One of the best-maintained and best-marked historic sites on the Mormon Trail from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake City, Utah, is Mt. Pisgah, Iowa. It was here that the original 1846-47 pioneers established a semi-permanent settlement that served Latter-day Saints who came after them until its closure in 1852.
A monument at the site erected by the Church in 1888 honors the memory of those who died there in 1846-48 and contains the names of many of the people whose remains are in a cemetery there. Another marker, placed by the state of Iowa, gives the history of the settlement. A log cabin replica, erected in 1996 by the Des Moines Iowa Stake, is nearby.To reach Mt. Pisgah from Garden Grove, go north to U.S. 34, then west to a mile beyond Thayer, then north on U.S. 169 to a county road sign directing travelers two miles west and south to the historic site.