The last quiet place: Pipe Spring and the Latter-day Saints, 1870--1923

The Last Quiet Place: Pipe Spring and the Latter-day Saints, 1870-1923 was the telling of the role of the Mormons in the settling and development of the Arizona Strip. Pipe Spring, before its acquisition by the National Park Service in 1923, was used by the LDS church as a cattle ranch, defensive installation, polygamous refuge, and telegraph station. Between the years of 1870, when construction of the fort began, and 1923, when the fort became a national monument, there existed a fascinating convergence of cultures and ideals that defined as a whole the dynamics of the American West; The body of the thesis was comprised of four sections. The first, entitled The Settling of the Land, detailed the origins of Mormonism and the church\u27s migration to the Arizona Strip. The second, Technology and Economics, examined the technological advances of the era, namely the telegraph and railroad, and the economic history of the Arizona Strip during the height of the livestock industry. The third section, Relations With the Natives, focused on Mormon relations with the native American tribes on the Arizona Strip. Pipe Spring in the Early Twentieth Century, charted the demise of the livestock industry and Pipe Spring\u27s new life as a component in the National Park Service\u27s promotion of the American West. The epilogue drew parallels between the marketing strategy of the St. Joe Company and the reasons for the Mormon advance into the barren deserts of Utah and Arizona. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)