From the arrival of Brigham Young, Mormon pioneers regarded this peak as a symbol of the latter-day gathering of Israel. In August 1847 they raised an American flag upon it to demonstrate support for Isaiah's mandate to "lift ye up a banner upon the …mountain" as a sign of Israel's gathering. On Saturday, 21 July 1849, President Young and others climbed the hill and consecrated it as a place to raise a standard and as a place of prayer. In pioneer times, Church and community leaders periodically hiked to its summit for prayer and ceremonial observances. In recent years it has served youth groups and others as a place of inspirational grandeur for spiritual harmony and meditation. On many occasions flags have flown on this hill. In the early days it was sometimes a blue and white "Flag of Deseret" representing the gathering of Israel and of the Saints. Commonly it has been the Stars and Stripes, often with Utah's state flag. To Latter-day Saints, a flag flying here signifies the belief expressed in a poem written in 1853 by Joel H. Johnson and later set to music by Ebenezer Beesley: High on the mountain top A banner is unfurled Ye nations, now look up It waves to all the world In Deseret's sweet, peaceful land On Zion's mount behold it stand!