The Mormon History Association's annual conference was held in St. George, Utah at the end of May 2011. Our week there was filled with learning, connecting with friends, and making new friends.
Heinz and DeAnna Horstmeier, friends from Worthington, also attended the conference. It was wonderful to see them throughout the week, to share memories and time together.
Jim and Natalie Clarke moved to St. George a number of years ago. Natalie was my visiting teacher. Jim was serving a residency in radiation oncology when Joe had his first bout of vocal cord cancer. Jim was helpful as Joe decided the best course of treatment. Later, when Joe had prostate cancer, Jim was serving a residency with Joe's radiation oncologist. We enjoyed our dinner with Natalie and Jim while we were in St. George.
This meeting is always a good time for us to network with people who have helped us with The Bahamas project in the past - and to touch base with people who might be interested in the materials in the collection. We usually go to the conference with a list of people we'd like to connect with.
An overview of the conference -
"The three-day event drew more than 700 professional and amateur historians and history enthusiasts from disparate locales, the second-largest turnout in the organization's history. ... Established in 1965 by Church historian Leonard J. Arrington, the association is an eclectic group. Most are LDS, it may be safely assumed, but many are not. For example, this year's president (each term lasts a year) was William P. MacKinnon, a Presbyterian and former General Motors executive whose fascination with the Mormon past extends back to 1958 when he was a history major at Yale University and did a paper on the Utah War, establishing his expertise on that subject. The president-elect for next year is Richard L. Jensen, a research historian with the Church History Department. [jht note - Jensen studied at OSU decades ago]
Attendees at the conference chose from about 115 presentations on a variety of subjects on Mormon history. Several of them focused on the history of the Church in St. George and southern Utah, in keeping with the theme "From Cotton to Cosmopolitan: Local, National and Global Transformations in Mormon History."*
PRECONFERENCE TOUR
MHA always has great pre and post conference tours. This is a way to see Mormon-related sites around the conference city. Tour guides are on each bus and narrate throughout the day. Thursday we joined a bus load of people to explore the “Mormon Corridor.” This term describes the route from Salt Lake City to San Bernardino, California. Brigham Young established settlements all along this route so people would have support going to and from this route that was established based on springs and rivers. We rode the two hours to Las Vegas for our first stop. Heinz and DeAnna were also on the tour. We sat next to Noel and Sydney Reynolds, former president of Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. We introduced ourselves and he seemed to remember being in email touch with us about The Bahamas project.
In Las Vegas we went to the Clark County Museum. Then we went to the Old Mormon Fort. Did you know that the first nonIndian settlers in Las Vegas were Mormons? They built a fort in Las Vegas and stayed for just two years, 1855-57, before returning to Salt Lake City. Las Vegas means “the meadows.” There used to be an oasis there. The water source has long since dried up. This picture shows part of the original wall of the fort.
After Las Vegas we headed back east and stopped at Warm Springs. This desert oasis ranch was purchased by the LDS Church from Howard Hughes' estate. Originally it was going to be a cattle ranch for the church’s welfare system. That didn’t work out so they tried fruit and nut trees. That didn’t work out so the church sold all but 74 acres which included springs and a large house. The area was then used for youth activities and family reunions. The public also came to swim in the large pool and the springs.
The oasis is full of hundreds of palm trees. A year ago a fire swept through the area. The church's property was destroyed. This picture shows the blackened tree trunks. Megan, a college student and native of the Warm Springs area, gave us the history of the area. In addition she and her family shared some of the current issues which include water rights and the dace, a very tiny endangered fish.
Along the route we saw traces of the Old Spanish Trail. The trail is from the mid1800s. It was a trade route from Sante Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles.
CONFERENCE
The Mormon History Association Conference started Friday morning. With about 115 sessions, it was difficult to choose which ones to attend.
Saturday morning I attended the 6:30am sponsored by the Mormon Women’s History Initiative. 90some people bought tickets for this early morning event. Over the years it’s been interesting to get to know many of the people who are doing women’s history. There’s a wonderful range of ages of women, and men, who are involved in this area of research and publication and who attend the breakfast. The older women are great mentors and examples for the younger women who are trying to figure out how to balance family and their research and professional interests. Among the older women are well known authors and lecturers including a Pulitzer prize winner, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. One of her books is "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History."
ARTICLES ON VARIOUS SESSIONS AT THE CONFERENCE
AWARDS
Individuals and groups fund a number of awards to promote the writing and publication of various aspects of Mormon history. Our interest is in the story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints outside the United States. There was an award for a book in that area but none for articles. We have made a commitment to fund the Andrew Jenson International Article Award. This will be given to the author of a published article about the LDS Church outside the United States.
In the early days of the LDS church, Andrew Jenson was the assistant LDS Church historian for decades. He traveled the world collecting the history of the church. The winner was Mark L. Grover for his article “Helvecio Martins: First Black General Authority.” A committee of three people did the review and selection of online and printed articles that were submitted. Clint Christensen, our contact and friend at the Church Archives, did the presentation.
SUNDAY
Sunday morning and evening we attended meetings at the tabernacle.
During Sunday evening's presentation Kevin and Denny Henson talked about their 2008 hike of the 2000+ mile trail taken by the Mormon Battalion in 1846. It took them 6 months. They didn’t hike every mile of the trail because some of it has disappeared under development and some portions are on private land to which they couldn’t get access. It all started because Kevin’s Boy Scouts wanted to get involved in reenactments. Kevin discovered that was expensive because of the uniforms and equipment. One night he woke up and realized his Scouts could be reenactors for the Mormon Battalion. The Battalion didn’t have uniforms or much equipment. They came with what they had. This then led to an intense interest in the Battalion, the trail, and to a desire to hike and document the trail.
As we waited for the program to start we could hear two missionary couples sharing mission accounts. One was on their fourth mission and another on their third. They were so enthusiastic about the work they’d been able to do for the Lord in different parts of the world. They’d been to Korea, Africa, and some other countries that I now forget. They’d done leadership, proselytizing, leadership, visitor centers, and other types of missions.
NEXT YEAR
Next year's conference will be in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 28-July 1, 2012. It's the week before the Calgary Stampede, a major event in that part of Canada.
Snow Canyon - outside of St. George, Utah
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