WI: No Mormons

What if the Mormons never formed? Maybe Joseph Smith isn't born or the Second Great Awakening never happens. What would Utah be like today? What other effects would there be?
 
Utah would definitely get settled, but much later and more sparsely. The growth of the Republican Party might be slightly butterflied (OTL they opposed "the twin relics of barbarism, Slavery and Polygamy"), but probably not too much.

One interesting thing is that you probably wouldn't have the Pony Express. OTL, it consistently lost money, and only lasted as long as it did due to Russels, Majors, and Wadell's huge fortune - which they got as army contractors in the Mormon War. That would have a lot of effects on the mythology of the West, and just might wiggle California looser from the Union during the Civil War. Probably not enough for it to secede, though.
 
State borders out west would be slightly different. *Utah would be bigger, Nevada smaller. Las Vegas might be in Arizona. Utah would be populated slower, but conversely get statehood quicker without the massive ingrained bigotry against Mormonism. Demographically/politically Utah would probably be a purple/leaning blue state along the lines of OTL Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico and not historically the deepest red of deep red states as it has held in OTL (this year WV actually held that title, but this is hardly a year that allows the extrapolation of trends).
 
Well, that young forger wouldn't have 'muddied the waters' by 'discovering' umpteen letters, memos etc exchanged between their founders...

And, Nixon's Mormon CREEPs might be butterflied away, so a very different Watergate...

And, yes, perhaps no 'Salt Lake City' ? It is almost as daft a place to build as Vegas...
 
Well, that young forger wouldn't have 'muddied the waters' by 'discovering' umpteen letters, memos etc exchanged between their founders...

And, Nixon's Mormon CREEPs might be butterflied away, so a very different Watergate...

And, yes, perhaps no 'Salt Lake City' ? It is almost as daft a place to build as Vegas...

A million butterflies cry out in pain....
 
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