CHAPTER
9
NON-LDS CHURCHES IN Box ELDER COUNTY
C
'ompletion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit in May 1869 also signaled the arrival of a permanent nonLDS presence in Box Elder County, with Corinne as its early focal point. 1 It is that small rural community, once a railroad boomtown, which boasts the oldest Protestant church building now standing in Utah now "converted" to the Corinne Historical Society Museum in 1995 through an agreement between the local organization and the Methodist church. Many hopeful entrepreneurs predicted that Corinne would grow to be a large city, one with a university, many churches, and possibly becoming Utah's capitol city. In 1869 a t h o u s a n d eager souls had moved into Corinne, and they were mostly unchurched, a fact which brought representatives of several major religions to the area. They were not welcomed by all. Reverend George Foote, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, preached one of the first sermons on 6 June 1869 to six persons in the city hall. The service was so disturbed by the boisterous element of the town outside
