The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail

Being a Mormon, I enjoyed the facts listed in the book but did not appreciate the biased comments by the author which to me left a sour taste in my mouth regarding the leaders of the Mormon culture. I'm sure there are other books listing the facts of the Mormon journey without the negative feedback.

Being raised Mormon I have been exposed my entire life to the mythical stories of the pioneers. I knew the names and places in the book for the most part, but Stegner brought the people to life. Just because the pioneers had normal human foibles doesn't make their journey and struggles and triumphs less credible. If anything, it makes them more inspiring. If God can work through the hands of these imperfect men, and I believe he did, he can certainly work through me. I wish I would have read this book before I went on Pioneer Trek and saw Martin's Cove, Devil's Gate, and the Sweetwater River.

Wallace Stegner is one of America's great writers, and possibly the greatest Western writer. Contrary to some views Stegner IS a historian. His fluid prose and narrative style are reminiscent of the great Steven Ambrose. When Stegner turns his focus to the Mormon Trail the result is an excellent recounting of the Mormon migration west to the Rocky Mountains.

Stegner clearly admired the Mormon Pioneers. His is an unbelieving but sympathetic viewpoint. This is demonstrated most clearly by his treatment of Brigham Young. Stegner's Young is volcanic, brilliant, powerful, and even empathetic; a truly Great Man with foibles.

A bonus of the paperback edition includes prints of Thomas Moran and Frederick Piercy watercolors and engravings showing the Mormon Trail as it was in the 1850s and 1860s. These illustrations start in Nauvoo with the ruins of the Temple, and end in the Salt Lake Valley.

The last chapter of the book is a modern-day (1960's) Pilgrim's guide to the trail. It describes how an auto tourist may visit important points on the path. There is an appendix with bibliographic notes (yes, this is a history), giving the interested reader a way to dig deeper. Of course, a lot of great Mormon literature has been written since the 1960's. Highly recommended are Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Bushman and American Moses by Leanord Arrington. For a 5-star treatment of the Handcart Pioneers read The Price We Paid by Andrew Olsen.

I disagree with other reviewer's comments that Stegner was not a friend of the Mormon Church. He was a great admirer of these people and their accomplishments. One must grant that the unbeliever does not see a miracle in every event. Where the pioneers saw miracles, Stegner sees human strength and fortitude. This is a straight-on narrative. Those looking for anti-mormon conspiracy readings of the migration, look elsewhere; likewise those looking for faith-promoting Mormon Trivia. If you want to understand the struggles and celebrate the achievements of the largest single migration in American History read this book!

REVISED ONLINE REVIEW: Wallace Stegner The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail (1964, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books edn., 1992)

Wallace Stegner is one of the United States' most underappreciated men of letters. Born in Iowa, Stegner was raised and spent his youth in North Dakota, Washington, Montana, Utah, and Saskatchewan, and he lived most of his adult life in California. His knowledge of the American west was encylopedic, and he was a prolific writer of stories and novels, such as Angle of Repose, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971. But, like Shelby Foote, the bard of the Civil War, Stegner wrote both fiction and nonfiction, and their oeuvre proves that the best popular history is informative, lively, and well written.

In The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail, Stegner does not ask the reader to accept Mormon theology or social doctrine, only to admire the courage and fortitude of the church's pioneers. After a mob in Carthage, Illinois, killed Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, several thousand Mormons - as Stegner puts it, a "a whole people - grandparents, parents, children, flocks and herds, household goods and gods" - crossed the continent from Nauvoo, Illinois, to what became Salt Lake City in 1846 and 1847 on foot and in covered wagons under the most difficult conditions. Most of the book is devoted to recounting the travails of the Mormons, always tired, often hungry, and constantly at the mercy of the elements. The logistical requirements of the Mormon migration were staggering. In September 1845, one Mormon elder estimated that, in order to outfit a family of five, it needed a wagon, three oxen, two cows, two beef cattle, three sheep, 1000 pounds of flour, 20 pounds of sugar, a rifle and ammunition, and a tent with poles: a total weight of 2,700 pounds, and 3,285 families began the trek. Once on the trail, climatic conditions, natural obstacles, internal dissension, suspicious Native Americans, wolves, snakes and other unfriendly fauna, and the fear of "contamination by Gentile" pioneers were constant concerns. Although written in 1964, this book anticipates the so-called "new history." In a number of passages, Stegner's presents this delightful paradox: although Mormon society was constitutionally patriarchal, and the most-familiar figures in Mormon history are men, it was their women whom the author praises most highly, describing them with obvious admiration as "incredible" and "capable, indefatigable, unquestioning." Some of the most heartbreaking moments of the Mormon migration involved women. For instance, a mother who lost a child three days after its birth carries the tiny corpse all the way west so that it can be blessed and buried by the priesthood. And on another occasion, a mother approaches a squatter's cabin to beg a few potatoes to make soup for a dying child only to be rebuffed angrily by a woman who told her "I wouldn't give or sell a thing to one of you damned Mormons." It is difficult to imagine the Mormon migration without the church's extraordinary women. Stegner clearly admires the Mormons, but he pulls few punches in describing the foibles of their leaders. Joseph Smith is portrayed as charismatic and a visionary, but a bank he founded engaged in unorthodox, if not fraudulent, business practices. Furthermore, Stegner suggests that Smith's revelation which led to the Mormons' doctrine of polygamy may have been a pretext for the Prophet's energetic pursuit of women. And Brigham Young, brave, strong, and with a great gift for command, was not averse to using blistering language when chastising his followers. (According to Stegner, Brigham Young once said, "he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.") Indeed, Stegner writes that many of Young's Mormon contemporaries hated him but also that "he was an extraordinary leader."

In addition to being a vivid and skillfully-written story, The Gathering of Zion also is inspirational. Stegner describes the survivors of the Mormon migration as "hard core, tested and tempered by tribulation and shared hope, as tough and durable a people as this republic has ever produced." I cannot imagine anyone reading this book and then disputing that conclusion. Stegner, himself, provides the most compelling reason for reading this book: "The story of the Mormon Trial is the story of people...." However unusual Mormon theology and social organization may be, the story of their migration is full of universal values. The Mormons' mid-19th century achievements were essential prerequisites to the American Century which followed.