The home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a land of rugged mountains, deep canyon lands and majestic rivers. Utah and Mormon history are entwined, as so many early followers of the faith settled the region beginning in 1847. They preserved their values and heritage in the numerous temples, forts, tabernacles and cemeteries that serve as historic sacred monuments for the modern church. Author and LDS member Andy Weeks explores the history behind the landmarks that exalt the rich, deeply rooted history of Mormonism in the Beehive State.

Shrouded in the lore of legendary Indians, Mt. Timpanogos beckons the urban populace of Utah. And yet, no “Indian” legend graced the mount until Mormon settlers conjured it—once they had displaced the local Indians, the Utes, from their actual landmark, Utah Lake. On Zion’s Mount tells the story of this curious shift. It is a quintessentially American story about the fraught process of making oneself “native” in a strange land. But it is also a complex tale of how cultures confer meaning on the environment—how they create homelands. Only in Utah did Euro-American settlers conceive of having a homeland in the Native American sense—an endemic spiritual geography. They called it “Zion.” Mormonism, a religion indigenous to the United States, originally embraced Indians as “Lamanites,” or spiritual kin. On Zion’s Mount shows how, paradoxically, the Mormons created their homeland at the expense of the local Indians—and how they expressed their sense of belonging by investing Timpanogos with “Indian” meaning. This same pattern was repeated across the United States. Jared Farmer reveals how settlers and their descendants (the new natives) bestowed “Indian” place names and recited pseudo-Indian legends about those places—cultural acts that still affect the way we think about American Indians and American landscapes.

Quote: 'Why would God reveal to Joseph Smith a faulty [mistranslated] KJV text?' Chap 4: (Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon) concludes that numerous theological issues addressed in the Book of Mormon probably derived from Smith's Upstate New York religious environment than from the claimed ancient gold plates. Chap 5: (Moroni and the Golden Pot) examines a long list of parallels between a published story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Smith's account of the angel Moroni's visits. The chapter concludes, 'It would stretch credulity to believe that this [long list of parallels between Hoffmann's Golden Pot story and Smith's Moroni story] could be a coincidence, and I therefore think that a debt is owed to E.T.A. Hoffmann and the European traditions ... ' Chap.

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn New York craftsman whose impoverished life was electrified by the Mormon faith. Turner provides a fully realized portrait of this spiritual prophet, viewed by followers as a protector and by opponents as a heretic. His pioneering faith made a deep imprint on tens of thousands of lives in the American Mountain West.

OUR DEAR YOUNG MEN AND YOUNG WOMEN, we have great confidence in you. You are beloved sons and daughters of God and He is mindful of you. You have come to earth at a time of great opportunities and also of great challenges. The standards in this booklet will help you with the important choices you are making now and will yet make in the future. We promise that as you keep the covenants you have made and these standards, you will be blessed with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, your faith and testimony will grow stronger, and you will enjoy increasing happiness.

A project of the Utah Women's History Association and cosponsored by the Utah State Historical Society, Paradigm or Paradox provides the first thorough survey of the complicated history of all Utah women. Some of the finest historians studying Utah examine the spectrum of significant social and cultural topics in the state's history that particularly have involved or affected women. The contents are as follows: A Comparison of Utah Mormon Polygamous and Monogamous Women Jessie L. Embry and Lois Kelley Innovation and Accommodation: the Legal Status of Women in Territorial Utah, 1847-96 Lisa Madsen Pearson and Carol Cornwall Madsen Conflict and Contributions: Women in Utah Churches, 1847-1920 John Sillito Utah's Ethnic Women Helen Z. Papanikolas The Professionalization of Utah's Farm Women, 1890-1940 Cynthia Sturgis Gainfully Employed Women in Utah Miriam B. Murphy From Schoolmarm to State Superintendent: The Changing Role of Women in Utah Education, 1847-2004 Mary Clark and Patricia Lyn Scott Scholarship, Service, and Sisterhood: Utah Women's Clubs and Associations, 1847-1977 Jill Mulvay Derr Women of Letters in Utah Gary Topping Utah Women in the Arts Martha Sontag Bradley-Evans Women in Politics: Power in the Public Sphere Kathryn L. MacKay Utah Women's Life Stages: 1850-1940 Jessie L. Embry

Contains histories of some of the minorities in Utah.