SALT LAKE CITY — The 200th birthday of Brigham Young will be celebrated in a variety of events in Utah and other states. Brigham Young, born 1 June 1801, is revered by millions as a prophet and by historians as a key figure in the settlement of the American West.
On 1 June 2001, Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will host a celebration in the historic Tabernacle on Temple Square with performances by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. President Hinckley will speak along with Tom Williams, a descendant of Brigham Young. The event will begin at 7:30pm. Standby tickets are available at the Conference Center, door number 4.
Other events include a Pioneer Day Celebration at Brigham Young's birthplace in Whitingham, Vermont, on 21 July, and a special exhibit by the Whitingham Historical Society entitled "Brigham Young: From Whitingham to the World." An exhibit of historic Brigham Young Correspondence and Church documents will also be on display at the Duke University Special Collections Library in Durham, North Carolina.
Brigham Young is perhaps best known for leading tens of thousands of Mormon pioneers to the Great Salt Lake Valley beginning in 1847 — the largest mass exodus in American history. Brigham Young's influence on the nation's 19th-century westward movement and colonization have prompted historians to call him the American Moses and the Great Colonizer. By the time of his death, he was credited with settling some 350 to 400 colonies.
Stephen E. Ambrose, author of "Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869," wrote this of Young, "He was the perfect man to say to his brethren, when they were a thousand miles away from any settlement, 'This is the place' and make it into a garden."
Ambrose also wrote, "He was a man noted for his firmness, intelligence, fairness, decisiveness, good looks, and ability to put the long-term interests of those in his charge ahead of their short-term gain . ... He quite possibly might have been a president of the United States, and, depending on the time, a good or even a great one."
It's no surprise, then, that Young, who was appointed governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of Utah Territory by United States President Millard Fillmore, was a dynamic political leader.
A champion of new technology, he contracted for and assisted in building telegraph and railroad lines. Young also established a broad range of industries and businesses to develop local resources and benefit area residents, including America's first department store, Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution.
A heroic-size bronze statue of Brigham Young stands in the rotunda of the Utah State Capitol. So vast were the accomplishments of the prophet-colonizer-pioneer-statesman that sculptor Kraig Varner found it a challenge to visually capture the man. Varner wrote, "Brigham Young had a reputation as a man of action and indomitable will. ... I realized that nothing in my sculpture of Brigham Young could be static."
Varner's work portrays a clean-shaven Brigham Young in the prime of his life boldly striding forward, his coat flapping open in the wind of his own fearless motion.
President Hinckley has observed that the statue speaks "of a most remarkable leader's vision to see and faith to do, no matter how great the task or how difficult the obstacle."
