The Spanish Fork Pioneer Heritage Cemetery

Utah South Company Daughters of Utah Pioneers, in conjunction with the City of Spanish Fork, community donors, and volunteers have reclaimed and restored this hallowed ground in remembrance of the pioneers who persevered through uncommon hardships because they had faith in their God and in their cause.

The pioneers chose this bluff overlooking the river as their sacred burial ground. We reverence the lives of these stalwart settlers who came into a barren land and built on a foundation of faith. Settling a community was arduous, backbreaking work that required unity. They lived in wagon boxes, tents, and dugouts along the river bank. They plowed, sowed crops, herded cattle, irrigated, and built roads and bridges. These pioneers were dependent upon one another for their very survival. When death occurred, they mourned together.

The first settlers arrived in 1850. Their life and death struggles while facing hunger, hostile natives, disease, grasshoppers, and crop failure are heroic and heartrending. Spanish Fork City was chartered, then surveyed in 1855 by Stake President James Chauncey Snow under the direction of George A. Smith, first counselor to LDS Church President Brigham Young. Spanish Fork combined the “upper” and “lower” settlements. The settlers’ lives, deeds, and devotion to the establishment of this community write a powerful chapter in the chronicles of Spanish Fork’s early history. Their valiant examples of strength and courage have left a legacy to be treasured. May this sacred and hallowed ground be a place of rest, reflection, and reverence.

Related:

• D.U.P. Historic Marker #83 (Pioneer Cemetery)
• D.U.P. Historic Marker #557 (Spanish Fork Heritage Cemetery)