Mormon Battalion Museum
Come experience the long march from Iowa to San Diego at the Mormon Battalion Museum Historic Site. Learn why this group of Latter-day Saint men and women joined the U.S. Army and what they accomplished during and after their march. Located in Old Town San Diego, this Historic Site steps out of the 1840s and into the multi-media world of the 21st century. Your free tour begins in a new hacienda-style courtyard reproduced in great detail to represent the 1800’s. Visitors will experience history through exciting new technologies in cinema and special effects.
The Historic Site also has many interesting artifacts on display that were hand-carried into San Diego by the Battalion. The museum also features hands-on activities for all ages including gold panning, 1800’s laundry, brick making, and dressing up in period clothing. Visitors may also pose for a free “old-time” photograph at the center which can then be emailed to any destination. Admission is FREE!
Having been driven by mobs from their homes in Illinois, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as “Mormons” sought assistance from the government for their migration to the west. The U. S. Government responded with President James Polk requesting they assemble an army to march as part of the Army of the West during the Mexican-American War from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas to San Diego. This march is one of the longest in the history of the U. S. Army, totaling over 2,000 miles, and arriving in San Diego on January 29, 1847.
At the war’s end, the members of the Mormon Battalion stayed on and performed garrison duties, making friends with the Californios and bringing a community together through their service. They fired some of the first bricks in California and used the bricks to line deeper wells, providing healthy drinking water to the Pueblo of San Diego. The Battalion also constructed our first U. S. Courthouse, where a replica stands in Old Town today.

My kids especially enjoyed panning for gold at the end.
It works be nice if the presentation wasn't so rigid. The kids really wanted to try on the soldier things.
The updates they've made to the experience made this one of my kids' favorite activities during this trip!
We had several hours to kill, just waiting for planes. I saw the sign underneath a rather impressive collection of architecture and history expertly arranged an built into the hills of San Diego.
I knew that the tour was going to be a combination of history and religious evangelism. These wonderfully nice people still surprised me.
We arrived halfway through the Spanish tour whereupon a blue eyed latter-day Saints sister recited, by script, in perfect Spanish, a preview of the tour we were about to undertake.
It’s not really a tour.
It is an interactive, three part,(audience, sister tour guides, and interactive historical characters in wall paintings straight out of Harry Potter) historical/spiritual message.
The set dressings are surprisingly realistic given the setting. We know that these are props however, the props are REALLY good!
Like “actual kit or better” good.
( I’m a little bit of a history buff and I have some long years in set design)
The explanations and actual physical props from the US military in that time are spot on accurate from an equipment point of view.
The history side is better than expected. However, this is still a mission. So expect a spiritual side.
At this point I have to tell you, it’s actually an astoundingly positive thing. I wasn’t expecting that.
At the beginning of this they bring up a focusing (at least for me)theme
Throughout tribulation, “We chose to be happy” outlined the Latter Day Saints contributions to both California and to the United States of America.
It was nice to see people who were proud of their faith outlining exactly how that same faith helped frame the west.
Thank you for an entertaining and informational afternoon.
PS: There are many who look at this place as a straight on religious conversion center. You might be right.
But, at least these people speak from the heart as to what they believe
Great place for free internment!
If you are pressed for time rearrange your schedule because there is a lot to see and do.
We had heard about the Mormon Battalion from a friend of ours and they said it was great and they were totally right!!
Just walking up to the entrance looking at the cool old looking building and the covered wagon out front and the beautiful statue you start to see how much time was put into the building.
Next you walk in and are welcomed by friendly people and you can look around a little bit and then go right into a very well lead and interactive tour. We have 3 kids under the age of 8 and they all we able to stay interested during the tour and the gold mining at the end put the tour over the top!
They have exits from every room in case you need to duck out early - and honestly we were planning to do that - but then we got so into it that we didn’t want to!
At the end they even had a free photo booth that prints out the photo. The whole experience was really cool and I highly recommend it!
If you stay for the whole tour it’s about 40 min.