The Smitty Gritty: This is the Place!

Wanting to show Cooper a little about Pioneers, we spent a day at the This is the Place Heritage State Park in Salt Lake City. The park commemorates the spot where the Mormon Pioneers stopped on the foothills of the mountains, overlooking the valley, and the prophet, Brigham Young, announced, "This is the Place," meaning this was the place that God had prepared for his people to establish their own settlements, away from the heartache and persecution (including an extermination order from the governor of Missouri). Since I have ancestors on both sides of my family that crossed the plains as Mormon Pioneers, and since we are also a Mormon family, this place comes from our heritage.

I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and boy has the place changed and improved! We spent most of the day there, and could have easily enjoyed many more hours.

The park is set up like a town might have been back in the mid-1800s. Some of the buildings are original, and have been moved from their original place to the park for preservation, while others are exact replicas of historically significant buildings. I was fascinated by the history, and would have loved to spend the entire day exploring just that aspect of the entire park, but my husband and children wouldn't even entertain the idea of looking at things for historical significance/ education, so we let Cooper decide what activities to do, and in what order. He decided the petting zoo should be first.

Hudson wasn't too sure about petting the animals, but did enjoy running around.

Goat? Meh. Run!

Waiting at the stables for a pony ride.

Woohoo--a real horse to ride!

Coop was like, "I got this. Can you take him off this rope thing and just let me ride all by myself? I know how. I've ridden a horse before." The boy is not lacking in confidence.

After watching Cooper ride, Hudson decided he wanted to give it a try.

Ride 'em, cowboy!

The park is full of men and women dressed as pioneers, doing their regular pioneer duties. There are trades shops like furniture, wool-carding/ spinning to yarn, quilting, a blacksmith, and a saddlery. Our next stop was the saddlery, or leather shop, we learned about how deer or cow hide becomes leather, and then can become a beautiful saddle, etc. Cooper got to experiment with some leather tools.

We eventually made our way up the hill to the train station, where there were some beautiful views of the valley...

...and the mountain foothills.

We had to take a ride on the train.

Choo-choo!

The train is a miniature steam train, which enthralled Cooper, and delighted Hudson.

Some more of the views from the train ride.

I loved looking out over the wide Salt Lake Valley, thinking about the pioneers and what it must have looked like back then, completely unsettled when they arrived, except for the Native Americans.

A beautiful, old, pioneer home. Several of the houses had women working in them, cooking on old stoves, churning butter, working in the gardens, etc. It was neat for Cooper to see (and me too!).

While Cooper and Nathan went ahead to go pan for gold, I took a little side trail down to visit this very small pioneer cottage. It was the original cottage of Mary Fielding Smith, the widow of Hyrum Smith, sister-in-law to Joseph Smith. Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois. She made the trek west with her fatherless children. I loved learning that this was the spot she chose, away from the main town, in a beautiful, quiet spot.

I also could not believe that the TINY house had housed 7 people. The pictures make it look bigger than it was. You can see in the picture above of the cottage from the outside, with the life-size statue near it, how small it really was. I love to see antique furniture from that era, and see how they lived.

I bet there used to be a ladder up to that loft, where many children probably once slept. Such a humble, beautiful home. It seemed a reverent place to me, almost sacred, being off the main path from everything else, down a small trail, like a tucked away treasure. This was my favorite place I was able to visit. Wish I could have visited the 20 or so original pioneer cabins at the park. Another time!

I didn't get any pictures of panning for gold in the stream because wrestling two boys near a stream with lots of mud and wet, slippery rocks was quite enough for me to handle.

Our next stop was the Native American village, where Cooper got to make an arrowhead necklace.

We also got to go inside some old mud Hogans like the Navajos would have lived in. Despite the hot sun, the hogan was nice and cool inside.

We also got to go inside a teepee, like would have been used by the Shoshone tribe in northern Utah.

My boys and the valley below.

Another fun stop was Zions Mercantile Store. We were happy to enter one of the few air conditioned places at the park, and may have let the kids run around a bit too long, trying to cool off before heading outside again.

One of our last stops of the day was watching the Native American dancers, who performed many traditional dances in traditional costume. My favorite was the Piute dancer doing the Prairie Chicken dance, a dance that was done before going to hunt the bird. My other favorite was the hoop dance of the Hopi Indians. The performer was one of the top-ranked in the world, and it was fascinating to watch her maneuver in and out of up to nine hoops at once, in varying formations. Not only did they dance, but they also sang and played the drums for each song/dance. It was truly spectacular.