The original "This is the Place" monument, with the larger, modern monument in the distance. Both are near the mouth of Emigration Canyon, where the Mormon Pioneers entered the S.L. Valley, in 1847.
MOST cities in the United States (and the world) were settled in desirable locations. These places had abundant water, good soil, nearby trade routes, perhaps area mineral mines, etc.
A lone
exception – Salt Lake City.
Mormon
Pioneers in 1847 sought out the Great Salt Lake Valley specifically because it was
basically, an undesirable and rather inhospitable place.
The valley wasn’t totally barren, but trees
were mostly along the banks of small streams and the Oregon trail was to the far
north in what would become Idaho and the Santa Fe trail was far, far southward.
In other
words, they sought isolation and no competition from outside sources, having
been chased out of Illinois.
Even the
Native Americans in Utah territory didn’t settle in substantial numbers in the Great Salt
Lake Valley. Most were Utah Lake or southward, or in today’s Brigham City and
northward. West of the salty Great Salt Lake very vast salt-laden flats and
desert. To the east were the rugged Wasatch Mountains.
But
the Mormon Pioneers created irrigation systems and made the valley “blossom as
a rose.” The rest is history.
