A rare, separately-published version of this striking 1899 panoramic bird’s-eye view of the 1846-47 migration of the Mormon pioneers.

Background

From 1838 to 1846 most Mormons had settled in Nauvoo, Illinois under the leadership of Joseph Smith and his successor Bingham Young. Tensions between the newly arrived Mormons and established Nauvoo residents led to the Quincy Convention of 1845, which demanded that all Mormons depart by May 1846. Consulting trappers and frontiersmen, Young settled on the Great Basin, then largely belonging to Mexico, as their destination.

The trek westward began on February 4. 1846. After crossing the Mississippi River at Nauvoo, the journey passed through Iowa Territory following early explorer’s routes and Native American paths. Though Young had anticipated that a vanguard company would be able to reach the Great Basin before Winter, the journey was slowed by poor weather and general unpreparedness. The migrants were forced to winter along the Missouri, many at “Winter Quarters” across the river from Council Bluffs. The vanguard company departed in April 1847, followed the Platte and reached Fort Laramie in June, then began the arduous ascent to South Pass, and ultimately descended into the Great Basin. They arrived at the Great Salt Lake on July 21, and the first irrigation ditches were purportedly dug and fields planted just two days later. Brigham Young himself, who had been taken seriously ill on the journey, arrived on the 24th. By the end of the year some 2000 Mormons had completed the journey.

The view

This chromolithographic view depicts the region between the Mississippi River and Great Salt Lake and chronicles this 1300-mile migration. In order to emphasize the drama of the journey, it exaggerates the east-west breadth of the Rocky Mountain region relative to the Plains, while the breadth of the major rivers and height of the Rockies are wildly out of scale. Likely for the same reason, political boundaries are entirely omitted as are all but a few forts and major cities. The route of the migration is indicated by a heavy dashed line, with small circles and dates indicating their day-by-day progress.

The visual appeal of the image is greatly enhanced by dozens of pictorial vignettes. Flanking the route itself are tiny profile views of Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, Devil’s Gate, Giant Butte, Pulpit Rock and numerous other features encountered by the Mormons. At the base of the view a group of much larger images illustrate circled wagons at night, a native American village, a wagon train, a buffalo hunt, and the scenery of the Rockies. The information on the view is said to have been derived from the journals of Orson Pratt and his brother Parley P. Pratt, original members of the “Quorum of Twelve Apostles.”

There are three known versions of this view, including two variants of a large-scale edition and one reduced edition. Most known examples of the large edition were printed on thin paper and folded into a Guide to the route map of the Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo to Great Salt Lake, 1846-1847. The present example, however, was printed on very heavy card stock, issued separately, and clearly intended for presentation and/or display. The small-scale edition measures roughly 8 ½”h x 29”w, lacks the legend and vignette in the lower margin, and bears a prominent note that it was “issued by the New Wilson European Hotel, Salt Lake City.” This edition seems to have been issued over several years both as a pocket map and tipped into a guide book.

The large-scale edition was issued in Salt Lake City by Millroy & Hayes. OCLC records no other publications under their name, though “Millroy” was likely the J.J. Millroy who in 1897 published Millroy’s Map of Alaska and the Klondyke Gold Fields.

References

Graff #3585 (folding version of large-format edition). Rumsey #11143 (presentation version of large-format edition).