JULY 24th IS PIONEER DAY!

Pioneer Day
Steven L. Olsen
Utah History Encyclopedia

The first company of Mormon pioneers, led by Brigham Young, officially entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on July 24, 1847. For Latter-day Saints, this event has come to signal the founding of a new homeland.

Mormon pioneers first honored this new beginning in 1849. The observance consisted of a procession which led Brigham Young from his home to a bowery on Temple Square. Under the bowery, Young presided over a devotional. The celebration ended with a thanksgiving feast.

From these beginnings, Pioneer Day (also called Covered Wagon Days, Days of `47, or simply July 24th) has grown into one of the largest regional celebrations in the United States. Salt Lake City remains the center of this observance, but the founding of a Mormon homeland is annually commemorated throughout the Mormon Culture Region.

Pioneer Day was celebrated as a birthday, an independence day, and a thanksgiving day for Mormons. During the celebrations, major social groups (based on age, gender, marital status, occupation, residence, and ecclesiastical or civic position) interacted. Customary activities—including parades, devotionals, sporting events, feasts, dances, excursions, and reunions—also often served to remind the Saints of the religious foundations of their group identity.

ZCMI at the time of Statehood celebration in 1896

For the 1897 jubilee the Mormons were celebrating not only the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers, but also the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, Utah statehood, and the virtual end of anti-polygamy persecutions. The details and activities of the celebration reinforced Mormonism's security about its past and confidence about its future.

In larger cities the celebration is seen as a means of coming together and celebrating the society that has been built by Mormons and non-Mormons alike. Though to Mormons the celebration may always bring to mind the pioneers of 1847, to the society as a whole the day is one to celebrate the building of the society by "pioneers" of many eras and backgrounds.