History and background
Early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons or Latter-day Saints, were often the victims of anti-Mormon violence in the eastern and midwestern United States. [1] After the killing of their leader Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saints were forced from their main settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois. Under the leadership of Brigham Young, it was decided to move the church government and membership to the Great Basin, then in Mexican territory, where they hoped to practice their religion without persecution. [2]
This migration occurred during the US western expansion period, when groups of migrants, organized into wagon trains, commonly traveled along newly developed westward trails. The initial group of Latter-day Saints left their temporary settlement of Winter Quarters in April 1847, [3] and as they traveled west, they blazed a new trail, today known as the Mormon Trail. By the time the wagon train neared Emigration Canyon, it had broken into three groups. The first group was a small scouting party led by Orson Pratt, the next was a group containing the majority of the pioneers, and the final group was made up of those who were ill, including church leader Brigham Young. [4]
On July 21, 1847, Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow went ahead of the scouting party, at that time in Emigration Canyon, and first entered Salt Lake Valley. They returned that evening to the scouting group in the canyon, and on July 22, both that party and the main group entered the valley. They followed Emigration Creek southwest near to where it merged with Parley's Creek. Here they set up camp for the night; it is this campsite that is memorialized by the park. The following day they traveled north, to the future site downtown Salt Lake City setting up camp near 300 South and State Street. Brigham Young and the remainder of the sick group did not enter the valley until July 24, 1847, which is commonly celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah. [5] [4]
Development
As the sesquicentennial of the arrival of the first Mormon pioneers approached, the church's First Presidency asked that church leaders around the world set aside July 19, 1997 as "Worldwide Pioneer Heritage Service Day" for congregations to provide service to their local communities. [6] As their service project, the Federal Heights LDS Ward decided to create a monument at the approximate location of the first pioneer encampment [7] (as the location had never been marked or otherwise recognized). The project soon expanded to include the Emigration and Wells LDS Stakes and grew into a larger plan to develop a public park that would be donated to the Salt Lake City park system, rather than a simple monument. [8]
Green Flake, one of three enslaved African-American men among the company
The location of the first encampment was near the intersection of 1700 South and 500 East in modern-day Salt Lake City. A plot of land at this intersection had long been home to a service/filling station, which had contaminated the soil over the decades. The property owner, Amoco Oil, agreed to donate the property in exchange for the LDS stakes helping with legal costs related to clean up. [6] [8] 4,200 tons of dirt at the site had to be removed and replaced prior to construction of the park. [8]
The park was dedicated by Apostle M. Russell Ballard in a ceremony on July 22, 1997, 150 years after the first encampment. The ceremony also included a ribbon-cutting by a small number of descendants of the original pioneers. Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini was in attendance to officially accept the park. [9]
The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saint men, led by Mormon company officers commanded by regular U.S. Army officers. During its service, the battalion made a grueling march of nearly 1,950 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California.
The Mormon Trail is the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) long route from Illinois to Utah on which Mormon pioneers traveled from 1846–47. Today, the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
Pioneer Day is an official holiday celebrated on July 24 in the U.S. state of Utah, with some celebrations taking place in regions of surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, fireworks, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event. Similar to July 4, many local and all state-run government offices and many businesses are closed on Pioneer Day.
This is the Place Heritage Park is a Utah State Park that is located on the east side of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, at the foot of the Wasatch Range and near the mouth of Emigration Canyon. A non-profit foundation manages the park.
The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah. At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory comprising present-day Utah was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas. The Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war.
Originally, the Salt Lake Valley was inhabited by the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute and Ute Native American tribes. At the time of the founding of Salt Lake City the valley was within the territory of the Northwestern Shoshone, who had their seasonal camps along streams within the valley and in adjacent valleys. One of the local Shoshone tribes, the Western Goshute tribe, referred to the Great Salt Lake as Pi'a-pa, meaning "big water", or Ti'tsa-pa, meaning "bad water". The land was treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone was ever recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States. Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary is considered the first European explorer in the area in 1776, but only came as far north as Utah valley (Provo), some 60 miles south of the Salt Lake City area. The first US visitor to see the Salt Lake area was Jim Bridger in 1824. U.S. Army officer John C. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845. The Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley a year before the Mormon pioneers. This group had spent weeks traversing difficult terrain and brush, cutting a road through the Wasatch Mountains, coming through Emigration canyon into the Salt Lake Valley on August 12, 1846. This same path would be used by the vanguard company of Mormon pioneers, and for many years after that by those following them to Salt Lake.
Winter Quarters was an encampment formed by approximately 2,500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they waited during the winter of 1846–47 for better conditions for their trek westward. It followed a preliminary tent settlement some 3½ miles west at Cutler's Park. Members of the LDS faith built more than 800 cabins at the Winter Quarters settlement. Located in present-day North Omaha overlooking the Missouri River, the settlement remained populated until 1848.
The Mormon corridor are the areas of western North America that were settled between 1850 and approximately 1890 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are commonly called "Mormons".
Emigration Canyon is a city and canyon in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, located east of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Range. Beginning at the southern end of the University of Utah, the canyon itself heads east and northeast between Salt Lake City and Morgan County. The boundaries of the metro township do not extend to the county line, nor do they encompass all of Emigration Canyon, as parts of it are within Salt Lake City. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,466.
The This is the Place Monument is a historical monument at the This Is the Place Heritage Park, located on the east side of Salt Lake City, Utah, at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. It is named in honor of Brigham Young's famous statement that the Mormon pioneers should settle in the Salt Lake Valley. On July 24, 1847, upon first viewing the valley, Young stated: "This is the right place, drive on." Mahonri M. Young, a grandson of Brigham Young, sculpted the monument between 1939 and 1947 at Weir Farm in Connecticut. Young was awarded $50,000 to build the monument in 1939 and he was assisted by Spero Anargyros. It stands as a monument to the Mormon pioneers as well as the explorers and settlers of the American West. It was dedicated by George Albert Smith, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on July 24, 1947, the hundredth anniversary of the pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley. It replaced a much smaller monument located nearby.
Ensign Peak is a dome-shaped peak in the hills just north of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The peak and surrounding area are part of Ensign Peak Nature Park, which is owned by the city. The hill's summit is accessed via a popular hiking trail, and provides an elevated view of Salt Lake Valley and Great Salt Lake.
James C. Sly was a Mormon pioneer, member of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican–American War, scout for early west trails used during the California gold rush, journal keeper in 1848 and 1849, early US western settler of several communities, and Mormon missionary to Canada.
The Nauvoo Brass Band was an official musical organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when the church's headquarters were located in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was later revived by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Utah Territory.
Chauncey Walker West was a Mormon pioneer and was a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory. He was among the church's first missionaries to preach in Sri Lanka.
The Utah Territory during the American Civil War was far from the main operational theaters of war, but still played a role in the disposition of the United States Army, drawing manpower away from the volunteer forces and providing its share of administrative headaches for the Lincoln Administration. Although no battles were fought in the territory, the withdrawal of Union forces at the beginning of the war allowed the Native American tribes to start raiding the trails passing through Utah. As a result, units from California and Utah were assigned to protect against these raids. Mineral deposits found in Utah by California soldiers encouraged the immigration of non-Mormon settlers into Utah.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in California. California has the 2nd most members of the LDS Church in the United States, behind Utah. The LDS Church is the 2nd largest denomination in California, behind the Roman Catholic Church.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the second-largest religious denomination in Arizona, behind the Roman Catholic Church. In 2022, the church reported 439,411 members in Arizona, about 6% of the state's population. According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, roughly 5% of Arizonans self-identify most closely with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Orange Seely was a Mormon pioneer and early settler of Utah. He is best known as the settler of the towns of Castle Dale and Orangeville, Utah.
The Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters is a museum and visitors' center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in the Florence neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The museum interprets the story of the Mormon Trail along with the history of a temporary Mormon settlement known as Winter Quarters, which was located in the Florence area between 1846–1848.
