Page 216 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

216
There were always tensions between the Mormon community and its way of marriage in particular, and those from outside the community. However, the Mormons could not remain isolated at Salt Lake City as they might have wished, and when the Transcontinental Railroad arrived, more people came to the city, including those seeking riches in the nearby Wasatch Mountains. The came seeking gold, but in latter years a wide range of minerals and oil were found nearby, resulting
in Salt Lake City becoming a base for mining industries.
After the completion of the railroad, many of the Chinese who had worked on it settled in Salt Lake City. Many other European immigrants also began to arrive at the end of the nineteenth century.
Salt Lake City became Utah’s state capital in 1896, when Utah entered the Union.
The first half of the 20th century were not prosperous ones for Salt Lake City, but when the Second World War came, this remote location was thought of as a good place to locate defense industries. This produced new jobs.
With improving road communications, Salt Lake City grew
in the years after the war, although
the automobiles that brought trade
also allowed the middle class to live in suburbs outside the city, and the city center began to decay. A large number of people of Hispanic origin have taken over the inner city housing, and now make up more than a fifth of the city’s population.
Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, and resulted in major construction projects. The Olympic venues are now used for local, national, and international sporting events attract tourists all year round.
Salt Lake City International airport is the 22nd busiest in the world in combined freight and passengers.