West Branch Rest Area Talks of the Mormon Handcarts and Iowa City

 There is an informational bulletin that talks of the handcarts; and the back side talks of Iowa City as the territorial capital.

It is a bit hard to see, so here is the transcript: Mormon Handcart Trail 1856.  In 1856, some 1300 Mormon converts from Europe, many of them wards of the Perpetual Emigration Fund COmpany, reached the railroad "End-of-Track" in Iowa City.  Their money exhausted, Brigham Young declared: "Let them come on foot, with hand-carts or wheel-barrows, let them gird up their loins, and walk through and nothing shall hinder them."
The Mormons encamped at what is now Coralville while awaiting the completion of their handcarts.  The first company of 226 Mormons set out bravely from Coralville on June 7, pushing or pulling their carts through Homestead, Marengo, Newton, Des Moines, Adel, and historic Dalmanutha.  It joined the Mormon Trail of 1846 at Lewis and crossed the Missouri River north of Council Bluffs.  The Mormon Bridge at North Omaha stands as a symbol to their trek across Iowa.
Meanwhile, the other companies followed close on the heels of the first Handcart expedition, all three reaching Salt Lake CIty safely before cold weather set in.  The fourth and fifth Handcart companies suffered untold hardships and death before they reached their Zion in present-day Utah.

The back side of the plaque tells of Iowa City as the territorial capital from 1839-1857.  There is a historic capital building in Iowa City.