Why did the Mormons move to Utah during the Westward Expansion?
The Church began in New York. Saints moved to Ohio in anticipation of building Zion in Missouri. They were persecuted out of Missouri and ended up in Nauvoo, Illinois, a town founded by Smith. Mobs continued to rage against the church, and culminated in the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. Brigham Young became the next Prophet of the Church of Christ and led the saints to Utah to escape persecution. When they arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young proclaimed that the spot they were now at was the “Promised Land” they had been seeking.
