Mount Pisgah was a semi-permanent settlement or way station from 1846 to 1852 along the Mormon Trail between Garden Grove and

Council Bluffs Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is loc ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. It is located near the small community of Thayer in Jones Township, Union County. This site is now part of the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. It is the birthplace of

Helaman Pratt Helaman Pratt (31 May 1846 – 26 November 1909) was an early leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the U.S. states of Nevada and Utah and later in Mexico. Family Helaman was the son of Parley P. Pratt and Glasgow-born wif ...

. The address of the memorial is 1704 Mount Pisgah Road in Thayer. After the 1844 death of

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, ...

, the founder of the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by J ...

, most members of the Church aligned themselves with

Brigham Young Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as ch ...

and

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS). Under Young's leadership, about 13,000 Mormon citizens of Nauvoo, Illinois set out to find a new home in the West. On May 18, 1846, Nauvoo exiles established a permanent camp and resting place on the middle fork (Twelve-Mile Creek) of the Grand River on Potawatomi Indian land. The site was selected and named ''Mount Pisgah'' by LDS

apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...

Parley P. Pratt Parley Parker Pratt Sr. (April 12, 1807 – May 13, 1857) was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith. Named in 1835 as one of the first ...

, who, when he first saw the modest hill, was reminded of the biblical Pisgah (Deuteronomy 3:27) where Moses viewed the Promised Land. Pratt's brother, Orson, wrote: "We concluded to form another settlement here, for the benefit of the poor, and such as were unable, for the want of teams, to proceed further. Accordingly, the camp commenced building houses, ploughing, planting, and fencing in farms, an immense quantity of labor was performed in a very few days." To the west of the rise, they built cabins and planted several thousand acres with peas, cucumbers, beans, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, pumpkins, and squash. LDS emigrants considered the area rich in agricultural promise, although food was very scarce during the early years and illness was common. At its height, the community had over 2,000 inhabitants, but generally averaged about 700 Latter-day Saints. It was there that the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

first called upon the Latter-day Saints to furnish volunteers to serve in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

. This military group became known as the

Mormon Battalion The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to July ...

. The LDS settlers maintained a vital settlement until 1852. As the need to supply and support Mormon pioneer companies waned in the region, Mount Pisgah's residents sold their land and improvements to other American frontiersmen and moved on to Latter-day Saint settlements in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and surrounding areas. The site of Mount Pisgah is now marked by a Mount Pisgah Cemetery State Preserve, which contains exhibits, historical markers, and a reconstructed log cabin. However, little remains from the 19th century except a cemetery memorializing the 300 to 800 emigrants who died while passing through or residing in the community.

References

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External links

Pioneer Story from churchofjesuschrist.org

in the '' Mormon Historic Sites Registry'' {{Mormon Trail landmarks Mormon Trail Latter Day Saint movement in Iowa Ghost towns in Iowa Protected areas of Union County, Iowa Iowa state preserves Cemeteries in Iowa