View source for State of Deseret

{{Short description|Provisional state founded by Mormons, 1848–1850}}
{{distinguish|Deseret Nation}}
{{Use American English|date = August 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox Former Country
| conventional_long_name = State of Deseret
| common_name            = Deseret
| status                 = [[List of historical unrecognized countries|Unrecognized state]]
| year_start             = 1849
| year_end               = 1850
| p1                     = Centralist Republic of Mexico
| flag_p1                = Bandera_de_la_República_Central_Mexicana.svg
| s1                     = Utah Territory
| flag_s1                = Flag of the United States (1891–1896).svg
| image_map              = State of Deseret, vector image cropped - 2011.svg
| image_map_caption      = The boundaries of the provisional State of Deseret (orange with black outline) as proposed in 1849. Modern state boundaries are underlaid for reference.
| capital                = [[Salt Lake City]]
| common_languages       = [[English language|English]]
*[[Deseret Alphabet|Deseret Alphabet (limited)]]
| religion               = [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
| government_type        = [[Theodemocracy]]
| leader_title1          = [[Governor]]
| leader_name1           = [[Brigham Young]]
| year_leader1           = 1849–1850
| leader_title2          = [[Lieutenant Governor]]
| leader_name2           = [[Heber C. Kimball]]
| today                  = [[United States]]
*[[Arizona]]
*[[California]]
*[[Colorado]]
*[[Idaho]]
*[[Nevada]]
*[[New Mexico]]
*[[Oregon]]
*[[Utah]]
*[[Wyoming]]
| demonym                = 
| area_km2               = 
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
| image_flag             = File:Mormon Flag of God´s Kingdom (2002).svg
| image_coat             = 
| flag_caption           = Flags of the State of Deseret
| image_flag2            = Alleged Mormon flag 1877.svg
| alt_flag2              = Reconstruction of an alleged flag
}}

The '''State of Deseret''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-Deseret.ogg|ˌ|d|ɛ|z|ə|ˈ|r|ɛ|t}} {{respell|DEZ|ə|RET}},<ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/pronunciation?lang=eng churchofjesuschrist.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide"] (retrieved February 25, 2012), converted to [[Wikipedia:IPA for English|IPA]] from ''dĕz-a-rĕtʹ''</ref> [[Deseret alphabet]]: {{Script|Dsrt|𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻}})<ref>{{cite web |url=https://onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php/DESERET |title=DESERET |work=Book of Mormon Onomasticon |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |quotation=[[Deseret Alphabet]]: 𐐔𐐇𐐝𐐀𐐡𐐇𐐓 (dɛsiːrɛt)}}</ref> was a proposed [[U.S. state|state]] of the United States promoted by leaders of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] who had founded settlements in what is today the state of [[Utah]]. A provisional state government operated for nearly two years in 1849–50, but was never recognized by the United States government. The name Deseret is derived from the [[Deseret (Book of Mormon)|word for "honeybee"]] in the [[Book of Mormon]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ether 2|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/2.3?lang=eng&clang=eng#p3|access-date=2020-10-11|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>

==History==

===Proposed concept as territory, then state===
When members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] (the [[Mormon pioneers]]) settled in the [[Salt Lake Valley]] near the [[Great Salt Lake]] in [[1847]]  (then part of the [[Centralist Republic of Mexico]]), they wished to establish a government that would be recognized by the United States.

Initially, second LDS [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|Church president]] [[Brigham Young]] intended to apply for status as a [[Territories of the United States|territory]] and sent [[John Milton Bernhisel]] to [[Washington, D.C.]] with a petition for territorial status. Realizing that [[California]] and [[U.S. provisional government of New Mexico|New Mexico]] were applying for admission as states, Young changed his mind and decided to petition for statehood.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Danver |first=Steven L. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Revolts_Protests_Demonstrations_and_Rebe/Qk7eEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Bernhisel+Deseret+territory+statehood&pg=PA394&printsec=frontcover |title=Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia [3 volumes] |date=2010-12-17 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-59884-222-7 |language=en}}</ref>

Realizing that they did not have time to follow the usual steps toward statehood{{clarification needed|date=March 2024}}, Young and a group of church elders formed a convention in the capital town of Salt Lake City, where they quickly drafted and adopted a state constitution on March 6, 1849.<ref name= zanesville>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/37838998/ The State of Deseret]". ''The Zanesville Courier'' (Zanesville, Ohio). Newspapers.com. October 9, 1949. p. 2.</ref><ref name= progress>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/32258616/ The State of Deseret: Progress of a Mormon Settlement]". ''The New York Evening Post''. Newspapers.com. October 10, 1849. p. 2.</ref> It was based on that of [[Iowa]], a state through which the Mormons had passed, with some having temporarily settled there. The [[Bicameralism|bicameral]] state legislature had 17 senators in its upper chamber and 35 representatives, in the lower chamber, all free white male citizens.<ref name= zanesville/> The state government also had an elected  governor, a lieutenant governor and a supreme court.<ref name= zanesville/> However, the state constitution was silent on the issue of slavery, which was tearing the nation apart in the 1850s.<ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/767202428/ State of Deseret]". ''Alexandria Gazette'' (Alexandria, Virginia). Newspapers.com. October 10, 1849. p. 2.</ref><ref name= progress/> The state constitution took effect on May 10.<ref name= zanesville/>

The government sent the legislative records and constitution to [[Iowa]] for printing because no printing press existed in the [[Great Basin]]. They then sent [[Almon W. Babbitt]] with a copy of the state's formal records and constitution to meet with Bernhisel in Washington, D.C. and to petition for statehood rather than for territorial status.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Milton Reed |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Brigham_Young_the_Colonizer/EaDtAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Almon%20W.%20Babbitt |title=Brigham Young, the Colonizer |date=1940 |publisher=Deseret News Press |language=en}}</ref>

===Geography of the proposed state===
[[File:Washington Monument Deseret Stone in 2000.jpg|thumb|The Deseret Stone used in the construction of the [[Washington Monument]]. The stone was donated by the territory in 1853 to represent the provisional state.]]
The provisional state encompassed most of the territory that had been acquired from [[Mexico]] the previous year as the [[Mexican Cession]].

The Territory of Deseret would have comprised roughly all of the lands between the mountain ranges of the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] in the west and the [[Rocky Mountains|Rockies]] to the east, and between the initial southern border with Mexico and northward to include parts of the [[Oregon Territory]] (recently split along the 49th parallel of latitude by treaty with the British further north in western [[Canada]]), as well as the coast of southern California south of the [[Santa Monica Mountains]] (including the existing settlements, missions and pueblos of [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]] and [[San Diego]]). This included the entire watershed of the upper [[Colorado River (U.S.)|Colorado River]] (excluding the lands south of the 1854 new second border with Mexico), after the borderline [[Gadsden Purchase]] of [[1854]], as well as the entire area of the central [[Great Basin]]. The proposal encompassed nearly all of present-day [[Utah]] and [[Nevada]], large portions of [[California|eastern California]] along with  [[Arizona]] and parts of western  [[Colorado]] and  [[New Mexico]], southern [[Wyoming]] and [[Idaho]], along with southeastern [[Oregon]].

The proposal was crafted specifically to avoid disputes that might arise from existing settlements of White Americans.<ref>Michael J. Trinklein (2010). Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It. Quirk Books. {{ISBN|978-1-59474-410-5}},</ref> At the time of its proposal, the existing population of the Deseret area, including Southern California, was sparse, since most of the California settlement had been in the northern [[California gold rush]] areas of [[1848]]—[[1849]] around [[San Francisco Bay]] and [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], areas not included in the provisional state. The border with [[New Mexico]] did not reach the [[Rio Grande]], an intentional decision to avoid becoming entangled in the disputes of the western and northwestern borders of [[Texas]] after the former [[Republic of Texas]] was admitted as the 28th state in [[1846]]. Deseret also avoided encroaching on the fertile [[Willamette Valley]] further north in western [[Oregon]], which had been heavily traveled and settled by legions of wagon trains since the [[1840s]] with the famous [[Oregon Trail]]. Planners utilized "a map drawn by cartographer [[Charles Preuss]] (1803-1854), and published by order of the [[United States Senate]] in [[1848]]."<ref>"Constitution of the State of Deseret, With the Journal of the Convention Which Formed It, and the Proceedings of the Legislature Consequent Thereon" (Kanesville, UT: Orson Hyde, 1849).</ref> This map was drawn by Preuss based on survey data from famous military officer and Western explorer [[John C. Frémont]] (1813–1890), and published in 1848.<ref>"Map Of Oregon And Upper California...to the Bay of San Francisco" (Washington, D.C.: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1848).</ref>

[[File:DeseretBeehive.png|thumb|upright|The beehive symbol often associated with Deseret.]]
As the proposal encompassed lands largely considered inhospitable for cultivation, it was hoped that Deseret might avoid conflict over the issue of the expansion of [[slavery]]. Its size would make it easier to preserve the balance of power in the [[United States Senate|Senate]], by decreasing the number of [[Free state (USA)|free states]] entered into the Union. However, the proposal for the state was seen as too ambitious to succeed in [[United States Congress|Congress]], even setting aside controversy over the Mormons and the rumored but not yet publicly acknowledged practice of [[plural marriage|polygamy]].

===Political context for creation of Utah Territory===
The [[California Constitutional Convention]] debates of [[1849]] in [[Monterey, California]] mentioned the Mormons or Salt Lake a number of times<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HfIJAAAAIAAJ&q=mormon |title=Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of ... - California. Constitutional Convention, John Ross Browne - Google Books |chapter=chapters about Mormons |access-date=August 13, 2012|last1=Browne |first1=John Ross |year=1850 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HfIJAAAAIAAJ&q=salt%20lake |title=Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of ... - California. Constitutional Convention, John Ross Browne - Google Books |chapter=chapters about Salt Lake |access-date=August 13, 2012|last1=Browne |first1=John Ross |year=1850 }}</ref> along with the continuing and intensifying North–South political, social and economic conflict over the extension of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] into the [[Territories of the United States|western territories]] of the [[United States]]. Advocates of smaller boundaries for the new 31st state to the east (such as the longitude meridian line of [[116th meridian west|116° west]] or the crest of the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] range of the  western [[Rocky Mountains]]) argued that the Mormons were unrepresented at the constitutional convention, culturally different and apparently planning to apply for their own territorial government to be formed further to the east. They also argued that the [[Great Salt Lake]] was too distant for a single territorial or state government to be practical and that Congress would not agree to such a large state (after the controversy over boundaries five years earlier with the admission of the [[Republic of Texas]] as the 28th state in [[1846]]). California delegates advocated retention of all of the [[Centralist Republic of Mexico]]'s former province along the [[Pacific Ocean]] coast of [[Alta California]] (Upper California) from the [[Mexican Cession]] of Mexico's northwestern territories in the peace treaty following the defeat in the [[Mexican–American War]] of [[1846]]—[[1849]]. It resulted in extensive lands acquired in the current [[Southwestern United States]].

With congressional action regarding Upper California's boundaries and status soon approaching, the provisional government to the east of Deseret sent Mormon apostle [[Amasa Lyman]], and John Wilson, a federal [[Indian agent]] in California, as a delegation to the [[interim government of California]], then situated in the temporary capital of the coastal ocean town of [[Monterey, California|Monterey]]. The delegates sought to call a new statehood constitutional convention and include Deseret in the new state to settle the slavery question throughout the vast territory acquired from Mexico. However, the newly elected first [[governor of California]], [[Peter H. Burnett]], rejected the proposal on the basis that the community in the [[Great Salt Lake]] area was too far east beyond the Sierra Nevada mountains and [[Great Basin Desert]] (in future [[Nevada]]) to combine under a single western government, even temporarily.<ref>{{cite news | title = Deseret Asks Admittance to California | newspaper = Deseret News | date = July 6, 1850 | url = https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2569801 | page=7 | access-date = November 26, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Utah Territory with Deseret Border, vector image - 2011.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Utah Territory is shown in blue, while the proposed State of Deseret is outlined by the dotted line. Modern state boundaries underlaid for reference.]]

On September 9, 1850, as part of the negotiated [[Compromise of 1850]],  the new [[Utah Territory]] was created by an act of [[United States Congress|Congress]], encompassing a portion of the northern section of the earlier proposed state of Deseret.<ref name= settled>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/50252532/ The Question Settled]". ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' (Brooklyn, New York). Newspapers.com. September 9, 1950. p. 2.</ref> The slavery question would be decided by a voting referendum of the territory's residents.<ref name= settled/>

===Lingering impact after territorial incorporation===
[[File:Utah 9.svg|thumb|upright|The beehive symbol used on Utah's [[State highway|state route]] [[Highway shield|shield]].]]
On February 3, 1851, Brigham Young was inaugurated as the first governor of the Utah Territory. On April 4, 1851, the General Assembly of Deseret passed a resolution to dissolve the state. On October 4, 1851, the Utah territorial legislature voted to reenact the laws and ordinances of the state of Deseret.

After the establishment of the Utah Territory, the Mormons did not relinquish the idea of a state of Deseret. From 1862 to 1870, a group of Mormon elders under Young's leadership met as a [[Government in exile|shadow government]] after each session of the territorial legislature to ratify the new laws under the name of the State of Deseret.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lubecker |first=Nikolaj |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/James_Benning_s_Environments/VaYxEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Deseret+shadow+government+1870&pg=PA47&printsec=frontcover |title=James Benning's Environments: Politics, Ecology, Duration |date=2019-08-05 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-7034-6 |language=en}}</ref> Attempts were made in 1856, 1862 and 1872 to write a new state constitution under that name, based on the new boundaries of the Utah Territory.

The idea of creating a secular American political state based on the religious tenets of [[Mormonism]] began to weaken, especially after the advent of the transcontinental railroad, which made the territory available to many non-Mormon settlers, particularly in the western areas of the territory. Young and the church leaders supported the massive construction project of the east–west railroad, even reassigning workers from the monumental [[Salt Lake Temple]] to work on the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] heading east from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains to link with the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] driving westward from [[Missouri]] and [[Nebraska]]. The legendary driving of the famous [[golden spike]] just 66 miles northeast from the Great Salt Lake completed the [[First Transcontinental Railroad (North America)|first transcontinental railroad]] across [[North America]] at [[Promontory, Utah|Promontory Summit]] in the Utah Territory in May [[1869]], two decades after its establishment.

==Government==
[[File:Brigham Young.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Governor [[Brigham Young]] was appointed to office by President [[Millard Fillmore]] in 1850.]]
Prior to the establishment of Utah Territory, in the absence of other authority, the provisional government of Deseret became the ''de facto'' government of the Great Basin. Three sessions of its General Assembly, a [[bicameral]] [[State legislature (United States)|state legislature]], were held. In 1850, the legislature appointed [[Judicial System of the State of Deseret|judges]] and established a criminal code. Taxes were established on property, and liquor and gambling were outlawed. The LDS Church was incorporated and a militia, based on the earlier [[Nauvoo Legion]] (from [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], where the Mormon pilgrims were formerly centered), was formed.

The legislature initially formed six [[County (United States)|counties]] that covered only inhabited valleys. These counties initially encompassed only a small portion of the area of Deseret and were expanded as settlement grew.<ref>[http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/political/historical/hist04.htm Territory of Utah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040115220959/http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/NSLA/archives/political/historical/hist04.htm |date=January 15, 2004 }}, Historical and Political Data, Political History of Nevada, Department of Cultural Affairs, Nevada State Library and Archives, accessed July 1, 2007</ref>

==Flags==
According to most descriptions, the Deseret flag was similar to the historic [[Flag of Utah#History|Utah state flag]]. However, it was not standardized, and several other secular and religious alternatives were used.<ref>[[Ronald W. Walker|Walker, Ronald W.]] [http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/dialogue&CISOPTR=22641&REC=2 "A Banner is Unfurled"] ''[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]]'' Volume 26 Number 4, Winter 1993, pages 71-91.</ref> Variants similar to the American flag were also reported.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-utdes.html|title=Deseret Territory (Utah, U.S.)|website=www.crwflags.com|access-date=2019-10-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.loeser.us/flags/utah.html|title=Historical Flags of Our Ancestors - State of Utah - USA|website=www.loeser.us|access-date=2019-10-29}}</ref>
<gallery>
File:Alleged Mormon flag 1877.svg|A modern attempt to recreate an unofficial flag used by the LDS Church, based on an 1877 description by Don Maguire
File:Mormon Flag of God´s Kingdom (2002).svg|Deseret flag as depicted by the flag atop [[Ensign Peak]] and created by the LDS Church.
File:Pike Peaks Deseret flag.png|Remake of one of the flags that flew at [[Pikes Peak]], [[Colorado]] during  the [[Pioneer Day]] Celebration on July 24, 1856   
File:1855 State of Deseret flag.png|Recreation of a flag that flew on a building in [[Salt Lake City]] on [[Independence Day (United States)|July 4th]], 1855
File:Flag of Deseret (reconstructed).svg|Reconstruction of a flag, as described in contemporary newspapers
</gallery>

==Deseret in fiction==
*In [[Ward Moore]]'s 1953 [[alternate history]] novel ''[[Bring the Jubilee]]'', set in an alternate timeline reality where the [[American Civil War alternate histories|Confederacy won the U.S. Civil War]] and the United States in the North became a corrupt and dysfunctional [[rump state]], Deseret is mentioned as the only prosperous state in the Union's Far West (where polygamy is still practiced).
*In the [[Car Wars]] board game first published in 1980 (and fiction set in its near-future alternate universe), Utah secedes from the U.S. under the name the Republic of Deseret in the aftermath of a second Civil War, but eventually agrees to rejoin as an "autonomous region". More specific details are provided in ''Volume Seven: Mountain West'' of ''The AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide''.<ref>The AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide: Volume Seven: Mountain West</ref> According to the ''Car Wars Sixth Edition''<ref>Car Wars Sixth Edition</ref> first published in 2020, this will happen in 2065.
*In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Southern Victory]]'' series of post-Civil War alternate fiction books, published 1997 to 2007, the Mormons of Utah attempt to secede from the United States as Deseret during the supposed [[How Few Remain|Second Mexican War]] and the [[Great War (series)|First]] and [[Settling Accounts|Second Great Wars]]. This results in the LDS Church being banned by that futuristic U.S. government.
*In [[Paradox Interactive|Paradox Interactive's]] [[Grand strategy wargame|grand strategy game]] ''[[Victoria II]]'', as well as its sequel, ''[[Victoria 3]]'', Deseret is a formable nation that may gain independence from Mexico or the United States.
*In [[Francis Spufford]]'s 2023 alternative history novel ''[[Cahokia Jazz]]'', Deseret is an independent republic, negotiating for admission to the Union in the slightly different 1920s.

==See also==
{{Portal|Latter Day Saint movement}}
*[[Council of Fifty]]
*[[Deseret alphabet]]
*[[Deseret News Publishing Company]]
*[[Deseret Book Company]]
*''[[Deseret News]]''
*[[Deseret Ranches]] 
*[[Territories of the United States]] 
*[[Territorial evolution of the United States]] 
*[[List of United States territories that failed to become states]]
*[[Mormon colonies in Mexico]]
*[[Mormon corridor]]
*[[Theodemocracy]]
*[[Utah War]] (1857–1858)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Works cited==
*[[James B. Allen (historian)|Allen, James B.]] and [[Glen M. Leonard|Leonard, Glen M.]] ''[[The Story of the Latter-day Saints]].''  [[Deseret Book Co.]], Salt Lake City, UT, 1976. {{ISBN|0-87747-594-6}}.
*{{cite journal |first= Peter |last= Crawley |title= The Constitution of the State of Deseret |volume= 29 |issue= 4 |journal= BYU Studies |date= Fall 1989 |pages= 7–22 |jstor= 43041402 |url= http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2634&context=byusq }}
*{{Citation
 |last        = Leonard
 |first       = Glen M.
 |author-link  = Glen M. Leonard
 |title       = The Mormon Boundary Question in the 1849–50 Statehood Debates
 |pages       = 114–136
 |journal     = [[Journal of Mormon History]]
 |volume      = 18
 |issue       = 1
 |year        = 1992
 |url         = http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,14815
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120414223315/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C14815
 |archive-date = April 14, 2012
}}.
*[https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/19f454cd-1bfc-40f8-bb49-bf36010f207f/0/14 4th of July "CELEBRATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, AT GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TERRITORY" Historical Department journal history of the Church 1855 July-September], ''LDS archives.'' Page 15 
*[https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/cfb09404-ec21-47e9-a661-0233ac831191/0/408 "PIKE'S PEAK" Historical Department journal history of the Church 1856 May-September], ''LDS archives.'' Page 409

==Further reading==
* (1994) [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321165241/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/c/COINS_AND_CURRENCY.shtml "Coins and Currency"] article in the [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ ''Utah History Encyclopedia''.] The article was written by Leonard J. Arrington and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/c/COINS_AND_CURRENCY.shtml the original] on March 21, 2024, and retrieved on April 12, 2024.
* (1994) [https://web.archive.org/web/20240321165247/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DESERET.shtml "Deseret"] article in the [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ ''Utah History Encyclopedia''.] The article was written by Richard D. Poll and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DESERET.shtml the original] on March 21, 2024, and retrieved on April 16, 2024.
* (1994) [https://web.archive.org/web/20240402222734/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/s/STATEHOOD.shtml "Statehood for Utah"] article in the [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ ''Utah History Encyclopedia''.] The article was written by Edward Leo Lyman and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from [https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/s/STATEHOOD.shtml the original] on April 2, 2024, and retrieved on April 12, 2024.

==External links==
*[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/17391 1849 Constitution of the State of Deseret] (PDF scans of 1849 printing)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040115220959/http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/NSLA/archives/political/historical/hist04.htm State of Nevada: Utah Territory]
*[http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/struggleforstatehoodchronology.html Struggle For Statehood Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923053232/http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/struggleforstatehoodchronology.html |date=September 23, 2006 }} Compiled by Linda Thatcher

{{Former sovereign or unrecognized states within the United States}}
{{Zachary Taylor}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deseret, State Of}}
[[Category:1849 in the United States]]
[[Category:American frontier]]
[[Category:Defunct organizational subdivisions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
[[Category:Former regions and territories of the United States]]
[[Category:Former theocracies]]
[[Category:History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
[[Category:Nauvoo Legion]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Utah]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Wyoming]]
[[Category:Proposed states and territories of the United States]]
[[Category:1849 establishments in the State of Deseret]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1849]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1850]]
[[Category:Mormonism and politics]]