The US-"National Trails Act" dates back to the year 1986 and proclaims the route of 2100 km from NAUVOO in Illinois to Salt Lake City in Utah a national historic route with the official name The Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. Contrary to general belief, this famous route was not built by Mormons, for the Church of Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves, created only a few pioneer routes. They followed territorial routes and paths of Native Americans through Iowa and, temporarily, the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Fort Bridger in what is today the Western part of Wyoming and the path of the Reed-Donner-group who had moved a year before from Fort Bridger to the Great Salt Lake. Although the Saints of the Latter Days did not pave the route and parts of the trail were temporarily called Council Bluffs Road, The Omaha Road, The Great Platte River Road, or even the Northern branch of the Oregon Trail, the whole route is known today as The Mormon Trail since, first, at least 70.000 Saints of the Latter Days (nobody knows the exact number) took this road and, second, as the exodus of the Mormons to the West was in part dramatic and, third, as they connected various parts of this route into one great travel route.
The route consists of two different tracks:
1. The track of approximately 425 km from the Mississippi through Iowa to the Town of Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. This track was rarely used, mainly by Saints of the Latter Days who fled from Illinois in 1846, but also by some immigrants who "jumped off" from Keokuk in Iowa in 1853, and in the years 1856 – 1857 by seven trails of handcarts from IOWA City who travelled the road of the Mormon pioneers in what is today Lewis, County of Cass, Iowa. Thousands of Saints of the Latter Days travelled on other routes through Iowa or on other paths which led to the route of 1846 in West-Iowa.
2. The 1650 long trans-Missouri track from what are today the villages of North Omaha (formerly Winter Quarters) and Florence in Nebraska through Nebraska and Wyoming to Utah. Beginning in 1847, this track was used very often until the Transcontinental Railway was terminated in 1869. As in Iowa, alternative routes were created and all immigrants of the Saints of the Latter Days used the Trans-Missouri-Track at least in part.
The trail of the years 1846-1847 from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City was the best known part of the 23 year long history of migration of Mormons on the continent, but it was only a part. From 1848 to 1868, immigrants of the Saints of the Latter Days moved from Missouri to the West and founded or used at least a dozen points of departure and followed many other routes like the Oxbow Trail (1849-1864), the Mormon Grove Trail (1855-1856), and the Nebraska City Cutoff (1864-1866). Sooner or later, all of these trails joined the main route of the Mormon pioneers. When the Union-Pacific-Railway was extended from Omaha to the West beginning in 1865, the Saints of the Latter Days started taking the railroad of Ohama to four different terminal stations. North Platte in Nebraska, Julesburg in Colorado as well as Laramie and Benton in Wyoming. Starting from these stations, they then travelled on the route of the Mormon Pioneers.
Across the monotonous, tedious, and somewhat hilly central plains of Iowa, the route of the Mormon Pioneers of 1846 followed mainly the primitive territorial paths to Bloomfield in Davis county and then on along the Pottawattamie Indian paths from one water hole to the next, always 80 km within the borders of the Federal State of Missouri. It is difficult to find this trail today, not only because of the difficult terrain, but because modern streets seldom run parallel to the old route and fields have erased most of its traces.
West of Missouri, the Saints of the Latter Days moved through river valleys, through the grassland, the flatland, the prairie, the desert, the mountains and the woods to the West.
Topographicallly, the route ran across the central plains and the high plains of East and Central Nebraska, then through the valley of West-Nebraska and East-Wyoming through the valley of Wyoming through the central Rocky Mountains and finally to the desert valleys of the "Great Basin".
From Missouri, the Mormon pioneers followed the broad, flat valley of the rivers Loupe and Platte to what is today the town of Casper in Wyoming, then along the Sweetwater River 150 km to the South-pass, to the affluents of the Sandy and Black-Fork river to Fort Bridger, and then zigzagged through a series of cliffs to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
As in Iowa, in Nebraska only little of the route of the Mormon pioneers has survived. Having the right maps, one can still discover large tracks of this old route in Wyoming, because the rough terrain has maintained the traces of the carts in a a better way and farmers have not ploughed them under. Although in Utah modern streets run closely to the route, only few of the real cart traces can be seen.
2. The Mormons
The Mormon belief is mainly professed by the Book Mormon, a prophecy received by Joseph Smith, the latter founder of the Church of Saints of the Latter Days. Their belief is monotheistic and roots in a vision which Joseph Smith had when he was 17 years old. An angel called Moroni appeared to him and told him that in the earth underneath him he would find golden plates which contained testimonies of God. Joseph Smith dug in the earth and found the plates. The angel told him that from now on he would meet Joseph four consecutive times, in a year’s distance. Joseph returned to the spot after one year and the angel revealed him other prophecies. At the end of the period of four years, the Angel Moroni told him to translate the book from Old Egyptian into English. Josef who had been taught by the angel how to translate obeyed, but showed the plates to some persons the Angel Moroni had him forbidden to show to. The book disappeared as a consequence, only the translation remained and Joseph repented. The Angel consoled him, told him other prophecies and revealed him that he was selected to become the prophet of a new Church, Saints of the Latter Days.
It is hard to overlook the difficulties Joseph Smith had when translating the Book Mormon. The Book makes several mentions of Adam and Eve, Moses and Jesus Christ but, as a matter of fact, tells the story of a people called Nephi who are the chosen people of God. The Book explains, in plain words, the original sin of Adam and Eve and that Jesus Christ was the Messias to be awaited.
From a theological point of view, it is interesting to observe that Joseph Smith in his Book reveals the existence of a people called Lamanites, or people of Laman, who are the ancestors of the native Americans. Further, he mentions a people of dark skin, thus integrating two of the major ethnic issues of America into a religious context. He says that God has cast an evil spell on the people of dark skin, a spot in the Book Mormon which was for slavery and hence against the general belief of the Northern states. This was an important issue during the Civil War and afterwards. Later Mormons never adapted this interpretation.
Joseph Smith and his fellow believers were several times attacked by the mob and had to flee from the town where he preached, Colesville; New York. After several fights and a massacre Mr. Josef Smith arrived in Quincy Illinois, from where they moved approximately 50 km upwards along the Mississippi. There they founded the town of Nauvoo.
3. Nauvoo
Nauvoo would soon become a flourishing trade town where Saints of the Latter Days from the United States, Canada and England gathered. Within four years, Nauvoo developed into one of the biggest cities of Illinois. The community at Nauvoo grew rapidly on land purchased from settlers and speculators willing to sell on contract. Joseph Smith, acting as agent for the Church, bought the Illinois farms of Hugh and William White and investment tracts from Isaac Galland and Horace Hotchkiss – in all, 660 acres. He resold one-acre Nauvoo lots surveyed on the flats along the river, in competition with other developers of the Saints of the Latter Days who platted land on nearby bluffs. A survey established streets three rods wide within city boundaries. In December 1840, Nauvoo became a legal entity under the Nauvoo Charter, issued by the Illinois legislature and providing the Saints better legal protection than they had ever known. Nauvoo was a new home to them.
As exiled Latter-day Saints from Missouri and Ohio gathered to their new stake of Zion, missionaries in the United States and Great Britain baptized many converts. Encouraged by Joseph Smith, American and Canadian converts moved westwards to Nauvoo. Some used canal boats and lake steamers, others covered wagons and horseback, and a few simply walked. Beginning in 1840, thousands sailed the Atlantic from Liverpool, England, and took steamboats up the Mississippi from New Orleans. This was a religious migration, aided by Church emigration agents in Liverpool, who organized companies and appointed shepherds for those fleeing to Zion.
Newcomers were welcomed in Nauvoo by friends, relatives, missionaries and the prophet Joseph Smith himself. Renting a room or finding other temporary shelter became increasingly difficult during the boom years 1841-1843. As quickly as possible, new settlers hired scarce contractors and craftsmen to build houses. Lumber, harvested from nearby virgin forests or shipped in, and, later, bricks made in Nauvoo, went into hundreds of comfortable but small, new homes. Nauvoo became a boom town.
Mormon American society in Nauvoo, leavened increasingly by a British and Scandivandian immigrant influence, included typical nineteenth-century entertainment and recreational opportunities. Brass bands played at dances and patriotic gatherings, accompanied Church choirs, and performed for temple capstone ceremonies. Adult and youth choirs, instrumentalists, and vocalists entertained and edified at social and religious gatherings. The music performed came out of the host society, though some hymns were newly written for LDS services. Mormon poets regularly memorialized events and people, and set significant messages to rhyme for biweekly periodicals.
Thespians in Nauvoo presented popular theatricals or sponsored traveling performing troupes in the Nauvoo cultural hall. Other occasional attractions included art exhibits, the circus, and riverboat excursions.
Nauvooans also pursued education and learning. To get basic training in reading, writing and arithmetic for their families, parents hired tutors or enrolled children in one of dozens of classes offered by Nauvoo’s part-time teachers. Tuition was paid through providing teachers board and room and scarce cash. The University of Nauvoo existed only in a few scattered classes. Male adults and younger men organized lyceums and debating societies to develop rhetorical skills. They argued religious as well as political topics to prepare participants for missionary and civic service. Books were scarce in private homes, but a membership lending library offered two hundred donated volumes on science, world religion, history and literature. Nauvoo’s religious and secular newspapers, the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor (originally The Wasp), edited by prominent citizens, circulated to Latter-day Saints on two continents.
As elsewhere in American society, the family was the focus of everyday life. Women met domestic needs through a combination of their own labor and income from their husbands’ work. The family produced and prepared food, though Nauvoo merchants imported or traded many foodstuffs. Women often made everyday clothing, bed coverings and rugs. Furniture, kitchen utensils and tools for trades were imported or brought along by immigrants. Home remedies, supplemented by priesthood blessings, were administered in faith for healing. Infant mortality was high, and death for all a constant possibility from malaria-like diseases, untreatable illnesses, and accidents.
For the Mormons in Nauvoo, the family took on new religious meaning. Conversion often divided families, though letters from Nauvoo nurtured bonds and encouraged reunion. Proxy temple ordinances offered opportunity for uniting families across generations and beyond the grave. Select Associates accepted the Prophet’s private challenge to make covenants of marriage with plural wives, though the doctrine was not preached publicly until 1852 in Utah. In preparation for the temple, teaching of the doctrine of eternal families added a unique touch to the family life of the Mormons.
Joseph Smith was often prosecuted by the law, but the Nauvoo Charta prevented him from being brought to jail as he was the mayor of the town. In 1841, Federal Judge Stephen A. Douglas ignored a warrant of arrest from Missouri according to which Joseph Smith should be extradited to Missouri for proceedings that had not yet been concluded. In 1843, a Federal judge acted similarily when he was confronted with a warrant against Joseph Smith in the case of the assassination of the former Governor Boggs. The frequent use of the habeas-corpus passage in the Nauvoo Charta by judges in Nauvoo, which abrogated the corresponding jurisdiction by judges on state level resp. Federal level led to harsh mistrust against the Mormons as the non-Mormons felt that Joseph Smith deemed himself to be above the law.
The Habeas Corpus Law was last applied in June 1844 when Joseph Smith was arrested by a county constable for having incited an up-rise. Joseph Smith had prvented the newspaper Nauvoo Expositor from being edited again. This fact led to several trials of Joseph Smith versus some of his ex-followers who accused him of perjury and polygamy. His charge against them was also founded on perjury and lesion. He was set free in Nauvoo, but the governor convinced him to go to prison again and answer to the charge of "instigation of a riot" in Carthage where he was arrested without bail and charged of "high treason" as he had proclaimed martial law in Nauvoo and ordered the Nauvoo militia to maintain peace. Two days later he and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob.
Even after his days, trials related to Joseph Smith continued. Out of sixty suspects of murder, only five were in fact charged of Murder in Carthage (the murder of Hyrum Smith was object of another trial). After a trial of six days, all of the accused were set free for lack of evidence in June 1845.
4. Utah
The so-called "Utah-war" from 1857 to 1858 was the biggest military event in the United States in the period between the American Civil War and the Mexican War. In the Utah war, the Mormon militia (the so-called NAUVOO Legion) stood against the army and the government of the United States in a non-violent, but nevertheless expensive conflict which had arisen due to the attempt of the American government led by president James Buchanan to dismiss Brigham Young, a Mormon president, as Governor of the Utah Territory. The war postponed the nomination of Alfred Cummings as new Governor, but could not prevent it, and largely impacted the whole territory of Utah and on the Mormons in general. The actual conflict had been created because of misunderstandings which persevered for some time and were worsened by the large distance between Utah and Washington. If the transcontinental telegraph connection had been completed already in 1857 and not in 1861, the Utah expedition would certainly not have taken place.
The decision to dismiss Brigham Young as Governor was inevitable due to the America-wide reaction to multiple marriage, which had been proclaimed by the Church publicly in 1852 and due to the assertion of the Republicans in the electoral campaign of 1856 that the democrats favoured both relics of "Barbarism", namely both poligamy and slavery. Saints of the Latter Days would as a principle decline any Governor who was not a member of the Church. Therefore President Buchanan did not go into detail and, probably influenced by the report of judge W.E: Drummond and other former officials of Utah territory, interrupted communication via mail and stationed 2500 soldiers, commanded by Albert Sidney Johnson in Salt Lake City to support Cumming in Utah.
The leaders of the Church interpreted the approach of the army as religious prosecution and decided to oppose it. The Governor Brigham Young inflicted martial law and mobilised the Nauvoo Legion in order to stop the troops through the strategy of "scorched earth". Actions like burning three food wagons and the capture of hundreds of cattle forced the troops under Johnson and the accompanying officials to spend the winter in Camp Scott and Eckelsville, near to Ford Bridget which had been burnt down, app. 160 km across mountainous terrain East of Salt Lake City.
During the winter, both sides replenished their forces. Against the almost unanimous opposition of the Republicans, the American congress approved the mobilisation of two regiments of volunteers and president Buchanan, Defence Minister John B. Floyd and the Supreme Commander of the American Army, Winfield Scott sent 3000 additional soldiers to reinforce the Utah expedition. In the meantime, settlers in Utah were exhorted to equip one thousand men for the campaign in spring. Announcements of a coming conflict came from Church assemblies, Camp Scott and the American press.
Brigham Young favoured a diplomatic solution and asked the influential lawyer from Pennsylvania, Thomas L. KANE, for mediation. Briefly after Christmas, President Buchanan approved that Thomas Kane travelled as an unofficial mediator via Panama and California to Utah. Kane arrived in Salt Lake City near the end of February and understood that the leaders of the Church were striving for a compromise, but were very diffident. When the first contacts of Kane with General Johnston proved to be unsuccessful, the leaders of the Church seemed to be confirmed in their distrust.
The so-called "exodus to the South" was a direct consequence of this distrust. On March 23, 1858 president Young ordered to the Saints of the Latter Days to leave their houses in the North of Utah and to burn them down, if the Army should come. They started immediately to evacuate the settlers. First they assumed that the "exodus to the South" would be definite, but when news arrived that Kane had persuaded Alfred Cumming to come to Salt Lake City without soldiers, the evacuation was transformed into a tactical and provisory manoeuvre. Despite, this exodus was by far larger than the original escape of the Mormons from Missouri and Illinois, because approximately 30.000 people moved at least eighty kilometres south to the Town of Provo and other villages in central and southern Utah where they were sheltered by members of the Church or in auxiliary accommodations until the Utah-war was over.
When Kane and Cumming arrived in Salt Lake City at the beginning of April, Brigham Young handed the office over to the new Governor and started soon afterwards to collaborate in friendship with him. The "exodus to the South" was prolonged, probably because the representatives of the government would insist on the arrival of Johnston’s soldiers, and could not, on the other hand, guarantee that the arrival would be peaceful.
In the meantime, President Buchanan reacted to the expanding critique and ordered Lazarus Powell and Ben McCulloch to send an offer of amnesty to Utah. Both arrived at the beginning of June and stated that the leaders of the Church were prepared to accept Governor Cumming and a permanent military post if they were assured freedom and amnesty. On 26th of June, 1858, Johnston’s army marched through the almost unpopulated town of Salt Lake City and established "Camp Floyd" 70 kilometers south-west of the town. Soon the refugees returned; the Utah War was over.
As a result of the Utah expedition, the government hat to undergo a deficit in the defence budget and a harmful political backlash. As Governor Cumming was fair and unbiased, he got more consent among the Saints of the Latter Days than under his own soldiers. Camp Floyd and the nearby village of Fairfield were the first habitats not inhabited by Mormons in Utah. Although the garrison was closed at the beginning of the civil war, the three years of sojourn of thousands of soldiers signified the end of the dream of Zion, the promised land which the Mormons sought in a land which was as far away and as shut off as possible from the other world.
For the Saints of the Latter Days in Utah, the efforts and financial expenses had negative backdrops on their welfare and their belief. In the course of defence measures, some of the more distant Mormon settlements in what is today California, Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho were given up, missionary work in Europe was interrupted, immigration was limited and the enthusiasm and the discipline which had arisen before decreased notably. Economy, politics and daily life were influenced by soldiers who were averse to the Saints of the Latter Days.
The "exodus to the South" won the sympathy of the press, but it had negative backdrops on the social and religious life of the Saints of the Latter Days.
The tensions and misunderstandings which preceded the solution of the conflict continued to exist and it last forty more years until Utah was integrated as a Federal State in the American Federation.
5. Salt Lake City, Utah
Between the 21st and the 23rd of July, 1847, Saints of the Latter Days led by the Apostle Orson Pratt entered the valley of the Salt Lake, dammed the river and began to plough and plant the earth. President Brigham Young arrived on 24 of July and designated the spot in the valley between the two arms of the city river as a later temple site and thereby created the nucleus of the future centre of the town.
Prior to the Saints of the Latter Days, Indians had lived there – especially the tribes of the Ute, Shoshones and Goisute – and still before the Saints of the Latter Days there were some discoverers. Travel reports by John C. Fremont and the Donner-Reed-route facilitated immigration of Saints of the Latter Days.
The town developed quickly. The Mormons subdivided it in the 19th century into twenty Church communities and staked large blocks of houses which were four hectares long. In the beginning, the inhabitants worked in agriculture, industry and retail, but eventually Salt Lake City became a commercial, productive and administrative center. In 1870, only 16.1 % of the inhabitants were farmers, while in 1850 the number had been 33.6%.
In the nineteenth century, the population consisted mainly of Saints of the Latter Days, but after the construction of the Utah-Central-Railway in 1870 and the contemporary good economy in mining, the portion of Non-Mormons increased significantly. In the nineteenth century, many immigrants from Europe came to Salt Lake City. In 1870, the town had 12.800 inhabitants among whom 65 % came from overseas, mainly from the British Islands. After 1900, most immigrants came from South and Eastern Europe.
The City government also changed as time passed. In the beginning, the town’s administration consisted of a mayor and the City Council. Until the elections of February 1890, the party "Mormon-People’s-Party" governed the town. When the citizens who had adhered to the both religiously oriented parties (Mormon-People’s-Party and the Liberal Party who was independent from the Mormons) changed to the two national parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, politics in Salt Lake City developed similarly to other American cities, with the exception of the years 1905 to 1912 when the so-called American Party which had been founded by non-Mormons, had the majority in the City Council. In 1911, a system was introduced which guaranteed Salt Lake City a City Comitee.
During the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, the city had to cope with a variety of serious problems, e.g. supply services had to be created. Generally, private streetcar, power and telephone companies owned the license for such services and wanted to profit accordingly. The town supplied such services as would not be profitable to privates, such as street construction, water and sewage supply.
In the Twenties of the 20th century, the city faced special problems, e.g. pollution, urbanization and financial bottlenecks. Before these problems could be solved, the World crisis broke out and the citizens of the town were confronted with the same problems as all people in the USA. Despite its economic problems, the town held a primary position in the Rocky-Mountain-region. It owed this position partly to the wisdom of the pioneers of the Saints of the Latter Days who had favoured economy, finances, education, infrastructure and religious activities, and, on the other hand, of the population itself which consisted of members and non-membes of the Church. In April 1936, the Church published a Welfare Program which offered the citizens of the town relief from the problems of economic crisis, together with programs financed by Federal Government.
The institution of strategically important military posts during WWII brought even more wealth to the city. Fort Douglas, the military airport in Kerans, Hill Air Force base, the weapons deposit in Tooele and other military institutions contributed to economic wealth.
After WWII, the space industry which mainly depended on missile fuels and highly developed technology replaced eventually working places which depended on defence industry. In the Sixties, Salt Lake City had one of the fastest growing city centres in the USA. Led by N. Eldon Tanner, a counsellor of the First Presidency (of the Mormons) the Church of the Saints of the Latter Days contributed significantly to the growth of the city. Investments from companies who were owned by the Church led to the construction of the Salt-Palace-Conference Centre, the office buildings of the Beneficial Towers, the ZCMI-shopping centre and the crossroads shopping centre, two of the first American City-shopping malls.
In 1979 a conflict in the City government on administrative issues led to a referendum which replaced the system of a City committee by a Mayor and a City Council. Other towns in the state followed this example and in 1986, all city committees were replaced by a Mayor and a City Council.
In 1983, the citizens of the town earned public recognition for their great voluntary efforts during salvation works due to the flooding of the City. A strong network of voluntary civil aid developed; this was one of the reasons for the nomination of Salt Lake City as Olympic city for the winter games 2002.
After a period of economic recession in the middle of the Eighties, Salt Lake City enjoyed economic wealth again in 1990. Although population in the centre further diminishes because many young people move to the suburbs, Salt Lake City remains the heart of the community of the Saints of the Latter Days.
6. Salt Lake Temple
The Salt-Lake-Temple is an impressive construction on a four hectare large temple site in the heart of Salt Lake City. After its completion, the temple was the highest building in the whole valley. Today, many higher buildings make it difficult to see the temple, but the building made of grey granite is deemed to be the religious symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Latter Days. Millions of people admire the temple every year. Pictures of the temple can be seen in dozens of countries, where people have never seen the building personally, but associate this impressive construction with the Church and Salt Lake City.
SELECTION OF THE GROUND. A few days after the pioneers of the Saints of the Latter days had entered the valley in July 1847, Brigham Young stuck his walking stick into a spot on the earth, wandered with some members up and down and shouted:" This is where we will erect the temple of our God".
CONSTRUCTION WORKS. They began to build on the 14th of February 1853, after Brigham Young had inaugurated the works. On 6th of April, the corner stones were laid according to a pattern plan which Joseph Smith had presented for the construction of temples. The architect Truman O, Angelol and his assistant William Ward had already presented the plans for the founding and in part for the basement and Brigham Young had approved them. Limestone from the near Red Butte Canyon was used for the founding and the walls under the earth. The massive outer walls of the building were to be constructed of granite blocks which were transported from Cottonwood Canyon which was 32 km away.
The founding was accomplisged in 1855 and some granite blocks had been brought on the site. Then, in 1858, an armed unit of the American army approached the City and the Saints of the Latter Days left Salt Lake City and fled temporarily to the South. The citizens covered the founding of the temple with an earth layer so that it looked like a freshly ploughed field and would be overlooked by the soldiers.
Works were then interrupted for several years. When work was resumed and the founding uncovered, it was about to collapse and had to be replaced it with stones of best quality.
They began to build the outer walls which were three meters thick on the lower end and two meters on the upper. Transport of the granite blocks from the quarry was a big task. The workers transported them on wooden rails, special roads and even in appositely built wagons. Although the distance to the quarry and back was less than 65 kilometres, the transport by wagons took four days. The completion of the transcontinental railway in 1869 and the construction of a side track of the railway into the Canyon resolved finally the transport problem.
Up to 150 men worked daily at the temple. During the forty years of construction they also accomplished a dome, the so-called "Assembly Hall", a lateral construction and a wall which was 5 meters high and shut the whole temple area off the surrounding city.
The final brick was laid one year before the inauguration on April 6th, 1982. The ceremony was a spiritual event. After laying the final brick, the assembly adopted unanimously the decision to accomplish the temple and to inaugurate it in one year. On the same afternoon, a four meter tall copper statue, a representation of the Angel Moroni, was lifted to the peak of the middle tower on the East side and anchored with heavy weights at the tower.
The temple was terminated within one year’s time and on the fixed date, 6 of April 1893, it was inaugurated - forty years, before Brigham Young had laid the first brick.
THE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE. Visitors enter the temple through a lateral construction outside the main building. They are guided through several rooms in order to be instructed and to participate in the holy ceremonies. Each room represents a section of the way of man to eternal progress. The walls in each hall are equipped with large pictures which represent the respective part of the way on which man is currently walking.
First, one enters the Hall of Creation where the scenes of creation of Earth can be observed on several pictures. The World Hall shows the state of Earth after Adam and Eve had left Paradise and explains the sin offering of Jesus Christ, the decline of Faith and the reestablishment of the Gospel.
In the Terrestrial Hall, the requirements for a pure life and complete faith in God are taught. The way leads through the curtain of the temple to the Celestial Hall which represents the "Heaven of Hevans" – the splendid realm of God. On this level of the hall, there are also small rooms with altars in which the sacred ordinance of marriage is celebrated.
In the cellar of the temple, there is the baptising room and on other floors a big assembly hall for the leaders of the Church, halls reserved for lectures, offices, and wardrobes.
The temple of Salt Lake City is unique among the temples of the Church, as the highest committees of priests hold their sessions there. The First Presidency, the senate of the Twelve Apostles and the Presidents of the Seventy gather in this temple every week as single committees. All General Authorities of the Church gather for weekly sessions.
The temple is a unique architectonic and artistic ouevre. It is undoubtedly the best known building of the Church which is instantly recognized by many Americans, Mormons or non.
7. Salt Lake Theatre
The theatre of Salt Lake City was constructed in 1861/1862 in the centre of town. It cost far more than 100.000 dollars. President Brigham Young gave more than half of the money, for he was convinced that the Saints of the Latter Days would use it as a haven in times of distress, thus solidifying the community of pioneers. Visitors from other parts of America found that shocking and a little bit scandalous for theatres in the Sixties of the nineteenth century did not have a particularly good reputation. President Young’s speech on the occasion of the inauguration of the theatre showed clearly that he had clear expectations concerning a good, that is moralistic, theatre.
The theatre offered seats to 1500 persons and was one of the most splendid building of the pioneer town of Salt Lake City. It could be compared to many theatres in the whole world. Many famous, American professional actors who starred in the theatre, as e.g. Sarah Alexander, Julie Dean Hayne, E.L. Davenport and John McCullough lauded it. "There is almost no star of the American theatre who has not played in the Salt-Lake-Theatre".
For half a century, great pieces of art were performed. In 1928, the theatre which had to cope with financial difficulties and suffered from the age of its constrction was sold and replaced by an office building. But in 1962, the "Pioneer Memorial Theatre" was inaugurated in remembrance of the old Salt-LakeTheatre on the premises of the University of Utah and since then every year theatre pieces have been shown there.
To me, researching on the belief of the Mormons was interesting.
It was an opportunity to learn to know a Church whose fundaments were laid on America.
The explicit mention of the Indians as part of the Mormon Gospel as well as of the Black race is an important contribution to the American dream.
The Mormons have made belief strong in America and elsewhere where other confessions have not found such a stringent way of integrating the discovery and the development of the USA and the other countries on the American continent into their daily practice.
Black and Native American communities, due to this non-integration in the belief of other confessions still suffer the misrepresentation of their members in American reality (Film, Politics, Business etc.).
The personality and the life of Josef Smith, the founder of the new religion, are ambiguous.
It cannot be in the interest of a state to tolerate continuous violations of the Civil Law.
Despite, this is part of his fascination. Transcending the rules of law and order have always been a characteristic of great prophets.
Josef Smith’s martyrdom is a sign of this transcendence. He died in the conviction that his belief, revealed to a humble person, would prevail death.
9. References and Links
Kirchengeschichte, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. Edited with: LDS BOOKS Schubert & Roth OHG, Bad Reichenhall, 1997.
The Book of Mormon, edited by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah, 97.
Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. MacMillan Publishing Company N.Y., 1992.
Our Heritage: A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, edited by Intellectual Reserve Inc., 11/96
The "All About Mormons" Website, edited and maintained by The Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Maps of Nauvoo
