An acre in downtown Salt Lake City that once comprised part of President Brigham Young's farm is being developed by the Church into a park honoring the 19th-century Mormon settlers of the Salt Lake Valley.
President Gordon B. Hinckley presided over a June 12 groundbreaking ceremony for the Brigham Young Historic Park, to be developed at 2nd Avenue and State Street. President Hinckley gave a prayer dedicating the ground for development of the park, part of a cooperative downtown beautification project with the city, which is developing another site across 2nd Avenue to the north into what will be called City Creek Park.The Brigham Young Historic Park is expected to be completed by fall. The two projects are designed to complement each other.
Participating with President Hinckley in the groundbreaking were President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency; Elders M. Russell Ballard and Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve; Presiding Bishop Merrill J. Bateman and his counselors, Bishops H. David Burton and Richard C. Edgley; and Elders John E. Fowler and Alexander B. Morrison, both of the Seventy and members of the Utah North Area Presidency.
Also attending the ceremony were Sister Marjorie Hinckley, wife of President Hinckley; and Sister Frances Monson, wife of President Monson.
In addition to President Hinckley, Bishop Bateman gave remarks, as did Stuart C. Reid, chairman of the Salt Lake City Council. Bishop Burton conducted the ceremony, Elder Fowler gave the invocation and Elder Morrison the benediction.
"We're happy to be participating with Salt Lake City in this undertaking," President Hinckley told the audience. He noted that the Church owned the property to the north across 2nd Avenue, and when the city approached the Church concerning the construction of a park there, arrangements were made for the city to have that property and develop it into "what will be a beautiful facility and a great attraction for this community."
At the same time, city officials had expressed an interest in the property directly to the south. The Church felt, however, to retain this and make of it a place that not only would serve the purposes of a park, but would also become a reminder of those who have gone before.
President Hinckley indicated that the projects are undertaken as Utah approaches its centennial in 1996 and the Church prepares to observe the sesquicentennial of the pioneers in 1997.
He pointed out a remnant of a wall on the property that marked a boundary of Brigham Young's farm. Additionally, President Young's property included the area to the west now occupied by the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Lion House, the Beehive House, Church Administration Building and Church Office Building. Across what is now State Street to the east, the farm extended north to 4th Avenue, he added.
"President Young also had a grant of property reaching up along City Creek. . . . The original Eagle Gate was constructed as an entry way to President Young's farm."
Bishop Bateman said the Saints who arrived with Brigham Young needed water for culinary use, to water crops and to generate power. He said the park design captures all three of those concepts.
City Creek currently runs underground, but as the City Creek Park is completed, the creek will be brought to the surface, will flow under 2nd Avenue, then into a flume at the northeast corner of Brigham Young Historic Park. There, it will turn a water wheel, representing a grist mill that was once powered by the creek, and will form a small lake.
Four statues at the park will represent the following: children playing in the water, stone masons and quarry workers cutting and removing stone, workers planting and harvesting crops, and workers repairing a break in the flume.
A small garden plot will be planted and watered with irrigation from the creek. The flow will then return to the storm drain system in Salt Lake City and continue beneath North Temple Street into the Jordan River to the west.
"This park honors a man who had vision," Bishop Bateman said. "As the first pioneer company approached the Great Basin in 1847, they knew they were entering a semi-arid area with insufficient rainfall to sustain life. They also knew there were no major rivers that crossed through this valley. In order to survive they would be dependent on several small mountain streams that ran through the basin to the Great Salt Lake."
Quoting an account from Orson Pratt, a member of the pioneer advance party, Bishop Bateman said that City Creek furnished the first water for irrigation in the area.
"When the main body of the first company arrived with Brigham Young on July 24, 1847, five acres of potatoes had already been planted," he said.
"Isaiah said that in the last days Zion would be gathered to a spot in a desert that would blossom like a rose. But he went on to say one other thing: that this spot in the desert would become like Eden, the Lord's garden." He said the park "will serve as a tribute to Brigham Young, who not only knew the vision but knew how to fulfill the vision."
Councilman Reid, the city council chairman, said the parks will help fulfill the legacy left by the pioneer founders of the city. "Let these two parks, joined together by refreshing mountain creek waters that connect them, inspire us to care more than we have in the past and to give more than we anticipated to in the future," he said. "Let these two parks symbolize our hopes and aspirations and a fitting legacy for those who follow us."
