Heritage revival
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
The people in charge of This Is The Place Heritage Park have a message for everybody: "Come see what we've done with 'the place!"'
Built around the famous monument dedicated in 1947 for the centennial of the settlement of Salt Lake City, the park has long been preserving the heritage left by the state's Mormon pioneer founders and others who played a part in settling the area. It was initially a state park and is now run by a non-profit foundation.
Now, the park and its living-history "Heritage Village" are more accessible, vibrant and fun, officials say.
Among the park's most ardent champions over the years has been Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, whose own ancestors are memorialized in two village attractions: the Joseph F. Smith Memorial Grove and the Mary Fielding Smith home.
"There'll be more to do," Elder Ballard said, referring to what visitors to the park can expect today and in the future.
"It's not like they're just going to go up and walk in a dusty street," he said. "There are a lot of fun things that are happening."
The most visible change is two small-scale, rubber-tired trains that take visitors from parking areas to the village entrance and conduct them around the perimeter of the village with its hilly terrain, making less laborious the access to the park's 43 period homes, shops and other structures.
As for the attractions themselves, more of them are open: 38 this year, staffed with costumed re-eanctors, compared to 12 last year.
The village's livery stable includes a corral where children can ride ponies or interact hands-on with lambs, baby goats, pigs and a turkey.
In the yard of the Roberts log cabin, children can spend time in a pioneer playground with a miniature home, shop, fire station and wooden train. Inside the cabin itself, they play with pioneer toys, such as a Jacob's ladder and spinning tops.
Additional public rest rooms and shaded rest areas have been constructed within the village. The general ambiance of the park has been improved, with pioneer-era music playing over a public address system.
The park's visitor center, occupied in recent years by Mormon Handicraft, has now been turned back to park management for its operation and includes admission sales, a gift shop and the new Monument Cafe. It also contains historic displays and features a theater where a brief film on westward migration is shown.
"I think it's kind of 50-50: train and baby animals," said Matt Dahl, the park's executive director, regarding what is attracting visitors these days. "We're continuing to make improvements as well. We're making it more comfortable for the parents and grandparents; that is, we're putting 'mister' stations in, where they can sit under the shade while the kids are playing with the animals. 'Misters' are a very fine mist of water that will keep you cool while the kids are having fun."
"We just want people to come," exclaimed Ellis Ivory, who since February has been chairman of the park's board and whose vision has produced the changes that have been and will be made. "The monument (topped with a bronze statue of President Brigham Young with Elders Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Wood-ruff) was built in 1947," he said, tracing the background of the park. "They dragged the Brigham Young (forest farmhouse) up here in 1975, and then they brought in all these other buildings. It was operated as a state park until 1998."
He mentioned that the statehood centennial in 1996 and the pioneer sesquicentennnial of 1997 (it was the destination point for the wagon train re-enactment across, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming) were both observed at the park. Meanwhile donors were encouraged to contribute to park improvements, which brought in such facilities as the Huntsman Hotel and the Pine Valley chapel.
Thereafter, the operation became a greater drain on state funds than the Utah Legislature was willing to abide so, in 1998, the park was privatized, with a foundation created to oversee operations and fund raising.
"Unfortunately, they've never raised enough money for maintenance," Brother Ivory said. Consequently, a deficit was run, necessitating a bail-out by the Legislature a year ago.
The focus of Brother Ivory and executive director Dahl (whom he recruited from the successful American West Heritage Center near Logan, Utah) has been to stimulate attendance.
"We want people to know there is a new accessibility, that this is a user-friendly place to come with your family; there's fun and games and things to do while you learn history," Brother Ivory said. "A kid isn't going to come up here for five hours and devour history. But they might come up here for two or three hours to have a good time and then, oh, incidentally, we're going to tell you the story of Brigham Young and the pioneers and how they got here."
Added Brother Dahl, "Our whole goal is, if you haven't seen it lately, you haven't seen it."
A schedule of programs is aimed at fostering a successful mix of fun and learning. These include handcart treks that may be scheduled by Church and other groups; also for youth a program focusing on pioneer courting/etiquette culminating with a dance; tours for elementary and junior high school students; special events, including those with a holiday theme, such as "Candlelight Christmas"; and a dinner theater presenting "Utah Welcome Home," an original musical comedy.
Two eateries are featured at the park: the Monument Cafe in the visitor center, and the restored Huntsman Hotel, recreating a facility in Fillmore, Utah, that was owned and operated by ancestors of Elder Jon Huntsman Sr., prominent Utah industrialist and an Area Seventy, and his son, Jon Huntsman Jr., the governor of Utah.
In addition to the small restaurant, it includes an exhibit of saddles in the upper room and a replica of a room where Brigham Young stayed when he traveled.
"It's about as exciting a place for the family as I've seen anywhere in the world," said Elder Huntsman regarding the park. "It's done with such class and dignity and enjoyment; it's hard to believe people aren't lining up every day to get into it."
It's a message Elder Ballard hopes will spread.
"Ellis sees the vision of what that can become," he said. "It can become something very significant, if we get behind it. They've got great ideas, but like everything else, you've got to get bodies through it so they can see it and experience it."
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
