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This one's mainly for fun, so I hope people don't get too outraged about me using three points of departure in a single timeline. It was necessary.

The main point of departure is having the mormons realize how much gold there is in the area around Fort Lemhi before anybody else does. To make the story even slightly interesting it's necessary for Joseph Smith to survive, since Brigham Young was probably the most bland and boring dictator in history, but Joseph Smith... well, as one exmormon described him, "It was as if Huckleberry Finn had founded a major religion."

The outcome of Deseret's conflicts with the federal government was irrevocably determined by population and resources. Deseret had a small population compared to the army of the United States, and widespread anti-mormon sentiment supported politicians sending the army west to deal with the mormon problem. Mormon gold, even in huge amounts, would have changed the particulars but would not make it possible for Deseret to win a war with the United States.

So this timeline will go much further if the mormons are participants in a widespread confederacy of indian tribes under the united leadership of an indian with the talents of Genghis Khan or Mohammed. Wovoka born forty years earlier comes right to mind as a possibility.
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