LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley flew over more of the United States in one day Friday than the LDS pioneers walked across in two years after fleeing their persecutors in Illinois.
It was in memory of those LDS pioneers that President Hinckley dedicated a visitors center in this Omaha suburb. Hours earlier, he also paid tribute to them at Memorial Park in Nauvoo, Ill., where their historic journey began in 1846.They crossed Iowa and settled on the banks of the Missouri River. The small community of Winter Quarters, enveloped by Florence as Omaha grew up, was a temporary haven for early Latter-day Saints escaping persecutions in Missouri and Illinois, President Hinckley said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now numbers nearly 10 million. But for its amazing growth to occur, it demanded a place in the last century that was far from the settled environs of the United States. From Winter Quarters, hundreds and then thousands of Latter-day Saint pioneers followed the Mormon Trail to the Salt Lake Valley in the period from 1847 to 1869.
Though Winter Quarters provided a temporary respite from persecutions, it was not the place for the permanent LDS settlement, President Hinckley said.
"I am grateful our people didn't stop here. It was not far enough to escape their persecutions," he told an audience of more than 900 gathered in the new Mormon Trail Center.
The declaration by then-church President Brigham Young that "this is the right place," referring to the isolated Salt Lake Valley, proved prophetic, he said.
Although the Great Basin valley did not seem promising when the pioneers arrived in July 1847, history has proved that it was, in fact, the right place for the fledgling church to establish itself and thrive, the LDS Church leader said.
"They were great people in whose footsteps we walk," said President Hinckley. "They did what they set out to do."
He then recalled the price paid by many of those early pioneers. The visitors center lies in the shadow of a pioneer cemetery, where hundreds of those hoping to join the trek to Utah Territory ended their journey before it really began. A memorial in the cemetery praises more than 6,000 who died in Winter Quarters and on the challenging Plains during the pioneer era.
Also during the program, President Hinckley exchanged gifts with Nebraska Gov. E. Benjamin Nelson. Ironically, the governor had been in meetings in Utah earlier in the day with Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. The two share responsibility on a committee studying a high-tech university to serve Westerners.
Nelson said Nebraskans share a pride in the history of Winter Quarters and the pioneer trail. While in Utah earlier Friday, Nelson said he found that looking at the Great Salt Lake, one of the great geographic emblems of the pioneer experience, gave him a special appreciation for the historic trek.
"I could feel the presence of the experience," Nelson said.
Among other church officials present at the ceremony were Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, who has served as head of the church Sesquicentennial Committee, and Elder Hugh W. Pinnock of the Quorum of the Seventy and president of the North American Central Area.
A children's choir that sang well-known songs recounting the hardships youngsters experienced on the Plains set an emotional tone for the dedication speakers. The children represented the church's Omaha Papillion Stake.
Vaughn and Peggy Hyde, Centerville, were among Utahns who traveled to Omaha to take part in the dedication and other events. Peggy Hyde's father, Jack Bangerter, is president of the Nebraska-Omaha Mission. Such events help to remind LDS Church members of their heritage, she said.
A schoolteacher, she tries to impress upon her fourth-graders the importance of Utah history. "We try as parents and as teachers to help them understand," Peggy Hyde said. "This (the recollection of history) stands for everything we worked for."
Elder Arel Sessions, an LDS missionary who will serve in the visitors center, said it is expected the new center will attract more people who are interested in the history of the church. Elder Eldon L. Fletcher will be the center's director.
Friday's dedication ceremony was the prelude to a number of events noting the 150th anniversary of the pioneers starting down the trail from Winter Quarters.
One of the wagon trains re-creating the trek is expected to leave a local park today to head out on the trail. A larger body of people intent on reliving the pioneer experience will leave Monday.
The events have brought some excitement to usually placid Florence, said Kathy Erickson, a waitress at Pefferoni's Pizza. "It's a big deal."