Zion's Camp

Zion's Camp was an expedition of Latter Day Saints led by Joseph Smith, from Kirtland, Ohio, to Clay County, Missouri, during May and June 1834 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain land from which the Saints had been expelled by non-Mormon settlers. In Latter Day Saint belief, this land is destined to become a city of Zion, the center of the millennial kingdom; and Smith dictated a command from God ordering him to lead his church like a modern Moses to redeem Zion "by power, and with a stretched-out arm."^[1]

Receiving word of the approaching Latter Day Saints, the Missourians formed militias, which outnumbered Smith's men. Smith then dictated another revelation stating that the church was presently unworthy to "redeem Zion" because of its lack of commitment to the United Order, or law of consecration.^[2] They were told they must "wait a little season" until its elders could receive their promised endowment of heavenly power.^[3] The expedition was disbanded on July 25, 1834, during a cholera epidemic, and a majority of survivors returned to Ohio.

Notwithstanding the failure of the expedition to regain the land, many camp members "believed heaven had watched over them." Heber C. Kimball said angels were seen.^[4][5] "Most camp members felt more loyal to Joseph than ever, bonded by their hardships," and the next generation of leaders came from members of Zion’s Camp: two of the next three church president’s, 56% of the first 25 apostles of the church,^[6] all seven presidents of the seventy, and 63 other members of the seventy. "Joseph's own devotion to Zion and the gathering grew more intense," and when offered an opportunity to "start again elsewhere, he refused."^[7]