 That December he organized Immanuel Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon, the first Augustana Synod church west of the Rocky Mountains.The following year he moved to Idaho with his family, where he established the Cordelia Swedish Lutheran Church, the first Lutheran church in the state.Carlson returned to work in Portland from 1882 to 1883 and organized First Lutheran Church of Tacoma, his fifth church in the West.