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Statue of Brigham Young in the United States Capital Rotunda
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Brigham Young Settled in the Great Salt Lake Valley
July 24, 1847
They had embarked on a treacherous thousand-mile journey, looking for a new place to settle the "Promised Land." On July 24, 1847, an exhausted Brigham Young and his fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley and called it home. The Mormons, as they were commonly known, had moved west to escape religious discrimination. After the murder of founder and prophet Joseph Smith, they knew they had to leave their old settlement in Illinois. Many Mormons died in the cold, harsh winter months as they made their way over the Rocky Mountains to Utah. When they reached the Salt Lake area, they saw it was remote and wild. So why did they settle there?
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