Winter Quarters

In 1846, an oppressed people fleeing a vengeful mob found a haven in the wilderness at Winter Quarters. Established under the direction of Mormon leader Brigham Young, Winter Quarters sheltered more than 3,000 people during the winter of 1846-1847. Living in log cabins, sod houses, and dugouts, they lacked adequate provisions, and when spring arrived more than six hundred of the faithful lay buried in the cemetery on the hill. Winter Quarters became the administration center of a great religious movement, and in the spring of 1847 a pioneer band left there to cross the Plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley, with thousands of others following the trail. In 1855, Young was forced to utilize handcarts for transportation, and the first company, comprising about five hundred persons, left on July 17 and reached the Valley on September 26, 1856. The town of Florence, established in 1854, was built upon the site of Winter Quarters, where James C. Mitchell and associates of the Florence Land Company established a thriving community, and the Bank of Florence, built in 1856, stands today as a symbol of that historical past.

Omaha, Nebraska · United States