The Brigham Young Family Cemetery — located a block east of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City — has reopened following major renovations and a rededication.
Part of the 150-year-old landmark cemetery—which is the burial place of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as some of his family members—is dedicated to the legacies of early pioneers, such as William Clayton and Eliza R. Snow.
And with the majority of the 40-plus gravesites being unmarked graves, renovations required some special care.
Elder Kevin W. Pearson, a General Authority Seventy who is president of the Church’s Utah Area, presided at the Oct. 22 services and offered the rededicatory prayer. He praised the sacrifices of early pioneers, who settled the Salt Lake Valley and beyond under the leadership and direction of Brigham Young.
Elder Kevin W. Pearson, General Authority Seventy and Utah Area President, speaks at the rededication ceremony for the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“It would be impossible to overstate his impact on the state of Utah and the ‘pioneer corridor,” said Elder Pearson, as quoted in a report published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. “It has been said that ‘history is the fulfillment of prophecy.’ Nowhere is that truer than in the times and lives of the early pioneer Saints who came to the Great Salt Lake Valley.”
Besides being the final resting place for the namesake pioneer-era Church leader who died Aug. 29, 1877, the Brigham Young Family Cemetery includes marked gravesites for wives Mary Ann Angell, Lucy Ann Decker, Emmeline Free, Mary Van Cott and Eliza R. Snow and children Joseph Angell Young and Alice Young Clawson.
Brigham Young’s gravesite at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Family and others used the family cemetery on the property — which had previously been the Youngs’ strawberry patch — rather than burial places in the larger, city-owned cemetery.
“The Young family buried here gave their all to this vision of community because of their unflinching belief in the eternal nature of the human soul and the eternal nature of the human family,” said Emily Utt, historic sites curator with the Church History Department. “They worked out together on this very land the things that would make their family eternal.”
The gravesite of Eliza R. Snow at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on October 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A monument to Snow, the Church’s second Relief Society general president and renowned Latter-day Saint poet, was restored during the renovation. With some of her poems adopted as Latter-day Saint hymns, the restored monument memorializes her poetry used in the hymn, “O My Father.”
Planning for the renovation began in April 2020 and involved multiple Church departments with the purpose of preserving the historical integrity of the site. With so many unmarked graves, ground-penetrating radar technology, known as GPR, was used to mark the precise locations of burial places.
Guests of the rededication ceremony walk around the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Contractors did all the on-site digging by hand, which presented challenges, including hitting two layers of concrete totaling a thickness of 10 inches that was discovered under the cemetery’s sandstone-paved walkway.
Workers carefully restored and reinforced the site’s original workmanship, from the pioneer-era wrought-iron fence to the sandstone wall on the cemetery’s perimeter.
The recently restored sandstone and iron fence surrounding the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“We have tried to create an open, inviting, peaceful atmosphere where the Spirit can be felt — also, a place to reflect on the past, and help inspire us as we move forward with our lives,” said project manager Greg Green during remarks at the rededication ceremony.
On June 1, 1974 — the 173rd anniversary of Brigham Young’s birth — the Brigham Young Family Ceremony was dedicated as the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument. A statue in the center of the cemetery/park honors the 6,000 Latter-day Saint pioneers who lost their lives while crossing the western plans of the United States to present-day Utah.
A statue depicting Brigham Young reading to his grandchildren at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Other monuments in the cemetery honor the life of Brigham Young and early Latter-day Saints.
The Brigham Young Family Cemetery, at 140 E. First Ave., is open daily to the public for walking the grounds.
Brigham Young’s gravesite at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery in Salt Lake City on Oct. 22, 2022.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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