While the original pioneer Union Fort never saw any battles, volleys of proposals, actions and words to save its memory continue to be exchanged with no end in sight.
A Salt Lake County Planning Commission public hearing Tuesday was indicative of the conflict. Hermes Associates Ltd. presented yet another proposal to preserve historical structures in the center of a planned development behind the present Family Center at Fort Union.Developers were supported by the family of Austin Walker, the owner of the historic Jehu Cox home in the area, and Leonard J. Arrington, a prominent LDS historian. Hermes representatives said they received petitions from eight of nine homeowners who would be displaced by the project.
Diane Pearl Meibos, representing her grandfather who would not sign a petition, said that she could not believe the "audacity" of Hermes in proposed project.
"My grandfather's property is not for sale," she said.
The Union Community Council representatives submitted an alternate proposal that would create a seven-acre historical park and a scaled-down proposal for retail shops.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Merrill Cook spoke in favor of saving the historic area. Jeanetta Williams, first vice president of the Salt Lake Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also spoke in favor of the historic park to commemorate a settlement of black pioneers who lived near the fort area. Green Flake, a jobber on Brigham Young's wagon when it first entered the valley, lived in the area.
Planning Commission members said they weren't satisfied with comments at the public hearing, which was held to determine whether zoning in the area should be changed to accommodate the Hermes proposal. Commission member Phil Hallstrom said there wasn't enough information given about the land use and other zoning-related issues.
Because most of the hearing focused on issues surrounding historic preservation, the commission said it isn't sure when it will make a final recommendation to the County Commission on the zoning proposal.
"We will agonize over this one," Hallstrom said.
The Hermes proposal, which had not been previously seen by neighbors or the Planning Commission, enlarged a previously proposed historic park in the center of the development's parking lot to include three historic homes surrounded by a park "the size of a football field" with a pond, paths and a flower garden.
Stones excavated from the old fort wall site would be used to recreate four corners of the fort wall. The corner pieces would be connected by chains. The plan calls for the historic homes to be moved to the park, a problem for some preservationists. A group, such as the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, would be sought to operate a museum at the site, Hermes representatives said.
The community council proposal would preserve historic homes including the Jehu Cox home, believed to be the oldest on-site pioneer home in Utah, and remnants of the Union Fort wall at their present site. The council is making a request to Salt Lake County to be included in the county park system.
In a capital project request to the county Parks and Recreation Department, the community proposes that Hermes donate the land for the park to the community along with maintenance of all structures in return for the "massive impact their project will have on not only Union, but surrounding communities on the east side."
At the public hearing, historian Arrington said he was "delighted with the (Hermes) proposal" because of the preservation of history in conjunction with an income-producing project.
Another historian and author of a book about the Union area, Steven Madsen, said that the wall is one of the last remaining fort walls that date from the Walker Indian War. The Jehu Cox home would also not qualify for the National Register of Historic Places if it is moved.
After the meeting, Madsen said that Utah Historical Society has received favorable response to an application for National Historic Register status for the home from the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C. The status would be helpful in raising money from foundations and businesses and to obtain government grants for the park, Madsen said.