Religious pioneers settle Salt Lake Valley

On this day in US history, after over 17 months, Brigham Young led 148 pioneers into Utah’s Valley of the Great Salt Lake on July 24, 1847. Looking for a place that “nobody wanted,” the settlers would travel hundreds of miles to find a place where they were free to practice their religion and politics. They travelled from modern-day Iowa to where Salt Lake City would eventually be built, travelling on wagons and pushing handcarts the whole way. This would become the origin of the church of Latter-day Saints in Utah and the place they would call their promised land.