Kane traveled through an area known as the Half-Breed Tract of land in Iowa during the autumn of 1846, an area appropriated by coiners, horse thieves and outlaws. Disgusted with the vagabonds, idle settlers, and squatters, he continued his journey. As he descended the last hillside before open land, he discovered in the far distance, half encircled by a bend in the river, a beautiful city glittering in the morning sun. He couldn’t help but notice the far-away dome-shaped marble edifice at the top of the highest hill. Its high tapering spire announced a prosperous city covering several miles, laid out in the most orderly fashion. His curiosity aroused, he boarded a skiff and rowed across the river only to find the city engulfed in silence and devoid of inhabitants. He walked quietly through solitary streets, passing empty workshops, idle spinner’s wheels, and a blacksmith’s shop, now cold. There was no sound of the bark of a dog or the meow of a cat. Clearly, the residents of this once prosperous city had recently fled. But, why? And, where had they gone?

On the outskirts of town he found a graveyard with a few stones newly set, but no signs of cholera or a plague. Beyond the graveyard, he came to a young orchard, the fruits having been hastily picked, while the grain fields lay rotting, ungathered.

He found clues to his mystery in and around the temple building where cannonballs marred its once pristine facade. Ruffians and troublemakers lounged around carelessly, surrounded by muskets and heavy ordnance. Their breath smelled of alcohol. At first belligerent, once Kane introduced himself they became anxious to gain his approval. They told their story of the city and bragged of having waged war with the former owners; boasting It only took a few days to drive the people out and send them across the river into the frigid western prairie.

These men continued to give Kane an introduction to the interior of the building that rose above the hills. In it, he found a large, deep chiseled basin supported by twelve life-sized, once polished, marble oxen. The rowdies explained this was the place where the former residents had performed baptisms for regeneration of their dearly departed, or for those who had been left behind in their distant homeland. The steeple had been struck by lightning the previous Sunday. As Kane made his way up the winding staircase, he found fragments of food, vessels of liquor, and broken cups and other trash. Here, also, they kept a brass drum and a steam-boat signal bell, ready to reverberate and ring into the silent night announcing their conquest. Disgusted, Kane crossed the river and headed higher up stream.

He was soon attracted to a faint, glimmering light in the distance and quietly approached a crowd of several hundred people asleep on the ground, their only light a tallow candle in a paper funnel-shade. These were the most pitiful, suffering and forsaken beings, the last of the Mormons who had left the city, now famished in Lee County, Iowa at the end of September, 1846. In the distance, he recognized the sound of a drum and bell, accompanied by the oath-tainted revel of the temple brigade. He gave an exasperated sigh as he remembered the characters responsible for this interference into the quiet of the night.

This lecture, prepared for presentation before the Philadelphia Historical Society in March, 1850, is Kane’s account of what happened to the Mormons their first year in the wilderness. He joined them on their trek across the prairie, stopping at Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah. Here, he found land which had been fenced by those who left the city of Nauvo early in the expulsion. They had laid out sizable farms, planted with grain, in preparation for a harvest meant to sustain those who were to follow. In June, the advanced emigrant companies arrived at the wide Missouri.

Kane pushed forward to the frontier post, Fort Leavenworth, where he heard many ridiculous tales of Mormons he dismissed as false rumors. A short distance above the Potawatomi Indian Reservation, he came upon the high summits of Council Bluffs. When he reached the landing on the east side of the river, he found it heavily crowded with covered carts and white covered wagons. The scene was abuzz with the activity necessary to maintain the camp. A bright-faced lad assured him he had found the place he was looking for and led him to the main camp. In the days that followed, the leaders were informed of the coming of the Mexican War and their invitation to furnish a battalion of five hundred and twenty volunteers to march to the Pacific coast at government expense. The Mormons had left Illinois and Missouri behind in hopes of finding a safe place outside the United States, but it seemed the possession of this Mexican territory would soon shift to American hands. The leaders met in council and soon after announced: “You shall have your battalion.” Three days later, after a gay farewell ball which included music and dancing, the force was mustered, organized and began their march.

The camp gathered their tents, placed their wagons in a row and set-off for the river crossing ferry. Cattle, reluctant to swim the crossing, were coaxed and prodded. On the other side of the Missouri River, they formed their companies and made preparations for the next stage in their journey.

Kane marveled at the faith of the Saints who firmly believed all their troubles would end on their arrival in Zion. This hope gave people courage and encouragement, and the ability to lay a road a thousand miles or more, with well-built bridges over streams and permanent ferries for crossing the great rivers. Kane watched men working in broiling sun, water up to their necks, without a single oath or quarrel.

Each dawn, before breaking camp, the men formed in brigades of mowers and marched abreast through the meadows, their scythes in hand as they lay down large bunches of choice hay for the animals they cherished. Or, they guided the beasts to the nearest place where grass was still fresh and fattening, always accompanied by an escort of mounted men and boys to protect the livestock from thievish Indians.

When it came time to build their winter houses, there were always a number of men skilled at turning wood, and there were wheelwrights, and boat builders when needed. These were camps of seasoned craftsmen. Inside the camp, ovens were fired and a limited amount of milk was added to flour, along with a few condiments and dabs of butter they had made along the trail. With the efficiency that comes from repetition, their well kneaded loaves were quickly ready for baking leaving time to tend to the sick before the sound of a hundred cattle bells announced the approach of their men. The women, often with a baby in their arms and another clinging to their skirt, quickly made their way to the camp gates.

At times, the plague raged and they suffered severely. Those who could move about went among the tents with food and water, and consecrated oil for the healing laying on of hands. Burials were, at times, slow, and women sat in open tents fanning their deceased to keep the flies at bay. Late summer and early fall, Kane, himself, fell ill. He kept his tent in the camp line but, near delirium, he had very little notion of what went on around him.

Traveling on, they found themselves among the Indians. The land on both sides of the Missouri was owned by the Pottawatomie and Omaha, tribes treated unjustly by the United States and left with memories and a sense of compassion for these strangers who were also ruthlessly expelled.

As the camp progressed, they met with the Omaha Indians, the paupers of the prairie. This was the headquarters of the Camps of Israel, as the Saints liked to style themselves. They harvested and stored away crops of maize and shared their food from time to time with the hope to save the dark skinned indigents from absolute starvation.

On a plateau overlooking the river, the Mormons built more than seven hundred houses, neatly laid out with roads and fortified with breastwork, stockade, and block houses, as well as various large workshops, mills and factories provided with water power.

The Pottawatamie lands were scattered through the border regions of Missouri and Iowa, in Sauk and Fox country, with small settlements of other indians. This was Winter Quarters where the Mormons spent the winter of 1846-1847. Before the spring grass fully showed its growth, one hundred and forty-three men, along with three women and two children, continued the trek west with seventy wagons, drawn by the best horses. They carried seed and farming implements with the intent of planting spring crops at their unseen destination. They relied on their rifles for food, made long daily marches, and moved as rapidly as possible.

Once the train passed South Pass, they traversed the Rocky Mountains and forced their way over rugged mountains in the Utah Range. They arrived at the grand basin of the Great Salt Lake on July 24, 1847, exhausted but ready to plant a partial autumn harvest.

That summer, another party started from Winter Quarters with five hundred and sixty-six wagons and large quantities of grain. They arrived at the Great Salt Lake, now a part of the United States, and planted their seed in the ground long before frost. They were joined by members of the Battalion who had traveled to California before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. They tended crops yielding ample provisions for the ensuing year.

In 1848, nearly all the remaining members of the church left the Missouri country in succession. When they reached their destination, it was fully established as a Commonwealth and future state of Deseret. Two events seriously menaced them. This was the year of the crickets. These wingless insects with bulging eyes came down from the mountains with a hearty appetite and they were unstoppable. They mowed their way even with the ground leaving it looking as though it had been burnt by fire.

Next came the gulls. Vast armies of bright white birds swept across the fields, gorged themselves on the insects, then vomited and began to feast again. Every evening, they disappeared beyond the lake and returned at sunrise until the crickets were all consumed.

A more severe trial came with the discovery of gold in California. Many Mormons considered leaving to join in the fields of ore, but the leaders preached gold was for paving streets, and the treasures of the earth were in the Lord’s storehouses.  Those who left the city for the fields were asked to never return.

This new land of the Mormons was unequaled as a stock-raising country. Along the east side of Utah Lake and Jordan River grew a cereal called bunch grass, because it grew in one clump. During spring, this fine plant dried on its stalk and transformed to a light yellow straw, full of flavor and nourishment. In January, it began a vigorous growth which kept on until May, offering year round feed for the cattle.

Sheep grew wool with a fine pile and soft texture while they roamed little dells and sheltered spots. Hogs fattened on succulent tubers called Seacoe. It became a highly praised table vegetable for Mormons and Indians. The poultry took care of each other and needed nothing more than the liberty to provide for themselves.

The Mormons, Kane said, maintained happy Indian relations. The Utahs roamed the territory freely before the Mormons came. It was their land. They rode strong Spanish horses, carried rifles and bows across their saddles, and had some idea of military discipline. Their chief, Walkara, was a fine figure of a man, in the prime of his life, and a master of pantomime as a form of communication. He knew some English, some Spanish, and several Indian tongues, and presented himself as a gentleman. He was often seen in a full suit of the richest brown broadcloth, with a shining beaver hat, and fine cambric shirt.

Kane predicted the Mormons would continue to thrive as they helped to build the trans-continental railroad. Foreign missions had garnered fifty-thousand members, mostly in England, with some in Scandinavia and Germany. These converts will write their own stories of their voyages across the ocean and their trek west.

Salt Lake City was growing rapidly, boasting over three thousand inhabitants, nineteen large merchant stores, the mail lines, and five regular steam packets running to it. They had a fine music hall, a printing establishment, and newspaper, The Frontiers Guardian.

Large numbers were expected to arrive from England. The inhabitants had no gold, nor did they hunt for it, finding their wealth, instead, in the mammoth beets, turnips, pumpkins, and garden vegetables yielded from the irrigated land. It was said thirty-two potatoes saved this year would return eighteen bushels in the following year. Two and a half bushels of wheat would yield three hundred and fifty bushels in a season. The Mormons had found their land of milk and honey.

Kane ended his discourse with this viewpoint: “I have not yet heard a single charge against them as a Community, against their habitual purity of life, their integrity of dealing, their toleration of religious differences in opinion, their regard for the law, and their devotion to the constitutional government.” Not all would share Kane’s praises, and long-term peace in Zion would be hard-won.