Utah Heritage Foundation

The Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area (MPNHA) isn’t just about Mormon heritage.  Oh, sure, there are all of those New Urbanist Mormon colonial villages based on Joseph Smith’s Plat of Zion, and the Manti Temple (far left), and several Mormon Heritage centers are in the works.  (Historian Jerry Roundy displays concepts for the Escalante Heritage Center, right). 

UHF is helping connect people along Highway 89 with new ideas and cooperative marketing opportunities.  We believe this will result in more engagement by the public and businesses along the route, more visitation, and increased opportunities to preserve the heritage area’s important landmarks and communities.

But the stretch of Historic Highway 89 from Sanpete County through Kane County tells other stories, too, like that of Escalante’s eccentric hydrowheel artisan and drum maker Keven Peterson (left next to his friend Sharee Roundy, Jerry' wife).  The irreverent bumper stickers above the doors in Keven’s office might even cause some to brand him an anarchist, albeit a jovial one.

Anarchy of a more sinister kind resulted from tensions among Mormons and Indians in the 1860s.  Fear, mistrust and poor communication led to a chilling incident during the Blackhawk War at the height of hostility and atrocities on both sides.  In 1866 at the Mormon meetinghouse in the small Piute County town of Circleville the white settlers annihilated a band of captive (and normally peaceful) Paiute Indians, including helpless women and children in an incident known as the Circleville Massacre.  If notoriety is to be its legacy, the town would probably rather be known as the boyhood home of LeRoy Parker, aka Butch Cassidy, whose family’s cabin still stands on the farmstead south of town (right). 

A more uplifting legacy of the pioneer era endures in Mt. Pleasant, though not without its own controversy.  When Duncan McMillan (left, photo courtesy Utah State Historical Society), a well-educated Presbyterian minister arrived in the early 1870s, a dissident faction of the town’s residents asked if he had teaching experience.  Despite a less than hearty welcome from many of the stalwart Mormons (he packed a gun when asked to speak at a Mormon meeting), he founded a church and school not only in Mt. Pleasant, but a string of them in communities along the Highway 89 corridor.  While few of the church and school buildings still stand in other towns, Wasatch Academy – non-denominational since 1972 – has not only survived as an active campus, but thrives as Utah's only traditional college preparatory boarding school, and is funded solely by donors.

 The mention of private funding – and fewer politics – made Snow College President Scott Wyatt (right, with wife Kathy) more than a little envious during a recent tour of the MPNHA with a contingent from the college.  The group included myself, representing Utah Heritage Foundation and the board of the Traditional Building Skills Institute (TBSI) at Snow.  This four-year college at the heart of Mormon country in Ephraim will also house a Mormon Pioneer Heritage Center on its campus.

Other tour stops on the fact-finding trip were at less academic places like Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort.  This geologically fascinating site in Piute County became famous when local jokesters began labeling its wonders using the 1928 Harry McClintock song popularized by Burl Ives in 1949.  The resort is being revitalized by Heritage Highway 89 Alliance board member David Grow (left) and his wife Judy.  Their plans include boxcar and caboose lodging harking back to the area’s mining days when the gentile (non-Mormon) town of Marysvale was a booming railroad terminus.

So, hop on board Historic Highway 89 and take a trip down memory lane through the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area – and so much more!