Living history: Mormon Trail wagon train rolls through Creston area


By Andy Goodell - CNA staff reporter
There’s only so much to be learned from a history book.

Riders with Danny Van Fleet’s Mormon Trail wagon train have seen southern Iowa’s countryside much the same way the original pioneers did more than 150 years ago.

Van Fleet, 58, of Monmouth, Ill., organized the recreation of the historical journey along secondary roads. He couldn’t help but say it has been a life-changing experience.

“After you’ve traveled the whole trail, or even parts of it, there’s a spirit out on the trail,” said Van Fleet after dismounting from his quarter horse at a camp on the east shore of Three Mile Lake Wednesday morning. “It grabs you and you hate to leave.”

This spirit is one shared by many of those reliving the trail experience, Van Fleet said. Although anyone who wants to join their wagon train is more than welcome, many involved have a true connection with Brigham Young’s original trek.

“The people that are doing this have ancestors that did it before them,” said Van Fleet. “It’s important to them to see where their ancestors crossed. In order to have traveled this trail, they had to have very strong religious convictions.”

Although he was not raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Van Fleet said he converted to Mormonism after completing the Mormon Trail for the first time in 1997. For him, the trail became a literal spiritual journey.

“When I went on the ride 10 years ago I was a Catholic,” professed Van Fleet. “After traveling across the country over two years over the four states, I decided that was more to my liking. There’s no way they would have converted me had I not done this trail.”

Traditional means

Although it’s not mandatory, many people in the wagon train dress in pioneer-era clothing.

Brenda Christensen of Spanish Fork, Utah, dressed in a dark blue pioneer-era dress, attested to the power of wearing the traditional garb.

“It makes you feel the spirit more,” said Christensen.

While riding in buggies and prairie schooners, as well as on horseback, wagon train participants braved many of the same challenges faced by the first Mormon travelers as they cut across Iowa. Recent heavy rains and flooding caused Van Fleet and company to get into some sticky situations after launching their journey May 31 in Nauvoo, Ill.

“Where the Mormon Trial went across southern Iowa is the roughest part of the whole 1,300 mile trek,” he said. “It’s rougher than crossing the Rocky Mountains. We fought mud several days, and people literally slept in their mud boots.”

Traveling through Iowa hasn’t been all about hardship for the riders from Virginia, California, Idaho and Utah. At times, the wagon train’s 15 motorless vehicles transporting nearly 100 people just sat back and enjoyed the ride, Van Fleet said.

“We’ve had such beautiful country,” he said. “Iowa is so green. People from out west couldn’t believe that there were this many hills and this much rolling grass. They thought Iowa was all cornfields.”

History abounds

Traveling along the Mormon Trail has obviously come with many historically significant stops. Van Fleet recalled one particularly poignant stop at Mount Pisgah, near Thayer.

It was there he and his fellow riders were reminded of the staggering mortality rate among those first Mormon pioneers.

“There’s 800 people buried there at Mount Pisgah, that didn’t make it through the winters during the four or five years they camped there,” said Van Fleet.

Van Fleet invites anyone interested in the Mormon Trail to come along with his wagon train at any time during their journey for any length of time.

Registrations can be filled out at www.vanfleetwagontrain.com or by calling Van Fleet himself at 309-337-1100.

“We’ve planted the seeds this year,” he said. “Next year it’ll be a big ride.”

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Andy Goodell can be reached at

(641) 782-2141 ext. 242 or

agoodell@crestonnews.com