Item Detail
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12065
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0
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0
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English
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Mormon Exploration and Settlement of the Little Colorado River Basin of Arizona
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Tempe, Arizona
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Arizona State University
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Master's thesis
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Mormon colonies in the basin of the Little Colorado were a microcosm of the Mormon Experience in the American West. The basin served a threefold purpose: expanded physical boundaries of 'Zion,' a refuge for practicing polygamy, and additional lebensraum for a growing population. Cultural landscape was a synthesis of local conditions and the settlement practices evolving from the Mormon experiences across America. When original settlements began to disintegrate, extensvie exploration of the basin followed. Further settlements up the valley were randomly scattered. Sites not viable did not survive. Most survived, and a few thrived. Those that remained have a relict landscape produced by a spatially-dynamic society.