Their were many reasons for people to expand westward. Some went west to get rich by finding gold, silver, and homesteading land. Others went for the adventure, glory, and to fulfill romantic visions of the "free life". A significant number of people went west for religious reasons, to flee persecution and to proselytize.

The following project is based on a specific episode of westward expansion spurred by religious conviction (although, ironically, their trek actually went east). This episode is one of the greatest stories of the power of faith and religion in the settling of the west, and encapsulates the struggles of pioneers in the early American West.