Each Utah marker has its own story

DUP marker No. 1 — "Tooele Pioneers," 520 S. Main, Tooele

On Sept. 2, 1849, the first band of Mormon settlers arrived in the Tooele Valley. Although the area had been previously used as grazing ground for Ezra E. Benson's cows, these folks had come to stay.

Josiah Call, Judson Tolman and Samuel Mecham and their families spent the first night on a little ridge overlooking both the valley and the Great Salt Lake.

They went to Salt Lake for October conference but returned to Tooele, accompanied by John Rowberry, Phineas R. Wright, Cyrus Tolman, Orson Bravett and their families, as well as several other young boys.

Deciding the best place for a settlement was nearer the mouth of the canyon, closer to both wood and water, the little band constructed a seven-room log house. And Tooele was on its way.

In 1934, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers' first official plaque honored these pioneers.

Dr. Emil B. Isgreen, who owned the land where the first campsite was located, had contacted the local DUP camp and offered to donate the land to the city if the DUP would erect a monument.

A "sturdy cement shaft on which had been floated copper concentrates, making it look like granite," was dedicated on Nov. 11, as part of the Armistice Day celebration. "It was a grand day with many speakers and musical numbers," according to local reports.

That monument stood for 66 years, but by the end of the century, it was badly in need of repair. So in 2000, the DUP camp replaced it.

The Broken Arrow Construction Co., under the direction of Stephen Bunn and Sid Hollinger, offered to bring in a huge boulder from its quarry on Stansbury Island. The original plaque was carefully removed from the old monument and remounted on the giant stone.

Words that were spoken at the first dedication were equally pertinent at the second, noted then-DUP president Ora Bridges: "As we gather the roses of their effort, never forget that the pioneers watered the bush with tears; sometimes of sorrow, sometimes of disappointment but always with a trust in God and a determination to win."

DUP marker No. 12 — "Last Camp Site," 5225 Emigration Canyon Road

As the shadows lengthened on the 23rd day of July 1847, a caravan of covered wagons arrived at a "broadening" of the canyon near Last Creek (now Emigration Creek) and set up camp formation.