The Mormon History Association invites you to Las Vegas, Nevada, for its sixty-first annual conference to be held June 4-7, 2026. Situated in the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas is both a bustling resort city, entertaining millions of people from all over the world annually, and a home to over half a million people, most of whom live away from the lights and sounds of the Strip. The area has long been a location of residence and respite, including for the Southern Paiutes (Nuwuvi) and, more recently, European explorers. In 1829, while traveling from Nuevo México to Alta California, a group of merchants paused for water from bubbling springs near a meadow of grasses and trees. They referred to the fertile area as “las vegas.”
A few decades later, a group of Latter-day Saints answered Brigham Young’s call to colonize Las Vegas. The missionaries hoped to preach to local American Indian tribes, mine for ore, and establish a fort. Their hopeful expectations proved to be a mirage, as the fort was abandoned in less than two years. But remnants of the fort endured, a reminder of what had been and a harbinger of what was to come. Latter-day Saints continued to settle in the area in succeeding decades and, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, developed a permanent and influential presence. During the same decades in which mobsters funded the emergence of a thriving casino industry, the Saints established the first Las Vegas stakes. “Sin City,” it turns out, was a capacious space where things aren’t always what they seem.
Permanence and transience have long intermingled in this region. While Las Vegas is a place to live for many, including about one-hundred thousand Latter-day Saints, many more people associate it with fleeting stopovers to engage in various forms of entertainment, including attractions for different audiences. There is something both ephemeral and spectral about the Strip. The region’s present and past encourages reflections on the mirages and spectres of history. Mormon history is also full of expectations, perceptions, and remainders that haunt in myriad ways. We invite proposals that examine the rich varieties of the Mormon historical experience, resurrecting its surprising and overlooked presences (human and otherwise), uncovering its untold stories and unexpected developments, and attending to its lingering influences (both apparent and opaque).
The deadline for proposals is November 1, 2025. Submit your proposal to the program co-chairs through the Google form accessible via the MHA homepage. Preference will be given to full panels, though individual papers may also be accepted. And while proposals related to the conference theme are appreciated, all topics will be considered. Questions may be sent to the program committee co-chairs at mhalasvegas2026@mormonhistoryassociation.org. Notifications for acceptance and rejections will be sent by January 17, 2026. For additional information about the conference, please visit mormonhistoryassociation.org.
Amy Easton, Brigham Young University, co-chair Jordan T. Watkins, Brigham Young University, co-chair
