The spirit and vision of the Mormon pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley will bloom anew in a one-acre park the LDS Church plans to build at Second Avenue and State Street.
Water will play a primary role in the Brigham Young Historic Park, just as it did in settling the valley. The park also will feature three groups of statues depicting pioneers engaged in activities that were both critical to settling the valley and occurred on or near the park.A fourth group of statues will show the timeless delight of children at play in water.
President Gordon B. Hinckley and other officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled plans and dedicated the Brigham Young Historic Park on Monday as a sweltering sun bore down on the site, which is now an asphalt parking lot.
President Hinckley displayed the sense of humor that is becoming characteristic of his public appearances when he told dark-suited men in the front row of the audience not to complain about the abundant sunshine.
"You people out there on the chairs - you asked for the heat; you have it," President Hinckley said, adding that the pioneers toiled on days that were just as hot.
President Hinckley and other speakers noted the park will be located on what was once part of Brigham Young's farm at the mouth of City Creek Canyon. The park will be both open space and "a reminder of those who've gone before us," he said. "I hope those who see it will get a measure of respect and appreciation for those who pioneered this part of the country."
The church's park will be a companion to a park Salt Lake City is developing directly north across Second Avenue. The city park also is on land that once belonged to Brigham Young.
The church and city spent four years negotiating a land transaction that led to the park projects. The city sold the LDS Church 84,000 square feet under the intersection of Main and South Temple streets for an underground parking lot.
It also sold the church a section of Richards Street, which runs under Crossroads Plaza. The church paid the city $2.3 million for the properties and agreed to build the historic park.
President Hinckley said the church was happy to be participating in the project with Salt Lake City. "This will be a place of beauty for which we will all be grateful as the years pass," he said.
Arnell West, general contractor, will begin work on the one-acre Brigham Young Historic Park immediately and should complete the project by fall, said LDS Church spokesman L. Don LeFevre. The statues being created by Heber City sculptor Peter Fillerup will be in place by next year.
An L-shaped section of Canyon Road that passes along the south and east sides of the parking lot will be closed and incorporated into the park.
The 1.7-acre city park, already under construction, will be finished by September. It will include a stone-lined stream, ponds, waterfalls, pedestrian paths and bridges.
A key element of both the church and city parks will be bringing City Creek back above ground intermittently from Memory Grove to State Street. The creek was placed in a culvert at the Memory Grove pond in 1905, according to historical records.
City Creek will cross from the city park under Second Avenue, resurfacing in the northeast corner of the Brigham Young Historic Park, where it will flow through a waterwheel. The water then will trickle through the park, passing through or by statues of children playing, quarry workers, men working on a flume and pioneers irrigating a small garden.
While the pioneers will be bronze, the crops will be real, said Bishop H. David Burton, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.
Presiding Bishop Merrill J. Bateman said that while the city park honors a stream, the church's park "honors a man that had a vision."
"Brigham Young knew how important water was and how important this creek was," Bishop Bateman said.
President Young, second president of the LDS Church, led Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. He had a sawmill and flour mill built near the mouth of City Creek Canyon. Water from the creek turned a waterwheel, located at North Temple and State Street, that powered the plants.
Young ensured that canyon streams like City Creek benefited the public good by setting a principle that they could not be owned by private individuals. The Mormons, according to historian John S. McCormick, were the first group in North America to develop rules, regulations and laws governing use of water for irrigation.
The result was a desert that bloomed and flourished.
Stuart Reid, chairman of the Salt Lake City Council, said the two parks represent the good relations between the city and the church and a commitment to build a caring community.
Elder John E. Fowler gave the invocation and Elder Alexander B. Morrison gave the benediction during the groundbreaking ceremony. Both are members of the church's Quorums of the Seventy.
Residents of the area also are pleased with the park projects that will grace the entrance to the Capitol.
"We're happy to see this parking lot gone and it becoming a nice gateway to Capitol Hill and the Avenues," said Frank Pignanelli, a resident of the area and a state legislator.