Big Mountain - Monument

On July 19, 1847, scouts Orson Pratt and John Brown climbed the mountain and became the first Latter-day Saints to see the Salt Lake Valley. Due to illness, the pioneer camp had divided into three small companies. On 23 July, the last party led by Brigham Young, reached the Big Mountain. By this time most of the first companies were already in the valley and planting crops.

Mormons were not the first immigrant group to use this route into the Salt Lake Valley. The ill-fated Donner Party blazed the original trail one year earlier. They spent thirteen days cutting the trail from present-day Henefer into the valley. The delay proved disastrous later on when the party was caught in a severe winter storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Mormons traveled the same distance in only six days. Until 1861, this trail was also the route of California gold seekers, Overland Stage, Pony Express, original telegraph line, and other Mormon immigrant companies, after which Parley's Canyon was used.

This monument, erected and dedicated 25 August 1984, by South Davis Chapter, Sons of Utah Pioneers, replaces the original plaque erected 23 July 1933, by Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association and the Vanguard Association of the Salt Lake Council, Boy Scouts of America.

Big Mountain - Monument

• I Walked to Zion
  Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail



• Historical reading
  The Old Spanish Trail


• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journals
  Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776



• Hiking Historic Trails in Utah
  Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails


• Driving in Utah
  Scenic Driving in Utah



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