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

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona
Christmas Lights at the Mesa Arizona Temple
Membership	436,521 (2019)[1]
Stakes	115
Wards	842
Branches	84
Total Congregations	926
Missions	6
Temples	6
Family History Centers	74[2]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members in Arizona. In 2019, the church reported 436,521 members in Arizona which is about 6% of the state's population. According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, roughly 5% of Arizonans self-identify themselves most closely with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[3] The LDS Church is the 2nd largest denomination in Arizona, behind the Roman Catholic Church.^[4]

History[]

Mormon Battalion[]

The first presence of Latter-day Saints in Arizona was 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 (then a town of 400–500 inhabitants) causing an attachment of Mexican Forces to flee. They camped at the mouth of the Gila River before entering California.

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

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 (now Colorado City), Pipe Spring, Beaver Dam and neighboring Littlefield, and Lee's Ferry, all in the area between the Utah border and the Grand Canyon known as the Arizona Strip.

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 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. Local hostilities forced the colonists to leave again after a month. A year later, James S. Brown led another small colonizing group that successfully settled at Moencopi, then began exploring the surrounding area. Following these explorations, a large group of settlers, led by Lot Smith, 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), along with a support settlement near Mormon Lake with a sawmill, dairy and tannery.^[5][6]

Central and southern Arizona settlements[]

The former Maricopa Stake Tabernacle (1896–1967), in Mesa

Daniel W. Jones was commissioned by Brigham Young to start a Mormon colony within the Salt River Valley of the Arizona Territory. The settlement party arrived at what would become Lehi, Arizona in March 1877. Jones' invitation to local Native Americans to live with them became a point of controversy, and half of the initial colony left, moving on to found St. David, Arizona.^[7] 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, and founded Mesa, Arizona. They dug irrigation canals, incorporating the original Hohokam canals in some places, and within a couple of months water was flowing through them.^[8]

Pima 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, not being planned by the leaders of the church.^[9] 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.^[10]

County Statistics[]

List of LDS Church adherents in each county as of 2010 according to the Association of Religion Data Archives:^[11] Note: Each county adherent count reflects meetinghouse location of congregation and not by location of residence. Census count reflects location of residence which may skew percent of population where adherents reside in a different county as their congregational meetinghouse.

Missions[]

Church logo in Navajo

On March 7, 1943, the Navajo-Zuni Mission was organized, and specialized with teaching Native Americans in their language. This was renamed the Southwest Indian Mission on January 1, 1949, and again the New Mexico-Arizona Mission on October 10, 1972. It was discontinued and transferred into the Arizona Phoenix Mission on July 1, 1984.

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

As of February 2022, Arizona was now home to six missions.

Also, the Nevada Las Vegas Mission, the New Mexico Farmington Mission, and the Utah St George Mission covers portions of the state.

Temples[]

Route marker on House Rock Valley Road for the Honeymoon Trail, which included part of this road

Gila Valley

Snowflake

Tucson

Gilbert

Mesa

Phoenix

Las Vegas

St. George

Red Cliffs

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Temples in Arizona

Red = Operating
Blue = Under construction
Yellow = Announced
Black = Closed for renovation

On October 23, 1927, the Mesa Arizona Temple was dedicated. Until that time, members had traveled to the St. George Temple. Because of all the bridal parties that traversed the trail during the early years, the wagon road between St. George and the Arizona settlements became known as the Honeymoon Trail.^[12][13] 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, a third, The Gila Valley Arizona Temple has been dedicated in Central, Arizona and three additional temples have been dedicated in Gilbert, Phoenix, and Tucson.

Communities[]

Latter-day Saints have had a significant role in establishing, settling, and/or populating communities within the "Mormon Corridor", including the following in Arizona:

Notable people[]

See also[]

• Religion in Arizona
• Aztec Land & Cattle Company (1884–1902)
• Mormon colonies in Mexico
• Mormon Corridor
• State of Deseret
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics (United States)
• John Willard Young

References[]

Further reading[]

Academic

• Abruzzi, William S. (1993), Dam that river!: ecology and Mormon settlement in the Little Colorado River Basin, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, ISBN 0819191264, OCLC 27814216
• Garrett, H. Dean; Clark V. Johnson (1989). Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: Arizona. Provo, Utah: Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University. ISBN 0-8425-2370-7. OCLC 22014464.
• Herman, Daniel J. (2010), Hell on the Range: A Story of Honor, Conscience, and the American West, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, ISBN 9780300137361, OCLC 601348221
• Herman, Daniel J. (April 2012), "Arizona's Secret History: When Powerful Mormons Went Separate Ways", Common-place, American Antiquarian Society, 12 (3)
• Peterson, Charles Sharon (1967). Settlement on the Little Colorado, 1873–1900: a study of the processes and institutions of Mormon expansion (Ph. D. thesis). Dept. of History, University of Utah. OCLC 3681211.
• Smith, Sophronia (1937). A historical survey of the northeastern section of Arizona, its settlement and development into Latter-Day Saint Stakes, 1876–1937 (M.S. thesis). Brigham Young University. OCLC 18939235.
• Ward, Margery W.; Dye, Della L.; Conrad, Kathryn (1974), Register of the records of Mormon settlements in Arizona, Salt Lake City: Special Collections Dept., University of Utah, OCLC 2569009
• Williams, Oran Adna (1957). Settlement and growth of the Gila Valley in Graham county as a Mormon colony, 1879–1900 (M.A. thesis). Dept. of History, University of Arizona. OCLC 28230204.
• Young, Valerie P. (2005). The "Honeymoon Trail": link to community and a sense of place in the Little Colorado River settlements of Arizona, 1877–1927 (M.S. thesis). Utah State University. OCLC 60858535.

News

• Ruelas, Richard (October 12, 2012), "Side by side: Mormonism in Arizona", Arizona Republic

Other

• Webb, Rhonda; Goodman, Arleen (2003), Mormon pioneers of the San Pedro Valley: Saint David, Arizona, St. David, AZ: St. David Heritage and Cultural Arts Society, OCLC 54848798

External links[]

• ComeUntoChrist.org Latter-day Saints Visitor site
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Official site