Hi, this is Anita from the Dusty Roads podcast
Today we're going to talk a little bit about a city in the Western United States where
I've spent a lot of time with, and in particular known as Salt Lake City
The question we're going to ask, which a lot of people ask if they're going to travel there
is, is Salt Lake City religious? Salt Lake City, about 73% of the population identifies with a religion
So it is relatively religious, maybe compared to many other countries or places around the world
But also in order to understand this, you need to also understand the reason why Salt
Lake City is religious, or why people are asking this question about religion
Salt Lake City is a city, or part of the United States, which was based upon a religion
It's a headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Today Salt Lake City has just over 200,000 residents, it's growing all the time
But only about 50% of those residents consider themselves to be members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So if you're looking to move there, or you know, you're wondering, it's like maybe one
in every two people are today considered to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City itself. At one point of time though, it would have been 100% of everybody pretty much would have
been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
It is considered one of the most religious cities in the United States because over 73
of the population identifies themselves with some kind of religion. It's about as religious as other major cities though
So when you look at some other major cities in the United States which are also religious
you know, it's about the same religious as Dallas, Texas, Houston, Texas, or Atlanta
Georgia, which are also very religious cities. You can also find many cities in what we call the Bible Belt of the southern United States
which would also be considered very religious. When you visit Salt Lake City, you will see churches dot all over the city
Many of those will be churches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This is because, as I mentioned before, Salt Lake City has very deep religious roots
The city was formed for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to escape
prosecution and mob violence. The city was founded on July 24, 1849
And it was in the mid-1840s that the pioneers left their home in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois
which is actually a home which is right on the Mississippi River in Illinois due to persecution
And they embarked on a treacherous 1,000-mile journey until they reached Salt Lake City
This trek out west was led by the Mormon prophet, or the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young. Brigham Young discovered Salt Lake City and he famously said, this is the place
The Salt Lake Valley at that time didn't look like much at all
The area was arid. It was an isolated spot. It was completely devoid of humans living there
But Brigham Young and these small group of pioneers arrived in Salt Lake City
And at the time, this was also part of the Mexican territory. So it wasn't even part of the United States during this time
It was not until two years later in 1848 that the treaty was signed to include Utah
and other western states as part of the United States. Utah officially became the 45th state of the United States
The first group that arrived with Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley consisted of
143 men, three women, and two children. And then, you know, after that time, more and more groups kept arriving and kept arriving
And really, I love what a friend of mine once said when we were looking out over the Salt
Lake Valley. And I said, oh, this is so beautiful because Salt Lake really is a very beautiful place
You've got the mountains, you've got this valley below, you've got these very nice streets
that are laid out in this grid pattern. And she said, yes, but this is a city that was put together by work boots
And that's really, really true because the pioneers, when they came there, they really
put on their work boots and they started working and they worked hard to make the city as beautiful
as it is today. This Salt Lake City is named after the Great Salt Lake, which today there's been a lot
written about the Great Salt Lake because this is a lake which is shrinking down
It's shrunk down quite a bit in size. And it's, you know, it's the largest body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere
And it's one of the few sailing lakes in the world. And one of the things that make the city such a unique is that when Brigham Young arrived
in the valley, he started to design the city's layout. And he decided to lay out the city in a grid pattern
So when you go to Salt Lake City, like you'll say, like, oh, somebody lives at 100 North
300 East. You know, the cities are all sort of East, West, North, South
So you can pretty much find your way throughout the city. And most of the cities within Utah are like that
So it is very different than many other cities in the United States at the time in the way
it's been laid out into grid patterns and the way the cities go by North, South, East
and West. One of the main areas we could call in Salt Lake City itself, we maybe call the ground
zero would be Temple Square. That Temple Square is also where the headquarters is of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
So Salt Lake City, you know, is a city that was built upon religious freedom
You know, it's a city that has a long history of religion, politics and government
Even today, a lot of the leading positions of the economics and political world of Salt
Lake City are still occupied by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
So there is no doubt that the church there and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints has a huge presence throughout the city. And I'm sure many people who are not members of the church who move there, they may feel that
For some of them, it may be overbearing. They don't like it. They feel like it's too much
Others that may feel like, yes, we like this. We like the fact that the church is so much a part of the city here and so much of the
life here. There can be some, you know, church lingo that people might talk about that maybe, you
know, some people that come from the outside may not understand. But the truth is that Salt Lake City is a place which is changing all the time
In fact, if you go a bit south, there's a place called Lehi, which has now become a
place called Silicon Slopes, which a lot of people saying is one of the new Silicon areas
or sort of like Silicon Valley, which is becoming more of a tech center
So the whole makeup of Utah itself is starting to change, has changed a lot in the last five
years compared to even 10 years ago or even 20 years ago
The whole makeup of Utah has been rapidly changing and it's changing to become a very
different place as more companies move in there, as more people move in there, as it's
just changing the whole entire dynamics of the city itself. And it is one of the areas of the United States that continues to grow
So anyone that's looking to visit Salt Lake City should not worry about the fact that
Salt Lake City is a city that was based upon religion. If you don't want to have anything to do with religion there, there's still a lot of
other great things you can do there around the area. It's got great mountains, great hiking, great skiing, some of the best skiing in the world
It's a great outdoor city. You're not to, you can still drive down to places like the southern part of Utah, Zion's
National Park. There's a lot of great national parks there. So Salt Lake City itself still has a lot of great things to do
And there's still a lot of great things to see and to explore
And it is actually a really great city to go visit. This is Anita from the Dusty Roads Podcast
We hope you've enjoyed this and that you'll take the chance and opportunity to go visit
Salt Lake City. I have personally spent a lot of time there. I have not lived in the city itself
I have lived south of Salt Lake City in a place called Provo, Utah when I was attending
school there at Brigham Young University. But other than that, I have not lived in the Utah area, but I have many friends who live
there and they love the city. They love the outdoors that it offers there
And they just really, really love being in the mountain area. So if you love mountains, you want to be able to hike mountains, you want to be able to
see beautiful mountains, or you want to be able to ski, Salt Lake City is your place
to go. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. We hope that you'll give us a thumbs up and that you will like us
That really does make a difference. That you'll tell others about us
We would really love to have them be part of our community too. And we'd like to thank our technical team, especially RICO, for helping making this possible