Heritage Gateways

Classroom Activities

You may also want to view the recommended reading list from the Sesquicentennial Committee.

Utah: Then and Now

"The Mormons were one of the principal forces in the settlement of the West." One hundred and fifty years ago on July 24, 1847, the Mormon pioneers declared the valley of the Great Salt Lake to be their new home.Wallace Stegner says, "There are more than theological reasons for remembering the Mormon pioneers. They were the most systematic, organized, disciplined and successful pioneers in our history; and their advantage over the random individualists who preceded them and paralleled them and followed them up the valley of the Platte came directly from their "un-American" social and religious organization. Where Oregon emigrants and argonauts bound for the gold fields lost practically all their social cohesion en route, the Mormons moved like the Host of Israel they thought themselves. Far from loosening their social organization, the trail perfected it. As communities on the march they proved extraordinarily adaptable. When driven out of Nauvoo, they converted their fixed property, insofar as they could, into instruments of mobility, especially livestock, and became for the time herders and shepherds, teamsters and frontiersmen, instead of artisans and townsmen and farmers. When their villages on wheels reached the valley of their destination, the Saints were able to revert at once, because they were town-and-temple builders and because they had their families with them, to the stable agrarian life in which most of them had grown up. "The Gathering of Zion, 1964, McGraw-Hill Book Company p.6"

Utah has had many different peoples who have called it home. This unit of study covers Utah's peoples up to the time that the transcontinental railroad connected the 2 coasts of the United States in 1869.

Elementary Grades

Essential Questions About the Settling of Utah

Who settled Utah and why did they settle?

• Native Americans
• Spanish Explorers
• Mountain Men
• Pioneers/Settlers/Immigrants
• How did people's background impact their settlement?
• What is the heritage of Utah's settlers?

How did people get to Utah?

• Walking
• Horseback
• Wagon
• Handcart
• What was the impact of the trail on the pioneers?
• What role did geographic features play along the trail?

What did people do when they got to "Utah"?

• What was daily life like for the pioneers?
• What lifestyles/traditions did the settlers bring?
• What impact did the pioneers have on the environment?
• What impact did the environment have on the pioneers?

How does Utah history uniquely affect you?

• What role does heritage play in the lives of Utah's people?

What influence did the trek have on the United States and on the world?

Does the settling of Utah affect the environment?

Senior High Grades

Common Themes About the Settling of Utah

Human Environment

• Family Dynamics
• Communication in the Frontier

Physical Environment

• Landforms and Map-making
• Land Distribution and Water Rights

Imposed Environment

• Education - What Does a Pioneer Need to Know?

Pioneering

• Tenacity, Courage, and Self-Reliance
• Pushing Boundaries - The Pioneer Spirit

Change

• Curiosity Drives Change: Risk-takers in the Mormon Migration
• Family Roles and Lifestyle Changes Become Inevitable in the Westward Movement
• Cycles of Change and Growth in the Mormon Trek

Common Themes About the Settling of Utah

Health and Well Being

• Why did pioneers wear what they did? Why do we wear what we do? Fashions, freedom of choice.
• Compare pioneer activities/risk today with those of that time.
• Special populations - what did they do with those who were badly injured or handicapped? How is it similar/different than how we deal with exceptionalities today?
• How did the pioneers utilize herbs and homeopathic medicines and did they learn from the native population to use indigenous plants?

Leisure Time and Recreation

• How did the pioneers beautify their surroundings?
• What games, recreational activities, entertainment, athletics, avocations, etc. were they involved with?

Justice and the Law

• How did the pioneers deal with issues of law and order? What penalties were imposed? When and how did they establish jails and prisons?

Environment and Conditions

• What impact does a wagon train have on the environment (insect populations, flora, fauna, water quality, air quality)?
• What traces did the pioneers leave as they traveled and why (discarded baggage, graves, writings, etc.)?
• How did the pioneers deal with water treatment and quality issues?
• How were the pioneers changed by the experience and how did they change their environment?
• What wild life controls evolved (laws, regulations, endangerment of species)? What about land use controls (irrigation, farm use, farming techniques)?
• In what ways were agriculture different?
• How was city planning handled? How did they choose to layout their cities? How does it compare with today?
• What were the conditions under which the pioneers were living along the trek (crops, potable water, food)?
• What was the weather, environment, geography, terrain?

Family Structure

• What was the role of women and their place in society? How is it different from today? How were the roles of children, married people, single men/women, widows/widowers different?
• What differences were there in how families were defined? Were there differences in the types of pressures families experienced?
• How was leadership established?
• Create your own settlement.
• What social problems did they encounter (alcohol use, immorality, etc.)?
• How did they deal with death, grieving, hardships, illness, depression, medications? What differences were there in mortality rates, life expectancies, aging?

Diversity

• In what constructive ways did people of other religious and ethnic groups respond in their interactions with the pioneers both during the trek and during the settlement of Utah?
• How did the pioneers interactive with Native Americans? How did the native culture affect the pioneers?

Learning and Communication

• Create your own journal. Compare it with those of the pioneers.
• How was education handled during the trek and after they arrived in the valley?
• How did the experience affect the pioneers' poetry, music, literature, art?
• What was the impact of their experience on their language - what new words evolved? What effect did contact with peoples of different backgrounds have on their language?
• How did libraries, universities, newspapers and print industries evolve?
• How did contact with native and other cultures impact pioneer arts, crafts, and expression?

Technology and Invention

• How were weapons made?
• How did farming and agriculture change as the pioneers adapted to their environment (food storage, food preparation)?
• How did manufacturing and industry develop? Who created them? What new industry evolved?
• How were events recorded (photography, historical documentation)?
• How did the pioneers know what materials to utilize (clays, woods, etc.)? How did they change with their new environment?
• What kinds of things did people use/create to make their lives easier technologically/ Compare then and now.

Other lesson plan resources that may be of interest in the eMedia Social Studies Hub