Corinne: The Gentile Capital of Utah

Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1980. First Edition. 331pp. Octavo [24 cm] Brown cloth with the title gilt stamped on the front board and backstrip. Signed by the author on the title page. For almost ten years from 25 March 1869, the town of Corinne reigned as 'The Gentile Capital of Utah.' As the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads approached their historic meeting place at Promontory Summit early in 1869, a group of former Union army officers and some determined non-Mormon merchants from Salt Lake City decided to found a town on the U. P. line, believing that the town could compete economically and politically with the Saints (truncated) of Utah. They chose a location about six miles west of Brigham City on the west bank of the Bear River where the railroad crossed that stream. In its heyday, Corinne had about 1,000 permanent residents, not one of whom was a Mormon, according to the boast of the local newspaper. (Inventory #: 10188)