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Unit 8

The mountain region has plains and even deserts.

But its main geographic feature is the Rocky Mountains

These mountains stretch from Alaska to northern Mexico and include many smaller ranges

The Rockies are among the earth’s youngest mountains. Because they are young, they are not worn down.They have steep slopes and many peaks and valleys. The mountains give the region spectacular scenery and they limit economic development

The region has some of the least populated states in the nation. Denver, Colorado is its only large city. The government owns much of the land- 66 percent in the case of Utah

They are important to the region’s economy

Mining ranching

farming

Tourism is also important

1. The Mormons and Salt Lake city

in 1830, in New York state, Joseph Smith stared the Mormon church with six followers. Today there are more than 3 milion Mormons worldwide

1.1.1. Westward Migration

Smith claim that an angel had guided him to some buried golden tablets. Witten on the tablets, he said, was the story of how Christianity had existed long ago in America.Smith’s idea made some people in the community angry, as his church grew, so did the anger.

Smith and his followers moved to Ohio, then to Missouri and finally to Illinois.

In Illinois, in 1844, Joseph Smith was murdered by a mod

The Mormons’ new leader, Brigham Young, decided to move again. After studying explorers’ map of the West, he choose a place 1000 miles from any settlement.

He led a small group of Mormons on the long. The trip ended in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, in what is now the state of Utah

Each year, more group of Mormons made the trip. Many people traveled the entire distance on foot, pulling carts behind them. Soon Mormons spead out from the valley of the Great Salt Lake. They started new settlements all the way from Idaho to southern California

1.1.2 Early Mormon Society

Mormon Society was largely communal. Irrigation water, for example, was owned by the community and the church gave each family the amount it needed.

The early Mormons, church and government combined the two: church leaders like Brigham Young were also political leaders.

The most noticeable difference was that Mormons practiced polygamy-men could have more than one wife