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These problems have not deterred a huge surge of visitors and new residents. Tourism now brings in $2 billion annually, and new arrivals from other states and foreign countries have begun to dilute the pervasive -- and sometimes smothering -- Mormon atmosphere. For some, the changes flowing from Utah's opening itself to the outside world cannot happen soon enough.
Though Utah politics tends to be fairly dull and uniformly conservative, issues are bubbling to the surface that are causing residents to take a hard look ahead. "The leadership is at a crossroads," says Deedee Corradini, a businesswoman who is favored to become the city's first woman mayor this fall. "We have to make the transformation from reactive politics to involved, activist politics."
Environmental concerns are of increasing importance to a state that has only so much land to itself, since the Federal Government controls 60% of Utah. Some of that is devoted to U.S. military facilities that house almost half the country's stockpile of chemical weapons. "We deal with heartland issues that set individual rights against government wishes," explains Steve Erickson, a spokesman for Downwinders, a citizens' group.
The new Utah is most evident in Salt Lake County (pop. 728,000). Since 1975, so many people have moved in that Mormons, once 75% of the population, now account for only half. Eighteen months ago, the city relaxed its prohibition on alcohol, and bars and restaurants are thriving. The local gay community has become large enough and vocal enough to have mounted a colorful antidiscrimination protest at the Salt Lake County fairgrounds in June. Some of America's best ski areas are 20 minutes away from high-rise office buildings. A $500 million downtown redevelopment project has revived the city's arts community. Even intellectual life got a charge last month when the University of Utah named Arthur Smith as the first non-Mormon president in its 141-year history. "Salt Lake City is what people think Denver should be," says mayoral candidate Corradini.
Even more startling transformations may occur if Utah keeps attracting people from around the world. And the church is starting to feel the pressure flowing from its success. By the year 2000, more than half the Mormons' worldwide membership of 8 million will be from Third World countries -- and many could move to Utah. Accommodating such diversity could be wrenching for a faith that did not allow blacks to hold any church office or join the priesthood until 1978 and still bars women from the clergy. After a century and a half of isolation, Utah is no longer a place that Mormons can keep to themselves.