Modern Development

Oases Have Grown in the Desert

The Mormons of Arizona today are not to be considered in the same manner as have been their forebears. The older generation came in pilgrimages, wholly within the faith, sent to break the wilderness for generations to come. These pioneers must be considered in connection with their faith, for through that faith and its supporting Church were they sent on their southward journeyings. Thus it happens that "Mormon settlement" was something apart and distinctive in the general development of Arizona and of the other southwestern sections into which Mormon influences were taken. It has not been sought in this work even to infer that Mormons in anywise had loftier aspirations than were possessed by any other pioneer people of religious and law-abiding sort. However, there must be statement that the Mormons were alone in their idea of extension in concrete agricultural communities. Such communities were founded on well-developed ideals, that had nothing in common with the usual frontier spirit. They contained no drinking places or disorderly resorts and in them rarely were breaches of the peace. Without argument, this could have been accomplished by any other religious organization. Something of the sort has been done by other churches elsewhere in America. But in the Southwest such work of development on a basis of religion was done only by the Mormons.

There was need for the sustaining power of Celestial Grace upon the average desert homestead, where the fervent sun lighted an expanse of dry and unpromising land. The task of reclamation in the earlier days would have been beyond the ability and resources of any colonists not welded into some sort of mutual organization. This welding had been accomplished among the Mormons even before the wagon trains started southward. Thereafter all that was needed was industry, as directed by American intelligence.

Prosperity Has Succeeded Privation

Today the Mormon population of Arizona does not exceed 25,000, within a total population of over 300,000. The relative percentage of strength, however, is larger than the figures indicate, this due, somewhat, to the fact that the trend of Mormon progress still is by way of cultivation of the soil. Of a verity, a family head upon a farm, productive and independent, is of larger value to the community and of more importance therein than is the average city dweller.

The immigrant from Utah who came between 1876 and 1886 no longer has the old ox-bowed wagon. His travel nowadays is by automobile. His log or adobe hut has been replaced by a handsome modern home. His children have had education and have been reared in comfort that never knew lack of food. Most of the Mormon settlements no longer are exclusively Mormon. There has come a time when immigration, by rail, has surrounded and enveloped the foundations established by the pioneers.

To the newer generation this work is addressed especially, though its dedication, of right, is to the men and women who broke the trails and whose vision of the future has been proven true. Many of the pioneers remain and share with their children in the benefits of the civilization that here they helped to plant. The desert wilderness has been broken and in its stead oases are expanding, oases filled with a population proud of its Americanism, prosperous through varied industry and blessed with consideration for the rights of the neighbor.