Fielding Garr Ranch

The Fielding Garr ranch, comprising the only remaining historical structures on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, is significant for its association with the settlement and immigration program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Organized in 1849 through the contributions of Mormons already residing in Utah, the Perpetual Emigration Company functioned as the immigration agency for the church in its program for the peopling and settling of Utah. In 1850 the company financed the immigration of some 2,500 British converts to Salt Lake City. Once established in Utah, the newcomers would reimburse the company for their passage, thus creating a revolving emigration fund, called the Perpetual Emigration Fund. The Fielding Garr ranch functioned as the home ranch for the Perpetual Emigration Fund, where cattle were kept which formed a major portion of the fund’s revenue. Payments made to reimburse the fund were often in the form of livestock that were kept and managed on Antelope Island by Fielding Garr. By 1856, the company had brought nearly 56,000 Mormon immigrants from the British Isles and Scandinavia to Utah, forming a most unique private, institutional immigration agency. 1 The Perpetual Emigration Company was dissolved in 1887 by the Edmunds-Tucker Act, but during Its thirty-eight year history, the company aided either directly or indirectly the immigration of over 100,000 persons, of which some 87,000 were from England and northern Europe. 2 The adobe house and outbuildings, erected in 1849-1850^ have been altered, but retain integrity of location, setting, and association. They are among the few structures which continue to .stand from the first decade of Mormon settlement, and are the only remaining historical structures that were directly associated with the important Perpetual Emigration Fund.

The Fielding Garr Ranch is one of the Oldest Homes in Utah, located on Antelope Island in Davis County. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#83004402) on January 21, 1983.

The Fielding Garr House (and ranch complex) is significant among Utah’s historic structures not only because of its age (built in 1849, just two years after the Mormon arrival in Utah and, therefore, one of the oldest houses in the state) and location (built on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake), but also because, in microcosm, it tells much of the story of the early Mormon pioneer period.

Prior to their coming west, the Mormon experience in the states had been one of settlement, growth, conflict with their neighbors and expulsion. .The decision to come to the Great Basin centered on the desire to be left alone to build their Kingdom of .God in an area uninhabited by “Gentiles.” It is no wonder that Utah became the “Gathering Place” from where the call to come to Zion was issued to Mormons everywhere.

One of the obstacles to heeding the call for many converts was the price of immigration. To help converts too poor to pay their own way, the Perpetual Emigration Company was created. Organized in the fall of 1849, contributions from those already in Utah amounted to $6,000 and helped bring “2,500 persons and an undisclosed value of goods” 3 to Salt Lake City. The initial success led to the incorporation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund in 1850. The company, through donations from the settled pioneers, financed the next immigrant party’s trip to Utah. These saints would reimburse the company, once they established themselves in Utah, thus providing capital for another immigration; and so it went year after year. “The accomplishments of the new company,” write two Mormon historians, “have been recognized as unique in the history of immigration.”

By 1856, less than a decade after the arrival of the initial pioneer party, almost 56,000 Latter-day Saints had arrived in Utah.

The Perpetual Emigration Fund charter authorized the company to “own and manage property of all kinds, to carry on banking operations,” as well as other activities. Such a broad charter was necessary in a nascent community where hard currency was in such short supply. Knowing that a large percentage of the contributions were going to be in kind, the islands of the Great Salt Lake–known as Stansburys Island and the Antelope Island were “reserved and appropriated for the exclusive use and benefit of said company, for the keeping of stock, etc.”

In the fall of 1849, a few months prior to the incorporation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund, Mormon convert, Fielding Garr, from Madison County, Virginia, moved the Church stock to the island. There he tended the cattle, sheep and horses until his death in 1855.7 Garr, a widower brought his seven children with him to the Island and there built a five-room adobe house, a rock milk house with a natural spring running through it, and a corral.

During the survey of the Great Salt Lake by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the command of Howard Stansbury in 1850, the Fielding Garr establishment was important as a supply point, especially for the survey of the northern and eastern sections of the lake. After the death of Fielding Garr, Briant Stringham became the ranch foreman. He moved his family to the island and occupied the house built by Garr. Stringham and his sons managed the ranch until his death in 1871.

Since those early days, the house and the island have left the ownership of the Church and gone to private hands, only to be sold to the State of Utah, who now owns it. Through the Division of Parks and Recreation, the island is being developed into a multi-use recreational area. Part of this includes the restoration of the Fielding Garr house and outbuildings as an historic site.

The interpretation of the house and property will emphasize the story of the immigration of Mormon converts to their “Zion” by the Perpetual Emigration Fund and how financing and contributions were made in kind in this very young settlement, creating the need for property to care for the sheep, cattle and horses that were the dollars and cents of the day.

The Fielding Garr house, built in 1849, is an early example of vernacular architecture in Utah. Constructed of adobe brick produced at the site, the house is one-story high and originally consisted of five rooms. The main section, contained under a gently sloping gable roof, is a two-room wide “double-pen” type. The double-pen house with its distinctive two-door symmetrical façade (window-door-door-window) is a traditional type found in many Utah communities during the early years of settlement. The house type is characterized by its two roughly square rooms. The Garr house has large gable-end fireplace chimneys and a lean-to extension containing three smaller rooms on the rear. The original woodwork on the house is intact. During the late 19th century another adobe square room was added to the north end of the house. This room continued the door-window opening pattern of the original house. The decorative trim on the inside of this room suggests a c. 1880 building date.

The Garr Ranch also includes a number of outbuildings:

1. Milk House. This is a small gabled building which stands about 20 feet west of the main house. The upper section is adobe which has been faced with concrete block and there is a stone cellar which is reached through an external stairwell.
2. Springhouse. This gabled structure is built of rubble stone and stands over one of several fresh water springs on the property. Water was directed through the building in small stone channels which served to cool dairy goods and other perishable foodstuffs in the 19th century. The springhouse has an historically incompatible roof which was added in 1980.
3. Barn stable. A large rock stable continues to stand against a large modern storage barn. The old stable undoubtedly used to stand against an open hay barn and has a sloping shed roof.
4. Blacksmith shop. This building has a rectangular plan and a gable roof. It was originally adobe, but is now faced with concrete block and painted white. The blacksmithing equipment of the 19th century remains in the shop.

Extensive remodeling occurred on the Garr house during the 1950-1960 period. A concrete-block addition was added to the north end, one of the two principal windows on the original facade was enlarged by about one-and-a-half feet, and one of the two original doors was closed in. Also at this time the deteriorating adobe was faced on three sides (the north, west, and south sides) with a layer of concrete block about 6 inches wide. In 1980 when the home was acquired by the State of Utah, Parks and Recreation crews removed the stucco from the west facade and shingled the roof with cedar shakes.

Although the historic integrity of the main house and some outbuildings has suffered due to alterations and additions, the ranch complex in general continues to convey important historic qualities, especially as regards to geographical location, setting, and association. Of primary importance is that the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation, current owners, intend to restore the Fielding Garr ranch as a historic site on Antelope Island. This is part of their master plan in developing the island into a multiple-use recreational area. The importance of the site in its historical association and age renders it a prime project for historic preservation.

The nomnated property includes approximately 6.2 acres. This acreage was chosen as the immediate areaof the Garr ranch complex, comprising all buildings, which has been fenced. This boundary will also allow some extra acreage for protective and preservation purposes of the site.