Reader comments: Still Deseret after nearly 158 years

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Robert | 9:24 a.m. April 16, 2008
The name has a unique history, and I'm glad the paper has made the "change" to revert to the original name.

One point: many LDS leaders, including Joseph F. Smith, believed that when Congress named the new state, it was done to humiliate the LDS Church. To Congressional leaders, the name "Utah" sounded ridiculous, so they gave the new "Mormon state" that name, instead of the one chosen by the state's leaders, as a sort of punishment. References to this can be found in the writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith's son, especially his "Essentials in Church History".

In any event, the new masthead is a good choice.

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