This Is The Place: A Utah Heritage Park

This post sponsored via US Family Guide.

I received product in exchange for an honest review.

How have I lived in Utah 13 years and not been to one of the most historically educational sites in Salt Lake City?  My family finally took the time to visit This Is the Place Heritage Park  and I'm going to plead with you not to make it such a long time before you take your family to see and do the same thing.

The park is divided into two portions.  Along the drive and looking out over the Salt Lake Valley are monuments dedicated to the memories of the Mormon Battalion and also the day Brigham Young's party first arrived and, while quite ill, announced, "This is the place." This portion of the park is free of charge and a quiet place to reflect on the pioneers who journeyed here in many different ways all those years ago. 

The second portion is Heritage Village.  The entrance fee for the village gives you access to dozens of historical buildings which have either been relocated and restored or replicated.  

Deseret Hospital
Brigham Young felt strongly that women should be able to be attended to by women doctors
and encouraged women to become midwives as a way of serving.

An example of original tongue and groove construction.
This building was so well built that it was moved intact to it's park location.

 The entrance fee also includes activities for the kids.  It wasn't explained very well to us right away, but we finally figured out that each kid can do 3 activities, and they are marked off in a box on the wristbands.  Our boys did scratch art in the old halfway house, took a pony ride, got a taste of apprenticing at the saddlery, and made Native American jewelry.

In addition, many of the buildings have volunteers dressed in pioneer clothing who can answer your questions and give a little history of what the buildings purpose was.  My favorite was the cabin where they taught B how to beat the rugs...that seems like it could come in handy for me one day...

I could not get enough of this little baby who's mother was volunteering that day and had placed him right where he obviously belonged...

A few thoughts from our visit:

• Don't go on a school field trip day...they break up in groups and fill the buildings.  We had to skip quite a few because they were to full to get in to.
• Do buy Brigham's doughnuts.  They're hot and greasy and delicious!
• Don't get discouraged when your wristband boxes are full.  Under 3-yr-olds get to do the activities for free, and we were able to let our kids use the boxes on our wristbands when theirs were full.
• If you have visited historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints you will notice a difference in quality at this park.  While the park focuses primarily on the lives of the Mormon Pioneers, it is not run by the church.  This is a state park and while we were impressed with the facility, there were obvious differences in the quality of displays in the buildings, and especially in the interaction and information from the volunteer "pioneers" compared to official church historical sites.  Not a big deal, but something that did keep popping through my head while we were there.

Now, the real question is, could I have raised these 4 boys in a house this size...