“I WANTED TO BE A WORLD-FAMOUS MAGICIAN. I WAS CALLED COWBOY AND CARDSLINGER AT THE RESTAURANT WHERE I PERFORMED MAGIC TRICKS.”
—DIAMOND JIM DAVIS
In July 1847, an ailing Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sat up in the wagon that had carried him across the American frontier. He led a party of 72 wagons, carrying nearly 150 pioneers in search of religious freedom. According to Mormon history and legend, when Young first beheld the Salt Lake Valley, he decreed, “It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on.”
In time, thousands of church members followed, settling in the valley that Young had seen in a vision after leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. On the spot where Young said LDS faithful would “make the desert blossom like a rose,” arose the great city of Salt Lake.
Today, a state park and living history museum known as This Is The Place Heritage Park sprawls over 450 acres on the eastern side of the Salt
