George A. Smith, speaking in Salt Lake City in later years, told the people:

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Salt Lake City was built exactly south of Ensign Peak
The peak rises 1,080 feet above the valley floor

Arrive in Valley (Time Scale)

After the death of Joseph Smith, when it seemed as if every trouble and calamity had come upon the Saints, Brigham Young who was President of the Twelve, then the presiding quorum . . . sought the Lord to know what they should do, and where they should lead the people for safety, and while they were fasting and praying daily on this subject, President Young had a vision of Joseph Smith, who showed him the mountain that we now call Ensign Peak . . . and there was an ensign fell upon that peak, and Joseph said, "Build under the point where the colors fall and you will prosper and have peace." The pioneers had no pilot or guide, none among them had ever been in the country or knew anything about it. However, they travelled under the direction of President Young until they reached this valley. When they entered it President Young pointed to that peak, and, said he, "I want to go there." He went up to that point and said, "This is Ensign Peak."

Brigham himself often reminded the Saints that "in the days of Joseph we have sat many hours at a time conversing about this very country. Joseph has often said, 'If I were only in the Rocky Mountains with a hundred faithful men, I would then be happy, and ask no odds of mobocrats.'"

436In the spring of 1847, the wagons of the first company pulled out of Winter Quarters and headed west. Generally they followed a route along the north side of the Platte River. Those going to California and Oregon followed a route on the south side. The road of the Mormons later became the right-of-way of the Union Pacific Railroad and the transcontinental highway.

436As we all know, on July 24, 1847, after 111 days, they emerged from the mountain canyon into the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham Young declared, "This is the right place."

436 - 437 I stand in reverent awe of that statement. They might have gone on to California or Oregon, where the soil had been tested, where there was ample water, where there was a more equable climate. Jim Bridger had warned them against trying to grow crops in the Salt Lake Valley. Sam Brannan had pleaded with Brigham to go on to California. Now they looked across the barren valley, with its saline waters shimmering in the July sun to the west. No plow had ever broken the sun-baked soil. Here stood Brigham Young, 46 years of age, telling his people this was the right place. They had never planted a crop or known a harvest. They knew nothing of the seasons. Thousands of their numbers were coming behind them, and there would yet be tens of thousands. They accepted Brigham Young's prophetic statement.

437Homes soon began to spring from the desert soil. Trees were planted, and the miracle is that they grew. Construction of a new temple was begun, a task that was to last unremittingly for 40 years. From that 1847 beginning to the coming of the railroad in 1869, they came by the tens of thousands to their Zion in the mountains. Nauvoo was evacuated. Its temple was burned by an arsonist, and its walls later fell in a storm. ("'True to the Faith,'" Ensign, May 1997, pp. 65-66.)

Latter-day Saints had endured years of persecution during the . After ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Latter-day Saints had endured years of persecution during the . After being driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, they crossed the banks of the frozen Mississippi River in February 1846. Nearly 15,000 Mormon pioneers traveled some 1,300 miles before reaching their refuge in the Rocky Mountains.

?[The Saints] arrived in the valley on a Saturday,? President Hinckley said. ?They worshipped on the Sabbath, and Brigham Young spoke to them. ? He told them they should not work on the Sabbath day; that if they did so, they would lose five times as much as they would gain.

Going to the Peak

Monday, 26th. Morning cloudy and pleasant. The brethren commenced plowing early, others are gone to planting, etc., and the brethren appear to feel well. Some of the sick have been to bathe in one of the hot springs and pronounce the effects wonderfully beneficial. Others are going this morning to try the same experiment. Another company are gone to make a road to the timber through a ravine a little north of this. About ten o'clock, President Young sent me a horse with instructions to join him and some others going on a short exploring expedition. I immediately started anti found the company consisted of President Young, Elders Kimball, Woodruff, G. A. Smith, Benson, Richards and Carrington. We took a course northward passing by the land where the brethren are plowing and planting. The land indeed looks rich and light. About three-quarters of a mile north of the camp, we arrived on a beautiful table land, level and nicely sloping to the west. Here we halted to view it and the more we viewed, the better we were satisfied that it is as handsome a place for a city as can be imagined. At the east part there is a considerable creek of clear cold water descending from the mountains and just above this place it branches into two forks, one running northwest the other southwest and the two nicely surrounding this place, and so well arranged that should a city be built here the water can be turned into every street at pleasure. We passed on and began to ascend the mountains, the President signifying a wish to ascend a high peak to the north of us. After some hard toil and time we succeeded in gaining the summit, leaving our horses about two-thirds the way up. President Young felt pretty well fatigued when he got up. Some of the brethren feel like naming this Ensign Peak. From this place, we had a good view of the Salt Lake and could see that the waters extend for a great many miles to the north of us. There appears to be land, although white with salt, all the way to the mountain on the northwest which we had previously supposed was surrounded by water.

At the Peak

On 26 July 1847, two days after he declared the Salt Lake Valley the place to settle, Young and seven other Mormon pioneer men climbed what is today Ensign Hill and Ensign Peak.

The men who stood at the summit of Ensign Hill would eventually see the base of the hill become the center point in the .

"The Church leaders essentially laid out the city in their minds," says Richard E. Turley Jr., a Church historian. "Brigham Young had seen the location of the temple from the hill in a vision."

Narrator: President Hinckley

Rising above the Salt Lake Valley is a dome-shaped peak. Brigham Young saw it in a vision before the Saints left Nauvoo. He saw an ensign descend upon the hill and heard the voice of Joseph Smith say, "Build under that point . . . and you will prosper and have peace."

When Brigham Young first arrived in the valley, he immediately recognized the peak. On the morning of July 26, 1847, the men who would eventually comprise the new First Presidency, along with several members of the Twelve, climbed its slopes.

This small group of priesthood leaders gazed out upon the valley below. "This is where we will plant the soles of our feet," President Young said, "and where the Lord will place his name amongst his people."

As I now stand at Ensign Peak and see the valley below, I marvel at the foresight of that little group. These prophets, dressed in old, travel-worn clothes, standing in boots they had worn for more than a thousand miles, spoke of a millennial vision. It was both bold and audacious. It was almost unbelievable.

Here they were, almost a thousand miles from the nearest settlement to the east and almost eight hundred miles from the Pacific coast. They were in an untried climate. They had never raised a crop here. They had not built a structure of any kind.

They were exiles, driven from their fair city on the Mississippi into this desert region of the west. But they were possessed of a vision drawn from the scriptures and words of revelation: "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isa. 11:12).

This great pioneering movement of more than a century ago goes forward with latter-day pioneers. Today pioneer blood flows in our veins just as it did with those who walked west. It's the essence of our courage to face modern-day mountains and our commitment to carry on. The faith of those early pioneers burns still, and nations are being blessed by latter-day pioneers who possess a clear vision of this work of the Lord.

The footsteps that made such a deep impression over the heartland of America make similar impressions in countries across the world--from Belgium to Brazil and France to the Philippines. Step by faithful step, we walk together toward a glorious destiny, building the kingdom of God on earth and preparing the minds and hearts of people everywhere to come unto Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of the world.

435It is imperative that the people of this community, of this state, and of the entire West be reminded of the labors and the sacrifices of those who, at so great a cost, laid the foundations of that which we enjoy today. An awareness of history establishes the very foundation of the better aspects of our culture. . . .

435There have been many movements of epic proportions in the history of mankind that are worthy of remembrance and which we cannot afford to forget. But the migration to this valley before the coming of the railroad is of so vast a scope, involving so many people, and entailing so much of human suffering and sacrifice, that it must ever occupy a unique place in the annals of human history. It has all of the elements of a great epic—persecution, flight into the wilderness, hope, vision, sickness, the unrelenting cruelty of the elements, deaths numbering in the thousands, and final triumph through unspeakable courage and labor. We must never forget those who have gone before. We must never take lightly the price they paid. It is a story not only for the members of the Church of which they were members; it is a story for all the world and for all generations. (Days of '47 Pioneer Luncheon, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 24, 1995.)

446I thought of him last night as we flew smoothly more than seven hundred miles over Nebraska and Wyoming, and reached in my case, took out my Bible, and turned to Joshua, chapter 24, and read these words of the Lord given to an ungrateful Israel:

446"And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat." (.)

446I thought of how appropriately that might be applied to our own generation. You and I live in a marvelous land for which we have not labored, and we dwell in cities which we built not and eat of vineyards which we have not planted. How thankful we ought to be for the magnificent blessings we enjoy. Our society is afflicted by a spirit of thoughtless arrogance unbecoming those who have been blessed so generously. ("How Lucky Can You Be!" BYU Speeches of the Year, October 13

450They were travel-worn, these pioneers. It had taken 111 days to bring them from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. They were tired. Their clothes were worn. Their animals were jaded. The weather was hot and dry, the hot weather of July. But here they were, looking down the years, and dreaming a millennial dream, a grand dream of Zion.

Theirs was a tremendous undertaking. Ours is a great continuing responsibility. They laid the foundation. Ours is the duty to build on it. They marked the path and led the way. Ours is the obligation to enlarge and broaden and strengthen that path until it encompasses the whole earth.

Ensign to all Nations

Isaiah 5:26

26 ¶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

For the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, Ensign Peak and Ensign Hill will again welcome many nations.
Before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, a program is scheduled to take place at the Utah State Capitol Building on Ensign Hill, featuring the Olympic cauldron and torch.
"It is literally from the slopes of Ensign Peak that we are welcoming the world," says Lane Beattie, Utah state Olympics officer. As part of the program, Utah state Governor Michael O. Leavitt will step forward and, on behalf of the state's citizens, extend that welcome.

Ensign Peak overlooked the arrival of an estimated 70,000 Latter-day Saints would make the arduous westward trek — in wagons, pulling or by foot — between 1847 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

On July 26, 1996, near the foot of Ensign Peak a park was dedicated by Presdient Gordon B. Hinckley. He said: "We pray that through the years to come, many thousands of people of all faiths and all denominations, people of this nation and of other nations, may come here to reflect on the history and the efforts of those who pioneered this area. May this be a place of pondering, a place of remembrance, a place of thoughtful gratitude, a place of purposeful resolution."]