Editing Utah (section)

===Latter Day Saint settlement (1847)===
{{Main|Mexican–American War|Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo|Mexican Cession}}

[[File:BrighamYoung1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Brigham Young]] led the first [[Mormon pioneers]] to the Great Salt Lake.]]

Following the [[death of Joseph Smith]] in 1844, [[Brigham Young]], as president of the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|Quorum of the Twelve]], became the leader of the LDS Church in [[Nauvoo, Illinois]].<ref>[[Leonard J. Arrington]] and [[Davis Bitton]]: ''The Mormon Experience'', page 22. Vintage/Random House, 1979.</ref> To address the growing conflicts between his people and their neighbors, Young agreed with Illinois Governor [[Thomas Ford (politician)|Thomas Ford]] in October 1845 that the Mormons would leave by the following year.<ref>Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling: ''Mormon America'', page 38–39. HarperCollins, 2000.</ref>

Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers reached the [[Salt Lake Valley]] on July 24, 1847. Over the next 22 years, more than 70,000 pioneers crossed the plains and settled in Utah.<ref>William W. Slaughter and Michael Landon: ''Trail of Hope—The Story of the Mormon Trail''. [[Shadow Mountain Publishing|Shadow Mountain]], 1997.</ref> For the first few years, Brigham Young and the thousands of early settlers of Salt Lake City struggled to survive. The arid desert land was deemed desirable by the Mormons as a place where they could practice their religion without harassment.

Settlers buried thirty-six Native Americans in one grave after an outbreak of measles occurred during the winter of 1847.<ref name=Arave>{{cite news |last1=Arave |first1=Lynn |title=Tidbits of history — Unusual highlights of Salt Lake County |url=https://www.deseret.com/2007/1/5/19993469/tidbits-of-history-151-unusual-highlights-of-salt-lake-county#part-of-downtown-salt-lake-city-will-soon-be-redeveloped-by-the-lds-church-for-decades-the-salt-lake-temple-stood-out-as-the-areas-most-prominent-structure |access-date=May 6, 2020 |work=Deseret News |date=January 5, 2007}}</ref>

The first group of settlers brought three African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery.<ref>''Negro Slaves in Utah'' by Jack Beller, Utah Historical Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4, 1929, pp. 124–126</ref> The three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with the first group of settlers in 1847.<ref>{{cite news |title=Slavery in Utah Involved Blacks, Whites, Indians, and Mexicans. |url=https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=419212&q=Blacks+in+Utah+History+An+Unknown+Legacy |access-date=May 6, 2020 |work=The History Blazer |issue=April 1995 |publisher=Utah State Historical Society}}</ref>

Utah was a Mexican territory when the first pioneers arrived in 1847. Early in the [[Mexican–American War]] in late 1846, the United States had taken control of [[Capture of Santa Fe|New Mexico]] and California. The entire Southwest [[Mexican Cession|became U.S. territory]] upon the signing of the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the [[United States Senate]] on March 11. Learning that California and New Mexico were applying for statehood, the settlers of the Utah area (originally having planned to petition for territorial status) applied for statehood with an ambitious plan for a [[State of Deseret]].

The Mormon settlements provided pioneers for other settlements in the West. Salt Lake City became the hub of a "far-flung commonwealth"<ref>Arrington and Bitton, p. 118</ref> of Mormon settlements. With new church converts coming from the East and around the world, Church leaders often assigned groups of church members as missionaries to establish other settlements throughout the West. They developed irrigation to support fairly large pioneer populations along Utah's Wasatch front (Salt Lake City, Bountiful and Weber Valley, and Provo and Utah Valley).<ref>[[William Clayton (Mormon)|William Clayton]], edited by George D. Smith: ''An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton'', p. 300. [[Signature Books]], 1991.</ref> Throughout the remainder of the 19th century, Mormon pioneers established hundreds of other settlements in Utah, [[Idaho]], [[Nevada]], [[Arizona]], [[Wyoming]], [[California]], [[Canada]], and [[Mexico]]—including in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]]; [[Franklin, Idaho]] (the first European settlement in Idaho); [[San Bernardino, California]]; [[Mesa, Arizona]]; [[Star Valley (Wyoming)|Star Valley, Wyoming]]; and [[Carson Valley, Nevada]].

Prominent settlements in Utah included [[St. George, Utah|St. George]], [[Logan, Utah|Logan]], and [[Manti, Utah|Manti]] (where settlers completed the LDS Church's first three [[Temple (LDS Church)|temples]] in Utah, each started after but finished many years before the larger and better-known temple built in Salt Lake City was completed in 1893), as well as Parowan, Cedar City, Bluff, Moab, Vernal, Fillmore (which served as the territorial capital between 1850 and 1856), Nephi, Levan, Spanish Fork, Springville, Provo Bench (now [[Orem]]), Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lehi, Sandy, Murray, Jordan, Centerville, Farmington, Huntsville, Kaysville, Grantsville, Tooele, Roy, Brigham City, and many other smaller towns and settlements. Young had an expansionist view of the territory that he and the Mormon pioneers were settling, calling it Deseret—which according to the [[Book of Mormon]] was an ancient word for "honeybee". This is symbolized by the beehive on the Utah flag, and the state's motto, "Industry".<ref>Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: "Church History in the Fullness of Times". 1989.</ref>