From the late 1840s through the 1860s, an exodus of more than 70,000 Mormons passed through this region on their way to their "New Zion" in Utah. Beginning at Nauvoo, Illinois, in February 1846, the first group of at least 13,000 crossed into Iowa to escape religious persecution, then spent the next winter near present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. In 1847, Brigham Young led an advance party of 143 men, 2 women, and 3 children along the Platte River, and at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, they left the Oregon Trail and turned southwest toward the Great Salt Lake. Thousands more soon followed, and during the exodus of 1846-47 Mormon pioneers established communities and ferry crossings along the trail to aid later emigrants traveling to and from Utah. From 1856-60, most Mormon converts arriving from Europe traveled by rail to Iowa City, Iowa, then walked more than 1,200 miles to Salt Lake City while pushing and pulling handcarts loaded with 500 pounds of supplies. After 1860, the Mormon church sent oxen-drawn wagon trains from Salt Lake City to bring emigrants west. Many Mormons recorded these ordeals and adventures in diaries, including Appleton Harmon, who wrote of his experiences near Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff in 1847.