At the mouth of Salt Lake’s Emigration Canyon stands a
monument called “This Is the Place.” In 1927 a commission comprised of
representatives of various faiths selected Mahonri M. Young, Brigham Young’s
grandson, to design this monument to be finished in time for the 100th anniversary
of the pioneers’ arrival here. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Wilford
Woodruff are on the top of the monument of course, but there are a number of “gentiles”
honored here as well. Among them are the Spanish Catholic priests who came to
this area in 1776. Also depicted are mountain man/fur trader Etienne Provost, Shoshone Chief
Washakie, Captain Benjamin Bonneville, Father Jan DeSmet, and explorers Peter Skene Ogden and John C. Fremont. The faithful who fled persecution and made the desert “rejoice
and blossom as the rose” deserve to be remembered and revered. But it’s
important to keep in mind that they’re not the only ones who made Utah what it
is today.
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