Handcart Pioneer Monument

Not every Mormon emigrant could afford an ox and wagon. Through the 1850s, thousands of the poorest converts — most of them British — crossed thirteen hundred miles of plains on foot, pushing and pulling everything they owned in handmade wooden handcarts. Nearly three thousand finished the trek; some two hundred and fifty did not, many lost when the Willie and Martin companies were caught by early snow in 1856. This monument, placed on Temple Square for the 1947 centennial, honors them — the pioneers who walked to Zion.

What the plaque says

The Handcart Pioneer Monument is a tribute to the thousands of hardy Mormon pioneers who, because they could not afford the larger ox-drawn wagons, walked across the rugged plains in the 1850s, pulling and pushing all their belongings possessions in handmade, all-wooden handcarts. Some 250 died on the journey, but nearly 3,000, mostly British converts, competed the 1,350-mile trek from Iowa City, Iowa to the Salt Lake Valley. Many Latter-day Saints today proudly recount the trials and the triumphs of their ancestors who were among the Mormon handcart pioneers.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Square — steps away
  The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
• Salt Lake City — steps away
  Utah's capital and largest city — where the Wasatch Range meets the Great Salt Lake.
• Ensign Peak — 1.5 mi
  A short hike to the spot where Brigham Young surveyed the valley
• Liberty Park — 1.9 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882

More markers nearby

• Sea Gull Monument — steps away
• Assembly Hall — steps away
• Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood Mon. — steps away
• The Testimony of Three Witnesses — steps away