SPANISH FORK — Names of the 410 settlers from Iceland who came to America — and eventually Spanish Fork — between 1855 and 1914 may become part of an enhanced Icelandic park honoring those early pioneers.
If all goes according to plan, their names will be engraved on a black marble 5-foot-tall, 7-foot-long Wall of Honor erected on the corner of 400 South and 800 East.
Another monument, a large rock from Iceland, will hold a series of story plaques depicting many of their adventures in settling the area.
Members of the Icelandic Association of Utah want to turn the city park, which now has a lighthouse monument and both U.S. and Icelandic flags, into an outdoor museum, said Thora Shaw, leader of a committee planning events next year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first folks who arrived in Spanish Fork from Iceland.
Cost of the project is estimated at $70,000, which will all come from donations, she said.
The association will introduce the concept at a presentation May 19 at the Springville Museum of Art.
A similar wall of honor stands in Iceland, their names engraved in both Icelandic and English.
Names on the Spanish Fork wall will be engraved only in Icelandic, however.
"There is enough similarity (in the spellings) that you will know who they are," Shaw said.
The monuments in Iceland are near a body of water called Mormon Pond, which has retained its name for more than a century and a half as the location where the first Icelandic members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were baptized.
Volunteers will do all the labor on the Spanish Fork park, which includes replacing retaining walls on the east and south sides with rocks that will give it a seaside look, Shaw said.
The Spanish Fork monuments and the monuments in Iceland will be similar, except the Icelandic park has a sculpture of a wingless, bronze angel that won't stand in the Spanish Fork park.
Springville sculptor Gary Price created the 9-foot work of art, dubbed "The Messenger."
Immigrants from other European countries also came to Spanish Fork, but the Icelanders maintained their identity.
Next year's celebration is scheduled for June 23-26, with most of the events in Spanish Fork, association spokesman David Ashby said.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com