Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 4 January 1896
- The Mormons wanted to establish their country around Salt Lake City much earlier, and in a considerably wider area. This Mormon state was supposed to be called “Deseret”.
On this day in 1896 the U.S. state of Utah was established – the only predominantly Mormon state in the USA. Utah was admitted to the composition of the U.S. on this day as the 45th consecutive U.S. state (only Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii were admitted after it).
The Mormons, who officially call themselves members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – make most of the population of the state of Utah (around 63%). Their influence is relatively even higher because they hold the key political positions. The capital of the state of Utah is Salt Lake City, where the world headquarters of Mormons is located.
It is interesting that Mormons wanted to establish their country around Salt Lake City much earlier, and in a considerably wider area that would cover almost the entire neighboring Nevada, most of the Arizona and a good part of California. This Mormon state was supposed to be called “Deseret”. However, the U.S. authorities did not allow that, and even the state of Utah, on a much smaller territory, was granted to them only when the Mormons officially rejected polygamy (polygyny).
