Sons of Utah Pioneers' Pioneer Village
This page was last updated on March 22, 2008.
Compiled by Don Strack
Back in April 1981 when I was modeling in Sn3, Ed Stimpson and I ventured into Pioneer Village at the Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington, Utah, to shoot some detail photos of the D&RGW boxcar and gondola preserved there. Along with an 8-wheel caboose, they had previously been displayed in Salt Lake City as part of the Sons of Utah Pioneers collection. I don't recall my lack of interest in the caboose. The three pieces of equipmenty sat adjacent to the former Union Pacific Kaysville depot, which was moved to Pioneer Village at the same time (date unknown). There was hope at the time that D&RGW 223 would be moved to the same location from its pad in Liberty Park, but that didn't happen.
If I recall, the boxcar, gondola and caboose at Lagoon were later moved to Ogden, where about 10 years ago, they were burned by a transient's fire.
Does anyone have any information about when the boxcar, gondola and caboose came to Utah in the first place? The above article suggests that it could have been in 1954 when Sorensen expanded the collection.
More info about where the narrow gauge equipment at Lagoon comes from the January 23, 1995 issue of Deseret News:
VILLAGE BEGAN 41 YEARS AGO AT S.L. LOCATION
By Lynn Arave
Pioneer Village hasn't always been at Lagoon. It first came together 41 years ago in Salt Lake City at 2998 S. 2150 East (Connor Street).
Horace A. and Ethel Sorensen were the founders of Pioneer Village. They acquired an extensive collection of old coaches and wagons. Since they were also in the furniture business, they obtained considerable antique furniture. On Oct. 24, 1948, they converted a former roundhouse for American Saddlebred Horses on Connor Street into a small museum. In 1954, they remodeled a large barn to expand their five acres of pioneer exhibits. With the building of the Wanship Dam, east of Salt Lake, the little pioneer village of Rockport was to be inundated. Sorensen moved some of these buildings to his pasture site and with the addition of other old buildings, he soon had almost every kind of shop found in pioneer times.
Two years later in 1956, the Sorensens deeded the entire collection and property to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.
Over the years, the impressive collection suffered from want of funds for adequate maintenance. The deficit ran as high as $5,000 a year.
This deficit occurred - despite the fact that Pioneer Village admission was never free. Admission was 75 cents for adults and 25 cents for children in the early 1970s.
The Sons of the Pioneers considered selling Pioneer Village as early as 1969. It talked with the Utah State Department of Recreation and Lagoon Corporation. By the spring of 1975, it was decided that it would sell the entire pioneer collection to Lagoon for $275,000. Lagoon also paid all moving expenses.
Lagoon was interested in making Pioneer Village an extensive bicentennial project and that's when it opened in Farmington - 1976 - along with the Log Flume ride.
Other research:
Horace Sorensen was national president of the Sons of Utah Pioneers from 1954-56. He was an active collector of Pioneer artifacts and organized a replica Pioneer Village, which he presented to the SUP in 1953. First located in Salt Lake City, the village was later relocated to the Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah. Horace Sorensen received Brigham Young University's "Many Feathers" award. The University of Utah named him "Man of the Year," in 1969.
At the November 6, 1953 meeting of the National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, in which Mr. and Mrs. Horace A. Sorensen presented the property, buildings, and relics of the SUP Salt Lake City museum to the society, it was stated that Mr. Sorensen also spearheaded the movement to obtain the old Sugar House prison property as a site for the erection of a Mormon Pioneer Village. (Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, Number 1, January 1954, Historical Notes, page 88)
Stan Jennings shared some notes of his own research in November 2004:
Howard Freed, in charge of Pioneer Village at Logoon, doesn't know anything about the cars before Lagoon acquired them.
Jeff Terry has been to the SUP for related information, he has nothing. I am going to try the SUP again specifically for information about the cars.
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