Beginning in February 1846, the vanguard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struggled across southern Iowa from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa, on the way to a new Zion in the Rocky Mountains. The frozen landscape soon turned to nearly impassable mud and muck, testing the endurance of people, animals, and equipment, but faith and determination sustained them as thousands of men, women, and children reached the Missouri River under extremely difficult conditions. After wintering in the present-day Omaha/Council Bluffs district, they continued across Nebraska and Wyoming to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. The migration involved an entire people establishing new homes in the West, so women bore major responsibilities for caring for infants and children, gathering fuel, cooking, churning, sewing, laundering, nursing, and enduring frequent childbirth on the trail. Even in the wilderness, women worked to preserve a semblance of home and civilization by arranging belongings around campfires like parlors and decorating wagon interiors with mirrors, carpets, and lamps. Journal excerpts recall making coffee and meals from game, dancing by the fire, holding an outdoor quilting and tea, and riding horseback to help drive stock despite daily toil, hardship, and death.