Item Detail
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30545
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5
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5
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English
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Utah's Ellis Island : The Difficult 'Americanization' of Carbon County
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Utah Historical Quarterly
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Spring 1979
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47
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2
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Utah State Historical Society
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178-93
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Ethnic diversity characterizes Carbon County. This variety forms a unique cultural resource around which county residents may identify, dither as descendants of an immigrant group or as individuals coming into daily contact with the ethnic mix. In addition to immigration, railroads, coal mining, and labor—reasons for the immigrant influx—form an intregal part of Carbon County's history and in turn comprise a key aspect of the industrialization and economic growth of Utah and the nation.
Ethnic diversity raises questions of ethnicity and the adjustment of immigrants to life in America, Utah, and Carbon County. Such questions center around concepts of "Americanization" and "accommodation." The Carbon County experience affords an excellent opportunity to view ideas of adjustment, for in the main, the county functioned as Utah's Ellis Island, a principal entrance point for numerous immigrant groups, primarily southern and eastern Europeans, but including some thirty-two different nationalities. [Author]