After five hundred of their best men had marched away to fight the battles
of their country, it was impossible for the Saints to get to the mountains
that year. So it was decided to make a third stopping place and remain
there during the winter.

There being a good location for a town on the west bank of the Missouri
river, that place was selected and named Winter Quarters. The town was laid
out regularly into streets, and log houses were built. Some made dugouts in
the sides of the hill, which were quite comfortable during the cold winter.
As the Indians were troublesome on that side of the river a stockade was
built around the town. By December, 1846, five hundred and thirty-eight log
houses and eighty-three sod houses were built, inhabited by three thousand
four hundred and eighty-three people. The town was divided into twenty-two
wards, each presided over by a bishop. A large log house was built in which
meetings and parties were held.

The food of the people that winter consisted largely of corn-bread and
pork. President Young had a grist mill built, but before that time many ate
boiled wheat, and ground their corn in coffee mills.

Because of hardships and poor food there was much sickness at all the
settlements. Graves marked the prairie for hundreds of miles. At Winter
Quarters alone over six hundred were buried.

The poor Saints who were left at Nauvoo were not forgotten. After they had
been driven from Nauvoo, they were met by teams from Winter Quarters, and
all who wished to go were taken to the camps of the Saints.

Perhaps you may get an idea of this great move when you are told that
during that summer there were about two thousand wagons and ten thousand