start of the Oregon Trail. The war took its toll on Independence and the town was never able to regain its previous prosperity, United States President Harry S. Truman grew up in Independence, and in 1922 was elected judge of the county Court of Jackson County, Missouri. Although he was defeated for reelection in 1924, he won back the office in 1926 and was reelected in 1930 and he would later return to the city after two terms as President. His wife, First Lady Bess Truman, was born and raised in Independence, the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum are both located in Independence, as is one of Trumans boyhood residences. Independence is located at 39°4′47″N 94°24′24″W and it lies on the south bank of the Missouri River, near the western edge of the state
29.
History of the Latter Day Saint movement
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Its history is characterized by intense controversy and persecution in reaction to some of the movements doctrines and practices and their relationship to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of article is to give an overview of the different groups, beliefs. The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith and he claimed that, in response to prayer, he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, as well as angels and other visions. This eventually led him to a restoration of Christian doctrine that, in addition, several early leaders made marked doctrinal and leadership contributions to the movement, including Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Brigham Young. Modern-day revelation from God continues to be a belief of the Mormon faith. This awakening was a Christian response to the secularism of the Age of Enlightenment and extended throughout the United States, a significant early event in this Second Great Awakening was the Cane Ridge Revival, a large camp meeting that took place in 1801 at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Joseph Smiths father, Joseph Smith, Sr. said he had visions or dreams. The people of western New York, like the rest of the United States at the time, were influenced by folk religion. The fathers of both Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were reported to have used divining rods, though not by those within the LDS church, Joseph Smith used seer stones, which he used after his claimed First Vision. Until about the 1830s, the use of such divining media, even as a profession, was thought by many, though not all, as honorable and profitable employment. The Restorationists also intended to eliminate sectarianism, arguing that there should be only one Christian church, while these restorationist ideas were circulating in the western frontier, the family of Joseph Smith was living in western New York, where they attended many of the local revivals. During this time, the area was seeing so many Christian revivals that western New Yorks most well-known revivalist Charles Grandison Finney later dubbed the area the Burned-Over District. Because of a lack of clergy from established churches, this area was open to religious innovations, new movements. However, in spite of their different use of the word restoration, Joseph Smith and several of the church founders were Freemasons, and were founding members of a lodge in Nauvoo, Illinois in March 1842. There are some similarities between Mormon temple worship and symbolism and the stories and symbols of Freemasonry, in modern times, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds no position for or against the compatibility of Masonry with LDS Church doctrine. The early men and women who came together to form what became known as the Latter Day Saint movement, shared beliefs in common with other Restorationists. The beginning of Mormonism centers around a number of early experiences with the heavenly. Many of these experiences, such as visions, visits from angels, prophecy, most Latter Day Saints trace the beginnings of Mormonism to Joseph Smiths First Vision, which he said he had in about 1820 in the woods near his home
30.
Lilburn Boggs
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Lilburn Williams Boggs was the sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840. Boggs was also a key player in the Honey War of 1837, Lilburn W. Boggs was born in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky on December 14,1796, to John McKinley Boggs and Martha Oliver. Boggs served in the War of 1812 and he moved in 1816 from Lexington, Kentucky to Missouri, which was then part of the Louisiana Territory. She died on September 21,1820 in St Louis, Missouri and they had two children, Angus and Henry. In 1823, Boggs married Panthea Grant Boone, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone, in Callaway County and they spent most of the following twenty-three years in Jackson County, Missouri, where all but two of their many children were born. Boggs started out as a clerk, then entered politics and he served as a Missouri state senator in 1825 to 1832, as lieutenant governor from 1832 to 1836, governor from 1836 to 1841, and again as state senator from 1842 to 1846. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description, in rescinding the order, Bond offered his regrets on behalf of the state. Boggs, who was from Independence, moved to a house within the City of Zion plot in Independence after the Mormons were evicted from Missouri and his home was three blocks east of Temple Lot. On the rainy evening of May 6,1842, Boggs was shot by a party who fired at him through a window as he read a newspaper in his study. Boggs was hit by large buckshot in four places, two balls were lodged in his skull, another lodged in his neck, and a fourth entered his throat, several doctors—Boggs brother among them—pronounced Boggs as good as dead, at least one newspaper ran an obituary. To everyones great surprise, Boggs not only survived, but gradually improved, the crime was investigated by Sheriff J. H. Reynolds, who discovered a revolver at the scene, still loaded with buckshot. He surmised that the suspect had fired upon Boggs and lost his firearm in the rainy night when the weapon recoiled due to its unusually large shot. The gun had been stolen from a shopkeeper, who identified that hired man of Wards as the most likely culprit. Reynolds, then acting on the testimony of the storekeeper, determined that the man in question was Orrin Porter Rockwell, Reynolds eventually caught Orrin Porter Rockwell and held him for almost a year while he awaited trial. Reynolds could not produce any evidence that Rockwell was involved in any way and he was acquitted of all charges concerning Boggs, Rockwell denied involvement in oblique terms, stating that he had done nothing criminal. Also at about time, John C. Bennett reported that Smith had offered a cash reward to anyone who would assassinate Boggs. He went on to say that Rockwell had made a threat against Bennetts life if he publicized the story. Joseph Smith vehemently denied Bennetts account, speculating that Boggs — no longer governor and this opinion was not shared by Rockwells most noted biographer, Harold Schindler
31.
Missouri Executive Order 44
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Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the Extermination Order, was an executive order issued on October 27,1838, by the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs. The militia and other state authorities—General John B, Clark, among them—would use the executive order to expel the Mormons from their lands in the state following their capitulation, which in turn led to their subsequent migration to Nauvoo, Illinois. However, the religious and political views of the Mormons did not sit well with the citizens of the state. Tensions had been rising due to 1833 newspaper articles written in Independence, Missouri. On the same day, July 20th 1833, the W. W, phelps printing press, which published The Evening and the Morning Star in Independence, was destroyed by a mob. Early July 1833, the Star announced, “At no very distant period, we shall print the book of Mormon and the Testament, the 1838 Mormon War ended with the expulsion of nearly all Latter-day Saints from the state of Missouri. Executive Order 44 is often referred to as the Extermination Order due to the used by Governor Boggs. The Latter-day Saints had been given a county of their own in 1836, however, the increasing influx of new church converts moving to northwestern Missouri led them to begin settling in adjacent counties. Other settlers, who had operated under the assumption that the Latter-day Saints would remain confined to Caldwell County, on 4 July 1838, church leader Sidney Rigdon delivered an oration in Far West, the county seat of Caldwell County. Samuel Bogart and his militia, operating in northern Ray County, further dispatches spoke of an impending attacks on Richmond, county seat of Ray County, though in fact no such attack was ever contemplated. After hearing these reports Governor Boggs chose to act, previously, Governor Boggs had received word that Latter-day Saints had driven several citizens of Daviess County from their homes. He had then appointed General John Bullock Clark to lead the militia in assisting those citizens to return. The historical facts are clear and irrefutable, persecutions against Mormons during the 19th century were often violent, vicious, many Mormons were murdered and hundreds of surviving refugees died fleeing their persecutors during the Missouri War. General Clark cited Executive Order 44 soon after the Latter-day Saints surrendered in November 1838, Clark furthermore stated, The Latter-day Saints had every reason to trust this threat, considering recent activities involving other members of the state militia. Therefore,15,000 Mormons consisting of men, women and children fled for Illinois immediately in harsh winter conditions, at least one firsthand account asserts local Guardsmen referred to an order issued by the governor that sounds similar to Order 44 as justification for the Hauns Mill massacre. The firsthand account explains soldiers stated the governor had ordered their expulsion or extermination if they did not leave at once. Others state there is no evidence that the militiamen knew of the Executive Order and they instead indicate that unnamed church dissenters had told them that the people of Hauns Mill were planning to invade Livingston County. The question of whether the militiamen knew in advance of Boggs order is still debated today
32.
Death of Joseph Smith
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The assassination of Joseph Smith on June 27,1844, marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois and he was killed while jailed in Carthage, Illinois, on charges relating to his ordering the destruction of facilities producing the Nauvoo Expositor. The newspaper had reported that Smith was practicing polygamy and claimed that he intended to set himself up as a theocratic king, Smith voluntarily surrendered to the authorities at the county seat at Carthage to face the charges against him. While he was in jail awaiting trial, a mob of men with painted faces stormed the jail, they shot and killed him. Since then, Latter Day Saints generally view the two men as religious martyrs, five men were indicted for their murders but were acquitted at a jury trial. The Mormons began to move into Hancock County in 1839, at the time, after their people were expelled from Missouri, Joseph Smith went to Washington, DC and met with President Martin Van Buren, seeking intervention and compensation for lost property. Van Buren said he could do nothing to help, after returning to Illinois, Smith vowed to join the Whig Party. Most of his supporters switched with him, adding political tensions to the suspicions in which this group were held. Several of Smiths disaffected associates at Nauvoo and Hancock County, Illinois and its first and only issue was published June 7,1844. Based on allegations by some of associates, the newspaper reported that Smith practiced polygamy. It said that he tried to marry wives of some of his associates, about eight of Smiths wives had already been married to other men at the time they married Smith. Typically, these continued to live with their first husband. Some accounts say Smith may have had relations with one wife. The reliability of sources is disputed by some Latter Day Saints. DNA investigations performed to date have consistently shown that Smith was not the father of children thought to be his based on written and they reached this decision after lengthy discussion, including citation of William Blackstones legal canon, which defined a libelous press as a public nuisance. Under the councils new ordinance, Smith, as Nauvoos mayor, in conjunction with the city council, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper, by the city marshals account, the destruction of the press type was carried out orderly and peaceably. However, Charles A. Foster, a co-publisher of the Expositor, reported on June 12 that not only was the press destroyed. Smiths critics said that the action of destroying the press violated freedom of the press, some sought legal charges against Smith for the destruction of the press, including charges of treason and inciting riot
33.
Apostle (Latter Day Saints)
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‹See Tfd› In the Latter Day Saint movement, an apostle is a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ who is sent to teach the principles of salvation to others. In many Latter Day Saint churches, an apostle is an office of high authority within the church hierarchy. In many churches, apostles may be members of the Quorum of the Twelve, in most Latter Day Saint churches, modern-day apostles are considered to have the same status and authority as the Biblical apostles. In the Latter Day Saint tradition, apostles and prophets are believed to be the foundation of the church, joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were both designated apostles by 1830. Other church members with proselytizing responsibilities were also referred to as apostles, a June 1829 revelation appointed Cowdery and David Whitmer to designate twelve disciples. Subsequently, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was organized February 14,1835, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, apostle is the highest priesthood office of the Melchizedek priesthood. The President of the Church is always an apostle, as are the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in practice, counselors in the First Presidency are almost always apostles as well. There are usually at least twelve apostles in the LDS Church, some apostles have been ordained to that office without being included within the Quorum of the Twelve. Joseph Angell Young was ordained an apostle in 1864 but was never a member of either the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or the First Presidency, joseph F. Smith, Brigham Young, Jr. and Sylvester Q. Cannon had each been ordained as apostles before eventually being called into the Quorum of the Twelve, the next most senior apostle becomes president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Following their calling to the apostleship, members of the Quorum are sustained in general conference as apostles and prophets, seers and this procedure also takes place at other meetings of church members such as ward and stake conferences. Each member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve is sustained by name, usually, the president of the church ordains a new apostle, although any other apostle may ordain a person to the priesthood office. The calling of an apostle is to be a witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world, particularly of his divinity. Twelve men with this high calling constitute an administrative council in the work of the ministry, when a vacancy occurred with the death of Judas Iscariot, Matthias was divinely appointed to that special office as a member of the council. Today twelve men with this same divine calling and ordination constitute the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The title was applied to others who, though not of the number of the original twelve. Paul repeatedly spoke of himself as an apostle and he applied the titles to James, the Lords brother, and also to Barnabas. Jesus is referred to as an apostle in Heb,3, 1-2, a designation meaning that he is the personal and select representative of the Father
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President of the Church (LDS Church)
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In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the President of the Church is the highest office of the church. It was the held by Joseph Smith, founder of the church. The President of the LDS Church is the leader and the head of the First Presidency. Latter-day Saints consider the president of the church to be a prophet, seer, and revelator, and refer to him as the Prophet, when the name of the president is used by adherents, it is usually prefaced by the title President. The President of the Church serves as the head of both the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes and the Council of the Church, the President of the Church also serves as the ex officio chairman of the Church Boards of Trustees/Education. The concept that the Church of Christ would have a single presiding officer arose in late 1831, initially, after the churchs formation on April 6,1830, Joseph Smith referred to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the church. However, there was another apostle—Oliver Cowdery—and several other elders of the church, for he receiveth them even as Moses. This established Smiths exclusive right to lead the church, in early June 1831, Smith was ordained to the high priesthood, along with twenty-two other men, including prominent figures in the church such as Hyrum Smith, Parley P. Pratt, and Martin Harris. As high priests, these men were higher in the hierarchy than the elders of the church. However, it was unclear whether Smiths and Cowderys callings as apostles gave them superior authority to that of other high priests. And again the duty of the President of the priesthood is to preside over the whole church. Smith was ordained to this position and sustained by the church on January 25,1832, at a conference in Amherst, in 1835, the Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ were revised, changing the phrase an. Elder of the church to the first elder of this Church, thus, subsequent to 1835, Smith was sometimes referred to as the First Elder of the church. The 1835 revision also added a verse referring to the office of president of the high priesthood, in 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob. Hyrum Smith, his successor, was killed in the same incident. Smith had not indisputably established who was next in line as successor to President of the Church, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young would not be ordained President of the Church until December 1847, thomas S. Monson is the 16th and current President of the LDS Church. As president, Monson is considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, a printer by trade, Monson has spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and in public service
35.
Mountain man
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A mountain man is a male trapper and explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s and this was partially because the fur industry was failing due to reduced demand and over trapping. Others, like William Sublette, opened up fort-trading posts along the Oregon Trail to service the remnant fur trade, Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s. Approximately 3,000 mountain men ranged the mountains between 1820 and 1840, the peak beaver-harvesting period, while there were many free trappers, most mountain men were employed by major fur companies. The life of a man was almost militarized. The men had mess groups, hunted and trapped in brigades and this man was called a boosway, a bastardization of the French term bourgeois. He was the leader of the brigade and the head trader, Donald Mackenzie, representing the North West Company, held a rendezvous in the Boise River Valley in 1819. Ashley sold his business to the outfit of Jedediah Smith Jackson and he continued to earn revenue by selling that firm their supplies. This system of rendezvous with trappers continued when other firms, particularly the American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor, the annual rendezvous was often held at Horse Creek on the Green River, now called the Upper Green River Rendezvous Site, near present-day Pinedale, Wyoming. Another popular site in the general area was Pierres Hole. By the mid-1830s, it attracted 450-500 men annually, essentially all the American trappers and traders working in the Rockies, in the late 1830s, the Canadian-based Hudsons Bay Company instituted a policy to destroy the American fur trade. The HBCs annual Snake River Expedition was transformed to a trading enterprise, beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to buy furs at low prices. The HBC was able to offer manufactured trade goods at prices far below that with which American fur companies could compete, combined with a decline in demand for and supply of beaver, by 1840 the HBC had effectively destroyed the American system. The last rendezvous was held in 1840, during the same years, fashion in Europe shifted away from the formerly popular beaver hats, at the same time, the animal had become over-hunted. After achieving an American monopoly by 1830, Astor got out of the fur business before its decline, by 1841 the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company were in ruins. By 1846 only some 50 American trappers still worked in the Snake River country, soon after the strategic victory by the HBC, the Snake River route was used for emigrants as the Oregon Trail, which brought a new form of competition. Former trappers earned money as guides or hunters for the emigrant parties, a second fur trading and supply center grew up in Taos in what is today New Mexico. This trade attracted numerous French Americans from Louisiana and some French Canadian trappers, some New Mexican residents also pursued the beaver trade, as Mexican citizens initially had some legal advantages
36.
Pierre-Jean De Smet
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His extensive travels as a missionary were said to total 180,000 miles. He was known as the Friend of Sitting Bull, because he persuaded the Sioux war chief to participate in negotiations with the United States government for the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, part of the complex survives today as Sacred Heart Church in Bowie. De Smet moved west to St. Louis to complete his studies in 1823. De Smet and five other Belgian novices, led by Charles Van Quickenborne, moved to Florissant, Missouri, several academic institutions were immediately founded, among which the St. Regis Seminary where De Smet had his first contacts with indigenous boys. After further studies, he was ordained priest on 23 September 1827, until 1830, he learned about Indian customs and languages as a prefect at the seminary. In 1833 he had to return to Belgium due to health problems and it was 1837 before he could return to Missouri. In 1838 and 1839, De Smet helped to establish St. Josephs Mission in what is now Council Bluffs, taking over the abandoned Council Bluffs Blockhouse military fort, De Smet worked primarily with a Potawatomi band led by Billy Caldwell, also known as Sauganash. De Smet was appalled by the murders and brutality resulting from the whiskey trade, during this time, he also assisted and supported Joseph Nicollet’s efforts at mapping the Upper Midwest. De Smet used newly acquired mapping skills to produce the first detailed map of the Missouri River valley system and his map shows the locations of Indian villages and other cultural features, including the wreck of the Steamboat Pirate. Louis to request black-robes to be sent among them to baptize their children, sick, the first three delegations failed due to disease and massacre, while passing through the Territory of the Sioux, but the fourth was successful. Fr. de Smet was then assigned to accompany the messengers back to the Indian territory, to ascertain the nation and establish a mission among them. On 5 July 1840, Father De Smet offered the first Holy Mass in Wyoming, a mile east of Daniel, a monument to the event stands on its site. In 1841, St. Marys Mission was founded among the Salish by De Smet and he noted the proselytising of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions under Henry H. Spalding based at Lapwai had made neighboring Nimíipuu nation wary of Catholicism. One particular band of Nimíipuu was convinced to reside at the mission for a period of two months, their time there ending in everyone receiving baptism. Near the end of his time with the Salish, De Smet sent out an appeal to the United States public for financial aid to bolster his efforts. He viewed their cultural habit of a living to make it impossible to do any solid. He forwarded a plan that the Salish be assembled in villages—must be taught the art of agriculture, consequently must be supplied with implements, with cattle, with seed. One of De Smets longest explorations began in August 1845 in the occupied region west of the Rockies, known to Americans as Oregon Country
37.
Society of Jesus
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
38.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
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Platte River
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The Platte River /plæt/ is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about 310 mi long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, the Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Platte over most of its length is a muddy, broad, shallow, meandering stream with a swampy bottom and these characteristics made it too difficult for canoe travel, and it was never used as a major navigation route by European-American trappers or explorers. This expression is very close to the French words rivière plate, in central north Colorado is the North Park valley, ringed by mountains of 12,000 feet height, this is where the North Platte River originates. The nearest Colorado town is Walden, the county seat, the rugged Rocky Mountains Continental Divide surrounding Jackson County have at least twelve peaks over 11,000 feet in height. From Jackson County, the North Platte flows north about 200 miles out of the Routt National Forest and North Park near what is now Walden to Casper, Wyoming. Shortly after passing Casper, the North Platte turns to the east-southeast and flows about 350 miles to the city of North Platte, Nebraska. In Colorado and Wyoming, the North Platte is narrower and much swifter flowing than it is in Nebraska, the North Platte River has been dammed about eight times for water storage and irrigation purposes in Wyoming and Nebraska as it flows to its confluence with the South Platte River. The upper reaches of the river in the Rockies in Colorado and Wyoming are popular for rafting and lure and fly fishing for rainbow, brown, cutthroat trout. In western Nebraska, the banks and riverbed of the North Platte provide a green oasis amid an otherwise semi-arid region of North America, today, by the time the North Platte reaches Paxton, Nebraska it is much smaller due to the extensive water taken from it for irrigation. Historically, the North Platte River was up to a mile wide in places, as evidenced by the old streambed. The South Platte drains a part of the Front Range mountains east of the continental divide. The part of the river labeled the South Platte is formed in Park County, Colorado, located southwest of Denver, in the South Park grassland basin and mountains east of the continental divide. It is formed by the confluence of the South Fork South Platte River and Middle Fork South Platte River, approximately 15 miles southeast of Fairplay, Colorado. From Greeley, the South Platte turns east and flows about 200 miles to its confluence with the North Platte River near the city of North Platte, Nebraska. The South Platte River has been dammed about 20 times for storage, drinking water. The total number of dams in the South Platte drainage may exceed 1,000 as nearly all major streams have at least one dam on them, the South Platte River serves as the principal source of water for arid eastern Colorado. The South Platte River valley provided a major emigration path to Denver, the wagon trails followed the south side of the Platte/North Platte River
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North Platte River
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The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately 716 miles long counting its many curves. It travels about 550 miles distance and its course lies in the U. S. states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The rugged Rocky Mountains surrounding Jackson County have at least twelve peaks over 11,000 feet in height, from Jackson County the river flows north about 200 miles out of the Routt National Forest and North Park near what is now Walden, Colorado to Casper, Wyoming. Shortly after passing Casper the river turns to the east-southeast and flows about 350 miles to the city of North Platte, the North Platte and South Platte River join to form the Platte River in western Nebraska near the city of North Platte, Nebraska. The Platte River flows to the Missouri River which joins the Mississippi River to flow to the Gulf of Mexico, the river provides the major avenue of drainage for northern Colorado, eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. It is only navigable over most of its length at high water by canoes, kayaks, the North Platte River drainage has been an important westward route in the westward expansion of the United States. To get the two essentials, water and grass for the animals the emigration trails nearly always followed river valleys across the North American continent. These trails extended from the Missouri River, Platte River and North Platte River across Nebraska and parts of Wyoming and on to its confluence with the Sweetwater River. About 50 miles beyond what is now Casper, Wyoming the main emigration trails left the North Platte valley and followed the Sweetwater River valley, the lack of American trappers and settlers in the contested Oregon Territory resulted in this early discovery being unused and nearly forgotten. Mule trains carrying in trading supplies for the men and fur trappers were some of the first to use the trail in 1824. The fur traders on their return trip carried the traded furs back east at the end of the trading season. This fur trade continued to be used to about 1840. Following the fur traders, the emigration trails established along the north and south banks of the North Platte River were the Oregon, California, Mormon. The trails north of the North Platte River originally crossed the North Platte near Fort Laramie to join the original Oregon, in 1850 Childs Route extended the north side trail to what is now Casper, Wyoming. The rugged territory from Laramie, Wyoming to Casper meant that the trails often deviated from the river to find an easier path, up in central north Colorado rests North Park, a valley ringed by 12,000 feet mountains. The rugged Rocky Mountains Continental Divide surrounding Jackson County have at least twelve peaks over 11,000 feet in height, in Jackson county the North Platte is joined by several other small streams draining the mountains around the county. Some of these creeks are, Arapaho Creek, Colorado Creek, East Branch Illinois River, Jack Creek, all these streams are draining the snow melt form the mountains surrounding Jackson County. The North Platte River flows northward from Colorado into Wyoming through the popular rafting site – Northgate Canyon which is along the side of the Medicine Bow Mountains
41.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
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Iowa Territory
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The remainder of the territory would have no organized territorial government until the Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3,1849. Most of the comprising the territory was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase and was a part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri became a state in 1821, this effectively became unorganized territory. The area was closed to white settlers until the 1830s, after the Black Hawk War ended and it was attached to the Michigan Territory on June 28,1834. The territory north of line was named Dubuque County. When Michigan became a state in 1836 the area became the Iowa District of western Wisconsin Territory—the region west of the Mississippi River. The original boundaries of the territory, as established in 1838, included Minnesota and parts of the Dakotas, burlington was the stop-gap capital, Iowa City was designated as the official territorial capital in 1841. When Iowa became a state on December 28,1846, no provision was made for official organization of the remainder of the territory. Morgan L. Martin, the Wisconsin territorial delegate to congress, while the bill passed in the house, it did not pass the senate. In the following session a bill by Stephen A. Douglas was introduced in the senate, the situation was resolved when Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3,1849, the day before the close of congress. Conway, appointed 1838, died in office, November 1839, william W. Chapman 25th and 26th Congresses, 1838–1840 Francis Gehon, irregularly elected in 1839, but never served as delegate Augustus C. S. S
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Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
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Missouri River
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The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river takes drainage from a populated, semi-arid watershed of more than half a million square miles. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the fourth longest river system. For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. More than ten major groups of Native Americans populated the watershed, most leading a nomadic lifestyle, the Missouri River was one of the main routes for the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. The growth of the fur trade in the early 1800s laid much of the groundwork as trappers explored the region, pioneers headed west en masse beginning in the 1830s, first by covered wagon, then by the growing numbers of steamboats entering service on the river. Former Native American lands in the watershed were taken over by settlers, leading to some of the most longstanding, during the 20th century, the Missouri River basin was extensively developed for irrigation, flood control and the generation of hydroelectric power. Fifteen dams impound the main stem of the river, with more on tributaries. Meanders have been cut and the river channelized to improve navigation, from the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, three streams rise to form the headwaters of the Missouri River. The longest begins near Browers Spring,9,100 feet above sea level, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Mountains. Flowing west then north, it runs first in Hell Roaring Creek, then west into the Red Rock, swings northeast to become the Beaverhead and these two streams then flow north and northwest into Montana. The Missouri River officially starts at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison in Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks, Montana, the Missouri then passes through Canyon Ferry Lake, a reservoir west of the Big Belt Mountains. Issuing from the mountains near Cascade, the flows northeast to the city of Great Falls, where it drops over the Great Falls of the Missouri. Farther on, the passes through the Fort Peck Dam, and immediately downstream. At the confluence, the Yellowstone is actually the larger river, the Missouri then meanders east past Williston and into Lake Sakakawea, the reservoir formed by Garrison Dam. Below the dam the Missouri receives the Knife River from the west and flows south to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota and it slows into the Lake Oahe reservoir just before the Cannonball River confluence. While it continues south, eventually reaching Oahe Dam in South Dakota, the Missouri makes a bend to the southeast as it winds through the Great Plains, receiving the Niobrara River and many smaller tributaries from the southwest
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Omaha, Nebraska
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Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, which includes Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha. According to the 2010 census, Omahas population was 408,958, according to the 2014 Population Estimates, Omahas population was 446,599. Including its suburbs, Omaha formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2013, the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, Nebraska-IA Combined Statistical Area is 931,667, according to the U. S. Census Bureaus 2013 estimate. There are nearly 1.3 million residents within the Greater Omaha area, comprising a 50-mile radius of Downtown Omaha, Omahas pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, Omaha introduced this new West to the world in 1898, when it played host to the Worlds Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During the 19th century, Omahas central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub, throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries. In the 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards, once the worlds largest, Omaha is also the home to five Fortune 1000 headquarters, Green Plains Renewable Energy, TD Ameritrade, Valmont Industries, Werner Enterprises, and West Corporation. And Leo A Daly, the Gallup Organization, of Gallup Poll fame, Enron began in Omaha as Northern Natural Gas in 1930, before taking over a smaller Houston company in 1985 to form InterNorth, which Kenneth Lay moved permanently to Houston, in 1987. The modern economy of Omaha is diverse and built on skilled knowledge jobs, in 2009, Forbes identified Omaha as the nations number one Best Bang-For-The Buck City and ranked it number one on Americas Fastest-Recovering Cities list. Also, Omaha hosted the U. S. Olympic swim trials in 2008,2012 and 2016, the word Omaha means Dwellers on the bluff. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by the riverbanks where the city of Omaha would be built, there was fierce competition among fur traders until John Jacob Astor created the monopoly of the American Fur Company. The Mormons built a town called Cutlers Park in the area in 1846, while it was temporary, the settlement provided the basis for further development in the future. Through 26 separate treaties with the United States federal government, Native American tribes in Nebraska gradually ceded the lands comprising the state. The treaty and cession involving the Omaha area occurred in 1854 when the Omaha Tribe ceded most of east-central Nebraska, Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter for the Omaha and signatory to the 1854 treaty, played an essential role in those proceedings. Before it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs, Brown is generally credited as having the first vision for a city where Omaha now sits. The passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 was presaged by the out of claims around the area to become Omaha by residents from neighboring Council Bluffs. On July 4,1854, the city was established at a picnic on Capital Hill
46.
Wagon train
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A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In a military context, a train was the wagon train that followed an army with supplies. In the American West, settlers traveling across the plains and mountain passes in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, although wagon trains are associated with the Old West, the Trekboers of South Africa also traveled in caravans of covered wagons. Virtually all U. S. trails originated in Independence, Missouri, perhaps the most famous wagon train trail was the Oregon Trail which had a span of over 2,000 miles. Other paths included the Santa Fe Trail, the Chisholm Trail, the California Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail. Although wagon train suggests a line of wagons, when permitted, wagons would often fan out. Originally, westward movement began in small groups, but well-funded travelers with a hundred or more wagons could employ professional wagon masters and ostlers, Overland emigrants discovered smaller groups of twenty to forty wagons were more manageable than larger ones, especially without professional wagon masters. Many operated under democratic principles, creating bylaws and electing a captain, in reality, a captain had limited authority. His role was largely confined to getting everyone moving in the morning and selecting when, membership in wagon trains was generally fluid and wagons frequently joined or left trains depending on the needs and wishes of their owners. An accident or illness, for instance, might force someone to fall behind and wait for the next train, some might break away to settle in Colorado Territory or other territories along the way. While Indians might attempt to raid horses under cover of darkness, contrary to popular belief, wagons were seldom circled defensively. The advent of gunpowder meant that an army could no longer rely solely on foraging in the surrounding countryside. In the 18th century, organized commissary and quartermaster departments were developed to centralize delivery of supplies, the delivery took the form of baggage trains, large groups of wagons that traveled at the rear of the main army. Westward-bound collective treks are reflected in numerous books, films and television programs about the journeys, cavalcade Conestoga wagon Convoy Covered wagon Laager Stewart, George R. The California Trail, An Epic With Many Heroes, the Plains Across, The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60. Urbana, University of Illinois Press,1993, children on the Oregon Trail Life and Death on the Oregon Trail, Â Provisions for births and lethal circumstances, Â OCTA. Oregon-California Trails Association - Oregon Trail History, brown, Dee Alexander, and Martin Ferdinand Schmitt. Media related to Wagon trains at Wikimedia Commons Wagon Train at Spartacus Educational http, //www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/634001/wagon-train
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Fort Laramie National Historic Site
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It was founded in the 1830s to service the overland fur trade during the middle 19th century. It sat at the bottom of the long climb leading to the best and lowest crossing point at South Pass into western descending valleys and so was a primary stopping point on the Oregon Trail. Along with Bents Fort on the Arkansas River, the trading post, Fort William was a private fur trading post founded by William Sublette in 1834. In 1841 it was purchased by the American Fur Company and renamed Fort John, the name Fort Laramie came into gradual use, likely as a convenient shortening of Fort John at the Laramie River. The remaining structures are preserved as the Fort Laramie National Historic Site by the National Park Service, in 1815 or 1816, Jacques La Ramee and a small group of fellow trappers settled in the area where Fort Laramie would later be located. He went out alone to trap in 1819 or 1820 and was never seen again, arapahoe Indians were accused of killing La Ramie and putting his body in a beaver dam. The river was named “Laramie” in his honor, and the name would later be given to the Laramie Mountains, the fort, one of the early principal owner-trappers was William Sublette, and the fort was therefore called Fort William. For a period of time until it was sold to the American Fur Company in 1841 and it was later named Fort John after John B. The 1846 treaties established new desirable stable western territories just after viable routes west had become well published. By the time the migration by occasional wagon trains along the Oregon Trail became regular annual flood of migrants. The fort was located along the northward running Laramie River just south of its mouth out-letting onto the North Platte River. The forts site is located on the bank of the location of the town of Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Geographically the site is situated just east of the steeper, much more challenging, in 1845 the nearby Fort Bernard was established about 8 miles east farther down the North Platte River in hopes of cutting into the growing Emigrant Trail trade with western bound wagon trains. This much smaller fort undersold the Laramie trading operation, and did excellent business, fortunately for Fort Laramie, Fort Bernard burnt down in 1866, and was never rebuilt. The fort was purchased from Bruce Husband, a member of the American Fur Company, three companies of cavalry arrived at the fort that same month, and Company ‘G’, 6th Infantry, which was the post’s permanent garrison for many years, arrived on August 12,1849. The fort was taken over by the Army largely to protect, during the increasing strife of the 1860s, the fort took on a more military posture. Fort Laramie was never threatened by Indian attacks during the quarter-century of intermittent warfare sparked by the Grattan massacre. However, a number of civilians were killed in the immediate area, the last known death occurred in March 1877 on the Big Bitter Cottonwood Creek
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Mormon Battalion
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The Mormon Battalion, the only religiously based unit in United States military history, served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. The battalion was a unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men, led by Mormon company officers commanded by regular U. S. Army officers. During its service, the made a grueling march of nearly 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa. The march also opened a wagon route to California. Veterans of the battalion played significant roles in Americas westward expansion in California, Utah, Arizona, under continued religious persecution, they had fled Nauvoo, Illinois, on February 4,1846 across the Mississippi River. They camped among the Potawatomi Indians near present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, sent Elder Jesse C. Little to Washington, D. C. to seek assistance from the government for the Mormon Pioneers fleeing from the Illinois mobs. Little arrived in Washington D. C. on May 21,1846, pennsylvania Army officer and attorney Thomas L. Kane offered the Mormons his advice and assistance. Politically well connected through his jurist father, Kane provided letters of recommendation and joined Little in Washington, the two called on the secretary of state, secretary of war, and President James K. Polk. After several interviews in early June 1846, President Polk agreed to Littles offer if a few hundred men enlisted, on June 2,1846, President Polk wrote in his diary, Col. Kearny was. On July 1,1846 Captain James Allen, dispatched by Colonel Stephen W. Kearny and he carried President Polks request for a battalion of 500 volunteers to fight in the Mexican War. Most members of the Church were suspicious of the request, as the Federal government had ignored the persecutions they suffered and they were concerned about facing discrimination by the government, as they had from both the state and federal government in the past. Kane obtained U. S. government permission for the refugee Mormons to occupy Pottawattamie, after carrying dispatches relating to the land agreements and battalion criteria to Fort Leavenworth, Kane sought out Little in the Mormon encampments on the Missouri. On July 17,1846, he held a meeting with church leaders, Brigham Young had planned on moving the Mormons west that summer, but circumstances were against his plan. He saw several possible advantages to the Saints in the federal service. Their enlistment would be a public relations victory for the church, as the men were given a uniform allowance at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. These funds were used to purchase wagons, teams, and other necessities for the American exodus, having been forced to leave farms and homes in Nauvoo, the Latter-day Saints were going to spend the winter on the banks of the Missouri River. Raising a group of able-bodied men would be difficult, many men had already scattered to outlying areas where they sought jobs with wages to help support the group
