(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) Saturday, November 27, 2021, at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East.

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The early Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young was no stranger to controversy during his lifetime, and more mystery and controversy arose in his cemetery these days.

Church historians revealed this summer that the 144-year-old Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 East East of First Avenue has been plagued by a series of illegal intrusions, vandalism and littering in the past two years, prompting increased security patrols and Create a new light.

History followed several twists and turns, including disappearing fences and the discovery of dozens of unmarked tombs.

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) An aerial view of the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East on Saturday, November 27, 2021.

Church officials reported that the night invaders painted "racist" on Yang's tombstone, while others dug holes, lighted fires, stole the tombstones, and even overthrew Yang Tong, a famous pioneer and prophet of the Church of Jesus. Christ, like Latter-day Saints, has been buried there since 1877.

Even with increased surveillance, intruders and predators from nearby still jumped over the lower part of the historic fence, which slopes along the sides of the property, which is part of the increase in the number of intruders from other historical locations.

"Sadly, this is a cemetery, and these things are happening," Gregory Green, the project manager in charge of the church site, told the city's historic landmark committee in July. "Our ultimate goal is to protect this historic sacred place."

(Tribune file photo) Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Like the Temple Square and the granite spire one block to the west, the one-third acre border cemetery is being renovated. As part of the overhaul of its stone roads, walls, and aging trees, the church’s historical conservationists applied for approval from the city government in April to increase the height of the 32-inch decorative wrought iron fence around the cemetery, which is also known as the moat. The monument to the pioneers of discipleship.

Although the Brigham Young Family Cemetery is now surrounded by houses and apartments, it is still designated as a historical landmark and belongs to the city’s Avenue Historic District. This gives the committee the authority to make proposed changes, including any changes to the iron fence and other key features of historical significance.

The review by the City Hall brought a second revelation.

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) An aerial view of the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East on Saturday, November 27, 2021.

The curator of the church and historical preservation expert Emily Ute told committee members that ground penetrating radar imaging at the cemetery before the renovation had detected as many as "more than 40" graves, while only 11 had been marked before.

"We don't want to bump into anything," Ute told city officials in the summer. "We are doing our best to avoid this."

There is no public mention of further exploration of the tomb. As of last week, a small construction worker is rebuilding the cemetery at full speed. Most of the previous stone sculptures were broken and stacked on both sides before being demolished. The marked cemetery was sealed off with orange fences behind the 6-foot-long chain link perimeter.

Utt and the church’s public affairs office did not respond to the Salt Lake Tribune’s inquiries about the known conditions of the additional graves and whether the plaque at the location could be modified based on radar findings.

(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, via Salt Lake City) Looking north from the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East in Salt Lake City-as seen before the landscape renovation that began in November 2021. This small tree-lined cemetery surrounded by houses and apartments is immersed in the early history of Mormonism, and some new mysteries are being produced.

Historical records indicate that this land once belonged to Young, who led the LDS church for more than 30 years after the death of its founder Joseph Smith, and served as the Governor of Utah from 1850 to 1858.

Although it is now hidden by South Temple’s Brigham Apartments, this meadow once provided a magnificent view of the Salt Lake Valley. The church leader, nicknamed "American Moses" and the most famous polygamist in the United States, is said to be buried in a corner of the parcel a few feet away from his strawberry garden.

The family cemetery is also at least four of Yang’s 55 polygamists (including Marian Angel, Lucian Decker, Eliza R., according to the description of the early church, Joseph Angel Young and Alice Young Clausen.

(Photo courtesy of the Church History Library) Portrait of Eliza R. Snow (Charles W. Carter), circa 1875.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a retired Harvard historian who specializes in early Mormonism and the multi-marriage of the faith, said that the extra graves in the cemetery were "extremely "Impossible" belongs to Yang's other wives.

Ulrich pointed out that although this Latter-day Saint leader’s extended family has survived him for many years, many of these multiple spouses married other people and moved to other places long after Yang died.

"There is reason to be a little skeptical," she said, "the idea that they will eventually gather in one place."

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) In late November 2021, the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East in Salt Lake City began a new phase of renovation work. As we all know, the place where Brigham Young and several family members were buried .

Ulrich said these tombs may be the graves of pioneer children or others who lost their lives in the hardships on the border. Over time, their tomb markings disappeared, noting that the grave monuments of early settlers were often unstable.

"There are many ways to consider the site," she said.

Researchers at Brigham Young University, which is owned by the church, also performed ground penetrating radar scans at other locations important to Mormon history, including Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois, mainly to locate old buildings.

Utah State University announced in August that it plans to apply imaging technology to 150 acres of land around an indigenous boarding school outside Panguitch. Utah tribal leaders and historical experts believe that the bodies of Payute children are likely to be buried there.

Documents indicate that Latter-day Saints built a low sandstone retaining wall that still surrounds Brigham Young’s cemetery sometime in September 1877, a few weeks after Brigham Young’s funeral.

In the 1880s, they added decorative wrought iron fences to the stone walls and similar fences around Young's tomb, all of which were designed and manufactured by William J. Silver, a successful steel plant operator in Salt Lake City.

In 1974, the cemetery was rebuilt as a memorial to the pioneers of Mormonism who died while trekking west to Salt Lake City. The original landscape of grass and small trees in the cemetery was transformed. It was overhauled again in 1999 to restore the tombstone and add several sandstone paths.

(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passing through Salt Lake City) A historic wrought iron fence that was once located on the stone wall of the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 East First Avenue in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young’s cemetery has undergone a series of destruction and incursions, but the city rejected a new security plan to increase the height of the historic fence until the church staff demolished it at the end of November, violating the city’s order.

Earlier this year, most of the church’s most recent round of improvements to the cemetery were approved by the city government, including strengthening sandstone walls, repairing some fences, and replacing paving, lamps, sprinkler systems, and some old trees.

However, due to concerns about the surge in vandalism and changes in attitudes towards monuments to other controversial historical figures and events, raising the iron fence has almost linked the city and church officials.

In late November, several monuments depicting members of the Mormon camp in San Diego’s Presidio Park were defaced with graffiti, condemning "colonists" and "white supremacy."

Members of the Salt Lake City Historic Landmarks Committee also pointed to the long-term attacks on Native American petroglyphs and hieroglyphs in southern Utah, some of which are now protected by plexiglass.

"I don't think the aggression against this site will go away," member Babs De Lay, also a real estate agent in Salt Lake City, said of Young's cemetery. "I want to help them protect this at all costs, but I don't have any suggestions other than the suggestions they are making now."

"This is all our history," De Lay said.

(Historical photo, from Salt Lake City) A photo of Brigham Young's cemetery in Salt Lake City circa 1885. The decorative wrought iron fence around the cemetery and the similar fence of Yang's tomb are considered by the city to be of vital importance to the historical significance of the cemetery-in late November 2021, these two roles were used by the staff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Before removal.

So far, the historical preservation expert panel has rejected two proposals to subtly raise the old iron pieces around the cemetery to between 5 and 9.5 feet depending on the location, on the grounds that the wrought iron originals are a key feature of the historical look and feel of the site.

In July and September, members struggled to protect the cemetery from further damage while retaining its historical characteristics of competing interests.

"Which one are we going to advocate more vigorously?" The then commissioner Victoria Petro-Eschler was once elected as a city council member, and she asked her colleagues this question. "It feels like we were asked to cut the baby in half."

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) A bust of the early Mormon leader Brigham Young, located at the Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East in Salt Lake City. According to reports, the intruders set fire, dug holes, stole tombstones, and stained a plaque on the cemetery with the term "racist."

Utt and other church officials played two separate designs that temporarily welded new similar-looking wrought iron bars to the bottom of the existing fence, and then connected the higher structure to the stone wall.

Utt said this approach will improve safety while retaining the basic historical characteristics of the fence.

Ute told city officials: “Raising the fence is indeed the best option to prevent those who want to destroy the property from leaving after get off work.” “If you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it.”

Utt believes that the proposed changes comply with city regulations and can also be easily undone. If a better way to prevent illegal intrusion occurs, the original fence can be restored. She also mentioned that the city has allowed a 6-foot fence around the historic Salt Lake City Cemetery (also on the Boulevard) and Olivet Mountain (1342 E. 500 South).

But after giving up and making a request in July, committee members rejected the second set of fence designs and other safety upgrades in September, saying that increasing the height of the iron perimeter would have a negative impact on its historical integrity.

According to the city planner’s final report, these changes “have no historical basis and may be interpreted as creating a false sense of history or architecture.”

The church officials filed a formal appeal with the city administrative judge, but it was rejected at the end of November.

Then, sometime around Thanksgiving, the builders working for the church removed the fence and the smaller fence around Yang’s white tombstone from the cemetery and took them to an undisclosed location, which violated the city. The command.

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake City Tribune) An aerial view of Brigham Young Family Cemetery at 140 First Avenue East, Salt Lake City, taken on Saturday, November 27, 2021.

City planner Amy Thompson (Amy Thompson) said that the move surprised city officials, who subsequently initiated enforcement actions against the church. If they do not remedy it, they may be fined. Thompson said church officials reported that they had misunderstood the city's approval for other work in the cemetery, even though its written order specifically prohibited the removal of the fence.

A church spokesperson issued a statement last week acknowledging that its staff had begun to repair the historic stone walls of the cemetery, upgrade the lighting and perform other maintenance work.

The statement said that the historic wrought iron fence around the cemetery "has been carefully dismantled and temporarily stored outside the site for safekeeping." "It will be restored and reinstalled as part of the project."

Thompson said that according to reports, the church plans to soon submit a new application to change the location, opening another chapter in Brigham Young’s historic final resting place.

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