The State of Deseret

For my next post I thought I'd talk about the formation of a western state. The state I'm talking about is Deseret, you've never heard of it have you? That's probably because Deseret was a proposed state that failed to make it past the drawing boards.

(Utah Historical Society)

Desert was a state proposed by Mormon settlers in 1849. As you see by the picture the state would be absolutely enormous.  It included Nevada, Utah, Arizona and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. It would have been the largest state in the United States of America. But many Americans were scared of having such a large area of America controlled by Mormons. Many Americans believed that Mormons were planning on building a Theocracy of their religion. Others were against the Mormon practice of polygamy (marriage between more than two partners). Eventually the plan to create Deseret collapsed and the Mormons compromised with the creation of Utah.

The state of Deseret is just of the many States that have been proposed, and it's definitely one of the more interesting ones. So  come back for more stories of the old west!