Young Out West

Brigham Young became an explorer and hero to many when he embarked on the best-organized westward migration in U.S. history in 1847.  Motivated by a vision to find a safe haven for his religious ideas, he brought the Mormon Church to Utah and, in so doing, helped shaped the American West.  When he came upon the Great Salt Lake Valley, he said, “It is enough, this is the right place.”  For thirty years he supervised Mormon settlements in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, and California.  Before Young died at the age of seventy-six in 1877 of acute appendicitis, he had more than fifty wives.