History of the 45th State
Until 1847, the rare visitors in the territory of Utah are explorers or hunters, of Spanish origin, or trappers, come from the United States or Canada. The Indians who survive with difficulty in this environment almost everywhere desert, cut deep canyons, barred cliffs and high mountains, are Shoshones and Bannocks, in north, Païutes in the desert, and Utes, when they leave their mountains of Colorado.
The area is cut is by the barrier of Rock, of the south by the pits of the canyons of Colorado. In the west, the gold of California was not discovered yet: the population is very reduced there, and the Nevada Sierra, then the desert of the Large Basin interpose between it and the Rock ones. In 1776, a Spanish forwarding started from Santa Fe, which looked for a way to join the missions of California, ventured to the lake Utah. The father Sylvestre Velez of Escalante led it: an immense area protected by a National Monument bears its name today. The total ignorance of the area, the difficulties of the reliefs, the lack of food and the larval hostility of the Indians will ruin it. The trappers passed the Rock ones a little after 1820.
However, if nobody stops, since 1841 one passes: the caravans of carriages on the way towards Oregon and California enter this Utah future by the south-western angle of Wyoming and join in skew, in Idaho, an establishment of the company of Hudson Bay, Fort Hall, where they are supplied.
The caravans, parts of Independence, in Missouri, joined, then followed southern bank of Platte. They crossed the Rock ones with the unimportant collar of South Pass. When they arrive at the desert, they have gone for four months. In 1847, another caravan follows northern bank of Platte: the Mormons, driven out of their capital of Nauvoo, in Illinois, seek their promised land. Richest carriages have. Much is with foot. Others push wheelbarrows and barrows where are their some goods. Brigham Young leads them.
The faithful ones believe that it takes them along to California. But when the avant-garde arrives at the peak of the Wasatch mounts, when the sight opens on the desert which, any yellow, extends to the foot from the mountains, it says to those which are with him: “It is enough. It is well the place. On the way!”
The very same day of their arrival, a potato field is planted: more dynamic, you die! It will be necessary for them to break the ground, to plant, irrigate, build the houses during germination. It will be necessary for them to resist the dryness, the grasshoppers, the overflows of the torrents of mountain… But there, in this place that nobody asserts, of which nobody wants, they will be able to live with their own way their faith, in the political organization and social which they wish, without nobody have anything to repeat. A trapper is installed with a few tens of kilometers: the Mormons repurchase ground and house and requires of him to leave. As for the Indians, Young thinks that they are less expensive to nourish than to fight: they are quickly persuaded.
The following year, the gold of California is discovered. It is the rush. Salt Lake City, then the crossing of the salted desert constitute a notable short cut. The Mormons will benefit from the trade which the caravans bring: they buy at low prices oxen of feature tired by several months of walk, put them at manure, and with the full price some caravans resell them later, when they are again in form. The Mormons get to the travellers equipment in good state and new reserves of food. Salt Lake City thrives quickly.
Brigham Young does not want that the Mormons are dependant on the United States: the relations with the Americans are bad since too a long time! He writes with the government to officially assert an immense territory, which extends from the south of Idaho until Los Angeles and San Diego, at the time two negligible villages. To the east and the west, this territory is limited by the Rock ones and the Nevada Sierra. The Mormon State must be called “Deseret”. The US government does not hear it this ear! In 1857, it sends troops. Soon, the territory takes its current form. Twelve years later, the two sections of the first transcontinental railway line make their junction in the north of the Salted Lake. A new population reaches the area: as of the end of XIXme century, the Mormons are minority. Utah takes the row of State in 1896.
Hundred years later, the Mormons account for 40% more of the inhabitants of Salt Lake City. They conquered the country on a difficult nature, were established in the recesses most isolated from Utah, of Arizona, of Nevada and Idaho. Faithful to their will of economic and political independence, they had even tried to create steel-works close to Cedar City. In 1997, the population of Utah exceeded two inhabitants million, of which 1.250.000 lived in Salt Lake City or Ogden, where, with the foot of the mounts Wasatch, one finds water necessary to the life.
The Mormons are minority, but their religion remains strong, their influence very present. Their proselytism, which goes back to their founder Joseph Smith, led them to establish churches in the whole world. They made of Salt Lake City a big city where, as of XIXme century, they built astonishing buildings. Beside one of the largest copper mines of the United States, exploitation of the mineral resources of the Salted Big lake, salt and magnesium, coal mines, they knew to develop advanced technology industries. Utah counts ten spectacular parks and national monuments and the entry of famous Monument Valley: tourism does not cease increasing. Utah is without any doubt one of the most spectacular States, to visit among the first.