Civic spirit of Soup Town is alive today

ORDERVILLE, Kane County — Here in the heart of rural Utah, along the connective ribbon of Highway 89, the small farming community is more or less indistinguishable from all the others. Same fields of alfalfa. Same cows crazing. Same reduced-speed-limit sign at the edge of town.

To get beyond ordinary to extraordinary requires a detour to the past.

Few towns in America — few towns in the world — started out with loftier aspirations.

Its original goal was to become the next city of Enoch.

And why not? Remember what happened there?

The year was 1875. Utah's fledgling economy was staggering, largely because the world's economy was staggering. The Panic of 1873, caused by falling silver prices, had triggered hard times. In response, Brigham Young, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, counseled members throughout Utah's Mormon communities to count on each other instead of the world. Share your resources, pool your talents, he urged, live selflessly and thrive.

Within months, more than 200 cooperative collectives were organized from one end of the territory to the other.

But there was no blueprint, no paint-by-the-numbers manual, and absolutely no commandment — you didn't have to do this — so in short order most of the experiments disappeared into chaos.

Nobody wanted to share everything.

Except in one place.

This place.

They were refugees from a Mormon congregation in nearby Mount Carmel. The members there had given communal living a stab, until it disintegrated into disputes over how much and how often.

Finally, in the early spring about 100 fed-up and like-minded individuals packed their belongings and moved two miles north to what was known as the Long Valley.

They named their new community Orderville, and got busy replicating the United Order of Enoch.

Nothing was owned by anyone. Everything was owned by everyone.

They built and lived in houses that were just alike. They dressed in clothes that were just alike. And at dinnertime, they all ate the same food at the same huge communal table. Because supper was often soup, Orderville's nickname became Soup Town.