Salt Lake City, Utah was once in Mexico - but God was not on Spain's side - just listen to Bob..

 A bit of a contrast to New York. Salt Lake City was founded by Latter-day Saints - the Mormons.

In 1844 Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was shot dead during a dispute with some other evangelical Christians over their printing press that he had destroyed after they defamed him over the Mormon practice of polygamy (multiple wives, as opposed to keeping one wife and one or more public mistresses - quite legal - like numerous 'Royals'). This was a distinguishing feature of his new 'Latter Day' religion, that began to gather converts from other sects in large numbers.

Polygamy has support in Old Testament Scripture where a number of Jewish men are polygamous. Solomon, third king of Israel (and according to Mat. 1:1, the ancestor of Jesus), is said to have had a harem that included 700 wives and 300 concubines. Thus, polygamy is permitted in Islam. But it was forbidden by Roman Law and thus, the early Christian Church, also forbade it.  Interestingly, it is no longer a feature of the Mormon religion.

When Smith was murdered, his rapidly growing movement fractured, as did Islam when their Prophet died. The majority rallied around Brigham Young and fled persecution to Zion (Salt Lake City). The others went elsewhere and some persist today.

Thousands of converts, many from Britain, Denmark and Germany, followed, pushing handcarts, provided by Brigham's American followers.

Here they built yet another Temple, a nearby a church and a Tabernacle - world famous for its choir.

The huge Temple is not open at the moment. It's presently having it's foundations shored up. They should have listened to the Methodists: "Build upon the rock and not upon the sand"

 The tabernacle; The Church; Brigham Young (twice); A replica of the golden plates (originals now back in Heaven)
The handcart memorial; Downtown; Tram stop

At a more secular level, Salt Lake City is a ski town, in winter. The city is relatively flat, so no skiing back to your door, but there are good mountains close by.

So, it's distinguished by quite a bit of accommodation surrounded by wide open spaces and expanses of car parking area. There's a local light rail, that's free within the down-town area.

The 'sisters' and 'brothers' who circulate in the temple area are very polite so it's hard not the be reminded of the musical "The Book of Mormon".

 To read more click on the book