The Mormon Pioneer Cemetery is located at 3300 State Street in present-day
Florence at the
north end of
Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
,
Nebraska. The Cemetery is the burial site of hundreds of
Mormon pioneers
The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...
who lived in
Winter Quarters, a temporary settlement that lasted from 1846 to 1848 as the settlers moved to
Salt Lake City,
Utah. It was designated a landmark by the City of Omaha in 1990.
[Pioneer-Mormon Cemetery]
City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission. Retrieved 6/7/2007.
Records of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) indicate that 359 Mormon pioneers were buried at the site. Remnants of three of the graves are visible today, uncovered during the erection of a commemorative monument in 1936. The monument, a bronze statue by Salt Lake City artist
Avard Fairbanks
Avard Tennyson Fairbanks (March 2, 1897 – January 1, 1987) was a 20th-century American sculptor. Over his eighty-year career, he sculpted over 100 public monuments and hundreds of artworks. Fairbanks is known for his religious-themed commis ...
, depicts parents who have committed the body of an infant to the grave.
The graves of a number of Florence residents are also located in the cemetery. The community of Florence began to use the cemetery several years after the departure of the Mormons and prior to the Mormons the area had been used as an Indian burial ground.
With the exception of a commemorative marker in the nearby city park, the cemetery is the only visible reminder of the Mormon settlement.
See also
*
History of North Omaha, Nebraska
*
List of cemeteries in Omaha
The following is a list of cemeteries in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska in the United States.
The earliest cemetery in Omaha is the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1846 for residents of Culter's Park.
Cemeteries
See also
* History ...
References
External links
*
Mormon Pioneer Cemeteryon the
Waymarking website.
Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters*
Cemeteries in Omaha, Nebraska
Mormon cemeteries
Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska
Mormon pioneers
Mormon Trail
Omaha Landmarks
Tourist attractions in Omaha, Nebraska
Latter Day Saint movement in Nebraska
1846 establishments in Indian Territory
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