In its heyday, Corinne had about 1,000 permanent residents, not one of whomwas a Mormon, according to the boast of the local newspaper. As anend-of-the-trail town, Corinne reflected a very different atmosphere andculture from the staid and quiet Mormon settlements of Utah, nurturing not onlya number of commission and supply houses but also fifteen saloons and sixteenliquor stores, with a gun-fighting town marshal to keep order in this "DodgeCity" of Utah. The permanent residents of Corinne did their best to promote asense of community pride and peaceful, cultural pursuits but had a raucous andindependent clientele of freighters and stagecoachers to control.

With some support from political leaders in the nation's capital and fromeastern newspapers, the town fathers attempted to use their position as aGentile city to break the political and economic monopoly held by the Mormonsin Utah Territory. They sought to have J. A. Williamson named territorialgovernor; tried to have the northern one degree of latitude of Utah added toIdaho so as to dismember the territory; and attempted to have Corinne named asthe capital of Utah. The citizens of Corinne failed in each case to achievetheir wishes, but it was not for lack of trying--their leaders and newssheetsbombarded Washington, D.C., for help in their fight as they blasted BrighamYoung and the Mormon hierarchy. The Saints had no difficulty in this unequalfight, even awarding the ballot to Utah women to ensure maintenance ofpolitical control of the territory.

Brigham Young assured the demise of Corinne when he and the Mormon peoplebuilt the narrow-gauge Utah Northern Railroad from Ogden to Franklin, Idaho.Although construction of the line beyond that point ceased for four years as aresult of the Panic of 1873, in the autumn of 1877, the Union Pacific boughtthe little railroad and began pushing it northward through Idaho. The tracksreached Marsh Valley and cut the Montana Trail at that place, therebysupplanting wagon traffic from Corinne with rail transport from Ogden. TheGentile merchants immediately fled Corinne for Ogden or the terminus of therail line, while Mormon farmers moved in to buy the land around Corinne andmake it the Mormon village it has been ever since.

Disclaimer: Information on this site was converted from a hard cover book published by University of Utah Press in 1994. Any errors should be directed towards the University of Utah Press.