The process of Mormon emigration began in the 1840's and assisted 5,000 European converts in migrating to Nauvoo, Illinois. Beginning in 1846, the Church organized 16,000 persons in and around Nauvoo to make the great trek to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and later to the Salt Lake Valley. By 1890 agents of the Mormon Church had directed the migration of 83,000 European members to the Salt Lake Valley. Scholars have regarded the Church's arrangements as perhaps the best system of regulated immigration in U.S. history. Some of the officially sponsored projects for self-sufficiency included: