Picturing history: Zion's Camp, National Road

Heading west from Richmond, Ind., Zion's Camp followed the historic National Road, the nation's first federally funded interstate road. The National Road ran for 824 miles from Maryland to the western Illinois border.

The state of Indiana currently promotes a highway tour that approximates the route of the National Road. Signs placed along U.S. 40 in Indiana inform travelers that they are following this historic route. About 25 miles east of Indianapolis, between the little towns of Raysville and Ogden, a section of the original National Road has been identified and preserved for several miles.

The exact site where members of Zion's Camp marched along can be seen and followed, assuming that they had not been detoured. This would include the Prophet Joseph Smith and two future LDS Church presidents, Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff.