Replies

When the Mormons planned their migration, they intended to leave the U.S., where they had been persecuted, for Mexican territory

I don't know where you got this from, but Brigham Young was adamant about their relocating to the mountains for the very reason this article points out. Of course, the Utah territory was still officially in Mexican territory at the time. Mormons were the first to discover gold at Sutter's Mill and the next find at "Mormon Island" but they left California, having been there only because they were recruits in the "Mormon Battalion" durring the Mexican War. They built the first schools and municiple buildings in San Diego and San Francisco, but returned to Utah. Joseph Smith had once considered purchasing Vancouver Island, but directed that the Saints would remove to the mountains. They went to the Rocky Mountains to be left alone. But the spirit that hunts the blood of the Saints is restless. Even today. The Church is not an activist Church. Seldom does it take political or social stands in a public way. There is no paid clergy. No politician is allowed to use a Church building for political purposes, nor are the members. We spend no money on pamphlets or literature discrediting other faiths, while millions are spent by evangelical churches on their "cult" hysteria. They went to the mountains with a singular purpose- to live unmolested. It didn't last long, but it was long enough. Now we can live all of those other places.

Their destination could not have been determined in advance, because so little was known of the Far West. The territory now embraced in the boundaries of California and Utah was then under Mexican government, and "California" was, in common use, a name covering the Pacific coast and a stretch of land extending indefinitely eastward. Oregon had been heard of a good deal, and it, as well as Vancouver Island, had been spoken of as a possible goal if a westward migration became necessary. Lorenzo Snow, in describing the westward start, said: "On the first of March, the ground covered with snow, we broke encampment about noon, and soon nearly four hundred wagons were moving to--WE KNEW NOT WHERE."

"Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 86.

humming: `Lord, I want to be in that number . . . (when the Saints go marchin in!)’
Considerable anger from the Saints, for some reason, when it was Arkies that took it in the neck (and no lack of confidence either: “the Saints”).
The Mormons were considering starting their own country in Utah back in the day: `Desereat’.
But the rest of the country wasn’t too happy with the Mormons’ Oriental/Arab-like practice of, uh, harems/wives #1-? . . . sooooo, the federal government came close to sending in troops, at least until the Saints knuckled.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch—frustrated with non-Saints moving onto their turf (& with props from the noble red man) the `Saints’ shot and butchered—scalpings, mutilations, etc.—an entire wagon train of `heathens’: man, history can sure suck.
Hey, it’s your thread St. Dan.