Brochure Highlights Latter-day Saint History in California

As Church members commemorate the 150th anniversary of the handcart pioneers who moved west to the Salt Lake Valley, Saints in California are remembering the sacrifice of Latter-day Saint pioneers who journeyed to California, blazing trails of faith as some moved east to the Salt Lake Valley while others stayed and influenced the establishment of California.
The California Pioneer Heritage Foundation produced a brochure, “California's Pioneer Heritage: Saints, Soldiers and Settlers,” to help not only Church members, but the public as well, which become more aware of the influence of the early Latter-day Saints in California.
“The pioneers' history is kind of overlooked,” said Lila Bringhurst, a Church member from the San Francisco Bay Area, who wrote the brochure under the direction of the foundation. ”This is regenerating some interest in that important time period in which many Mormons played an important part.”
Although the brochure is not sponsored by the Church, Church members have helped produce it as it has gone through a lengthy rewrite and editing process to accurately recount an overview of early pioneers and how they met their challenges, exercised faith, and built new communities.
The brochure states, “They were involved in every important event in pioneer California: the Bear Flag Revolt, the discovery of gold, the creation of communities and counties, the rush to statehood, the establishment of businesses and the birth of commercial agriculture.”
On July 31, 1846—160 years ago—the Saints on the ship Brooklyn arrived in San Francisco (formerly called Yerba Buena) after enduring the longest known religious voyage in history.
In 1847, the 500-man Mormon Battalion arrived in San Diego, California, after a 2,000-mile trek, one of the longest in U.S. infantry history. They were sent to reinforce the Army of the West and to build a new wagon trail from Santa Fe to San Diego.
In 1851, Brigham Young authorized a settlement in Southern California as a source of supply for the Utah settlements and as a way station for immigrants traveling from the coast. Soon a 500-pioneer wagon train from Salt Lake City headed there and began to form the city of San Bernardino.
Ten to eleven years after they arrived in California, having established homes and farms and become wealthy, many Saints gave it all up again to go to Utah, at Brigham Young's call to defend the Saints against Johnston's army.
“You have to stand back and admire what they did for their love of the gospel and their obedience,” said Sister Bringhurst, who has been involved in California history research for many years.
Today, Church members in California continue building their communities and spreading the gospel. With Church membership at more than 756,000 and the seventh temple soon to be dedicated in Sacramento on September 3, the Saints in California, like many worldwide, continue building upon their pioneer legacy.