Things to see - The Old Washington County Courthouse

The Old Washington County Courthouse
97 E St George Blvd

The courthouse was designated the seat of Washington County on January 14, 1863. The courthouse was begun in 1866 and completed in 1876.

The brick and mortar for this building were locally manufactured. The basement was used as a jail, while the first floor served as the main offices for Washington County. The walls were built 18 inches thick to provide some respite from the hot-summers. Rooms on the second floor were used for school classes and as a courtroom.


More on the Old Washington County Courthouse

The city of St. George was another of Brigham Young’s many pioneer colonies in the west. It was established in 1861 when he "called’ 309 families to come to the desert area to raise cotton by taming rivers for the needed water. The courthouse was started less than 5 years after the pioneers arrived. It took those hard-working individuals 10 years to complete, and was built during the same time as the Tabernacle, the Temple and the addition to Brigham Young’s Winter Home. Brick and mortar were manufactured locally. The building has a full basement which originally served as a jail. The first floor served as offices for the county government. The large room on the second floor was used as a schoolroom and the courtroom. Other interesting features include the l8-inch thick interior walls, some panes of original glass along-side the entrance doors, the old chandeliers, original paintings of Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, an old security vault, the exterior cornice work, and the cupola. The walls of the building are 18-inches thick and are faced on the outside with the chiseled red sandstone blocks which were quarried just north of this site. Notice the windows are wider on the inside. This allows more light to enter. A necessity, since even candles were a luxury to the early settlers. The typical lighting source used were the small dish-type oil lamps. Also notice that many panes of glass are the original hand-rolled sheets that contain bubbles and flaws by today’s standards. The glass came from New York State and was shipped by boat around South America to the west cost, then freighted by wagon to this site.The rooms on the main level were originally town offices and later converted to county offices in 1883. Today, the offices are used by the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce.

The basement contained three jail cells, constructed in the varying degrees of security. The "Black Hole" cell was designated for the worst offenders - murderers and horse thieves. Plans are to restore the basement to make it safe for visitors. Some of the heavy hardware part of the jail cells are still embedded in the stone. From looking at the size of the steel, it is hard to imagine that history tells of some jail breaks. The wood used in the building is ponderosa pine and it believed to have been harvested from Pine Valley Mountains about 35-miles north of St. George. There were once seven lumbering camps on the mountain during its heyday. The million’ board feet required to build the Temple came from Mount Trumble, about 80 miles southeast of the city.

The curved railing on the stairs is a small sample of craftsmanship done by Miles Romney, the master builder who created the circular stairs in the Tabernacle. The large room at the top of the stairs is the courtroom. In the early days of the building, the room was used as a school for the older students during the day and court was held at night. Facing the bench, the judge’s chamber was the room located to the immediate right. The court clerk sat at the Judge’s left and the witness on the right. Notice the two drawers on the outside of the bench used for storing the Bible used to swear in the witness. The jury box is located in the left corner of the room. The benches in the roomn are authentic for the period and may have been used here.
The original oil paintings on the back wall are believed to have been of 1920 vintage and depict views of Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks. The courtroom was used continuously until about 1960. Today the room is used for meetings, classes and lectures. Several fun musical plays have been performed here for audiences of about 50.

The beautiful chandelier in this court room is said to have come from an old building in Park City, Utah. New pine flooring was laid in recent years over the original worn floor. The door to the fire escape was installed to meet current fire codes for the public and a new elevator was installed to assist the physically challenged.

The top of the building is capped with a large cupola. It was designed, complete with a trap door, for hangings. However there is no record of it ever being used. On the main floor, there is a man-sized security vault in the north wall of the west office. The door on the vault is original. The safe extends through the thick wall and protrudes beyond about two feet and has a back door. A stone wall, we’re told, once covered the safe, but no one living knows why it was designed this way.

Things to see - The St. George Tabernacle

The St. George Tabernacle
18 s. main st

Labeled "The Jewel in the Desert," the St. George Tabernacle is a beautiful building reminiscent of a typical New England-style chapel. Its interior, which seats 1,200, was renovated and restored in the 1993, and it is now open for church services, daily music recitals, and the weekly Dixie History and Music Series. The clock below the tabernacle spire was built by Thwaites and Reed, the oldest clockmakers in the world and the company responsible for maintaining Big Ben.




More on the St. George Tabernacle

It took the Mormon Pioneers 13 years to build the Tabernacle. This may seem like a lot until you consider that the limestone used in the three-foot-thick basement walls had to be hand-quarried from the foothills north of the city while the red sandstone boulders for the two-and-one-half foot walls were hand-quarried from a site different site near the Red Hills Golf Course. The 56-foot trusses were cut 32 miles distant and hand-hewn with a broad axe. The spiral staircase and banister also had to be hand carved. Built under difficult circumstances, the St. George Tabernacle stands as a symbol of pioneer heritage. In 1993 much of the tabernacle was restored to resemble as closely as possible its original state.

Life in Southern Utah was not easy for those early saints. They in southern Utah dealt with the relentless requirements of the wilderness, flooding rivers, grasshoppers and every foot of ditch, carrying water to the land, channeled through the red dirt with a shovel. Yet in the first year they grew 100,000 pounds of cotton, managed to maintain themselves and establish a settlement. But their situation was far from secure. When Brigham Young saw their condition he instituted the building of the Tabernacle. There was a need for a building. There was a need for employment at which people could earn their sustenance and maintain their dignity with meaningful work. There was a need for a unifying purpose to bond them together as a community. So Brigham Young declared that they should build the Tabernacle, a magnificent structure in New England style, a jewel in the desert which would seat at least 1200 people. An emotional group of men and women in the frontier town of St. George Utah, only three years from settlement, met together to dedicate the beginning of their much needed Tabernacle. After meeting in make- shift willow boweries, so anxious were they to have a place for worship and other public gatherings, that the minute the basement was completed, they moved in. They offered a dedicatory prayer and for the next eight years this basement became their meeting place. When finally the building was completed with the Tower in place, the formal dedication was scheduled on the birthday of their beloved prophet, Brigham Young, whose original vision of building a Tabernacle had given this pioneer people so much hope for the future. Eagerly, they left the basement and with feelings of pride and awe, moved upstairs into the main hall. It was a glorious time. In thirteen years, with almost non-existent cash flow these settlers had created an unbelievable treasure. A building that stands today as a reminder of their amazing courage in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles.

The Glass

Upon having the very best for their beloved Tabernacle, they ordered 2244 panes of glass from New York City. It was a daring move. There was little cash flow among the residents of St. George and glass couldn't very well be brought across the plains in a bouncing wagon. Instead, it was transported by ship all the way around South America and into the harbor at Los Angeles. Then they had a serious problem. Before the glass could be released a freight bill of $800 was due. David Cannon, local church leader and well-respected citizen of St. George was assigned the challenge of raising the money to bring the glass from California. As the time of departure arrived he had only $200 in his pocket. Nevertheless, with great faith, he prepared to make the journey, praying that the Lord would open the way. At the same time in the near-by town of Washington, a Danish immigrant named Peter Nielson had saved $600 in gold pieces to enlarge his two-room adobe house. He knew of David Cannon's dilemma, but he had already lent money to a perpetual emigration fund over the years to help new members come to Utah from Europe. They were supposed to pay him back but so far no one had. After spending a sleepless night, and struggling with the problem, Peter arose early, walked the distance from Washington to St. George. Just as the wagons were ready to leave for California, Peter arrived and placed the $600 in gold into David Cannon's hand. An amazing thing then happened to Peter. The money that had been owed him for so many years began to trickle in and soon he had enough to finish his home. Today visitors will notice that many of the original panes are still in place. A closer examination reveals some really wonderful examples of old glass.

The Balcony

One of the most unusual events in the building of the Tabernacle happened after the U-shaped balcony was crafted and firmly in place. Miles Romney, master builder, schooled in English architecture and supervisor of the Tabernacle construction designed two elegant circular staircases. He called them his crowning achievements. They were attached to either side of the foyer-type room at the entrance to the main hall. As the people ascended both staircases the top steps lead onto and were even with the balcony. It seemed a perfect architectural arrangement. There was just one problem. Upon close observation, Brigham Young discovered the balcony was so high, people sitting there could not see the pulpit. Miles Romney reminded the prophet the stairways were permanent and could not be moved. So, Brigham Young recommended the balcony be lowered. And while everyone thought this impossible, Brigham Young surprised them by devising an ingenious plan. This caught the interest of Miles Romney who agreed and complied. Strong men were stationed at each post of the U-shaped balcony. With the use of braces and jacks, each man in unison with the others, using his full physical strength lifted the whole balcony in one piece at one time. The posts were cut off to the desired height by other workers and the balcony was replaced, lower than before. Brigham's plan had worked. Today, Tabernacle audiences who climb up the staircases to their original height will step down an easy 8 steps to the balcony, but that is alright, because now they can see the pulpit just fine.

The Clock and The Bell

Life changed for the better with the addition of the new bell and clock as part of the Tabernacle tower. Up until then the pioneers had set their few timepieces by the sun as it came up each morning, and signaled townspeople with an old bass drum. As the tower went up they retired the drum and gladly gave up the sun as the way to tell time. Gone were meetings and school classes late in starting and slow to close. Gone were water turns that over-lapped and other inconveniences brought about by everyone's personal interpretation of sun time. Being on time was not only important but now possible with the handsome clock superbly built in London and the clear- ringing bell from Troy, New York, both brought to St. George through much personal sacrifice. One townsperson recalled: "It was grand to have a clock. We loved it because it gave us prestige. It raised the morale of the people. We went to church on time, came home on time, opened and closed parties on time. The old town had moved forward. They had a clock and a bell. From now on people were born by the clock, they died by the clock."
So proud were they of the new town bell, they first put it to work in a temporary position on the main floor to signal lunchtime for the workers. Once in the tower it triumphantly announced Brigham Young's arrival, sounded the passing of local pioneers, made known the deaths of presidents of the Church and Nation, and on January 6, 1896 it tolled for two hours and forty minutes to proclaim that Utah had become a state.

A Building of Purpose

Since the time of dedication in 1876, the Tabernacle served the people of St. George in grand style. Whether a Sunday worship service, a political town gathering or the funeral of a member of the Mormon faith or a non- member, the Tabernacle provided a respected meeting place for the townspeople. Choirs and singing groups were welcome and patriotic programs encouraged. So grateful were the early pioneers for this enclosed place of beauty, it became the focal point of their life and activities. Often, people who were not Mormons benefited as well, as told in the story of Father Scanlon.

The Father Scanlon Story

In the 1880's Silver Reef, about 25 miles north of St. George became a booming mining town with the discovery of a silver vein. Miners appeared in this frontier town which was first named Bonanza City and merchants started many frontier businesses. Some St. George settlers even found a market for their farm goods. One person, in particular, remembered from this time was Father Lawrence Scanlon, who with a few other Catholic fathers, was sent to Silver Reef to attend to the religious needs of the miners and some townsfolk. He was an outgoing, friendly person who right away formed friendships with leaders of the Mormon faith. A feeling of mutual trust and respect developed. Through this exchange, they offered him the use of the Tabernacle for a High Mass. Father Scanlon with only the most limited of conditions for holding church services accepted with delight. He would hold the Mass on one condition, that the music and text be learned and provided in Latin by the St. George Stake Choir. They agreed. This was an historical moment for St. George and the Tabernacle when this group of miners, far from their homes filed into this beautiful structure, tall in the desert, rimmed by the brilliant red hills. Many townspeople were invited and attended. There was a feeling of warmth and friendship . The choir under the direction of John M. Macfarlane, performed amazingly well in Latin. The Tabernacle had once again proved its value. It wasn't too much later that the silver mine gave out and the silver boom faded away. The people of St. George were sorry to see Father Scanlon go. He had been a devoted friend.

A Place Chosen

In the 1890's the Church was deeply in debt and the nation was in the midst of a depression when Lorenzo Snow became the fifth president of the Church. After many days of wrestling with the problem and after seeking the answer in prayer he was prompted to call a special conference in St. George. Without knowing why he left for St. George, going part way by train and then by carriage. It was a difficult trip for the 86 year old prophet, but the people were thrilled to welcome their leader and the Tabernacle was packed. As he stood at the pulpit, looking frail, he first praised the people for their faith and courage. Then he paused and the congregation became very quiet. They would soon know what had compelled him to make the long trip to St. George. He seemed to gather strength, and then began to speak, "The time has come for every Latter Day Saint to do the will of the Lord and pay his tithing in full. That is the word of the Lord to you and it will be the word of the Lord to every settlement throughout the land. . . " President Snow returned home by carriage to Salt Lake City, giving this same message to every settlement along the way.The saints did respond, the Lord poured out blessings upon them and the debt of the Church was paid. The rains came to save the crops of the folks here, and a wonderful lesson was learned about the value of sacrifice in the eyes of the Lord. Tithing has always been the law given by the Lord to his people.

The Tabernacle Today

Today, history has been preserved in the restoration of this jewel of a pioneer structure which still serves St. George as a cultural center. From around the world visitors are welcome to enjoy its beauty, take tours and hear programs of music and culture. While much of the Tabernacle has undergone other restoration from time to time, through the years, its new re-opening in 1993 shows a building as close to the original as possible. Many believe the St. George Tabernacle is the finest example of design and chapel builder's art in the entire Mormon experience. And the society these stalwart people formed remains strong and vital.

Things to see - The Cannon at The St. George Temple

The Cannon – St. George Temple
490 S 300

Placed at the entrance to the visitor center is a canon. It was not used to fight, but to pound. Brigham Young selected the temple site. It was soon discovered that there was a spring on the site. Instead of moving to another location it was decided to fill the wet areas. Lava Rock was brought from the hill west of the temple and the canon was filled with lead, raised in the air, and dropped on the lava rock. The rock was driven into the ground until the foundation was solid enough to support the temple.
The old cannon had an interesting history. It was made in France and used by Napoleon during his siege on Moscow. During Napoleon’s hasty retreat, however, the cannon was left behind. It was later dragged to Siberia, then Alaska, and finally ended up at a fort in California. Members of the Mormon Battalion acquired the cannon, had it mounted on wheels, and brought it to Utah. Today, the old cannon is displayed on the temple grounds.

Things to see - The St. George Temple

The St. George Temple
250 E 400 S

The St. George Temple is the first temple completed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the forced exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois. It was designed by Truman O. Angell and is more similar in its design to the Nauvoo Temple than to later LDS temples. The St. George temple is the oldest temple still actively used by the members of the Church.



More on the St. George Temple

The temple currently has three ordinance rooms and 18 sealing rooms, and a total floor area of 110,000 feet (34,000 m). It was originally designed with two large assembly halls like the earlier Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples. The lower Assembly Hall was partitioned with curtains to provide the ordinance rooms for the Endowment Ceremony. In 1938 the lower Assembly Hall was rebuilt with permanent walls dividing it into four ordinance rooms. The four ordinance rooms were later changed into the present three rooms. In the 1970s the temple was closed and underwent extensive remodeling. Spencer W. Kimball rededicated it in 1975.

Brigham Young, President of the Church at the time, chose a six-acre plot as the temple site. Unfortunately, the Saints soon discovered that the chosen site was swampy with numerous underground streams. Young was consulted on moving the site, but the prophet remained firm in the idea that this was the site for the temple. To deal with the problem of the swampy site, the Saints created drains to eliminate as much water as possible. Then they decided to bring lava rock to the site, crush it and use the fragments to create a dry foundation for the temple. This led to a new problem: how to crush the rock. Someone suggested using an old cannon that the city had acquired. After creating a pulley system, the cannon was used like a pile driver to compact the lava rock and earth and create a firm foundation.

After stabilizing the foundation, work finally began on the structure itself. The walls of the temple were constructed out of the red sandstone common to the area and then carefully plastered for a white finish. The Saints worked tirelessly for over five and a half years to complete the temple. Historians James Allen and Glen Leonard made note of the dedication shown by the pioneers in Southern Utah. The workers opened new rock quarries, cut, hauled and planed timber, and donated one day in ten as tithing labor. Some members donated half their wages to the temple, while others gave food, clothing and other goods to aid those who were working full time on the building. Mormon women decorated the hallways with handmade rag carpets and produced fringe for the altars and pulpits from Utah-produced silk. At its completion, it contained a million feet of lumber, which had been hand chopped and hauled between forty and eighty miles. They also used seventeen thousand tons of volcanic rock and sandstone, hand cut and hauled by mule teams. The temple dedication ceremony took place on April 6, 1877. Brigham Young presided and Daniel H. Wells, his second counselor, gave the dedicatory prayer. The St. George Temple was the only temple completed while Brigham Young was president. Shortly after the dedication and the conference, Young returned to Salt Lake and died a few days later on August 29, 1877 at age 76 years.

When the temple was completed, Young was not completely satisfied with the tower and dome; in his words, it was too "squatty." He suggested having it fixed, but the Saints were so excited to have the temple operational that Young did not push the suggestion. About a year after the dedication, on October 16, 1878, a large storm rolled through St. George and a lightning bolt struck the tower of the temple. Extensive damage made it necessary to reconstruct both the tower and dome. Young's feelings were well known and when a design was created, the tower was taller. This led the builders to claim that, even in death, Brigham Young got his way.

Temple Facts

• The St. George Utah Temple is the oldest operating temple of the Church.

• The St. George Utah Temple was originally named the St. George Temple.

• The St. George Utah Temple is the only temple completed during Brigham Young's 30-year tenure as president of the Church.

• With a total of 18 sealing rooms (not all are in active use), the St. George Utah Temple has more sealing rooms than any other temple in the Church.

• The swampy ground chosen for the St. George Utah Temple was packed with volcanic rock using a cannon—a relic of the Mexican War—as a pile driver, on display in the visitors' center.

• The battlements that surround the St. George Utah Temple once functioned as chimneys for numerous narrow rooms that lodged traveling guests.

• The St. George Utah Temple was originally patterned after the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples with two large assembly halls featuring a set of pulpits at each end. The lower hall was partitioned with screens for presentation of the endowment.

• The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple where endowments for the dead were performed.

• The Founding Fathers of the United States of America appeared twice to Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Utah Temple asking why their temple work had yet not been performed on their behalves. A striking painting depicting this singular event hangs in the temple lobby

• In November 1928, fire broke out, destroying the St. George Utah Temple annex. All records and furnishings were saved. Today's annex, located on the north side of the temple, was constructed in the 1950s and serves as the entrance to the temple.

• The St. George Utah Temple was extensively remodeled for over a year from 1937 to 1938. The lower hall was permanently divided into progressive-style muraled endowment rooms.

• Following a second major renovation project, the St. George Utah Temple nearly doubled its 56,062 square feet. It was opened to the public for an open house and formally rededicated in 1975. The progressive-style ordinance rooms, used to present 3 live-acting endowment sessions a day, were replaced with three motion-picture ordinance rooms that presented 14 sessions a day.

Things to see - The Jacob Hamblin Home

The Jacob Hamblin Home
Santa Clara Blvd. and Hamblin Drive

The Hamblin home, which is fronted by an immense green lawn, fallow wine orchards and a towering cottonwood, features a small formal mid-house entryway, flanked on either side by two bedrooms. Each bedroom features a small, steep, narrow stairwell which leads upstairs to a broad, impressive common area. Used for school-teaching, community meetings and family activities—Hamblin's community stature meant he was a father figure to many—this house-wide room has a vaulted ceiling, fireplace and a porch.
Eventually, Hamblin's daughters demanded privacy—they had been sharing the common area with the boys—and Hamblin added what tour guides today call the "girls' dormitory," an addition off the back of the house big enough for four beds and dressers.

More on the Jacob Hamblin Home

Though the arrival of Brigham Young in St. George meant the Mormons' efforts to colonize far southwestern Utah would endure, it was probably the peacekeeping and community building efforts of an Ohio man named Jacob Hamblin who made Young's arrival possible. The Jacob Hamblin Home was a haven for Native American-settler relations in the early years of Utah. Born in 1819 in Salem, Ohio, Hamblin's family homesteaded in Wisconsin but moved with him, reluctantly, when he converted to Mormonism.

Among one of the first Mormon pioneers to cross the Plains in 1847, Hamblin moved first to Tooele, Utah, then just a small ranching community west of Salt Lake City. Involved in a skirmish one day with Native Americans, Hamblin's gun refused to fire and the event impressed him to stop fighting Native Americans and instead live and work with them. Hamblin learned Pauite and Ute languages and soon was known as a peacekeeper who could settle disputes between Mormon pioneers and Native Americans with understanding and compromise rather than violence. It was that reputation that earned him a calling from the church's president and prophet Brigham Young to accompany settlers in southwestern Utah.

Part of the region's "Indian Mission," Hamblin helped build a fort in Santa Clara, a small community just up-river from St. George. At that time southwestern Utah was a difficult environment to homestead. With less than 10 inches of rain annually, blazing sun and summertime temperatures that can approach 110° F on a regular basis, early settlers faced difficulties at nearly every turn. Hamblin, known for the red bandanna he always wore, helped ease relations between Native Americans and settlers in southwestern Utah and across the region. The native tribes, themselves struggling with drought and heat, appreciated his arrival and obeyed the deals he struck.

When devastating floods in 1862 washed away three walls of the Santa Clara fort, Hamblin and his wife dismantled the one standing wall and built just downriver what today is called the Jacob Hamblin Home. Completed in 1863, the two-story adobe, sandstone and ponderosa pine home is one of the few remaining examples of early pioneer-era home-building. The Hamblin home, which is fronted by an immense green lawn, fallow wine orchards and a towering cottonwood, features a small formal mid-house entryway, flanked on either side by two bedrooms. Each bedroom features a small, steep, narrow stairwell which leads upstairs to a broad, impressive common area. Used for school-teaching, community meetings and family activities—Hamblin's community stature meant he was a father figure to many—this house-wide room has a vaulted ceiling, fireplace and a porch.

Eventually, Hamblin's daughters demanded privacy—they had been sharing the common area with the boys—and Hamblin added what tour guides today call the "girls' dormitory," an addition off the back of the house big enough for four beds and dressers. Hamblin's stay in Santa Clara was short, however. He left in 1869 to serve the Mormon church in Kanab, Utah, northern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Things to see - The Brigham Young Home

The Brigham Young Home
67 West 200 North

Brigham Young suffered from arthritis and found relief from the harsh Salt Lake winters in St. George’s warm desert climate. The Brigham Young home is made from rock, adobe and plaster. The two-story home is indicative of homebuilding in Utah at the time. The home has a large wrap-around front porch, thick insulating walls, a vegetable storage room in the basement, and several bedrooms. Brigham Young caused the front portion of this home to be built in 1873. Young’s home also had a detached office with telegraph station, and a large master suite upstairs. Orchards and gardens surrounded the home on three sides. The large mulberry tree supplied the leaves for feeding silk worms, the cocoons of which provided the thread for silk fabrics produced by pioneer women here in St. George.


More on the Brigham Young Home

In 1861, the original settlers of St. George were members of the LDS church who were sent by their church leaders to grow cotton in the red rock cliffs and desert of southwestern Utah. Brigham Young thought it would be necessary to raise cotton after the Civil War broke out and sent many settlers to St. George who originally came from the southern states. The Mormon settlers found the hot, dry region practically unlivable, but Brigham Young desired St. George to progress and instigated public work projects to help residents. In 1869 Brigham Young bought the James Chesney house and made St. George his winter home.

Brigham Young suffered from arthritis and found relief from the harsh Salt Lake winters in St. George’s warm desert climate. The Brigham Young home is made from rock, adobe and plaster. The two-story home is indicative of homebuilding in Utah at the time. The home has a large wrap-around front porch, thick insulating walls, a vegetable storage room in the basement, and several bedrooms. Brigham Young caused the front portion of this home to be built in 1873. Young’s home also had a detached office with telegraph station, and a large master suite upstairs. Orchards and gardens surrounded the home on three sides. The large mulberry tree supplied the leaves for feeding silk worms, the cocoons of which provided the thread for silk fabrics produced by pioneer women here in St. George. Representative of the principal reason for the settlement of Utah*s "Dixie", the garden still produces both cotton and grapes. Brigham Young spent the last winters of his life in St. George enjoying the warm weather and directing the building of the St. George Temple and Tabernacle.

The contributions of Brigham Young to Utah and the West are immeasurable. Born of humble parents in a log cabin in Vermont, June 1, 1801, Brigham Young became a man of extraordinary intelligence, loyalty, faith, and courage. In 1847 he was called to be the second prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Seeking religious freedom, which had been denied his people in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, President Young led thousands of pioneers across the United States in one of the most amazing journeys in American history and directed the establishment of more than 300 communities in the West. He actively participated in community building, becoming the Governor of the State of Deseret, later named the State of Utah. Before his death on August 29, 1877, he had helped develop roads, canals, telegraphs, railways, schools, theaters, factories, banks, whole industries, and universities.