A Mormon Tycoon Wants to Build Joseph Smith’s Mega-Utopia in Vermont

Jim
Society & Culture
Mormonism

As the story goes, the plat plan appeared to Smith while he was studying Enoch, an Old Testament prophet who designed a city so perfect it was whisked off to heaven. The text accompanying the blueprint, written out by Smith and his comrades, says each plat should house 15,000 to 20,000 people within one square mile (though the definition of a mile has changed slightly), and that the design should be replicated worldwide. Written in the style of 15th century English, it reads: “When this square is thus laid off and supplied, lay off another in the same way, and so fill up the world in these last days, and let every man live in the city, for this is the city of Zion.”

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Discussion

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dgszweda
Mon, 07/25/16 6:14 am

This is really not that much different than the religious communities of the 19th century. I live quite close to Old Economy here in Pittsburgh that was a very successful and wealthy religious community, that has since died out, but you can still walk through the town and tour the buildings.

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Bert Perry
Mon, 07/25/16 8:52 am

….of which way it might be whisked off, per Numbers 16:32. That’s a pretty dense community, BTW.

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