Joseph Smith’s Prophecy of the Saints’ Rocky Mountain Settlement

In separate recollections of Joseph Smith’s prophecy that the Saints would settle in the Rocky Mountains, Mosiah Lyman Hancock recalled that the day after Joseph’s speech from the frame of his Nauvoo mansion, Joseph came to the Hancock home and used Mosiah’s map to trace the Saints’ travels through Iowa to the Great Salt Lake Valley, predicting they would build cities in every direction and become a great and wealthy people. Anson Call recalled a different occasion, at the organization of a Masonic lodge, when Joseph warned those present not to drink too much ice water and described the cold, clear streams and snow-capped mountains of the Rocky Mountain country. Call said Joseph’s countenance became a “living, brilliant white,” pointed to Shadrach Roundy and others as people who would do a great work there, and told Call he would help build cities across the country. These accounts concern the same broad prophecy of western settlement but describe different occasions and are therefore not duplicates.

In his account, Mosiah Lyman Hancock provides a more specific timeline, noting that Joseph Smith came to the Hancock home and carpenter shop the day after his speech from the frame of the Nauvoo mansion to trace the Saints' westward path on a map. Hancock also records the Prophet's specific prediction regarding the rise of two political parties—Republican and Democrat—and their subsequent conflict, which he prophesied would lead to the emergence of an 'Independent American Party.' Furthermore, Hancock writes that Joseph Smith foretold a future where the United States would exhaust its strength in foreign wars until other nations threatened to divide the land, at which point the citizens would unite, ultimately saved by the 'boys from the mountains' who would rush forth to rescue the American Army from ruin.