Between 1946 and 1869 around 70,000 Mormon Pioneers traveled across the 1300 mile trail between Nauvoo, Illinois and Salt Lake City, Utah. They walked alongside covered wagons and pulled handcarts through treacherous conditions – extreme sun and heat, driving rain, and blinding snow – as they fled their persecutors in the east, and searched out a safe home, where they could worship in peace. The trek, on average, took about 75-95 days, depending on whether they went by handcarts (75) or oxen-pulled wagons (95).

The new book, Saints at Devil’s Gate: Landscapes along the Mormon Trail, is a beautiful book, filled with fifty-two landscape paintings of the Mormon Trail, and each painting is paired with quotations from the original journals of pioneers who made the journey. While there were numerous hardships, there was also joy, and beauty to be found in nature that surrounded them.

As a member of the LDS, or Mormon, Church, the history of these pioneers is so special to me, especially as I have ancestors who made this trek across the country. I loved reading books on the pioneers all growing up, and I still do. And being able to read and learn even more about them through the journal entries and paintings in this book, Saints at Devil’s Gate, in order to gain an insight into what they thought and felt as they journeyed across the plains.

This new book accompanies an exhibition of the same name that opened at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah in November 2016, and will run through August 2017.  It is free and open to the public, and you can also view it online here.

I was given a free copy of Saints at Devil’s Gate in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.