Another factor in the decline of colonization, particularly after 1900, was the abandonment of the concept of "the gathering," under which converts were urged to gather to "Zion" to build the Kingdom of God in the West. Converts were now urged to stay put and build up Zion where they were.

All told, some 325 permanent and 44 abandoned settlements were founded in Utah in the nineteenth century. Some of these settlements, however, did not survive the mechanization of agriculture, modern transportation, and the shift of rural population to urban communities that occurred after the Depression of the 1930s. Colonization since World War II has consisted almost entirely of building suburbs around the larger cities.

See: Milton R. Hunter, Brigham Young the Colonizer (1940); Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter Day Saints, 1830-1900 (1958); Eugene E. Campbell, Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-69 (1988); Joel E. Ricks, Forms and Methods of Early Mormon Settlement in Utah and the Surrounding Region, 1847 to 1877 (1964); Wayne L. Wahlquist, ed., Atlas of Utah (1981); Richard Sherlock, "Mormon Migration and Settlement after 1875," Journal of Mormon History 2 (1975); and Leonard J. Arrington, "Colonizing the Great Basin," The Ensign 10 (February 1980).

Leonard J. Arrington