Out in Utah

As of today, I now have a new state to add to my list of states that I have visited. A business trip has brought me to Utah, and I flew in to Salt Lake City earlier today. It has been a really long day, as I arrived at National Airport this morning a little bit before 6 AM. I arrived into Salt Lake City around 2 PM, and spent the afternoon exploring Salt Lake City a little bit. The past and present of Salt Lake City is deeply entwined with the Mormon Church, which has its headquarters (if one can call it that) at the exact center of Salt Lake City. I strolled around both the Capitol area and the Mormon Temple area, taking pictures along the way. The architecture of Mormon Temple was impressive, especially given the fact that it was constructed in the late 1800's.


Mormon Temple

From a historical and social perspective, I find the Mormon migration to Utah very interesting. It was migration of a large number of people with a common religion and similar cultural norms, and the difficulty of the migration left its own cultural imprint on the people that survived. Due to the remote nature of Utah at the time, the locale served as an incubator for the new social order with minimal social interference from the outside.

The New England colonies originated in much the same way was the Mormon migration. The Puritans had a common religious background, and a set of strict cultural norms. They also had the same persecution issues that the Mormons had. However, there was a steady influx of new arrivals with differing religious and cultural views, such as other Christian groups seeking safe haven, and many people looking to make money or just find a new start. As a result, the Puritan influence slowly waned on the East Coast. I wonder what New England would be like if these additional waves of settlers had not come, and I wonder how it would look compared to Utah today.