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Monday, September 5, 2011

Pioneers Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Arriving in the Salt Lake Valley (1857)


On Friday, July 24, 1857, ELP and his family attended the tenth anniversary celebrating the pioneers’ arrival to the Salt Lake Valley (for a detailed description of the pioneers’ tenth anniversary celebration, see Juanita Brooks’ The Life of George Brooks, pages 19-21).

The following pictures of the plaque and the neighboring area, which are located at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, show where ELP celebrated with the Saints. Their festivities were cut short with news of the coming of Johnston’s Army.








Text of the above plaque reads as follows:

No. 14 Erected July 24, 1932

THE FIRST PIONEER STATEWIDE CELEBRATION was held in this basin July 23-24, 1857

Headed by Brigham Young, the company reaching here July 23rd numbered 2,587 persons, with 464 carriages & wagons, 1,028 horses and mules, and 332 oxen and cows.

A program of addresses, six brass bands, singing, athletic events, drills by six companies of militia, and dancing, was punctuated by salutes from a brass Howitzer. U.S. flags were flown from two highest peaks and two highest trees, the flag-tree in front of Brigham Young’s campsite being 70 feet N.W. of here. At noon July 24 Judson Stoddard and A.O. Smoot, 20 days from the States, with Elias Smith and O.P. Rockwell, arrived with news of the advance of Johnston’s Army against the “Mormons.” The company returned in orderly formation July 25th.

Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association and Cottonwood Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints