The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona

As of October 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) reported 381,235 members in 794 Congregations in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, with 4 missions

Mission (LDS Church)

A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area...

and 3 temples

Temple (LDS Church)

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...

Mormon Battalion

Main article: Mormon Battalion

Mormon Battalion

The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular...

(sections: Battle of the Bulls and Capture of Tucson)

The first presence of Latter-day Saints in Arizona found is the Mormon Battalion. They marched through what is now southern Arizona in 1846 on the way to California as part of the Mexican-American War. They encountered wild cattle bulls and killed several of them in defense. They passed through Tucson

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

(then a town of 400–500 inhabitants) causing an attachment Mexican Forces to flee. They camped at the mouth of the Gila River

Gila River

The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...

before entering into California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

Northern Arizona settlements

The next time Latter-day Saints entered the area was in 1858 and 1859, when Jacob Hamblin and his companions camped at Pipe Spring

Pipe Spring National Monument

Pipe Spring National Monument is located in the U.S. state of Arizona, and is rich with American Indian, early explorer, and Mormon pioneer history...

in the northwestern part of present-day Arizona. They did this while journeying to and from their missions among the Moqui (Hopi

Hopi

The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...

) Indians east of the Colorado River

Colorado River

The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...

.

During the 1860s and 1870s, LDS parties explored portions of the area searching for possible settlement sites. Also during this period, isolated ranches and small Mormon settlements were established at Short Creek

Short Creek Community

The Short Creek Community originally began in 1935 following the death of Joseph Leslie Broadbent, under the leadership of John Y. Barlow and Joseph W. Musser. Formerly located in Short Creek, Arizona , the group was notorious for the practice of polygamy due to media coverage during the "Short...

(now Colorado City

Colorado City, Arizona

Colorado City is a town in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, and is located in a region known as the Arizona Strip. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town was 4,607...

), Pipe Spring

Pipe Spring National Monument

Pipe Spring National Monument is located in the U.S. state of Arizona, and is rich with American Indian, early explorer, and Mormon pioneer history...

, Beaver Dams

Beaver Dam, Arizona

Beaver Dam is an unincorporated community in Mohave County located in the extreme northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, in the Arizona Strip region. It is located along Interstate 15 approximately 10 miles northeast of Mesquite, Nevada...

(now Littlefield

Littlefield, Arizona

Littlefield is an unincorporated community in Mohave County located in the Arizona Strip region of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is located along Interstate 15 approximately 10 miles northeast of Mesquite, Nevada...

), and Lee's Ferry

Lee's Ferry

Lee's Ferry is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, about 7.5 miles southwest of the town of Page, Arizona and the Glen Canyon Dam, and about 9 mi south of the Utah-Arizona border. It is the former location of a ferry established by John D. Lee, a Mormon...

, all in the area between the Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

border and the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...

known as the Arizona Strip

Arizona Strip

The Arizona Strip is the part of the U.S. state of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. The difficulty of crossing the Grand Canyon causes this region to have more natural connections with southern Utah and Nevada than with the rest of Arizona....

.

The first effort at large-scale LDS colonization came in March 1873 when a group of Latter-day Saints was sent from Utah to the Little Colorado River

Little Colorado River

The Little Colorado River is a river in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico...

drainage under the direction of Horton D. Height. The colonizers turned back, discouraged by the poor prospects, but a few returned the following year and began farming among the Native Americans at Moencopi

Moenkopi, Arizona

Moenkopi is a census-designated place in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to the southeast side of Tuba City off U.S. Route 160. The population was 901 at the 2000 census....

. Local hostilities forced the colonists to leave again after a month. A year later, James S. Brown lead another small colonizing grop that successfully settled at Moencopi, then began exploring the surrounding area. Following these explorations, a large group of settlers arrived in the spring of 1876 and established four settlements on the Little Colorado, which they called Ballenger’s Camp (later renamed Brigham City), Sunset, Obed, and Allen City (later renamed St. Joseph, and then Joseph City

Joseph City, Arizona

Joseph City is an unincorporated community located in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It is located on Interstate 40 about eighty miles east of Flagstaff....

Central and southern Arizona settlements

Daniel W. Jones was commissioned by Brigham Young

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

to start a Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

colony within the Salt River Valley

Salt River Valley

The Salt River Valley defines an extensive valley on the Salt River in central Arizona, which contains the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.Although this geographic term still identifies the area, the name "Valley of the Sun" popularly replaced the usage starting in the early 1930s for purposes of...

of the Arizona Territory

Arizona Territory

The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....

. The settlement party arrived at what would become Lehi, Arizona

Lehi, Arizona

Lehi is a distinct community within Mesa, Arizona, which predates Mesa's own founding. Lehi was annexed into its much larger former neighbor in 1970, and now is the northern limit of central Mesa....

in March 1877. Jones' invitation to local Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

s to live with them became a point of controversy, and half of the initial colony left, moving on to found St. David, Arizona

St. David, Arizona

St. David is a census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,744 at the 2000 census.-History:...

. In February 1878 the First Mesa Company arrived in Lehi. Rather than accepting an invitation to settle at Jones' settlement, they moved to the top of the mesa

Mesa

A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....

, and founded Mesa, Arizona

Mesa, Arizona

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...

. They dug irrigation canals, incorporating the original Hohokam

Hohokam

Hohokam is one of the four major prehistoric archaeological Oasisamerica traditions of what is now the American Southwest. Many local residents put the accent on the first syllable . Variant spellings in current, official usage include Hobokam, Huhugam and Huhukam...

canals in some places, and within a couple of months water was flowing through them.

Pima

Pima, Arizona

Pima is a town in Graham County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 1,965. It is part of the Safford Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

was founded in 1879 by Mormon settlers relocating from Forrest Dale, after that location was declared to be on tribal land. Originally named Smithville, it was unlike other Mormon settlements of the era, in that it was not planned by the leaders of the church. Joseph K. Rogers was the first branch president at Pima, being appointed to this office before the settlers arrived. The branch was organized into a ward in 1880. In 1930 the total population of Pima was 980, 666 of whom were LDS, and a total of 1,260 people resided within the Pima ward boundaries.

Membership History

Year	LDS Membership
1920	14,813
1930	18,732
1940	25,272
1950	33,937
1960	60,457
1970	94,249
1980	171,880
1990	241,000
1999	305,034
2008	374,830

Missions

On March 7, 1943, the Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

-Zuni Mission was organized, and specialized with teaching Native Americans in their language. This was renamed the Southwest Indian Mission on January 1, 1949. It was renamed the New Mexico-Arizona Mission on October 10, 1972. This mission was discontinued on July 1, 1984. The mission was transferred to become the Arizona Phoenix Mission on that day.

On August 1, 1969, the Arizona Mission was organized from the California South Mission. This mission was renamed the Arizona Tempe Mission on June 20, 1974.

Arizona is now home to four missions.

Mission	Organized
Arizona Tempe Mission	August 1, 1969
Arizona Phoenix Mission	July 1, 1984
Arizona Tucson Mission	July 1, 1990
Arizona Mesa Mission	July 1, 2002

Temples

On October 23, 1927, the Mesa Arizona Temple

Mesa Arizona Temple

The Mesa Arizona Temple is the seventh operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located in the city of Mesa, Arizona, it is the first of five LDS temples built or planned in the state.-History:...

was dedicated. Until that time, members had traveled to the St. George Temple

St. George Utah Temple

The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple completed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the forced exodus of the body of the Church from Nauvoo, Illinois, after the death of its founder Joseph Smith, Jr.-Description:The building is located in the SW Utah city of St....

. Because of all the bridal parties that traversed the trail during the early years, the wagon road between St. George

St. George, Utah

St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Washington County, Utah. It is the principal city of and is included in the St. George, Utah, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is 119 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and 303 miles ...

and the Arizona settlements became known as the Honeymoon Trail. The Mesa Arizona Temple was the first temple in the Church to be rededicated (on April 15, 1975) after extensive remodeling and enlarging to accommodate increased attendance.

On March 3, 2002, a second Arizona temple was dedicated in Snowflake. Since then, 3 more temples have been announced.
|}

Communities

Latter-day Saints have had a significant role in establishing and settling communities within the "Mormon Corridor

Mormon Corridor

The Mormon Corridor is a term for the areas of Western North America that were settled between 1850 and approximately 1890 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , who are commonly known as Mormons....

", including the following in Arizona:

Beaver Dam
Beaver Dam, Arizona
Beaver Dam is an unincorporated community in Mohave County located in the extreme northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, in the Arizona Strip region. It is located along Interstate 15 approximately 10 miles northeast of Mesquite, Nevada...
Fredonia
Fredonia, Arizona
Fredonia is a town in Coconino County, Arizona, United States. Fredonia is Arizona's northernmost town and the gateway to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Visitors enjoy seeing the Grand Canyon from the North Rim because they can experience the wonder and beauty without large crowds and high...
Eagar
Eagar, Arizona
Eagar is a town in Apache County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 4,126.Eagar was first settled in 1871.-Geography:Eagar is located at ....
Gilbert
Gilbert, Arizona
-Demographics:As of July 1, 2009, Maricopa Association of Governments, Census 2000. United States Census Bureau. there were 217,521 people, 74,147 housing units, and 3.01 persons per household....
Heber-Overgaard
Heber-Overgaard, Arizona
Heber-Overgaard is a census-designated place in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. Situated atop the Mogollon Rim, the community lies at an elevation of around . The population was 2,722 at the 2000 census....
Joseph City
Joseph City, Arizona
Joseph City is an unincorporated community located in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It is located on Interstate 40 about eighty miles east of Flagstaff....
Lee's Ferry
Lee's Ferry
Lee's Ferry is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, about 7.5 miles southwest of the town of Page, Arizona and the Glen Canyon Dam, and about 9 mi south of the Utah-Arizona border. It is the former location of a ferry established by John D. Lee, a Mormon...
Lehi
Lehi, Arizona
Lehi is a distinct community within Mesa, Arizona, which predates Mesa's own founding. Lehi was annexed into its much larger former neighbor in 1970, and now is the northern limit of central Mesa....
Littlefield
Littlefield, Arizona
Littlefield is an unincorporated community in Mohave County located in the Arizona Strip region of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is located along Interstate 15 approximately 10 miles northeast of Mesquite, Nevada...
Mesa
Mesa, Arizona
According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
Pima
Pima, Arizona
Pima is a town in Graham County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 1,965. It is part of the Safford Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
Pine
Pine, Arizona
Pine is a census-designated place in Gila County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,931 at the 2000 census. Pine was established by four Mormon families in 1879....
Pipe Spring
Pipe Spring National Monument
Pipe Spring National Monument is located in the U.S. state of Arizona, and is rich with American Indian, early explorer, and Mormon pioneer history...
Queen Creek
Queen Creek, Arizona
Queen Creek is a town in Maricopa and Pinal counties in the U.S. state of Arizona. The population was 26,361 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Queen Creek is located at ....
Snowflake
Snowflake, Arizona
Snowflake is a town in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1878 by Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake, Mormon pioneers and colonizers. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 4,958....
St. David
St. David, Arizona
St. David is a census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,744 at the 2000 census.-History:...
St. Johns
St. Johns, Arizona
St. Johns is the county seat of Apache County, Arizona, United States. It is located along U.S. Route 180, mostly west of where that highway intersects with U.S. Route 191. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 3,538....
Taylor
Taylor, Arizona
Taylor is a town in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It was founded by Mormon settlers in January 1878, several months before the neighboring community of Snowflake, Arizona...
Thatcher
Thatcher, Arizona
Thatcher is a town in Graham County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 4,865. It is part of the Safford Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Thatcher is located at ....

Notable people

John K. Carmack
John K. Carmack
John Kay Carmack has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1984. He is currently an emeritus general authority and was the managing director of the church's Perpetual Education Fund....
Jake Flake
Jake Flake
Franklin Lars "Jake" Flake was an American politician who served as a Senator in the Arizona State Legislature from 2005 until his death. Previous to his term as State Senator, he served as a Representative in the Arizona Legislature, including a stint as Speaker of the House...
Jeff Flake
Jeff Flake
Jeffrey Lane "Jeff" Flake is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was featured in the documentary series How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories....
William J. Flake
William J. Flake
William Jordan Flake was a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who helped settle parts of Arizona, and was imprisoned for polygamy.- Biography :William Flake was born in North Carolina...
Francis M. Gibbons
Francis M. Gibbons
Francis Marion Gibbons was the secretary to the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 to 1986 and a general authority of the church from 1986 until 1991.A native of St...
Daniel Webster Jones (Mormon)
Daniel Webster Jones (Mormon)
Daniel Webster Jones was an American and Mormon pioneer. He was the leader of the group that colonized what eventually became Mesa, Arizona, made the first translation of selections of The Book of Mormon into Spanish, led the first Mormon missionary expedition into Mexico, dealt frequently with...
David Patten Kimball
David Patten Kimball
David Patten Kimball was an early Mormon leader, one of the three young men of the Sweetwater handcart rescue, and the son of Heber C. Kimball.Kimball was born on August 23, 1839, in Nauvoo, Illinois...
Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer Woolley Kimball was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1973 until his death in 1985.-Ancestry:...
Rex E. Lee
Rex E. Lee
Rex Edwin Lee from St. Johns, Arizona was a Constitutional lawyer, a law clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, and the United States Solicitor General under the Reagan administration. He argued 59 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court...
Fred Mortensen
Fred Mortensen
Fred Mortensen is a former college football player at Arizona State University.In the 1990s He also served as a high school Football coach for the Tempe High School Buffalo Varsity football team where his son Todd Mortensen Attended. Fred quarterbacked Tempe High to the state finals in 1971...
Charles Sreeve Peterson
Charles Sreeve Peterson
Charles Sreeve Peterson was an early Mormon leader who was the first settler of Utah's Morgan Valley, a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature, and one of the first settlers in the Mormon colonies in Mexico....
Eric B. Shumway
Eric B. Shumway
Eric B. Shumway was the president of Brigham Young University–Hawaii from 1994 to 2007. After his term of service as president of the university, he was called as president of the Nuku alofa Tonga Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .Shumway was born in Holbrook,...
Jesse N. Smith
Lot Smith
Lot Smith
Lot Smith was a Mormon pioneer and American frontiersman.-Background:Born in 1830 in Williamstown, Oswego County, New York, he became a close friend of Orrin Porter Rockwell and was known as "The Horseman" for his exceptional skills on horseback as well as for his help in rounding up wild mustangs...
Delbert L. Stapley
Delbert L. Stapley
Delbert Leon Stapley was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1950 to 1978.-Early life:Stapley was born in Mesa, Arizona Territory...
Brooke White
Brooke White
Brooke Elizabeth White is an American indie pop/folk-pop singer-songwriter and actress from Mesa, Arizona who was the fifth place finalist on the seventh season of American Idol. In 2005, White released her first studio album, called Songs from the Attic.White's first post-Idol album High Hopes &...
Udall family
Udall family
The Udall family is a U.S. political family rooted in the American West. Its role in politics spans over 100 years and four generations. Udall politicians have been elected from four different states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon...

External links

LDS Newsroom: Country Profile: USA-Arizona
Charles S. Peterson. Pioneer Settlements in Arizona

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Mormon Battalion

Northern Arizona settlements

Central and southern Arizona settlements

Membership History

Missions

Temples

Communities

Notable people

See also

External links