Three WI's involving the Mormons

Hi!

I thought of a three WI's involving the early Mormon faith. What do you think would have happened in the following cases?

1. The early Mormons never endorse polygamy and do not suffer extensive persecution in the Midwest. As a result, they never move west.

2. Joseph Smith is not assassinated and survives to lead his flock west to Utah.

3. The Mormon elders sees the Great Salt Lake and decides that this would be a good place to set up their community...until they realize that the "Gentile" town of Ogden, Utah is too nearby. So, they decide to keep on moving west. Nevada doesn't suit them (too dry), so they find a relatively empty area in California and settle there. This empty area is found to have gold about 15 years later...

ACG
 
I kicked around a Mormon WI a while ago: WI Brigham Young is killed trying to prevent the murder of Joseph Smith?
 
3. The Mormon elders sees the Great Salt Lake and decides that this would be a good place to set up their community...until they realize that the "Gentile" town of Ogden, Utah is too nearby. So, they decide to keep on moving west. Nevada doesn't suit them (too dry), so they find a relatively empty area in California and settle there. This empty area is found to have gold about 15 years later...

ACG

According to the census figures from 1850, Salt Lake City outnumbered Ogden 6,000 to 500 in population. Even assuming all the people in Ogden at that time were gentiles, I still can't see the Mormons viewing them as that much of a threat with a majority that much in their favor.

That said, some members of the Mormon hierarchy did push for the pioneers to move on to California. However, I think that would probably not work in the Mormon's favor once gold is found. A gold rush means lots of prospectors who won't share Mormon values, and it could just mean Nauvoo and Missouri all over again.

A better possibility might be the Mormons settling in the Central Valley and creating thriving agricultural communities there that could sell food to the gold rushers in San Francisco but would have to have much close contact with them.
 
1. The persecution was not predominately because of polygamy, that was just one of the MANY issues the Gentiles had with the Mormons.

2. Unlikely. The move to Utah was Brigham Young's idea, and he handled the situation far more diplomatically than Joseph Smith would have.

3. Salt Lake was the center of the church in OTL, but the Mormons did set up numerous 'colonies' as far as Canada and Mexico, all over Idaho and California, Nevada, etc. During the 1857 Mormon War, these people were recalled, however, and many never regrew to their one-time prominence.
 
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