St. George was originally settled by Mormon pioneers prior to Utah even being a state. Therefore, LDS culture and background is woven into the fabric that makes St. George, Utah what it is.
So, it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of neat LDS historic locations and sites in and around St. George, Utah.
A lot of our visitors from northern Utah are LDS. However, a lot of folks that stay with us are from out of state and aren’t as familiar with Mormon locations and history.
So, we thought we’d do a series of blog posts on Mormon landmarks surrounding St. George. Our guests that are LDS may want to visit some of the places they’ve heard about in Sunday School. While our non-Mormon visitors may be curious about the history of and landmarks in the location they’re visiting.
List of Historic Mormon Locations and Sites in St. George, Utah (click on the links for more information):
- LDS Temple and visitors center. The oldest operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
- Brigham Young’s winter home. ” Brother Brigham” may have been the first St. George “snowbird” in addition to leading the LDS church for many years.
- Pine Valley Chapel. The oldest Mormon church meetinghouse that is still in continuous use.
- Jacob Hamblin Home. Jacob Hamlin was a highly regarded peacemaker among the Native Americans of Utah and Arizona during the late 1800’s.
- St. George Mormon Tabernacle. This is where LDS tithing began via President Lorenzo Snow’s speech in 1899.
Here’s some additional locations of interest as well. The polygamists are not members of the LDS church, but are part of Mormon history. The twin polygamous towns of Hildale and Colorado City, highlighted in HBO’s Big Love TV show as “Juniper Creek“, are fairly close to St. George. The Mountain Meadow Massacre, which some LDS members think may be the biggest black-eye in Church history, is also close to St. George. If you drive to Pine Valley, you may want to check it out.
Please leave a comment if you think we’ve missed a Mormon historical location in and around St. George, Utah.
