Iron Manufacturing in Southern Utah in The Early 1880's: The Iron Manufacturing Company of Utah

Abstract

Building “Zion” in the intermountain West was a constant challenge to the officers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in the last half of the nineteenth century. The practical problem of developing a balanced and progressive economy in the arid mountain valleys and formless desert wastes of the Great Basin required perseverance, cooperation, and intelligent planning. The development of Utah is unique among western states in the form and extent of group planning and in the close supervision and direction of social and economic activities by a dominant church. The heroic efforts of the religious leaders of early Utah to develop the resources of the Great Basin are partly responsible for the progressive growth of employment and production after the permanent settlement of the region in 1847.