Fleeing heated religious and political hostility and persecution, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as Mormons, abruptly left their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, in February 1846. Unprepared for the cold of winter, they traveled 265 agonizing miles in four months across southern Iowa, where heavy spring rains turned the rolling plains into a quagmire of axle-deep mud. Sheer exhaustion and a lack of provisions continually hampered their efforts, leading them to stop and winter near the banks of the Missouri River. In the spring of 1847, after a respite and a chance to make better travel plans, 143 men, three women, and two boys started across Nebraska for a new Zion on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Following a rough trace blazed by earlier explorers, fur traders, and missionaries, this pioneering group began laying out a route to the West that would later be used by thousands of other Mormons and Forty-niners. These first pioneers established ferries, campsites, bridges, and supply depots, improvements that earned the route the name "The Mormon Trail."