Planner Bil Schwab imagines tennis shoe-clad tourists flocking to Salt Lake City to fit their footsteps into those trudged by the Mormon pioneers.
Schwab, a historic planner for Salt Lake City, can see visitors marking the spot where City Creek was channeled into the birthplace of modern irrigation, a discovery that changed settlement patterns throughout the West. The walk could lead past the Avenues grave of Brigham Young and by the last remaining segments of the stone city wall, which Young had built when Johnson's army was threatening and which lent its name to the Marmalade District's Wall Street.There's the newly restored sandstone City-County Building, its shored-up walls whispering of ghost stories and political wars. Just picture Boston's Freedom Trail. Then imagine Utah's capital city offering its own version, a pioneer-flavored trek marketed to capture the tourists who too often just amble across the flower-strewn spaces of Temple Square and think they've "seen" Salt Lake City.
"We need, as a city, to play our own song," said Schwab. "There is no other historic city as vital to the West."
While Schwab's historical enthusiasm could turn the trail into a marathon, he said setting it up wouldn't take much more than some cans of paint to point the way, some classy trail markers and brochures. Tour guides telling dramatic stories about their own ancestors' wagon ruts would help. And a slick magazine, TV or direct-mail advertising campaign would be necessary to awaken potential visitors to the Salt Lake story.