Infant Mortality

I was listening to a program on the Mormon Channel today (the new LDS radio station), and they were interviewing Jenny Lund, who is one of the people in charge of the LDS Church's historical sites. Her topic was Winter Quarters. I know we aren't going there, but it was a major jumping-off point for the trip west, and was also the "headquarters" of the Church for nearly 2 years. The Mormons only had permission from the Omaha and Oto Indian nations to stay there for 2 years. Amazingly, the pioneers built up this waystation town in about 2 months. It was set up according to Joseph Smith's "City of Zion" plan. That is also how most of the early towns in Utah were laid out - lined up as closely as possible to the cardinal points of the compass, houses in the center of the city with farms around the outside, etc. One thing that surprised me was that 46% of the deaths in Winter Quarters during 1846-1847 were children under the age of 2. Many of the deaths were due to malnutrition.

After the Mormons left Winter Quarters, it is thought that scavengers came in and took the wood that was left from their homes and fences and used the wood to power steamboats that were traveling up and down the Missouri River. Then, in 1850, there was a big prairie fire that wiped out whatever was left. In the pioneer cemetery there, only one headstone remains from that time period. There used to be a small home adjacent to the cemetery that was operated by my great-uncle as a visitor's center. Then the LDS Church built the Mormon Trail Center on the site in 1997 (the 150th anniversary of the 1847 trek), and a few years ago, a temple was also completed there.

That's probably more than you wanted to know, but I thought it was quite interesting.