As the popularity of this new form of worship grew, there was a distrust of Smith and his fellow Mormons by the followers of the more traditional forms of Christianity. This, and some alleged monetry irregularities, led Smith to be hounded across America from one location to the next, eventually ending up in a jail in Nauvoo, Illinois. In a bloody gun battle he and a handful of followers were shot and killed in their cells. The Mormon cause was taken up by Brigham Young who headed west to find a permanant home for the Church. He arrived in Salt Lake City in July 1947.
In 1855 he sent a party of Mormon settlers to Las Vegas to protect the water springs. There they built a 150 sqaure foot fort of adobe bricks to protect themselves in this new oasis. They were the first settlers there after an initial occupation by the army some years before.
The Mormon occupation of Las Vegas didn't last long and it grew into the 'sin city' we know today. Salt Lake City remains the spiritual centre of the Churh of JC of LDS. So geographically we have two cities that in global terms are very close to each other and are conneccted by history but stand at opposite ends of the moral spectrum. Both have equally strong but completely opposing doctrines at their core which are consumed by the public in equal measure.