On July 24, 1847, at the top of Big Mountain Pass, a spot some 17 miles above the site of this monument, Brigham Young, the stalwart Mormon leader, lifted himself up from a sick bed in his wagon to view the Great Salt Lake Valley. After a few moments of deep contemplation, he uttered the prophetic words, "It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on."
          To Commemorate that significant event, the "This Is The Place Monument" was erected. And because the story of the founding of the Great Salt Lake Basin involves the exploits of many others besides the Mormon Pioneers, it will be noted as one examines the massive granite structure that recognition is made to other great historical characters responsible for the exploration and settlement of the Western Empire.

Brigham Young is the middle figure and the great Western Colonizer and first Governor of the Utah Territory.

Heber C. Kimball the figure to your left, a trusted friend and advisor, who was Young's neighbor in Monroe County, New York, at the time they were both converted to the Mormon cause. He worked side by side with Young throughout his life.

Wilford Woodruff to your right, another of the early leaders of the Church. He was noted for his tremendous zeal in missionary work. It was in his wagon that Young rode when entering the valley. Woodruff was selected as the fourth president of the Church in 1887.

Trappers and Fur Traders

          The trappers and fur traders who flowed into the West in the 1820's though in quest of furs, were, of necessity, also explorers. They were the first to report the geography of the Western Empire, General William Henry Ashley, the figure mounted on the horse was one of these. Others surrounding him above, are: Jedediah S. Smith, James Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Robert Campbell, David E. Jackson, Milton and William L. Sublette and Hugh Glass.

The Wagon Trains

          The first wagon train of the Pioneer Company to enter the Valley, July 22, 1847.

          An exuberant "Hosanna" exulted from the lips of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow as they saw the Valley and entered it July 21, 1847. They were the first Latter-day Saints to see or set foot on the future site of Salt Lake City.

(Lost Photo)
First Europeans

          Into the Intermountain Area were the Spanish Explorers who came in and expedition under the leadership of Father Francisco Atansio Dominigus, in 1776. In the party were: Bernard Mieray Pachechok, Pedro Cisneros, Joaquin Lain and Friar Silvestra elez de Escalante who kept a daily diary. They were accompanied by five soldiers whose names appear on the monument placque.

(Lost Photo)
 

         A party of nine horsemen were sent into the Valley to search out the best site for planting potatoes and grain. On the South side of the pylon the five horsemen are: John Brown, George A. Smith, Jesse Little, an unidentified man, and John Pack. On the North are: Orson Pratt, Orin Porter Rockwell, Joseph Mathews, and Erastus Snow.
          Six mighty men of the West are shown individually. 
Etiene Provot (1782 - 1850) is noted as the first white man to explore the valley in the vicinity of surrounding the present site of Salt Lake City in 1825.
Chief Washakie (1804 - 1900) was Chief of the Eastern Shoshones. He was a close friend of Brigham Young and the Mormon people. He was referred to as the "George Washington" of the western tribesman.
Peter Skene Ogden (1794 - 1854) was the intrepid leader of Hudson's Bay Fur Company. From 1825 to 1829, he made expeditions into the West, discovering the Humboldt River in Nevada in 1829.

Captain Benjamin Louis Elalie de Bonneville (1796 - 1878) traveled extensively in the Northwest and on the borders of the Great Basin from 1832 to 1835 in search of furs and to conduct a secret military reconnaissance mission. 
Father DeSmet, S.J. (1801 - 1872) as a Jesuit missionary-explorer became an unofficial goodwill ambassador between Indians and whites and between tribe and tribe.
John C. Fremont (1830 - 1890) conducted the first scientific exploration of the Great Salt Lake in 1843. His report and map, published in 1845, were used extensively by the Mormon Pioneers. This pathfinder, explorer, statesman and soldier led five significant expeditions to the West from the year 1842 to 1854. He was the first to traverse the Great Salt Lake desert directly westward from Great Salt Lake to the site of modern Elko, Nevada. Other expeditions took him through the Great Basin clear to California.

          In 1846 a party of eighty-seven men, women and children left the Oregon Trail near Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and sought a 300-mile shortcut to California by making a new route across the Wasatch Mountains. It was a fatal decision as hardship after hardship overtook the group. Their trail went down Echo Canyon, turned south at Henefer, Utah, and after following East Canyon some fifteen miles, turned westward over Big and Little Mountains. This delay proved fatal when they were forced to camp at Donner Lake because of bad weather, Here, during the winter of 1846-57, thirty-six of their number died from starvation. 

Modern Day View

This is what one sees today from the Monument of The Great Salt Lake City area.