Patrons and the Plays of Mormon Culture

Abstract

This chapter delves into John Codman’s writings about his travel throughout Utah in 1873. Codman’s focus includes the Union Pacific, through which John W. Young managed Corrine’s bathing and boating trade and incorporated the growing network of Mormon leisure industries. Many of John W Young’s projects led Codman to explore the Tabernacle, which informed him about Mormon religious practices and marital systems, and investigate dramatic plays in the Salt Lake Theatre. Codman finishes his assessment on Corinne with a northern tour where he recognizes unity among Corinnethians due to the Indian scare and the anti-Indian program. Overall, Codman’s book, The Mormon Country, publicized Mormonism and played a role as a guided cultural mediator moderating between pro- and anti-Mormon claims, and promised that Utah would remain a special a site of rich cultural encounters, both on and off the railroad tracks.