Editing Council Bluffs, Iowa (section)

===1844–1851: Mormon community of Kanesville===
In 1844, the [[Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party]] crossed the Missouri River here, on their way to blaze a new path into California across the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada Mountains]]. Beginning in 1846, a large influx of [[Latter-day Saints]] entered the area, although in the winter of 1847–1848 most Latter-day Saints crossed to the Nebraska side of the Missouri River.  Initially, the area was called "Miller's Hollow", after [[Henry W. Miller]]; a settler, he was the first member of the Iowa State Legislature to be from this area. Miller also was the foreman for the construction of the [[Kanesville Tabernacle]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kenalford.com/sam/sam-page4.htm|title=Seminary Scripture Mastery Resources!|website=www.kenalford.com}}</ref>

By 1848, the town had become known as Kanesville, named for benefactor [[Thomas L. Kane]]. He had helped negotiate federal permission in [[Washington, D.C.]] for the Mormons to use Indian land along the Missouri as their winter encampment of 1846–47. Built next to or at Caldwell's Camp, Kanesville became the main outfitting point for the [[Mormon pioneers|Mormon Exodus]] to [[Utah]]; it is the recognized head of the [[Mormon Trail]].

[[Edwin Carter]], who would become a noted [[naturalist]] in [[Colorado]], worked here from 1848 to 1859 in a dry goods store. He helped supply Mormon wagon trains.

Settlers who departed west from Kanesville into the sparsely settled, [[Territory of Missouri#History|unorganized parts of the Territory of Missouri]] traveled to the [[Oregon Country]] and the newly conquered [[Mexican–American War|California Territory]]. They traversed the (eventual) [[Nebraska Territory]] traveling in [[wagon train]]s along the much-storied [[Oregon Trail|Oregon]], [[Mormon Trail|Mormon]], or [[California Trail]]s into the newly expanded United States western lands.

After the first large organized wagon trains left Missouri in 1841, the annual migration waves began in earnest by the spring of 1843. They built up thereafter, with the opening of the Mormon Trail (1846) and peaked in the later 1860s. After that, news of the progress of railroads constructed across the west reduced the number of travelers who endured the wagon trains.

By the 1860s, virtually all migration wagon trains passed near the town now named Council Bluffs. The [[wagon train]] trails became less important with the advent of the first complete [[Transcontinental railroad#United States|transcontinental railway]] in 1869, but while trail use diminished after that, their use continued on at lesser rates until late in the nineteenth century.

The [[Mormon Battalion]] began its march from Kanesville to [[California]] during the [[Mexican–American War]], which began  This area was where Mormons first began to openly practice [[plural marriage]]. [[Orson Hyde]] began to publish ''The Frontier Guardian'' newspaper, and [[Brigham Young]] was named as the second president of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS church). The community was transformed by the [[California Gold Rush]], and the majority of Mormons left for Utah by 1852.
[[File:Council-bluffs1.jpg|thumb|right|Lincoln Memorial at Council Bluffs, marking where President [[Abraham Lincoln]] was said to have selected the site as the eastern terminus of the [[Transcontinental Railroad]].]]