In 1846, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois. They spent the winter in Iowa and Nebraska. The first company left with Brigham Young as their leader for the trek west, in the spring of 1847. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. The trip took them over 1,000 miles of unsettled land in the U.S. west. President Gordon B. Hinckley said of the pioneers, Eliza R. Snow, a prominent leader in the early history of the Mormon Church, wrote of the conditions women faced on the trail.