A few miles north of St. George, Utah stands a small town called Pine Valley. At first glance it does not look different from other small settlements in the area, but the area is home to the oldest Latter-Day Saint chapel still in continuous use. The Pine Valley chapel is unique from any other chapel in the state; its frame stands 54 feet high and has an attic that resembles an upside-down ship. Among Pine Valley’s settlers was a man by the name of Ebenezer Bryce, who worked as a ship builder in Scotland before joining the Church and emigrating to the US.  When he was commissioned to lead the construction of a chapel in the area, he is thought to have said that he didn’t know how to build a church, but he did know how to build a ship. 

Construction began in 1868 and was greatly aided by the operating lumber mill that existed in the valley. Almost 100 years later in 1960 the chapel was rewired for electricity and given minor updates under a Church-sponsored project. From 2000 to 2004, the LDS Church sponsored a massive restoration of the building that replaced the chapel’s windows, roof, and siding. It was rededicated by Elder Jeffery R. Holland, who has familial ties to Pine Valley, on May 15, 2005. 

The chapel’s original meeting room is still in use today and serves hundreds of LDS Church members each year. Its sacrament table, podium, pews, lighting chandeliers, and doors are original items from the chapel’s construction in 1868. The chapel’s walls are adorned with religious artwork, which is another unique aspect in comparison to other LDS meetinghouses. The attic has since been sealed off for safety purposes, but the chapel’s resemblance to a ship is still evident from within the chapel.

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The Farmington Rock Chapel has long provided the community of Farmington with a place to worship and to gather. Before its construction, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Farmington met for church services in one another’s homes, the schoolhouse, and courthouse, but none were large enough—or appropriate enough in the case of the courthouse—for all to meet in. When a windstorm caused a rockslide which provided enough rocks, sand, and gravel to build a chapel for themselves, Farmington’s Latter-day Saints considered it a miracle. They began construction on the chapel in 1861 and finished in 1863. The biggest event of general significance in the Rock Chapel was the formation of the Church’s Primary Association, a subunit of the Church dedicated to children’s education and spiritual development, on August 11, 1878 by Aurelia Spencer Rogers, a Farmington resident, and Eliza R. Snow, the general Relief Society President of the Church. They held the first Primary meeting on August 25, 1878 in the Farmington Rock Chapel, where 115 children attended. Rogers felt that forming a children’s organization in the Church was necessary because the children of Farmington had too much unsupervised time. She and Snow founded the Primary Association to teach children lessons on gospel principles, civic and cultural duties, and good manners. The Primary eventually spread to other congregations, and it was adopted churchwide in 1880. Since the organization of the Primary, the Rock Chapel has been the home of several congregations and the site of events of varying significance. Latter-day Saints continue to worship in the Rock Chapel to this day. The Church added three additional wings to the original in 1941 and 1980. Because of its significance to the residents of Farmington, the chapel was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in October 2011, and tourists can visit the Rock Chapel as part of a historic trail along Farmington’s Main Street.

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For years after Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in Utah, they struggled to grow food and obtain resources to sustain themselves in their new homes. Brigham Young, hoping to encourage self-sufficiency among the member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called Mormons), called many of them to settle in southern Utah to grow cotton. Because of the desolate desert conditions in the area, failed harvests, and other challenges, some of the Saints became disillusioned with the idea of continued life in the area. Despite the doubts of the settlers, Young hoped they would establish a thriving community in the village that would become known as St. George. To encourage this, he called for the Latter-day Saints in St. George to build a tabernacle where they could gather and worship. Although they faced many challenges, the St. Georgians followed Young’s counsel and began construction on the building in June 1863. Using sandstone from the surrounding area, they built up the tabernacle according to the design of Miles Romney, a local architect. Skilled carpenters and masons from the area contributed to constructing the tabernacle. Despite their efforts, the city’s people struggled to complete the edifice. Although they finished the basement, where they held meetings by 1869, the tower and other parts of the tabernacle were not completed until years later. The windows in particular were an obstacle to completing the building. One worker, David Cannon, labored tirelessly trying to raise the $800 needed for the windows. As the deadline to pay for the windows approached, he had only received $200 because of the locals’ destitute circumstances. Cannon had no perceivable way to raise the necessary funds. The night before the payment was due, a local Latter-day Saint named Peter Neilson Sr. felt a spiritually impressed to donate his life’s savings, $600, toward the construction of the tabernacle. Although he struggled with the idea, Neilson decided to make the sacrifice. The next morning, the day the funds were due, he visited Cannon and presented him with the exact amount of money he needed to purchase the windows.  Because of the sacrifices of Neilson and many others like him, the tabernacle was completed on May 7, 1876. Visitors to the St. George Tabernacle today cannot understand the true significance of the edifice without understanding the many sacrifices of those who built it. Although these settlers struggled to survive in the harsh desert environment, they still sacrificed labor, time, money, and many other resources for years to build the tabernacle. In the words of Reid Neilson, a descendant of Peter Neilson, the Saints built the tabernacle because “it was more than just an ordinary building—[it was] a monument to their faith and devotion.” The St. George Tabernacle is truly a monument to the faith and sacrifices of the early pioneers in southern Utah.

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While herding cattle during the summer of 1855, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had been called to settle southern Utah discovered the location of beautiful Pine Valley in southwestern Utah. The following year, St. George residents went to Pine Valley to harvest timber and establish several sawmills. As more people settled in Pine Valley, they constructed a chapel. They called upon Ebenezer Bryce, a shipbuilder from Scotland and the namesake for Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, to design and build the structure. There is some discrepancy regarding the methods used to design the chapel. Some sources claim that because he was a shipbuilder, the roof of the building is constructed to model an upside-down ship, while other sources state that Bryce used materials appropriately common for buildings, not ships. While the roof may look similar to a ship, the description provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gives doubt to that claim: the building is made of pine wood, from “the finest trees in the valley, the same stand as those from which the pipe organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle was constructed.” The foundation is made of local stone, mainly granite and red limestone. The building has three floors: a basement in which auxiliary meetings were held, a ground floor used for community purposes and as a schoolhouse, and an upper floor which contains the building’s chapel, used as the main space of worship. Following the chapel’s original completion, Latter-day Saints in Pine Valley have since added an attic containing pictures of the original settlers and other historical artifacts. Another small building, the Tithing Office, was constructed in the corner of the lot. In 1971, the two buildings, the chapel and Tithing Office, were added to the National Register of Historic Places. Both are still in use today by Pine Valley locals as a church building and community gathering place, making it the longest-operating chapel in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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In the spring of 1865, Mormon settlers met with Utes of Sanpete Valley, hoping to find a resolution to years of sporadic disagreements and occasional violence between the groups. Instead of alleviating tensions, however, even greater violence erupted with the onset of the Black Hawk War. Brigham Young previously encouraged the Saints to treat Indians well, saying, “We are settled upon their lands, which materially interrupts their success in hunting, fishing, etc… For these reasons, it behooves us to exercise toward them all possible kindness, liberty, patience, and forbearance.” While his policy of kindness toward Native Nations continued, Young simultaneously recognized Mormon settlers were vulnerable to attack after dispossessing tribes of some of their settlement sites and using up the region’s finite resources.

The area around Cove Creek was a particularly dangerous resting place for travelers as 30 miles of uninhabited desert lay in both directions. On April 12, 1867, Circleville resident Ira Hinckley received a letter from Brigham Young extending a calling for him to construct a fort near Cove Creek. Its purpose was to “afford protection from the Indians to the Telegraph & Mail Stations and to travelers who are almost constantly on the road. Also to furnish feed and protection from and weather to this latter class.” Hinckley immediately told the messenger to tell Brigham Young he would accept the calling.

A few days later, Hinckley traveled to Cove Creek with his brother Arza and forty other men, and within seven months they finished building Cove Fort. While most pioneer-era forts were wooden, Cove Fort was instead constructed out of volcanic rock, contributing to its structural longevity.

Although relatively small, measuring 100 feet by 100 feet, Hinckley and his men built an impressive fortress. The walls were 18 feet high, 4 feet thick at the base, and 2 feet at the top. Gun ports lined the walls. The fort had rooms for the Hinckley family, visitors, a kitchen and dining area, and a room for a telegraph station, which was installed in February 1867. There was also a ranch on site to provide food and a blacksmith shop to service the horses and wagons of travelers.

While the fort was initially designed for protection, it was never attacked, and the inhabitants maintained good relations with the local tribes. It did, however, serve as a refuge for all those that visited. Families, telegraph operators, mail carriers, trail workers, and even occasional Utes called upon the Fort for a place to sit or stay the night. Hinckley’s son Ira Parnell Hinckley said, “Within its then impregnable walls were safely sheltered thousands, both good and bad, the venturesome and the timid, the desperado and the saint, as they moved westward in quest of gold, or eastward in disappointment, or back and forth in their routine duty. Without it, what might have been, no one knows.”

The fort was used as a waystation from 1867 to 1882, but as the railroad became increasingly popular, fewer travelers visited the fort. The Hinckley family occupied Cove Fort until 1890, and then in 1919 the Church signed it over to William Henry Kesler. In 1989, descendants of Ira and Arza Hinckley purchased the land back from the Kesler family and subsequently donated it to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church restored Cove Fort to its original condition and Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Church’s First Presidency and a descendant of Ira Hinckley, dedicated it as a historic monument on May 21, 1994.

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Nestled in the Pahvant Valley of south-central Utah, Fillmore was envisioned as Utah’s magnificent territorial capital in the geographic center of Utah Territory 148 miles south of Salt Lake City and 162 miles north of Saint George. Jesse W. Fox surveyed the town on October 28, 1851. Anson Call led the colonization party of thirty families that built homes, the sawmill, and the gristmill. Renowned church architect Truman O. Angell—designer of the Salt Lake City and St. George temples—fashioned a lovely design for the territorial statehouse. Though somewhat desolate, Fillmore developed modestly within several years. Construction of the statehouse began in 1852 and the completed west wing housed the first legislative session in 1855. Farmers channeled irrigation systems from the Sevier River bringing water to their crops and livestock. Ute resistance to Latter-day Saint intrusions into their traditional homeland suppressed the town’s expansion. Ute leader Chief Kanosh tried to maintain amicable relations with the pioneers, but finite resources limited his generosity. Tension between Mormon settlers and their Indian neighbors led to several confrontations in the 1850s and ’60s: the Gunnison massacre of 1853; the Walker War of 1853–55; the Tintic War of 1856; and the Black Hawk War of 1865–67. The Saints erected Fort Fillmore in 1853–54 and nearby Cove Fort in 1867 as protection against Indian raids. Notwithstanding Fillmore’s designation as the official territorial capital, Brigham Young and other Church leaders continued to govern the Saints from Salt Lake City. The mountainous expanse of distance between Fillmore and Salt Lake coupled with insufficient resources meant Fillmore had not developed the prestige nor population needed to become the capital city. In December 1855, legislators met in the completed west wing of the state house in Fillmore and decided to officially build a new capitol in Salt Lake City following the final legislative session in the statehouse in 1856. The town of Fillmore was left to maintain its welfare in arid southern Utah, and the statehouse forever remained incomplete. The Utah War from 1856–57 exacerbated Fillmore’s remote conditions. In March 1857, President James Buchanan sent 2,500 United States troops to Salt Lake City to quell the supposed Mormon rebellion and depose Brigham Young as governor. The federal government distrusted the Mormons and persecuted them for their practice of polygamy. The situation deteriorated when Church leaders pressed for the nation to admit their proposed state of Deseret into the Union and moved the territorial capital to Salt Lake City, a populace entirely governed by the Church. The national government determined to replace Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming to ensure that the United States government could maintain control. Fortunately, Thomas Kane helped negotiate peace in exchange for Utah’s acceptance of the new governor in 1858, and the Saints received amnesty for their alleged crimes. Fillmore remained too small to hold its position as Utah’s capital. Salt Lake City had better resources, a larger population, and the added advantage of not being isolated in the heart of indigenous territory. Preserved by the devoted families living there, historic Fillmore stands as a reflection of Utah’s territorial past, a shadow of unfulfilled ambitions.

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The site of the Salt Lake Temple was identified just days after Brigham Young and the first group of Latter-day Saint pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24th, 1847. While Young claimed to have received the basic design of the building from God, the plans for the temple evolved throughout the forty years of its construction (1853-1893). Young invited all to contribute, stating that,“[if] any good man on earth will suggest any improvements, we will receive them and adopt them.”

Initially, the interior was planned to feature two large assembly rooms, patterned after previously built temples. However, after the construction of the Endowment House and the St. George Temple, it was clear that more space needed to be allotted for rituals. Consequently, the original plan was adapted to include several large ordinance rooms in place of a lower assembly hall.

While work on the temple began in 1853, construction was slow as the Saints tried to eke out an existence in their new territory. Resources and manpower were constantly diverted to other more urgent projects such as the Transcontinental Railroad. It took 14 years until the temple walls reached above ground level. Stones for the temple were pulled out of nearby canyons by wagon teams until the 1870’s when blocks began to be transported by rail, speeding up the building process. Finally, in 1892, a large celebration was held as the final stone of the temple was put into place. A few hours after the capstone was fastened, the golden statue of the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni was placed on top of the capstone. At this capstone ceremony, President Woodruff requested that the interior work be completed in just one year, bringing the total period of construction to forty years.

April 6, 1893 marked the first of 31 dedication sessions. The President of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, offered the dedicatory prayer. The completion of this massive granite structure captivated the nation. As dignitaries and reporters flocked to Salt Lake City to witness the celebrations, they sent back favorable reports of the “Mormons.” The Ohio Democrat touted, “The architecture of the building is without a known parallel in ancient or modern times” and credited the structure to the “courage and determination” of the “Mormons”. H. R. Harper, editor of The Chattanooga, Tennessee News, later recalled that because of his warm reception during the dedication by “honest, industrious and God-fearing people, who have done great things for the amelioration [improvement] of mankind...” he decided to stay longer than he had planned in Salt Lake City. The positive publicity surrounding the temple dedication undoubtedly contributed to helping Utah achieve statehood in 1896.

The Salt Lake Temple features rich religious symbolism, pointing to the importance of the building to members of the faith. Some of the symbols incorporated into the building include: the all-seeing eye, angels, the big dipper constellation, beehives, and stars. These symbols are meant to enhance the religious experience of worshipers. In 1915, one Salt Lake City resident noted, “Every stone [of the temple] is a sermon to me.”

Although periodic renovations have been necessary to allow the building to accommodate the needs of worshipers, overall, the original pioneer craftsmanship has been preserved. With its iconic spires being featured in media across the globe, the Salt Lake Temple is recognized world-wide as a symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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The community of Union Bench was an extension of Springville, but the growing community that would soon become Mapleton hit a turning point when they built their first dedicated public meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Settlement began in 1856 and the small church branch met in a public schoolhouse located near the center of town. The schoolhouse, even with an addition made to provide more space, did not last forever. The branch was officially organized into a ward in 1888. Around this time, a larger meetinghouse was needed for both the school and the church.

As a new school was finished in 1890 and the church meetings moved there the members of the Church recognized they needed a dedicated meetinghouse. A committee was formed to find a building site and local member Matilda Streeper offered to donate one acre of land if construction of the new church began immediately. Construction on the church began in 1889, the church was dedicated in 1892, and in 1893 it was completed and meetings started. The meetinghouse was a stepping-stone into Union Bench becoming a town. As the new school and church were completed, the community pulled together to petition for township. As the Mapleton ward, named after a grove of trees near the canyon, made up a majority of the community’s population, the town came to be known as Mapleton, Utah.

The meetinghouse stood and satisfied the needs of the ward for many years. The building was sturdy and any hazards to it were swiftly taken care of, but as Mapleton continued to grow after gaining town status the need for a bigger meetinghouse arose. In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit the town and the population struggled. The church and town leaders worked closely together to combat poverty and support the struggling families by finding different work projects to provide work receipts that could be exchanged for food. One of these projects was the demolition of the old meetinghouse and the construction of a new one, which is still standing. The new chapel cost $35,000, half of which was donated by the local community. The chapel was completed in 1938 and dedicated for use in 1941 and is still in use today. You can find a plaque with a brief history outside the chapel, as well as historical photos on the walls inside which convey some of the heritage of the early Mapleton residents.

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The Isaac Chase Mill is the oldest commercial building still standing in Utah. The mill was built beginning in 1847 when the second group of Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and was finished in 1852. The mill was made by Isaac Chase who had been a successful miller in his home state of New York as well as in Nauvoo after he had been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Isaac took the trek west in 1847 with his family, including his 13-year-old daughter who drove the wagon that had the gristmill equipment. It was with this equipment that he was able to create his mill which became one of the first in Utah. In 1854, after two years of the mill’s operation, Brigham Young joined Isaac Chase and became his partner in the mill’s production. Chase continued as a miller for the next six years before selling his share of the mill to Brigham Young in exchange for a cabin in Centerville, Utah in 1859. The mill then became known to most as Brigham Young’s lower mill as he already owned a mill further north in Salt Lake City.

The mill became well known due to the famine of 1856-1857. During the famine, Isaac Chase’s mill provided free flour to the people of the valley, helping them survive and saving numerous families. Before Brigham Young’s death, he said he wished the land on which the mill stood to be sold to the city for the lowest possible price. On April 20, 1881 Salt Lake City purchased 100 acres of land from the Brigham Young estate which included the Chase Mill. Today the mill stands as a historic monument at Liberty Park, which was once known as Mill Farm in honor of the Isaac Chase Mill.

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The Bountiful Tabernacle, an 86-foot by 44-foot Greek Revival structure, replaced a smaller log building. The construction of the tabernacle took six years to finish due to the Utah War. The first stone of the rock foundation was laid in 1857. The building was dedicated on March 14th and 15th 1863, requiring two days for the largest, most important event in Bountiful history. The walls of the tabernacle are three feet thick adobe with a red line timber roof attached to wooden pegs in order to support the weight. Mortar was made from the lime rock hauled from the region of the hot springs and was burned in two kilns in Barton Hollow. The stairways are hand carved and the 86 foot by 44 foot structure executes the plaster casting of the building. The construction of the roof proved to be a difficult task. It was not until the most renowned architect, Augustus Farnham, returned from his mission to Australia that the completion of the roof was finished. The main builders on the project were Augustus Farnham, George Washington Lincoln, George A. Lincoln, Thomas F. Fisher, Isaac Atkinson, John Wood, and Joseph Day, Sr.  The building has gone through several changes. During a windstorm in 1906, the five spires of the steeple were blown off. They were replaced in 1955. In 1925, a north wing with an amusement hall and classrooms was added. In 1942, the building was 'remodeled, redecorated and modernized' and a new pipe organ was installed. In 1957, a new wing was added to the rear of the amusement hall, containing a kitchen, Relief Society room, and offices. The ceiling collapsed in 1983, and the chandeliers came down onto the organ console. Both the ceiling and the organ were restored. In February 1975, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the building would be razed. The response was immediate and fierce. The Utah Heritage Foundation, “swamped with protests,” directed all of them to the First Presidency.The Utah Senate passed a resolution urging preservation. The combination of efforts on local, governmental, and ecclesiastical levels caused the First Presidency to announce that the tabernacle was to be preserved.  The Rex Stallings Construction Company of Salt Lake City demolished the existing wing additions and began work on new ones.  Renovation work included replacement of the interior woodwork. The mural of LDS church founder Joseph Smith painted by Daniel Waggelund on the rear wall of the tabernacle was professionally removed and stored in church archives.

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