Summer treasure: This is the Place – literally – to find a golden adventure with plenty of activities
Grace and Caleb Eyre pan for "gold" ? pyrite or fool's gold ? in Wagoner Springs at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. Photo by Jessica Eyre/Utah Adventurer
Children pet the goats at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. Photo by Jessica Eyre/Utah Adventurer
Caleb Eyre walks along the boardwalks at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. Photo by Jessica Eyre/Utah Adventurer
The past couple of years, I found myself at This is the Place Heritage Park during Christmastime, visiting with street carolers and Father Christmas, making crafts and getting an up-close look at a live reindeer.
It occurred to me that I hadn’t been to the park in the summertime since I was a teenager, planting trees as part of a service project for the sesquicentennial celebration of the state of Utah. So I loaded up my three kids and we headed out to live like the pioneers.
This is the Place Heritage Park is at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, in the area where Brigham Young is purported to have said that “this was the right place” for the Mormon pioneers to settle. The non-denominational park is set up like a village, with homes, a school, social hall, stores and businesses that would have made up a 19th century Western settlement.
There are things that are just as I remembered, like the blacksmith shop with an actual blacksmith doing demonstrations using materials and techniques from the mid-1800s. Petting the animals — sheep, goats, rabbits, horses — was a big hit with my small children. Trying to get the goats to eat hay out of their hands sparked a sense of adventure in my children. I spent my time trying to keep a nosy goat from eating my stroller and baby blanket.
We decorated pieces of leather, the kids rode on a pony, and we took refuge for a while in the air-conditioned ZCMI. OK, OK, so the pioneers didn’t have air-conditioning, but we appreciated the reprieve from the hot August sun beating down on the dirt roads and boardwalks of the village.
When the train showed up across the street, we hopped aboard to the Native American area. There we made arrowhead necklaces and sat inside a hogan, which is a circular house made of wood and mud. Also in this area is a shrunken replica of the Ship Brooklyn, which took a group of pioneers from New York, around South America and up to what is now San Francisco over the course of six months. With my 2-month-old in a stroller, I didn’t go inside the ship, but my 5- and 3-year-old spent a good amount of time playing inside the belly of the ship.
Next to this exhibit, visitors can pan for “gold” in Wagoner Springs, a small creek that runs on the property. Sifting through sand and small rocks, kids eagerly looked for pyrite or “fool’s gold,” tiny rocks with gold flecks throughout. Kids can keep five pieces, and trade in the rest for a prize. Sitting next to the small creek, it was cool and shady, and the kids had a blast — especially elementary-aged kids who had clearly learned about panning for gold in school.
Newly opened is the Walk of Pioneer Faiths exhibit, which is located by Brigham Young’s pink farmhouse. The exhibit honors the other religions that contributed to the settling of the West, including the Catholic Church, Jewish congregation Kol Ami, First Congregational Church, Episcopal Church, First United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church and Greek Orthodox Church. The exhibit is an outdoor stroll, with monuments telling of the beginning of these faiths in Utah.
Also new this year, Brigham Young’s home has been refurbished. The park has events throughout the year. Up next is Voices of the Civil War, today and Saturday.
If You Go
This is the Place Heritage Park
Where: 2601 E. Sunnyside Ave., Salt Lake City
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Visitor Center open until 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Admission: Monday-Saturday, adults $10; seniors, children 3-12 $7; kids 2 and younger are free. Admission includes a combination of any three of the following: take-home craft, pony ride, mini-train ride. Additional activities are $1 per craft or ride. On Sunday, adults are $5, Seniors and children $3.
Upcoming events: Voices of the Civil War, today and Saturday; Haunted Village, Oct. 12-31; Little Haunts, Oct. 20-22.
Info: (801) 582-1847, www.thisistheplace.org