This is the Place

When Brigham Young first looked over the valley from the area of the This is the Place Monument, five miles southeast of here, he saw Ensign Peak and knew that it marked the right place for the gathering of the Latter-day Saints. Before leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, President Young had prayed to know to where he should lead the Saints. He envisioned Joseph Smith, who showed him this peak with a flag upon it, saying that it overlooked the place for the new city. Long after, Wilford Woodruff wrote that forty-one years earlier he had passed through Immigration Canyon with Brigham Young, who had become sick on East Canyon Creek, and that when they came upon the bench, Woodruff turned the vehicle west so Young could view the valley. Young rose from his bed, surveyed the country for several minutes, and said, "Drive on down into the valley; this is our abiding place. I have seen it before in vision. In this valley will be built the City of the Saints and the Temple of our God." This would be the center place of Zion, where Latter-day Saints could be free to develop their distinctive community.

Salt Lake City, Utah · United States