The Mormons, a distinctive American subculture, have long dominated a large area of the Far West, but the extent of the region and the geographic relationships between Mormons and Gentiles ( non-Mormons ) have never been satisfactorily presented. Historical analysis of expansions, contractions, and reexpansions from the original Utah nucleus and of concurrent Gentile movements into and around Mormon colonies provides the basis for a refined definition of the Mormon culture region. That region is interpreted as having a core in the Wasatch Oasis, a domain over much of Utah and southeastern Idaho, and a sphere extending from eastern Oregon to Mexico. The most recent and important movement has been to the Pacific Coast cities, producing modifications in theology as well as geography, and suggesting the emergence of a Salt Lake City-Los Angeles axis as a pattern of profound influence in the present and future of Mormondom.
Geographers might make a very significant contribution to the interpretation of the American West and of the American nation by a systematic investigation of the West as a set of dynamic regions. The outline offered suggests a focus upon four categories of regional features (population, circulation, political areas, and culture) to be examined as complexes changing through four recognizable stages ( nuclear, regional, regional-national, nietropolitan-national ) from initial European colonization to the present with projections into the future.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.