Nebraska was a place of safety and refuge for early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who established one of Nebraska's earliest organized communities. Located at the site of present-day Florence in north Omaha, it was called Winter Quarters.
Church members had been driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, in February 1846. Nearly 15,000 Latter-day Saints traveled 300 miles across southern Iowa, reaching the eastern bluffs of the Missouri River which separated the new state of Iowa and the Indian territory of Nebraska. Too exhausted, impoverished, and ill-prepared to continue, they established a settlement there (Kanesville, which later became Council Bluffs).
Church leaders negotiated a treaty with the Omaha and Oto Indians, recognized owners of this part of the Nebraska territory, and moved the main body of the Church across the river in September 1846, establishing Winter Quarters on Indian territory.
In this primitive settlement, Latter-day Saints endured a terrible winter. More than 600 died of exposure and hunger.
Winter Quarters became the headquarters of the Church during the Latter-day Saints' historic westward migration, serving to house advance companies of Church members who were poised for an early 1847 trek across the Great Plains. On 5 April 1847, Brigham Young, leader of the Church, led the first of nine wagon trains that left Winter Quarters that year to make the 1,000 mile journey to the Great Basin.
Other Latter-day Saints remained in Winter Quarters, needing additional time to prepare for the arduous journey. The community had grown to a town of more than 1,000 dwellings including soddies, tents, dugouts, log cabins with sod roofs, and even a few two-story houses. At one time, approximately 4,000 people resided there.
After the U.S. government required the Church to vacate Indian territory, remaining Church members abandoned Winter Quarters in the spring of 1848. The ghost settlement was later burned in a prairie fire.
In 1854, the Florence Land Company occupied the old Winter Quarters site, and the new town of Florence became an important pioneer staging area from 1856 to 1864.
(Source: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
