The Saints were forced to stay somewhere for the winter after leaving Nauvoo
thanks to the months it had taken them to travel across Iowa. Brigham Young
decided that Winter Quarters was the place to do so. There’s a visitor’s
center near the Winter Quarters temple and cemetery. Winter Quarters was
quite an organized settlement. It’s remarkable what they did given the little
amount of time they actually lived there. A lot of the pioneers stopped
in Winter Quarters before beginning their journey to Salt Lake City. And
a lot of pioneers were buried in the cemetery. There’s a beautiful memorial
to their sacrifices. I especially enjoyed the sculpture of the family travelling
by handcart.
The visitor’s center has a lot of dioramas and such depicting what life
was like for the early pioneers. There’s a replica of a covered wagon, and
some oxen. Oxen are bigger than I first imagined—I don’t know why I thought
they’d be small, but for some reason I did. Here are a few pictures from
inside the very informative visitor’s center.
"Sorry...I just thought with the captain issue in question, I'd throw
in my name for consideration."
Pintel