The March and Achievements of the Mormon Battalion are worthy of celebration in an enduring form that shall perpetuate the memory of them to future generations. This has been recognized for many years and the idea of such a memorial has been kept alive in the community by a women's organization known as the Daughters of the Mormon Battalion, composed of direct female descendants of the men of that organization. Of late years the interest has taken on a wider scope, until now the whole state of Utah and the surrounding intermountain states have become awakened to the duty of properly commemorating by a Monument, this unique event in the history of our country and of the Utah pioneers.
The State of Utah Mormon Battalion Monument Commission.—This awakened sense of duty led to the creation of the State of Utah Mormon Battalion Monument Commission, by the twelfth legislature of the State of Utah. It is instructed to proceed with the erection of a monument upon the capitol grounds to commemorate the important contribution made to the early settlement of the state of Utah and the western portion of the United States by the Mormon Battalion.
The appointment of this commission and the mandate given to it were the sequence of an act of the previous legislature (the eleventh), which had appointed a former commission of seven citizens to investigate the subject of such a monument, choose a site for it upon the capitol grounds, select a design and report to the legislature next succeeding. Accordingly a site was selected, a competition held in which the architects and the sculptors of Utah and also of the United States were invited to participate, and in which prominent sculptors and architects from the whole country did participate, submitting plans and models of their designs, from which a committee composed of Utah's prominent artists and architects selected three as winning first, second and third places, respectively, and to which were awarded cash prizes as per terms of the competition. Acting upon the judgment of this committee the design accorded first place was recommended by the Monument Committee to the twelfth legislature and an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars asked for, not to be available, however, before 1920, and only when a like amount of money should be raised from other sources.
The report of the first committee resulted, as before stated, in the appointment of the present Commission, the making of the aforesaid appropriation of two thousand dollars additional for contingent expenses, and authorizing procedure with the work.
Mr. G. P. Riswold, the successful sculptor in the competition, associated with Messrs. James R. M. Morrison and Mr. Walker, architects, Chicago, Illinois, were notified of the action of the legislature. The following spring Mr. Morrison of the firm of the sculptor and associated architects, being in Salt Lake City, and meeting with some members of the Commission volunteered the making of a larger model of the design submitted by Mr. Riswold. This model has been inspected by a special committee appointed by the Utah State Commission and finally adopted by the full Commission as the accepted design and model of the monument to be erected on the Capitol grounds.
Description of the Monument.—The written report of Mr. Samuel C. Park, formerly mayor of Salt Lake City, made on behalf of the committee that went to Chicago to inspect the model, to the Utah State Mormon Battalion Commission—may well be taken for a description of the Mormon Battalion Monument that it is proposed to erect on the capitol grounds:
"To the Chairman of Members of the Mormon Battalion Monument Commission:
"As a member of your subcommittee delegated to go to Chicago to inspect the model of the proposed Mormon Battalion Monument, I have the honor to report:
"* * * The base is in triangular form with concave sides and rounded corners.
"A bronze figure of a Battalion man is mounted upon the front corner. Flanking him on two sides of the triangle are cut in high relief, on the left, the scene of the enlistment of the Battalion under the flag of the United States of America; on the right a scene of the march where the men are assisting in pulling the wagons of their train up and over a precipitous ascent while still others are ahead widening a cut to permit the passage of the wagons between the out-jutting rocks.