On the Way to Somewhere Else: European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834-1930

Most travelers to Utah during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially those from Europe, were curious about the state’s community of Latter-day Saints, with their “seventeen-strong families with only one man!” Here, editor Michael W. Homer has collected the writings of some of those European travelers, breaking new ground by ignoring the tradition of including only the predictably benign views of English gentlemen. On the Way to Somewhere Else includes such colorful perspectives towards the Mormons as those of an outraged Catholic priest, an intrigued German prince, a liberated Frenchwoman, and a devout French convert, many of who had visits with the man they called the “Pope of Mormonism,” Brigham Young.The European visitors encountered not only devout Mormons, but other lively characters of the American West, from fur traders to Indians to soldiers.
Originally a volume in the series Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier, this new printing of On the Way to Somewhere Else captures almost one hundred years of varied perceptions, revealing an unexpected glimpse into the physical development of Utah and the political evolution of Mormonism.