Wagons West: Brigham Young and the First Pioneers

by Richard E. Turley Jr., Lael Littke (Contributor)

How much do our children really know about the pioneers? They sing songs and hear stories of handcart pioneers, but do they think all the pioneers came West together and stood with Brigham Young when he declared, "This is the right place"? in Wagons West, the engaging story of the Saints who were driven from Nauvoo, took the difficult trek to Winter Quarters, and were the first company to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley comes to life for children. Carefully researched and beautifully written, each chapter tells a unique story. As a whole, the narrative reveals not only the heroics and faith but also the emotions, tensions, and humor of the pioneers like never before. With engaging images that bring the story life, Wagons West will be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

Genres: History

160 pages, Hardcover

Published November 28, 2016

About the author

Richard E. Turley Jr. retired in March 2020 as Managing Director of the Church Communication Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served previously as Managing Director of the Public Affairs Department, the Church Historical Department, the Family History Department, and the combined Family and Church History Department. He also served as Assistant Church Historian and Recorder. An innovator by nature, he helped oversee the creation of the four-volume history Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, the launch of FamilySearch and FamilySearch Indexing, the building of the new Church History Library, the development of the Joseph Smith Papers, and the formation of the Church Historian’s Press. He acquired key books, documents, and artifacts for the Church’s historical collections, including the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon. He also served for many years on the Church’s Historic Sites Committee.

He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on Latter-day Saint and Western U.S. history, including Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy; Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case; How We Got the Book of Mormon; and How We Got the Doctrine and Covenants. He was the general editor for The Journals of George Q. Cannon print volumes, as well as coeditor of the series Women of Faith in the Latter Days.

Mr. Turley is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis award and the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mr. Turley received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, where he was a Spencer W. Kimball Scholar. He later graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he served as executive editor of the law review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Hugh B. Brown Barrister’s Award, given to the student who demonstrates the highest standards of classroom performance.

In September 2023, the First Presidency announced that it had commissioned a new biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith to be written by Mr. Turley.

Reviews

[Corinne Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Say the name Brigham Young and for most people, immediately "Mormon" and "Pioneer" come to mind. This book is a younger middle grade account of Brigham's experience as a leader of that first pioneer trek - I had expected more general "pioneer stories" but really, this is the story of the first specific journey.

It is heavily based on original sources and the text is seemingly non-biased, truly only accounting what happened and what people said about it without judgement. Sometimes he was frustrated and sometimes the pioneers were petty and that's ok. People are complicated and I appreciate that students who read this can get a real sense of how hard the journey must've been as well as the complicated and contentious history that led to the Mormons heading west in the first place. As the descendent of dozens of pioneer families, this kept my interest and provided some new insights.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the first Mormon pioneers to reach Utah makes for great reading. This book is intended for younger readers and it works very well in that regard. The text is very readable, divided up into chapters by stages of the journey. I appreciated having a map to follow as the journey progressed. This is some fine narrative nonfiction. The inclusion of photographs as well as illustrations of paintings and other artifacts helped bring the story to life. Another thing I appreciated was the inclusion of the bad with the good. As Saints and pioneers, it's easy to idolize these people and forget that they were human just as we are. Stories of complaining and disagreements, mistakes made, and some plain just rotten days make this story and the people who were a part of it, easier to relate to. And in the end it makes their accomplishments all the more admirable because they had to overcome their own weaknesses as well as the challenges of the journey. With a story like this one, it's easy to become overly generic, but the authors do a good job of integrating individual accounts and experiences into the main narration, giving the reader a peek into specific moments of the journey. For those who hope to help their children understand the purposes and experiences related to this part of Church history, I can highly recommend this book.

[Karen Latham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book to go along with a study of Utah History.

[Kerstie Cowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this aloud for our history book. We enjoyed it!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this book is geared towards young adults I learned things that I didn't previously know. This book has just the right amount of detail to keep it moving along and make it a compelling read. They used good reliable primary and secondary sources. I liked the quote on the last page, Wilford Woodruff expresses his feeling about seeing the Salt Lake valley for the first time, "We came in full view of the great valley or basin" of "the Salt Lake and land of promise, held in reserve by the hand of God for a resting place for the Saints."

[Shanley Nii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging for all ages! We read this book as a family as we did a cross-country trip along the Mormon Trail. We read it backwards, as we started in Utah and ended in Nauvoo. It matched up perfectly along our journey, was enlightening and enjoyable to learn more about the early Latter-day Saints and their journey.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the Joseph Smith book done by these authors but still a nice compilation of stories from Brigham Young’s life surrounding the pioneer trek to Utah. We used it as a family read-a-loud.

[Jeff Crosby]

Pioneers.