Hello! What can you tell me about Salt Creek, Utah? Google mostly gives me Salt Creek Canyon Trail, which leads me to believe it's not a town like I thought. I've got a couple of guys elsewhere in the country who reference to their home office as "Salt Creek". I really like the ring of it in a sentence (unassuming, but a hint of nefarious) and I wanna keep it, so how weird would it be - in a 'realistic' setting - if there was an office in Salt Creek? I could put one in Nephi, which seems to be the closest town, but that doesn't sound great. If it helps, it's an offshoot of the Latter Day Saints. For story purposes I didn't want to make them actual mormons, so they would have broken away from Salt Lake City.
If they broke away from the Official LDS church, Nephi sounds perfect but may not mean anything to those without any knowledge of the history.
According to Britanica Nephi was originally called Salt Creek when it was founded in 1851... maybe your characters use the original name for some reason?
It's not really a problem if most readers don't get it. Personally, I enjoy unexplained or "tough" references. Gives you a little excuse to pat yourself on the back for getting it, and maybe feel a little superior for a few paragraphs. That's brilliant. I'll dig into Nephi a bit more, but that might actually fit the time frame I have in mind. I do hope this arc will stay in the story. It's nice when things accidentally go right. Thanks!
So, you are correct. Salt Creek is on the outskirts of Nephi. As far as how weird it would be, it depends the size of the sect and the nature of the off shoot. How are you defining headquarters? If you're meaning they're meeting in someone's house as a small sect, then no, it's not weird at all. Or if they have a compound like the FLDS did, it would also not be unrealistic. Even a small office space wouldn't be that strange. What would be strange is if you had a sizable off shoot with a population compreable to the main church in Utah in terms of size, influence, and wealth. That would be odd. The only offshoot that would have that influence would have to be in the eastern United States, probably around Independence Missouri.
This is the plan, actually. I'm building them up to seem a force to be reckoned with, but eventually we find them in some sort of dinky The Office building. Because, funny. Their main focus is to search, so there will be some investment in vehicles and off-site lodging. They have reach, but not so that anybody would go, "Oh yeah, those guys from Utah." I'm still working out the kinks. First I'll see what I need them to be for the story.
BTW, the name "Nephi" is a prophet in the Book of Mormon who is highly revered among members of the church. It is also a name of a region (like a county) in the Book of Mormon. So, you need to incorperate why a group of Mormons who would revere the name "Nephi" would use the old name.
