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This article originally appeared in InterVisa, a Russian language magazine. Salt Lake City By Dave Francis In 1820, Palmyra, New York a 14 year old boy named Joseph Smith prayed to God about what church he should join. According to church records, Jesus appeared to the boy and told him that God wanted him to organize a church that would be the legitimate church of God on earth. During the next ten years, Smith worked on interpreting messages from God and in 1830 he established the Church of Latter Day Saints, also known as The Mormon Church. The Mormon Church grew in popularity, and established themselves in Missouri and Illinois, where they became a political force. They met with hostility among the locals though, and bloodshed was inevitable. A crowd of vigilantes stormed a jail in Carthage Illinois, where Smith was being held on charges of treason and murdered him. There were attacks by armed crowds on the Mormon settlements in Missouri and at Nauvoo Illinois. These hostilities convinced the Mormon leadership that they needed to separate from the rest of America and begin their own city, away from American society. This then was the beginning of modern Salt Lake City. The Anasazi Indians had lived in the area that now is occupied by Salt Lake City since the first century until about 1300. The Navajo also had settlements here, as did the Ute, from whom the area takes its name, Utah. Innumerable itinerant tribes passed through the territory hunting the buffalo, bear, and other local wildlife. There is evidence that the predecessors to the Anasazi were in the area as early as 6000 BC. On July 24th, 1847 a group of 143 men, three women and two children cast their gaze down into the valley that would someday host Salt Lake City. They were the first party of Mormons, fleeing Illinois and trying to find a land of their own. Brigham Young had assumed leadership of the group upon the death of Smith, and when he saw the valley below, he said, “This is the place.” Not particularly eloquent or inspiring, but what the heck, they had just pulled a wagon train to the top of a mountain. Unlike most cities in the Americas, which just grew up haphazardly, the city was well planned, with blocks mapped out into grids, separated by streets 40 meters wide. (The were planned to be wide enough for a wagon pulled by 4 oxen to turn around.) From the very beginning, the Mormons worked hard to make their valley a prosperous place. They planted crops on the first day in the area, and in 1848 a new group of settlers arrived to augment the original pioneers. The winter of 1848 was very hard, and times were rough for the settlers, and when the spring arrived, the crops were struck by a plague of locusts. It appeared that the Mormons were doomed to failure, and that the harvest would be destroyed. Inexplicably, a flock of seagulls came, and ate the locusts, thereby saving the crop, and allowing the Mormons to stay in their chosen valley. In gratitude, Utah’s state bird was named, and still is the seagull. The area at the time the Mormons arrived was a part of Mexico, but in 1850 was ceded to the United States. Brigham Young was appointed the territorial governor, a post that he held until 1857, when US troops were sent by President James Buchanan to unseat Young. In 1869, 120 km from Salt Lake City, the transcontinental railroad was finally completed. The ‘golden spike’ was driven at Promontory Summit, and all of a sudden, it was fairly easy to cross the country. Families began traveling by rail, and soon Salt Lake City found itself turning into a prosperous community. Beginning in the 1860s, mining became very important in Utah, as gold, copper, silver and lead mines began all over the state. The profits were enormous, and Salt Lake City began to have mansions springing up on some of the more exclusive streets. Utah’s prosperity began to spur people to think about statehood. The settlers decided that it would be good to have the protection of US troops, US Marshall’s, and representation in the congress. Statehood was pursued, and in 1896, Utah became the 45th state. Statehood came at a price, the most costly for some being the loss of the practice of polygamy. The Mormons had always been a group that practiced polygamy, but to become a state, they had to agree to give up the practice, which they did. (Brigham Young, for example, had 55 wives.) One of the most important, and impressive structures in Salt Lake City is the Mormon Temple. Construction began on the temple in 1853, and it was completed in 1892. It is the most important temple in the Mormon faith, and only church members are allowed to enter the sanctified areas. Today, Salt Lake City is a beautiful, modern city. It has become a worthy testament to the hard work and civic planning by the Mormons who came here searching religious freedom for themselves. It is the host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and thus became the largest city to host the winter games. Complete with a new convention center, a new runway on it’s international airport, and more than 16,000 hotel rooms, Salt Lake considers itself ready for the challenge of the Olympics. There has been a huge scandal regarding Utah’s successful bid to win the Olympics. There have long been rumors about corruption inside the IOC, and the lavish lifestyle afforded to, among others, its head, Juan Antonio Samaranch. (It was recently revealed that the IOC has been paying 500 dollars per night for Samaranch’s hotel suite in Lausanne, equipped him with a private gymnasium that travels with him, and he routinely drinks red wine at 750 dollars per bottle, all charged to the IOC.) Apparently, some members of the Salt Lake committee took a shortcut to winning the games by providing cash and gifts to IOC members and their families. Members of the Salt Lake organizing group are under a federal indictment for racketeering, among other charges in connection with the scandal. Even the IOC has been moved to action, expelling six of the members implicated. To the Mormons, it may be an embarrassment, but there is a historical precedence. The Mormons have always exhibited a practicality that mixes quite easily with their very sincere spirituality. It is a pragmatism that is quite formidable. In 1861, when they were struggling for statehood, Brigham Young told members of the group going to Washington to represent the Mormon interests that it would be ok to bribe officials to ‘further the cause of the church’ and to ‘grease the wheels’ of the process. They also hired Alexander Badlam, a Utah mine owner to buy some favorable press. He had done this before, working on behalf of the railroads. Badlam, through hired agents, bribed several newspapers at the time to write favorable stories about Utah and its Mormon inhabitants. Payoffs between 5 and 10 thousand dollars were paid to the AP, along with newspapers in San Francisco, Chicago and St. Louis. They found that not all newspapers could be bribed though. It is noteworthy that Charles Penrose, an emissary who had been sent to New York, cabled back, “The New York Times can not be had at any price.” It would appear that more than a century later, other leaders have sought to ‘grease the wheels’, but this time they were rings. Olympic rings. |