Here’s a heck of a big what if: Had Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young not deemed this “the place” in 1847, what would this place on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains be like today?
Would it be as populated, as big of a tourist draw, as staunchly conservative? Probably, most definitely and maybe not are my answers to those questions.
One thing for sure is it wouldn’t be so square, and that’s not a reference to the state’s geographical boundaries.
With a large percentage of the population belonging to a famously straight-laced church, Utah is rarely accused of being hip, cool or trendy — quite unlike neighboring Colorado, which Utah might well resemble in the alternative timeline we’re theorizing about here.
Not long before Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics — inviting the whole world to sample its unique culture — former Latter-day Saint prophet Gordon B. Hinckley even made it a point of playing up the dominant faith’s puritanical reputation and idiosyncrasies.
“Of course, we’re different from the world,” he was quoted as saying. “If the world continues to go the way it is now going, we will become even more peculiar.”
The impact of this “peculiar” religion on Utah and the entire region has, of course, been monumental, shaping early settlement, development, legislation, education, neighbor relations and much more, but somehow for outsiders the strict liquor laws have always garnered most of the attention. Well, that and polygamy.
What they might not know is that alcohol regulations have loosened up significantly since the Olympics-hosting experience and quite likely because of it. Today, there are few obstacles to imbibing.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting the state continues to enjoy comparatively low drunken-driving accident and death rates, thanks no doubt to the large number of alcohol-abstaining Latter-day Saints. A recent Forbes data analysis ranked Utah 49th out of 50 states for drunken-driving risk, while two other Western states, Montana and Wyoming, were listed first and second.
Finding your way around would be quite different in these parts had Brigham Young and his followers looked elsewhere to escape persecution and create a new society. Using Joseph Smith’s “City of Zion” concept, Young had Utah’s newly settled towns laid out on a grid system that assigned numbers instead of names to most of the streets, resulting in some very intimidating addresses, like 3000 W. 8935 South.
However, one major aspect of Utah’s cityscapes that has evolved exactly like other American towns: Our main drags are lined with block after block of chain stores and franchise restaurants. In this regard, Zion might as well be Anyplace, USA.
Perhaps a better hypothetical question than “What would Utah be without the church?” is “What would the church be without Utah?”
After Joseph Smith’s 1844 murder by a mob in Illinois, the fate of the Latter-day Saints could have taken any number of turns, and it actually did. Though Young managed to marshal the most followers and eventually migrate west, other factions went other directions, both theologically and geographically.
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now called the Community of Christ, is the most successful spinoff, and, of course, we all know about the polygamous FLDS. But there were additional splinter groups that fizzled out by and by, and one large sect led by a guy named James Strang crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.
Strang, who claimed to be Joseph Smith’s hand-picked successor and had his own gold plates story, took what history records as “several thousand” early church members with him to live on Lake Michigan’s Beaver Island, eventually having himself coronated “king” of the flock.
Strang’s story is a complex and sordid saga that anyone interested in Mormon history should read up on, but the bottom line is that he was shot and killed by sect malcontents after reportedly having one of his followers flogged for committing adultery.
In the aftermath of Strang’s death, Wikipedia tells us a mob of Michigan mainlanders descended on the island and forcefully evicted the Strangites, abruptly sawing off that branch of the original Latter-day Saints.
Brigham Young’s decision to migrate west — not just west but to the largely ignored Salt Lake Valley — had many things going for it that a place like Beaver Island did not. Chief among these was total isolation. This was a place where the faithful could multiply and grow almost entirely on their own terms, which is essentially what happened, barring a few federal inconveniences.
Had Young chosen to veer north on the Oregon Trail or press on to California, would the church even be a shadow of itself today? It’s doubtful.
But so much for what ifs. History took its course, and those of us in Utah are in a unique place to see how a few pivotal decisions and events nearly two centuries ago continue to play out.
Charles McCollum
Charles McCollum is the former managing editor of The Herald Journal newspaper in Logan. He can be reached at charlesmccollum11@gmail.com.
