Existing comment:
1. Exodus from Nauvoo:
Mob activity compelled the Latter-day Saints to begin an exodus from Nauvoo months earlier than planned. Flatboats carried the first wagons across the Mississippi River to Iowa on 4 February 1846, but a few weeks into the evacuation the river froze over and hundreds of wagons crossed on the ice. After the 1844 murder of their prophet-leader, Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saints rushed to complete construction of their sacred temple in Nauvoo, which they then had to quickly abandon. Many of their homes and farms were also abandoned because no buyers could be found. By the end of 1846, more than 10,000 people had crossed the river and started west. |