Carson City NV44
Nevada's State Capitol, and one of the state's oldest towns, was first established in 1851 as Eagle Station, a trading post and small ranch on the Carson Branch of the California Emigrant Trail kept by Frank and W.L. Hall and George Jollenshee. The station and surrounding valley took their names from an eagle skin stretched on the trading post wall. From 1855 to 1857, Mormon colonizers under Elder Orson Hyde settled in Eagle, Carson and Washoe Valleys. In 1857, they were called back to Salt Lake City by Brigham Young. Carson City itself was founded and laid out in 1858 by Abraham Curry, who bought the Eagle Station and ranch when he found lots at Genoa too expensive. Curry named his town after the Carson River and left a plaza in its center for his predicted location of the state capital. In the 1860's, Carson City was a station on the Pony Express and the Overland Mail under both Butterfield and Wells, Fargo and Co. In 1861, true to Curry's prediction, and aided considerably by his own shrewd maneuvers, Carson City became the Capital of Nevada Territory. When Nevada became a state in 1864, Carson City was the state's capital, and in 1870 the present capitol building was completed in the plaza Curry had reserved for it.

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Idaho's Oldest Town ID3

Franklin was settled April 14, 1860 by Mormon pioneers. The free local museum exhibits a large collection of tools and relics of pioneer days.

The founding of Franklin was part of a well organized plan of Mormon expansion. Church authorities sent the colonists under Thomas Smart from Provo, Utah. Men of many trades were included in order to make the community self-sufficient. From 1874-1877, Franklin was the busy terminus of the Utah Northern Railroad where freight for the Montana mines reloaded for the long wagon haul north.

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Alcove Springs and the Oregon Trail KS26

Six miles northwest is Alcove Springs, named in 1846 by appreciative travelers on the Oregon Trail who carved the name on the surrounding rocks and trees. One described the Springs as "a beautiful cascade of water . . . altogether one of the most romantic spots I ever saw."

This county was well known to early-day traders and "mountain men" as well as to later travelers to the Far West. John C. Fremont and his 1842 exploring expedition bivouacked at the Springs and Marcus Whitman, with a thousand emigrants to Oregon, stopped there in 1843. Utah-bound Mormons and California-bound goldseekers followed, for only a short distance above was Independence Crossing, the famous ford across the Big Blue River. The Donner party, most of who later froze or starved in the Sierras, buried its first member, Sarah Keyes, near the Springs in 1846.

The great Tuttle Creek Reservoir at full pool level extends along the Big Blue from Independence Crossing southward nearly to Manhattan.

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Marysville KS25

A few miles below Marysville was the famous ford on the Oregon Trail known as the Independence, Mormon or California crossing. There thousands of covered wagons with settlers bound for Oregon, Mormons for Utah and gold seekers for California crossed the Big Blue River. In 1849 a ferry and trading post was established at the ford by Frank J. Marshall despite constant danger from Indians. Two years later the military road between Forts Leavenworth and Kearny crossed the river at the site of present Marysville, one mile west. Marshall built another ferry and for years handled an immense traffic. He gave the name of his wife, Mary to the town that developed here and his own name to Marshall County of which it is the county seat. In 1860 Marysville became a station on the Pony Express. For most of the 1860s it was an important stopping place for coaches of the great Overland Stage Line.

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Bandera County TX290

A strategic Indian point in early days. Rangers and Comanches struggled here in 1843. In 1854 Elder Lyman Wight settled Mormon Colony. In 1855 Poles settled here. From early days a part of Bexar County, created and organized in 1856. Bandera, the County Seat founded by John James, Charles de Montel and John Herndon in 1853.

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Benjamin Franklin and Mary Hay Langford, Jr. Home TX3045
Benjamin Franklin and Mary Hay Langford, Jr. Home

Bandera's early settlers included Lyman Wight's Mormon Colony, which arrived in 1854. In 1890, John and Jennie Davenport Miller bought this site from colonists George and Virgine Minear Hay. George and early Bandera settler Isaac Berry Langford helped build a home for the Millers, who sold it in 1904 to children of the Hays and Langfords: Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Langford, Jr., and his bride, Mary Emma Hay. The couple added to the house over the years, converting the one-story, l-plan design into a two-story block structure. Frank and Mary were active in the community and donated land across the street for a Mormon Church. The long-time Langford family home serves as a reminder of Bandera's early history.

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El Paso First Ward Chapel TX1428

The first ward, or congregation, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in Texas was organized in 1918 in El Paso. The ward met in members' homes and later in the Odd Fellows Hall until this chapel was built in 1931. The mission revival style structure features a rose window, a Renaissance arcade along one facade, and a tower with arcade.

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Gillespie County TX10044

The trails of roving Indians crossed these hills settled by German pioneers in 1846. A group of Mormons settled at Zodiac in 1847. Created February 23, 1848; organized June 5, 1848. Named for Richard Addison Gillespie, a Texan from 1837, a defender of the Texas frontier, and Captain in the Mexican War who fell at Monterrey, September 22, 1846. Fredericksburg, the county seat.

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Kelsey Mormon Colony TX11322

Received church endorsement after Mormon brothers John and Jim Edgar bought a large tract of timber land here in 1898. By end of 1901, Sunday School and church were organized. In Nov. 1902. Townsite was laid out by church officials. Post Office was located in J.S. Ault store. One-room building served as school and church until 1909, when first church was built (1/10 mi.W). Kelsey Branch was sponsor of Latter Day Saints churches in Enoch, Dallas, Gilmer, Tyler, Longview, Pittsburg, Texarkana, Hooks and Marshall; joined with Enoch, Gilmer churches, in 1958.

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Mormon Settlers in Bandera County TX3054

Entered the year-old town of Bandera in March, 1854. Leader was Lyman Wight, church elder who had separated from followers of Brigham Young and taken a colony of 250 to Texas in 1846. Settling first in Austin, then Fredericksburg (where they opened grist and saw mills) the group at last established "Mormon Camp" near Bandera on the Medina River. There they built houses with vegetable gardens in between; milled grain; made furniture from native wood to sell in East. In 1858, after Wight's death, the colony dispersed, although a remnant remained in Bandera.

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