A Grand Vision

The first Mormon emigrants arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and immediately began laying the groundwork for the small settlement that would become Salt Lake City. Church President Brigham Young, however, envisioned a Mormon Kingdom of God encompassing some 200,000 square miles, called Deseret, including today's southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming, western Colorado, Utah, Nevada, southern California, much of Arizona, and parts of Oregon and New Mexico. To secure that vast expanse, he called hundreds of thousands of followers to Utah and then sent them out to establish self-sustaining colonies at strategic economic and defensive locations throughout Deseret so the Saints could not be forced out again as they had been from several homes in the past. Although Congress ultimately pared down the proposed Territory of Deseret to the present state of Utah, Young's strategy and his purposeful, hard-working followers profoundly influenced the settlement and later development of the West. Soda Springs and nearby Chesterfield, both on the old Oregon Trail, were part of that wave. Soda Springs, originally established as Morristown by Col. Patrick Connor in 1863, was in decline until Mormon church officials had a summer home built there for Brigham Young, and in 1871 Mormon colonizers established the present town site. Today Soda Springs is a thriving modern community, while Chesterfield, now open to visitors as a National Historic District, reflects the sacrifices demanded of the Mormon pioneers.

Soda Springs, Idaho · United States