This is the Place Heritage Park is located up on the east side of Salt Lake City against the mountains. It contains the "This is the Place" Monument and Old Deseret Village.

Old Deseret Village contains almost 60 original and reconstructed buildings from Utah's pioneer past, and many additional buildings are currently being added. Seminary Sam is standing in front of a wagon that is typical of the hundreds of wagons that transported Saints across the plains from 1847 until the coming of the railroad in 1869.

The "This is the Place" Monument (above) was designed by Mahonri M. Young, a grandson of Brigham Young. It was dedicated in 1947--during the centennial celebration of the pioneer's arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. (Mahonri Young also created the seated statue of Brigham Young that represents the state of Utah in the national capitol building in Washington, D.C.)

The various statues and reliefs around the monument depict scenes from Utah's history. The scene above depicts the Saints first entering the valley.

This is a reconstruction of a typical Latter-day Saint "bowery."

Here the people gathered for meetings and social events until more permanent structures could be built. The original bowery in the Salt Lake Valley was built in just one day, July 31, 1847, by the Mormon Battalion. It was made of wood posts, a hardened dirt floor, and a roof of thatched brush and willow boughs. The boweries could provide space and shelter for anywhere from eighty to several thousand people, depending on the size of the structure. (Old Deseret Village Guidebook, hereafter referred to as Guidebook.)

This is what much of Salt Lake City must have looked like in 1847 and 1848. The cabin in the foreground belonged to Levi and Rebecca Riter.

One of only two surviving buildings from the original pioneer fort built in the Salt Lake Valley, the Riter Cabin was built in 1847 for Levi and Rebecca Riter. ... While crossing the plains, Levi paid to have this building built before he arrived in the Valley. John Boss and his sons, who were part of the advance party, built it in the south section of the pioneer fort.

It had a dirt floor and no windows, but was a considerable improvement over the other early settlers' homes because it had a board and slab roof. Other cabins only had leaky mud and willow roofs. When the Riters arrived, Levi paid fifty dollars for the cabin. (Guidebook)

The cabin over Seminary Sam's head is a reconstruction of the William V. Burnett Cabin. The original cabin was built in the Ogden Valley.

The cabin had no fireplace or stove, so to keep warm they used lots of blankets and huddled together for warmth. They also used the grasses from the land around the cabin to stuff their mattresses. Because they were poor they didn't have much money to buy meat, and they needed what livestock they had for other purposes such as milk, butter, and eggs, so the children would also hunt for crickets and grasshoppers. They would pull the legs off these creatures and eat them in cricket and grasshopper stew. (Guidebook)

This is the John Gardiner cabin. The original was built in Pleasant Grove, Utah. John, his two wives, and 10 children lived in this home.

This is an original cabin that belonged to Levi and Harriot Roberts. It was built near present-day Kaysville, Utah. Levi Roberts was a member of the Mormon Battalion.

Levi built this home near a stream where willows grew so he could continue his trade of basket weaving, which he practiced in England before immigrating to the United States. This two-room log cabin was the family's second home and was very sturdily built. When it was moved to its present location there was no need to dismantle it like so many of the other buildings in the Village because it was built so well. It was just picked up as one unit and moved. (Guidebook)

Seminary Sam's "father," Ken Alford, tries his hand at pulling one of the handcarts in Old Deseret Village.

The livery stable provided an essential service in housing the animals and vehicles needed to travel throughout the territory. A person could also rent horses, wagons, and carriages from the livery. ...

The pioneers tended to use oxen rather than horses to do most of the work for several reasons. First, when a horse is hitched to a large load, it will pull once and if it cannot pull the load it will balk, whereas an ox will lean against a load continuously even if the load is too heavy. Secondly, oxen do not require high grade food like horses and can live off the harsher grasses found naturally in the area. The term "ox" means any type of cattle (mainly males since they are stronger) that are over four years old and have been trained to be beasts of burden. (Guidebook)

This is the reconstructed 1853 Social Hall. (The original building was torn down in 1922.)

The Social Hall served as the site where people would gather for social and cultural events. People often would come here and dance on the 20 by 40-foot stage on the second floor, as it was greatly encouraged by Brigham Young. The hall was also Utah's first theater, where Salt Lake's Deseret Dramatic Association opened its 1853 spring season. ... The Social Hall later was also used as a gymnasium, library, and school. (Guidebook)

The original of this 1854 gristmill was located at the mouth of City Creek Canyon in Manti, Utah.

This is the reconstructed 1856 Cedar City Tithing Office.

The tithing office complex was an important economic and social part of every LDS community. ...while the Church encouraged its members to pay tithing in U.S. currency whenever possible, tithing often had to be paid in produce or labor. A farmer might have taken one load in ten of hay to the tithing barn to be stored until it could be either sold in exchange for money or other products or allocated by the bishop to the needy members of the town. Tithing offices also served as general stores. (Guidebook)

This is a replica of Heber C. Kimball's Salt Lake City home that was completed in 1860. The original home was built kitty-corner from Temple Square (on the northeast corner of Main Street and North Temple). The original home was built on a 10-acre lot.

The Pine Valley Chapel and Relief Society Hall are pictured above.

Scottish shipbuilder Ebenezer Bryce built this chapel in the early Southern Utah settlement of Pine Valley. Conceived and designed in 1868, it remains one of the states architectural treasures. Using traditional shipbuilding techniques, Bryce first crafted the log walls on the ground and raised the completed sides into place. Then the roof, which resembles the inverted hull of a ship, was joined with the walls using wooden pegs and strips of rawhide instead of nails. (Guidebook)

This chapel was Bryce's first attempt at constructing a building.

Relief Society groups in early Utah communities often had separate structures built next to Church buildings. The design of this replica was based on the architecture of Relief Society halls throughout Utah. (Guidebook)

This is reconstructed copy of the Huntsman Hotel that was built in Fillmore, Utah in 1872. For a brief period, the central Utah town of Fillmore (named after a president of the United States) was the capitol of Utah.

It featured 24 rooms, full-length porches, a fine dining room, and an in-house barbershop. ... Considered the Finest Hotel in Utah, many dignitaries, including Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow stayed in this magnificent building while they conducted political conventions. During peak seasons, like church conferences or political conventions, the spacious attic would also have been used for additional sleeping space. (Guidebook)

There are many other buildings and homes found in Old Deseret Village, such as an observatory, a barber shop and shaving parlor, a bank, a drug store, a cabinet shop, a furniture company, a store, a newspaper print shop, a bootshop, a fire station, a carriage house, a blacksmith shop, and a school.

Near the entrance to the This is the Place Heritage Park is a National Pony Express Monument.

The Pony Express, which began in 1860, operated for just 18 brief months.

Pony Express riders rode from St. Joseph, Missouri through Utah to Sacramento, California. The Pony Express became outdated by the telegraph.