A new Sunstone podcast episode examines why the U.S. Army built Fort Douglas above Salt Lake City with cannons aimed at the Mormon capital. Hosts Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the installation's role from the Utah War through Patrick Connor's campaign to contain Brigham Young's theocratic power and encourage non-Mormon settlement through mining.

The episode explores the military occupation's impact on Utah Territory politics and the federal government's decades-long effort to limit LDS institutional control over civil governance.