Gilgal Garden has perfected the art of hiding in plain sight.
The Mormon folk art sculpture garden, the brainchild and creation of Thomas Child, an LDS bishop and mason (the occupation, not the order), is located smack dab in the middle of a bustling business district of Salt Lake City -- the block northeast of Trolley Square.But relatively few people know about the strange, mystical, befuddling sculptures that Child and others worked on from 1945 almost until his death in 1963. The garden is tucked away in the center of the block, very hard to see from the street, and is only open to the public on Sundays.
The Bible, many passages from which are quoted on engraved stones in the garden, speaks of "hidden treasures." Gilgal Garden, says artist and art historian David Sucec, is one of those.
"I think many people don't appreciate what an accomplishment this is," he said.
The past few years have been precarious for Gilgal Garden. The Henry Fetzer family, the owners, want to get some cash value for the garden and get out of the park business, but a buyer has proven hard to find.
A few years ago the family proposed putting some condominiums on the site, though ultimately that didn't happen. Conceivably the family could sell the entire site to developers, though members say they would strongly prefer selling it to someone who would maintain it as a sculpture garden.
"We're just trying to get it into a mode where it can be preserved and taken care of," said Norine Smith, one of Henry Fetzer's 11 children. "Alot of the original family members are older now and want to simplify things."
Enter the Friends of Gilgal Garden, a group of Salt Lake residents and others who are working to raise enough money to buy the place and convert it to a public park. Sucec is president of the group.
The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization working with the Friends of Gilgal Garden, has purchased an option to buy the land by Jan. 10, 2000. Preservationists must raise approximately $700,000 by then.
If nothing else, the park is unique. Where else could you find sculptures of a sphinx with the head of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith or the scattered body parts of the warrior described in Daniel 2; or the captain of the Lord's hosts who spoke with Joshua sculpted in relief on a boulder, with a smaller, unformed boulder for his head?
"This is not a typical Mormon guy," Sucec said of Child. "He was a real free thinker."
Indeed. A blue-collar worker, Child was a self-educated man who owned more than 1,000 books on art, literature, philosophy and other subjects.
Child, his relatives, neighbors and friends brought boulders weighing anywhere from one to 78 tons from as far away as Hanksville to be carved by sculptor Maurice Brooks, using Child's designs.
Quotations ranging from the Bible, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jean Jacques Rousseau were sandblasted into more than 70 stones and boulders.
A garden for visitors -- a millstone for the Fetzers. With taxes, water, power and other expenses, they pay around $300 per month to maintain the place, not to mention the personal time spent. Plus they're concerned about liability problems.
"It's a burden," said Henry's son, Grant Fetzer. "We've taken care of it for 35 years, and that's hundreds of thousands of dollars."
The garden's years are showing. Some of the engravings are worn, and the occasional vandal doesn't make things easier. College students like to sneak in at night to drink beer and scare themselves with the eerie shapes and shadows. Much time and money would be required to improve it enough to make it usable for the general public.
But that's down the road.
"If we can just get the land, we can take care of the rest of it later," said Mary Lee Peters, director of the fund-raising campaign.
Salt Lake mayoral candidate Dave Jones, who has become involved in the effort, says the garden could be a great attraction for visitors to the 2002 Winter Games, an example of local religion, art and thinking all rolled up into one.
The Friends of Gilgal Garden are going to public agencies and private foundations, pleading for money. So far they have at least a tentative commitment for $200,000, from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an Eccles family foundation. Others are mulling it over.
"I would love to fund this whole thing, if we had the money," said Salt Lake County Commissioner Mark Shurtleff. "But with (property valuation) tax notices going out we're hearing from a lot of people. It's a bad time right now."
Gilgal Garden is open to the public Sundays from 9 a.m. to dusk or by appointment. For guided tours, slide presentations or other information, call 519-0871.