SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Friday, Utah honors the day Brigham Young led the Mormon pioneers across the plains and settled the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Every year thousands come to watch the “Days of ’47 Parade”, but little, if anything, is celebrated near the Brigham Young's gravesite. Many may not even know where it is.
If you weren’t looking for it, you may walk right past it.
Just half a block East of Temple Square on 1st Ave. in Salt Lake City there’s a tiny little park called the “Mormon Pioneer Memorial”. It’s the final resting place for Brigham Young.
It’s a quiet place overlooked by thousands who descend on downtown Salt Lake City each year to celebrate Utah’s most famous Mormon pioneer.
Basically it’s a private cemetery built for Brigham Young, select members of his family, and it includes memorials for two other prominent Mormon pioneers.
Brigham Young is obviously buried there, as are at least four of his wives, and his eldest son, among a few others.
They include the following people: Mary V. Young, Martha B. Young, Susannah S. Young, and Lucy A. D. Young, and Joseph A. Young.
The park also includes two memorials: One for William Clayton who wrote the famous Mormon hymn “Come, Come Ye Saints.” The other, for Eliza R. Snow. Snow was a very prominent woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She wrote the hymn “Oh My Father.” Snow is also buried inside the park.
Most people may not know the cemetery even exists. On Friday thousands will celebrate Utah’s pioneer history just a few blocks away, but the Mormon Pioneer Memorial is the place dedicated to the man who made it all possible.
