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Trailblazing Mormon Battalion Marched West
By Kathryn Fletcher
March/April 2022
 The Mormon Battalion Center in Old Town San Diego. Courtesy churchofjesuschrist.org |
The 2,100-mile march of the Mormon Battalion from Iowa to Southern California is one of the epic trail-blazing journeys that helped build the United States into a transcontinental country. Recently, three groups on auto bus tours following the route and celebrating the journey’s 175th anniversary visited the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum.
In 1846, Latter-Day Saints were recruited to serve the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. The main command of 335 men, five women, and one child traveled across the southwest and created Cooke's wagon road, arriving in San Diego on January 29, 1847. This was the first wagon route to the Pacific coast, parts of which later became the Butterfield Overland stage route. With axes, picks, and crowbars, they hewed the rocks at nearby Box Canyon on what is now San Felipe Road, or County Route S2, to increase the opening for wagons.
Visit the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, adjacent to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, to learn more, and read about it HERE.
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