1. The “Mormon” Cultural Landscape and Region

2. Cultural Landscape
“The forms superimposed on the physical landscape by the activities of man.”
Carl Sauer
“Recent Developments in Cultural Geography” (1927)
Today many geographers also include identifiable human-induced changes to the natural landscape and the “atmosphere” of a place.

3. Peirce Lewis
“Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them”
“. . . the cultural record we have “written” in the landscape is liable to be more truthful than most autobiographies . . .”
"Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press,

4. Caution
“The student of landscape Who tries to look at everything may wind up seeing nothing at all. We must be selective. At any give time we must concentrate on a few carefully chosen features But we must never allow ourselves to forget that the features are related to all the other features of the landscape.”
J.F. Hart
The Rural Landscape (1998)

5. Brainstorm
What are the characteristics of a “Mormon” Cultural landscape or what are some visible elements on the landscape that would indicate that you are in a region that is predominantly LDS?
Note: The official name of the church is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Mormon is a nickname given to members of the church because of a book of scripture called the “Book of Mormon.”

6. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches

7. Which pictures are LDS churches?2 3 1 5 4 6

8. Which pictures are LDS churches?2 3 1 5 4 6

9. One Difference
“Mormon”
Baptist

10. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples

11. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings

12. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse

13. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms

14. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret

15. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret
Zion

16. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret
Zion
City layout—Grid Pattern

17. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret
Zion
City layout—Grid Pattern

18. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret
Zion
City layout—Grid Pattern

19. Features of a “Mormon” Landscape
LDS Churches
LDS Temples
Seminary Buildings
Bishops’ Storehouse
Toponyms
Church Related Names
Deseret
Zion
City layout-Grid pattern
Things you don’t see
No private liquor stores
No casinos
No lottery

20. Some “relic” Features of a Mormon Settlement
Irrigation ditches

21. Some “relic” Features of a Mormon Settlement
Irrigation ditches
Hay Derricks

22. Some “relic” Features of a Mormon Settlement
Irrigation ditches
Hay Derricks
Lombardy Poplar Trees

23. Some “relic” Features of a Mormon Settlement
Irrigation ditches
Hay Derricks
Lombardy Poplar Trees
Cemeteries

24. Changing Landscape

25. Changing Landscape

26. Meinig’s Mormon Culture Region 1964
Core: centralized zone of concentration
Greatest density of occupance
Most intense organization and strength of cultural features/characteristics
Domain: areas of dominance
Less intensity and complexity of occupance, and characteristics
Sphere: zone of outer influence
only certain elements still evident
People of identified culture are a minority

27. Mormon Culture Region Today
Use the following maps to determine the boundaries of the core, domain and sphere of the Mormon Culture Region today.
How did you determine the zones
How did your zones compare to Meinig’s boundaries?

28. Locations of Deseret Book

29. Locations of Deseret Industries

30. Surveys of 10 Mormon Cultural Landscape traits
Francaviglia, 1969
Hurd and Larson, 2000

31. LDS Meetinghouses Perry, Utah (pop. ~3800)
Cardston, Alberta (pop. ~3500)

32. LDS Temples

34. LDS Membership as a percent of population by county, 2000
Source: Glenmary Research Center (Image--

38. Meinig’s Mormon Culture Region 1964
Where is the “Mormon Culture Region today?
Is the Mormon Culture Region larger or smaller than in 1964?