Dedication of the Ensign Peak Memorial Garden by LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley formally closed the yearlong celebration of the Mormon pioneer emigration to the Salt Lake Valley.
"I think that essentially tonight we bring it to a close," President Hinckley said of the sesquicentennial events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.The garden sits just below the peak of the mound-shaped mountain where nine pioneer church leaders climbed to survey the valley precisely 150 years ago.
Just one year ago, President Hinckley dedicated the Ensign Peak Memorial Park and trailhead. That event signaled the beginning of the sesquicentennial activities. Saturday, he dedicated the memorial garden.
President Hinckley briefly recounted the original ascent of Ensign Peak on Monday, July 26, 1847, by Brigham Young and eight other church leaders. He said church founder Joseph Smith had seen the peak in a vision, and President Young immediately recognized it as the sacred mountain described in the vision.
President Hinckley said even though the apostles were dressed in torn and tattered clothes and President Young was still recovering from mountain fever, they still managed to have a vision of the destiny of the church that day.
President Hinckley said the public should never forget the pioneers who came here at such a terrible cost in life and suffering.
"All of us are partakers of that marvelous legacy."
He said Utahns can only repay the efforts of the pioneers through service and dedication.
In his dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley noted that the nine pioneers waved a piece of cloth - possibly a bandana handkerchief on a cane - from the peak's summit as an ensign to the nations of the world. He blessed the gardens as a place of reverence and contemplation.
President Hinckley said this was one of more than a dozen dedications of significant pioneer sites he has performed in the past year.
"This has been a most remarkable season. I don't know that we've ever had anything quite equal to it."
President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve, also spoke at the dedication. He said he and Elder Russell M. Ballard, who conducted the service, had climbed Ensign Peak together recently in the heat of a summer day.
He recounted the many trials his great-grandmother had in coming to the Salt Lake Valley with a handcart company and of the many pioneer milestones along the way.
President Packer said the scriptures speak of looking to the hills and that those attending the service were doing just that - looking to the hills to draw strength.
"I bless the memory of our pioneer forbearers," he concluded.
Gov. Mike Leavitt said the recent historic pioneer commemorative events will never be forgotten.
"Today we cap what we've been doing with the dedication of this memorial park," he said.
Referring to Ensign Peak as a place of solitude and remembrance, Leavitt said he has climbed the peak's summit an average of once a week in recent months.
One hundred and sixty young men and women from the Salt Lake Parleys and Monument Park stakes carried national flags representing every country where the church is operating. Half climbed to the peak's first overlook and the other half to the mountain's 5,414-foot summit to unfurl the flags, like ensigns, during the service.
In addition, 160 blue balloons, also representing those countries; 148 emerald balloons representing the original party of pioneers; plus nine yellow balloons representing the peak's original nine climbers were released into the sky at the end of the dedication as the audience sang "High on the Mountain Top."