LDS President Hinckley to dedicate Joseph F. Smith Memorial Grove

President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Monday will dedicate the Joseph F. Smith Memorial Grove at This Is The Place Heritage Park.

Gov. Mike Leavitt will attend the 3 p.m. dedication that honors the church’s sixth president, a pioneer who crossed the plains as a 9-year-old boy with his widowed mother, Mary Fielding Smith.

The memorial grove was donated with funds from President Smith’s descendants.

In March, Mary Fielding Smith’s original cabin was moved to a new location within the park near a secluded grove of trees and a pond. Once dedicated, the area will honor the memory of pioneer children who, like President Smith, made the 1,300-mile trek to Salt Lake City between 1847 and 1869.

The Sons of the Utah Pioneers dedicated a monument at the park Saturday. The new monument, called “Angels Are Near Us,” recognizes the participants of the 1997 sesquicentennial re-enactment of the original pioneer trek in 1847.

Both dedications are part of This Is The Place Heritage Park’s first Pioneer Festival, which runs until Monday.

The festival began July 14, and each day there were pioneer games, dancing in the Social Hall, storytelling and pioneer treats. Members of the Utah Quilt Guild hosted quilt shows, and artisans from the Utah Heritage Products Alliance displayed crafts. In the evening, dutch-oven dinners were served and theater performances by the newly re-organized Deseret Dramatic Association were preformed.

The festival will culminate Monday with a free family outdoor concert by Michael Ballam at 8:30 p.m.

This Is The Place Heritage Park is located at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, just north of the Hogle Zoo.