65 (D-66) Salt Lake City / Mormon Pioneers / LDS

65 (D-66) Salt Lake City, the capital and the largest city in Utah, was founded by a group of Mormon pioneers in 1847.

In the late 1820s, Joseph Smith, Jr. announced that an angel (named Moroni) had given him a set of golden plates engraved with a chronicle of ancient American peoples, which he had a unique gift to translate. In 1830, he published the resulting narratives as the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ in western New York, claiming it to be a restoration of early Christianity.

Smith's followers consider him to be a prophet. The group was often treated badly and persecuted by their neighbors because of their religious beliefs. This among other reasons caused the people of the Church to move from one place to another --- Ohio, Missouri, and then to Illinois where church members built the city of Nauvoo. Joseph Smith was assassinated here in 1844. According to church belief, God directed Brigham Young, Joseph Smith's successor as President of the Church, to call for the Saints (as church members call themselves) to organize and head west. The journey was taken by about 70,000 people beginning in April 1847, and ending (the last Mormon pioneers, by defintion) with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims 13 million members worldwide.

Jane
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VOCABULARY:
LDS = Latter Day Saints, an abbreviation for the church
golden plates = "plaques d'or"
unique gift = a special talent; "un don"
according to = "selon"
to head west = to go west