Mormon corridor

The Mormon corridor, also known as the Mormon culture region, the Book of Mormon belt, or the Jell-O belt, describes a region of the Western United States settled between 1850 and roughly 1890 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, producing a culturally distinct area. It follows the line of the Rocky Mountains, beginning in Utah and extending north through Wyoming and Idaho into Montana and Alberta, Canada, and reaching south to San Bernardino, California, and through Tucson, Arizona, with further extensions west to Jordan Valley, Oregon, and east to Eldorado, Texas, taking in parts of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming along with isolated settlements in Mexico. Under the leadership of Brigham Young as president of the LDS Church from 1847 to 1877, nearly 400 colonies had been established by 1877, serving as temporary gathering places, centers for producing resources such as iron and cotton, bases for missionary and Native American assistance work, and permanent homes for arriving immigrants. When polygamy prosecution increased in the United States, church leaders encouraged settlement in Mexico and Canada, establishing communities across the border from 1884 and, in 1887, the town of Cardston in Alberta under the leadership of Charles Ora Card. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/