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Panels detailing Mormon trek replaced with new ones

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August 10th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Several organizations have collaborated in replacing a handful of outdoor informational panels that detail a journey of Mormons in the mid-1800s across Iowa to settle in Utah. The Daily Nonpareil reports that the panels were installed by organizers at several eastern Iowa sites in 1996 during the 150th anniversary of the trek.

Bob Schulze with the Pottawattamie County Mormon Trails Association says the signs appeared worn due to age and weather. He and others, including representatives from the Pottawattamie County Conservation and the National Park Service, recently worked together to replace most of them with new ones.

Schulze says an Iowa Living Roadway Trust grant helped establish the native prairie that surrounds the panels. Organizers worked to make the area resemble what settlers encountered on their travels.