I was fascinated by a website thrown up on RfM by "Heresy,"

http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/religion/mormon.gif

which shows the US Mormon population by color code. I had to look it all up and make a brief report.

First, I had to report on Adams County, WA. I live close by in Yakima county, where we have a thriving LDS population. According to the map, Adams is predominantly LDS. Turns out that Mormons flocked there in the 1940s when they were still predominantly agrarian on the promise of cheap farmland fed by the new Grand Coulee Dam. Today it's still about 26% Mormon, but is one of the most sparsely settled places in Washington State (18,000 people). Moses Lake is also heavily but not predominantly Mormon. The common complaint there is, "The Mormons rule the town."

18,000 is few enough. After that, it only gets worse. You'll notice that southeastern Nevada is predominantly Mormon. That is Lincoln Co., NV, comprised only of Pioche, Panaca, and Caliente. Ever been there? The three small towns are actually rugged and beautiful oases, but are very reminiscent of FLDS towns (in fact, a motel in Caliente is FLDS-owned). They are totally Mormon-populated and the towns prohibit alcohol and gambling, the only places in NV to do that. Inhabitants of the towns refer to Utah as "over home," and Utahns as "over-homers." It's a weird and not particularly friendly place. I used to date a girl from Panaca. The statistic looks impressive, but remember that the total population for the entire county is 4,165, essentially all Mormon.

Note the county in Colorado that is all green. That is Conejos Co., Mormon-settled, total population is only 8,000. Nothing goes on there, but the trout fishing around Fox Creek is apparently wonderful.

Then there is quite mysteriously Blaine Co., NE. It's also sparse, indeed--population 478!!. But Wikipedia reports, "More than 25% of the residents of Blaine County belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No other county in the state — or anywhere else so far east in the country — has more than 25% membership. This however may actually reflect an oddity in the system used to come to these numbers more than it does reality. Every adjacent county is in the category 'none reported' and the method used to get the numbers involved seems to be built around taking the membership numbers of all wards and branches in the county and assigning all those people to the county."

The one I'm particularly fond of is Decatur Co., Iowa. It is home to Lamoni, a town named after the king in the Book of Mormon; Lamoni is home to Graceland University, the university operated by the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized LDS. Decatur Co. is is 29% CoC, and the Valpo map is counting them as Mormons! Yay!

Anyway, just thought it was interesting. In other words, many areas "heavily populated" with Mormons are some of the most sparely settled areas in the US and amount to nothing. And one such area is not even considered by Mormons to be Mormons.

The key at the bottom would be ignored and she'd say the gospel is a stone rolling forth until it saturates the whole earth (or whatever that quote is that I'm too lazy to look up).

Also, great post! : )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2011 01:33PM by Queen of Denial.

but my sister's roommate and good friend at BYU was from Panaca.

...lower than either coast or the South. If you were to take all the Mormons in Utah and drop them into the states they were once headquartered -- New York, Ohio, Missouri or Illinois -- they'd pretty much disappear into the woodwork.

"saturated" with Mormons...... East of the Mississippi River.... i wont say who cause i think that he/she likes the anonymity! so a shout out to the person near or in the densest zone East of the Mississsippi!

Someone please do a cultural analysis of teen preg, college education, and avg lifespan, for these same areas. Just so the mormons have bragging rights when they do their next PR commerical.

News flash: "Most densly populated Mormon towns are also the most undeucated and inbred." Low gene pool theory.

Thank you for that great post. I had also been wondering about those mormon-dominated places on the map, and I looked a few up as well:

The two biggest mormon counties in California are Sierra, pop 3240 (down from 3555) and Alpine, pop 1175, making it California's smallest county by population. The one county in Florida with more than 10% mormons is Liberty, pop 8365, and the four biggest in Arizona have a combined population of 223000 of whom between 28000 and 65000 may be mormons, according to TSCC, that is.

Outside Utah, no major city has more than 10% LDS, and calling SLC a major city is being generous. Not even Denver nor Phoenix have a significant LDS presence, including their suburbs. There are lots of Mormons in California, but they are still a small minority. 1,000,000 Mormons in California sounds like a lot, but not with 36,000,000 in the state.

See the note at the bottom "...as reported by The Church of...". See the whole picture at:

http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/religion/adherents.gif

With every denomination exagerating, the total in some areas probably exceeds 100%.

Interesting to see a lot of counties in utah only between 50-75% religious period.

Referring to Lincoln Co., Nevada (Pioche, Panaca, and Caliente), I guess that "over home" and "over-homers" do not refer to Utah in general, but rather to St. George and environs, and people from there.

Another FLDS connection with the area is the Atlanta Farms, a big alfalfa spread north of Pioche about 30 miles out in the middle of nowhere. It's ALL out in the middle of nowhere, but somebody appears to have water for it. Anyway, get on Bing or Google maps and follow the highway north of Pioche until you see all the green circles along a road called Atlanta Rd. That is a farm that provides cash to the FLDS because the YFZ Ranch doesn't bring in enough to support Jeffs' habits.

The area is exceedingly remote, and on no one's must-see list. It's perfect breeding ground for all Mormon weirdness. I've known about five people from one of the three towns, and while the area is not necessarily associated with rogue Mormonism, the people I knew all smoked, drank, womanized, had pre-marital sex, and yet were active and served in positions in church. Weird place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2011 08:46PM by cludgie.