A matter of faith: A study of the Muddy Mission

Leonard J. Arrington wrote about the Mormon development of the Great Basin from 1847 to 1900 in Great Basin Kingdom (1966). He summarized Mormon economic ideals in seven principles which served as the basis of his argument about their success in the Great Basin; The Muddy Mission, established on the Muddy River (Nevada) in 1865, served three purposes, foremost was cotton production. Church leaders believed that the successes experienced in Utah would be repeated in the southern regions. Unfortunately, by 1871 politics and economics ended any successes the Muddy Mission had; Arrington's principles represent a Mormon's ethnographic statement about the ideal behavior of 19th century Mormons. Archaeological and historical data on the Muddy Mission represent evidence of actual Mormon behavior. Results from comparing the statement to the evidence show that expected behavior (the principles) occurred, with environmentally determined modifications, but that unexpected factors altered actual Mormon behavior.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

1997

Author dc:creator

• Kimball, Monique Elaine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Claude N. Warren

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/2

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-1001