The Historical North End of Winter Quarters

     Recent research, to show at the new Mormon Trail Center in
northeast Omaha, makes the north end of historic 1846-1848 Winter
Quarters even more interesting. Principal sites (locations only,
with the exception of the mill) include: 1) Winter Quarters Mill,
 2) Brigham Young home, 3) Council House, 4) North Mormon Ferry,
used by upwards of 25,000 LDS pioneers and, perhaps as many as
five times that number of California Gold Rushers, Oregon emi-
grants, and Great Plains settlers, 5) starting point of the 1847
Pioneer trek to the Salt Lake Valley, 6) elevated Mormon artil-
lery positions to protect Winter Quarters, 7) protective picket
fence hemming Winter Quarters to the Missouri River.

     All of these sites are within a quarter-mile radius of Exit
13, Interstate Highway 680, just west of the Missouri River. They
are adjacent to a graceful arc of about five acres of unused,
undeveloped grassland, bordered by good, well-traveled streets,
owned by Metropolitan Utilities District.

     This north end of Winter Quarters, very close to the North
Mormon Ferry, includes sites of the Brigham Young home, of the
Council House, and of the surviving mill, was where most of the
traffic, decision-making and contact with Native Americans took
 place from September 1846 to May 1848.

     The Council House was center for church, civic, social, and
educational activities. Very near here, yet undetermined, was the
north end of the picket fence which securely hemmed Winter Quar-
ters to the Missouri River. Here is where critically wounded Omaha
Indians came to Brigham Young's home after a midnight attack upon
them by Ioway Indians northwest of Winter Quarters.

     Jenny Lund of the Museum of Church History and Art, in search
of data on Winter Quarters locations to display at Mormon Trail
Center, discovered record of LDS artillery positions on the loess
 hills north of Winter Quarters. She also believes the old report
of Winter Quarters streets running 22½° west of north was a plan
another site before the historic Winter Quarters site was
 chosen. Armed with this information, Sister Lund finds the roads,
river landings, and other historic knowns of Winter Quarters now
match our known topography of the area.

This was headquarters site of The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints from late September 1846 until May 1848. This
was where the Quorum of the Twelve sat in council as the Saints
developed about 90 communities on both sides of the Missouri
River, and where Church leaders counseled far flung missionaries
and Mormon Battalion volunteers. This location, conveniently now
 available, holds great promise to portray our heritage!