Why did the U.S. Army build a fort above Salt Lake City with its guns pointed toward the Mormon capital? Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the explosive history of Fort Douglas, from the Utah War and Brigham Young’s theocracy to Patrick Connor’s campaign to contain Mormon power, encourage mining, and remake the territory. Along the way: fake armies marching in circles, flag-raising panic, poisoned water, brothels, bloodshed, Bear River, and some astonishing official smack-talk from the U.S. government. Fort Douglas wasn’t just a military post. It was a warning.

Show Notes

• ⁠Fort Douglas: Utah, A Frontier Fort, by Charles M. Hibbard
• ⁠Glory Hunter: A Biography of Patrick Edward Connor, by Brigham D. Madsen
• ⁠What’s in a Name? The Establishment of Camp Douglas, Kenneth L. Alford & William P. MacKinnon
• ⁠Camp Douglas: Keeping a Watchful Eye (BYU Religious Studies Center)
• ⁠Patrick Edward Connor, History to Go (Utah History Encyclopedia)
• ⁠At Sword’s Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War
• ⁠Mormon Resistance: A Documentary Account of the Utah Expedition, 1857-1858
• ⁠The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859, by Norman F. Furniss
• ⁠Utah and the Civil War (BYU Religious Studies Center)
• ⁠Fort Douglas Military Museum
• ⁠Utah Historical Markers: Patrick Edward Connor