Worldwide media interest in the Mormon migration across the Great Plains was generated in the spring of 1997, when a re-enactment of the trek was sanctioned by the church to honor the 150th anniversary of the first LDS pioneer party's trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

President Hinckley dedicated the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters, Neb., the day before the wagon train departed, then directed that a temple be built there, in part to honor early church members who suffered and died during the arduous trip west. It was dedicated in April 2001.

The most recent preservation project that local Latter-day Saints are widely aware of is the retrofitting of the historic Tabernacle on Temple Square, which was dedicated in 1875. Now underw ay, that project was made possible by construction — under President Hinckley's direction — of the LDS Conference Center as a larger venue for the faith's general conferences and weekly Tabernacle Choir broadcasts.

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