This is the place for all pioneers

If there is any public place in Utah tied most directly in the public consciousness with LDS pioneers, This Is the Place Heritage Park would loom large on the list.

But plans are under way to expand the focus of the privately owned historical park to include a replica of one of the first Catholic churches to be built in the Beehive State, thanks in part to the owner of a controversial waste-disposal company. The effort is the first of similar initiatives that will seek to include representation of many faith communities whose history is entwined with the settlement of the Utah Territory.

Randon Wilson, chairman of This Is the Place Foundation, told the Deseret Morning News that the effort to expand the park's depiction of early Utah history beyond Latter-day Saint settlers has come about in part because of a "substantial" donation by Khosrow Semnani, owner and CEO of Envirocare of Utah. Semnani's business includes importing low-level radioactive waste to Utah, and he has become a controversial figure in political and legislative circles.

His donation has, in part, funded creation of the Center for the Preservation of Utah's Cultural and Religious Heritage, Wilson said. Rather than being an actual building or location, the center will become a functioning component within the Heritage Park's existing structure.

"The buzzword would be diversity," Wilson said, referring to the mission of the center, which brings much-needed funding to the nonprofit Heritage Park.

While acknowledging that Semnani is "a controversial guy," Wilson said he's grateful that "he and his people saw the wonderful benefit to our park and to our state of having this center."

Wilson and Bishop George Niederauer of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City met recently at the park to select the site for a scale model of Eureka's St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The building, constructed in 1885, and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Park City are the two oldest continuously functioning parish sites in the state.

Bishop Niederauer said local residents may be more familiar with St. Mary's, but that building has burned down twice in its history, while St. Patrick's has remained in continuous use since its construction.

"They feel that will represent the Catholics coming to Utah and think it's the more easily replicated of the buildings," he said. "For one thing, they have the original building to draw on. In a sense, Park City gets more attention than Eureka does, so it's probably a good idea."