In his journal for October 5, 1884, Wilford Woodruff
gave an Account of the first
testimony of the Prophet Joseph in Kirland Aprail 1834 of filling the Rocky
Mountains with the Saints of God
On April 19, 1894, Heber J. Grant recorded something
similar:
[In apostles’ meeting]
Prest. Woodruff spoke of the first time he had ever been in a meeting with the
Prophet Joseph and said that Joseph had said to the few men in the room at the
time that they had no more idea of the magnitude of the work of God than babes.
Among other things Joseph had said that there would yet be tens of thousands of
saints in the Rocky Mountains. Referred to hearing a large number speak in
tongues in the Kirtland Temple and that a sister ... Hyde interpreted most of
what was said and there was more in the talk about the Rocky Mountains than any
other subject. He did not then understand that the saints were to be located in
these valleys. (Heber J. Grant, Journal, April 19, 1894, in The Diaries of
Heber J. Grant, 1880-1845 Abridged, comp. D. Michael Quinn [Digital
Edition; Salt Lake City, 2015])
It appears that, according to Woodruff, Joseph predicted a
movement of at least a sizeable portion of Church membership to the Rocky
Mountains in the then-future in April 1834.
For the evidence that Joseph Smith did predict such a
movement (e.g., the journal entries of Oliver Olney), see the articles on this
issue at: