In 1776, two Spanish friars, Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Atanasio Dominguez, chose to traverse the American West in search of a northern route to the missions of California. At the time, both Mexico and Spain claimed ownership of the territory. The journey became known for its historical success thanks to Escalante’s journal, which contains the first map of Utah. Beginning the exploration in Santa Fe,  Dominguez and Escalante observed and recorded landmarks that would help future explorers find their way. These recordings also helped governments know and understand the rich opportunities that lay in these lands. The journey was full of dangers for the small group, and they crossed many western states such as Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, among others. The explorers ventured through modern-day Dinosaur National Monument, down through Strawberry, Utah and eventually made their way through Spanish Fork Canyon. This path directly influenced the erection of Escalante’s Cross in Spanish Fork, Utah.  These two Spanish missionaries paved the way for other explorers such as John C. Fremont to encourage The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to one day settle in Utah. Escalante’s cross, located in Spanish Fork, was dedicated May 1, 1981, sponsored by The Knights of Columbus Father Escalante Council to honor Dominguez and Escalante’s expedition. It was recently restored on October 31, 2015 thanks to a member of the Woodland Hills Scout Troop’s Eagle project. The cross majestically overlooks the entrance to Spanish Fork Canyon and stands brilliantly white against the mountain range beyond.  Today, the site seems like an almost forgotten piece of history. However, one sign remains in the form of a plaque at the base of the cross. It has become a beloved hike here in Utah because of the landscape’s beautiful greenery and various paths leading from the cross. Escalante Cross stands as a reminder to Utah residents of earlier explorers who literally put Utah on the map. 

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It is not known what group of indigenous peoples built the Wyoming Medicine Wheel, located 60 miles outside of Sheridan, Wyoming in the Bighorn Mountains, or when they did so, but various Native American tribes have used the wheel as a sacred site for centuries. The Medicine Wheel is a circular pattern of stones surrounding a central stone cairn; twenty-eight stone pathways lead to smaller cairns as part of the wheel. Today, a six-foot-high barbed wire fence surrounds the wheel, placed by the Forest Service to protect the Medicine Wheel. Those indigenous people who consider the wheel a sacred sight view the Medicine Wheel as a holistic model for life. The different teachings of the Medicine Wheel help individuals learn to live in balance with the Creator and all of creation. A 2007 article in the newspaper Win Awenen Nisitotung described how tribes use the Medicine Wheel: “The medicine wheel is like a mirror in which everything about human condition is reflected back.” The Medicine Wheel assists people along their path of life. This sacred site is important to Indigenous people to continue their ceremonies using the Medicine Wheel. In 1970, the United States Forest Service designated the Medicine Wheel a National Historic Landmark. Tourists took to visiting the wheel, but the National Forest Service did not adequately provide protection for the site. Over the decades, some visitors removed rocks from the Wheel and vandalized the site with graffiti. In the early 1990s, tribes and coalitions fought to protect this land such damages and thefts. On June 9, 1993, tribes—including the Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, Navajo, Shoshone, Sioux, and Southern Ute—political coalitions, and the Forest Services reached an agreement on managing the site. The Memorandum of Agreement (National Historic Preservation Act) contained several steps to curtail damage caused by tourists. The agreement reads, “The programmatic agreement will require the Forest Service in consultation with the parties to the MOA, to develop and implement a long term management plan which specifies the preservation and continued use of the Medicine Wheel and vicinity as its management priority.” Under the terms of the memorandum, the Forest Service agreed to only open Medicine Wheel to tourists between July 1 and November 1. Visitors would have to park away from the wheel itself and walk one-and-a-half a miles to the site. The government agreed to involve tribal members in discussions about managing the sacred site. The Forest Service would also close the site to visitors for three days around each equinox and solstice to “allow native practitioners undisturbed use for traditional rites and ceremonies.” This agreement set an important precedent. The government acknowledges sacred sites and protects them for American Indians. Tribes have faced difficulties persuading the Forest Service to follow through with the National Historic Preservation Act. In May 1996, Diana Tillman Mitchell, a report for On Indian Land, revealed how the Forest Service failed to comply with the agreement. They were not including the elders from tribes in their consultations or management requirements. Mitchell wrote, “The guidance and policies should have active participation and notification to all Indian people involved! This is not happening.” The negotiations between Forest Service and the coalitions and tribes continued for a little over twenty years before reaching a final agreement. The updated agreement was implemented in September 1996 which issued the protocols the Forest Service must still follow followed today. The protocols designate 23,000 acres as sacred space to Native American and have provisions allowing Native American practitioners to use the site for ceremonies. In 2011, ethnographic discoveries about indigenous people’s cultural use of the surrounding landscape prompted the Forest Service to extend the boundaries of the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark to include an additional 4,080 acres. With this expansion, the Service also changed the name of the landmark to Medicine Mountain. The steps taken in the 1990s to preserve the Medicine Wheel promoted a working relationship between Indigenous people and the United States government. Tribes and the federal government took steps to protect this special and sacred place. Still, the negotiated nature of this collaboration leaves some, including journalist Diana Tillman Mitchell, concerned that “the economics of a location may always outweigh Indigenous religious freedom.” Advocates like Chris Peters (Pohlik-lah/Karuk), an officer in Seventh Generation Fund, have insisted on their right to preserve sacred lands—“What’s more American: the right to drill for oil or the right to pray?—but when reviewing how the government has interacted with indigenous peoples in the past, it seems that if there is value to the land, the state will take it.

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On January 26, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act, establishing Rocky Mountain as a national park and securing its boundaries. Lodge keepers owned private lands throughout the park where they maintained roads, built trails, and were guides to visitors. When the first superintendent arrived, he too began to authorize construction of facilities to support visitors. As visitation increased after World War I, the simple park conveniences and private lodges became inadequate. Rangers helped build comfort stations, museums, and well-maintained trails to meet visitor expectations. After World War II, a surge of visitation to all National Parks called for updated accommodations. The Eisenhower administration agreed and approved funding for the Mission 66 program which aimed to improve park infrastructure by 1966, the 50th anniversary of the Park Service. Rocky Mountain National Park’s Beaver Meadows Visitor Center was one of the last Mission 66 projects completed by the program. Planning for a new development started in 1956 but official proposals for construction did not begin until November 1962. Discussions over the design of the building were lengthy, but the real issue causing delays was location. Private land ownership throughout the park made finding a place to build the visitor center difficult. By September of 1962, the Park Service announced a location for the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center had been chosen after five years of debate. The tourist office was the first to be located outside of the park's main entrance and did not require an entry fee to access it. In March 1965, reviewing preliminary plans began and the Park Service announced official bidding for construction contractors. The Park Service contracted Taliesin Associated Architects, a firm made up of Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentices, to design the new structure. On July 16, a groundbreaking ceremony officially launched construction. Issues concerning the forced air-cooling system delayed progress with production, and the center was not completed in time for the 1966 National Park Service 50th anniversary. Nevertheless, on June 24, 1967, the dedication ceremony and official opening of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center took place. Despite being completed after the ten-year Mission 66 timeframe, this center is one of the most historically and architecturally significant National Park Service buildings in the country.  Today the exterior remains largely unchanged from its original state. The concrete and stone exterior walls have not required any renovations due to their natural design and intention to age with the environment. The interior has experienced a few changes: originally the space to the right of the entrance had a fireplace surrounded by stone and concrete, contrasting the wood paneled walls on the adjacent side. On the left side of the lobby was a staircase that led down to the restrooms on the basement level. Also to the left was the auditorium which was the main attraction for visitors. A door on the southeast side of the room led to a balcony that provided a view of the highest mountain in the park, Long’s Peak. Now, the visitor's experience has changed. The fireplace has been covered and the area turned into a store, the balcony has been blocked by new additions, and the view of Long’s Peak is no longer part of the experience. Renovations to provide handicap access have been added, but the Park Service does its best to make sure new work conforms to the historic design of the exterior.

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Perhaps the most nationally recognized organ in Utah is found at the Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square. However, First United Methodist Church in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah is home to the oldest pipe organ in the state that features the most original components in their original location. The church building on the corner of 200 South and 200 East was built and dedicated in May of 1906. The dedication of the original church organ, made by George Kilgan & Sons, followed seven months later on December 7, 1906. The organ featured pipes painted in shades of green and highlighted by intricate stenciling, as well as a console close to the organ choir that faced the congregation. Between 1915 and 1960, the organ underwent enlargements, various color changes accentuated by gold paint, as well as the movement of the console closer to the congregation on the main floor of the chapel. During the period of 1924–1939, the First United Methodist Church organist and choir director was Dr. Frank W. Asper, who also was an organist for the Mormon Tabernacle during the years 1924–1965. The organ underwent significant renovation during what is called the sanctuary and chancel beautification project. A notable change to the organ included moving the organ pipes behind a screen. Further, the pipes were hidden by a wooden grill, crosses, and lights that highlighted the new front to the Church chancel and sanctuary. The beautification project also included the incorporation of permanent pulpits and flower boxes.

In 2009, First United Methodist Church made the decision to restore the organ back to its original style, parts, and feel as part of a larger effort to remodel and renovate an integral and central component of the church’s community, history, and tradition. At this time, fundraising efforts began with recitals performed by local organists, grants, and a crowdfunding campaign. First United Methodist’s principal organist, Scott Mills, attributes the success of the fundraising efforts to the community, similar to an outreach that led to the building and dedication of the Church building over one hundred years earlier in 1906. Later at the completion of the project, Mills said, “The donations came in from one penny to thousands of dollars. And so, this whole restored effort . . . it was done mostly by the widow’s mite, literally the widow’s mite was the efforts of people who came together and made this all possible.” By 2014, the church had raised an ample sum to hire local American Fork, Utah based organ builders, Bigelow & Co. The restoration effort consisted of finding necessary vintage parts at the local Salt Lake Masonic Temple, locating and purchasing a 1930 organ console from Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the hiring of Tony Devroude to recreate the original stenciling on the organ pipes. In addition, the 1960 paneling and carpeting was removed, opening up the chancel area and exposing the organ façade. The organ console was dedicated to the memory of the 1924–1939 director and organist, Dr. Frank W. Asper. Restored to its original look and vintage composition, the Wesleyan Heritage Organ at First United Methodist continues to serve the local Methodist community, a wide variety of community events, as well as amateur and professional organ recitals on a regular basis.

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