The accomplishments of Brigham Young are staggering.

June 1 marked the 200th birthday of the man who was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and first territorial governor of the provisional State of Deseret in 1849.

It was Brigham Young who led the first of thousands of Latter-day Saints west in 1846-47 — first to a temporary settlement in Winters Quarters, Neb., and then on to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, where he uttered this famous statement: "This is the right place. Drive on."

But he did so much more temporally and spiritually than that noted exodus. Years after his death in 1877, historians understandably referred to him as the "American Moses." His impact on Utah and the West quite simply is phenomenal.

More than 400 communities were settled under his direction in parts of Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.

He established a broad range of industries and businesses to develop local resources and benefit the area's residents, including sugar, textiles, livestock, a bank, a branch railroad and America's first department store, Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution.

"Is there a parallel to Brigham Young in the history of the settlement of the American West? asked Dean May, Utah historian and author in a video about the Western colonizer. "The answer is quite simply, 'No.' "

Brigham Young willingly gave credit to a higher power for his successful trek west.

"I do not wish men to understand that I had anything to do with our being moved here, that was the providence of the Almighty; it was the power of God that wrought out salvation for this people, I never could have devised such a plan."

His two journeys across the West set the standards and established trails that later travelers would follow to the Utah Territory.

"He led a ragged and impoverished band, stripped of virtually all their earthly goods, into an unknown territory," said Hugh W. Nibley, Brigham Young University emeritus professor of ancient scripture.

"His critics and biographers note that the man was unique among the leaders of modern history, for he alone, without any political and financial backing, established from scratch in the desert an ordered and industrious society, having no other authority than the priesthood and the spiritual strength with which he delivered his teachings," Brother Nibley wrote.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, when he was second counselor in the First Presidency in 1984, said:

"To me, it is a thing of never-ending wonder that Brigham Young and his associates had the faith to move to the mountain valleys of Utah. . . . The movement of our people involved an exodus of many thousands to a land which others thought barren and unproductive. Nevertheless, they went west, putting their trust in God that He would rebuke the sterility of the soil and temper the climate that they might be sustained and grow and become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains in order to send from its bastions the word of truth everywhere."

Because of Brigham Young's profound faith, the Church has flourished and blossomed. How appropriate were the many activities held in several states across the nation to honor a truly great man.