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Women’s Home Missionary Society
Female Methodist missionaries in Utah forged relationships with women across religious lines, protecting and advocating for women in need throughout the state.Between 1880 and 1890, the number one recipient of resources from the Women’s Home…
Water is for Fighting: The Goshen - Mona Water Dispute
Mark Twain famously joked that “Whiskey is for drinking, but water is for fighting over.” Find out how the struggle for water between two Utah towns led to a lawsuit that resulted in nearly an entire LDS ward being disfellowshipped.
The small…
Utopian Dreams: Russian Pioneers in Park Valley
A group of Russian pioneers sought a place to build their religious colony far from cities and government interference. Where else would they come but Utah? “Invest Dimes and Reap Dollars in Park Valley, Utah!” That was the promise of the…
Utah's First Masonic Lodge
Utah’s first Masonic Lodge was established by American soldiers with a lot of time on their hands.You may be familiar with the imposing Egyptian-style Masonic Temple in downtown Salt Lake City, but did you know that this wasn’t the first Masonic…
Utah Tithing Houses
Much has been made of the early Mormons’ communal work ethic and the effective redistribution of resources within their communities. But how did they actually organize these efforts?Life on the eastern edge of the Great Basin was not easy. When…
The United Order of Orderville
The United Order of Orderville, a Utopian living experiment, thrived for a decade in southern Utah.When people hear the term “communal living,” what often comes to mind is a group of hippies, not a group of 19th Century Mormons. However, the…
The Salt Lake Deserets
Baseball in the nineteenth century was more than just Salt Lake City’s “favorite pastime.” The game became an outlet for the tensions between Mormons and the growing number of residents who did not adhere to the dominant faith and…
The Rag Man
Rightly or wrongly, others often see our work as defining who we are, and prize some occupations over others. Meet George Goddard, who spent three years traveling Utah and collecting waste.Today, most Americans make recycling a regular part of their…
The Ogdenites
Followers of Marie Ogden created a unique religious community just outside of Monticello.In 1933, the followers of Marie Ogden arrived in San Juan County's Dry Valley and began to create their version of God's kingdom. Ogden had dabbled in the occult…
The Morrisites
Eight members of a Mormon fringe group were killed by militiamen in south Weber County.In 1858, Mormon immigrant Joseph Morris sent a letter to LDS Church president Brigham Young naming himself as the church’s true leader. A convert to Mormonism…
The Holy Trinity Church
In 1905, Utah's first Eastern Orthodox church—Holy Trinity—was dedicated. The church, which fronted 4th South, became the center of spiritual life for many eastern and southern Europeans who lived in Salt Lake City and around the Intermountain…
The Godbeites
A group of disaffected British Mormons and merchants formed the Godbeite movement after openly declaring their opposition to the LDS Church.In October 1869, a group of men who had been converted to Mormonism in Great Britain openly declared their…
The Flag of the Kingdom
Why didn't the Mormon pioneers fly the Stars and Stripes to celebrate their entry into the Salt Lake Valley? Every year, on the 24th of July, people line the streets of Salt Lake and other Utah communities to wave the American flag in honor of the…
The Box Elder Tabernacle Fire
An 1896 fire consumed the Box Elder State Tabernacle, just six years after the building had been dedicated.In 1896, LDS worshippers were just assembling for a morning meeting in the Box Elder Stake Tabernacle when the cry of “fire” rent the air.…
Salt Lake’s Catholic Diocese
In 1891, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City was formed from the old Vicariate of Utah and Eastern Nevada. Over 8,000 members, fifteen churches, and fourteen priests belonged to the new diocese.
Catholics appeared early on Utah’s religious…
Mormons Sing At Mass
A friendship between a Mormon settler and a Catholic priest led to the performance of an all-Mormon choir at a high mass in St. George.In 1879, the Mormon Tabernacle in St. George became the site of a Catholic High Mass. Miners, many of them…
Mixing the Sacred and the Secular in Beaver
The relationship between the desires of the spiritual community of Utah and the non-religious needs of the West characterize the growing Mormon frontier.In 1856, a small party of fifteen Mormon families left Parowan in Iron County intent on carving…
Miracle of the Crickets
Most of us have heard the story about the 1848 Miracle of the Gulls. This week hear a new twist on that old tale – it’s the Miracle of the Crickets! In the summer of 1848, clouds of crickets swarmed into the Salt Lake Valley and threatened to…
Jewish Pioneers of Clarion
On September 10, 1911, twelve Jewish families arrived in Gunnison, Utah, to establish a Jewish agricultural community. The group was part of the “Back to Soil” movement, which believed Jews needed to leave the city and live on farms. The…
Iosepa: An Unlikely Hawaiian Home
The voyage of Hawaiian Islanders to the windswept desert of Skull Valley could only have happened in Utah. Once established in Utah in 1847, the Mormon Church drew thousands of new converts who came to build a new home in “Zion.” By the…