Pioneer: 2011 Vol.58 No.3

Eagle Gate, which
is at State Street and South Temple,
has changed many times during its
146 [now 152] years of existence.
As the entrance to Brigham
Young’s estate at the mouth of City
Creek Canyon, it is located near
where the pioneers homesteaded
that first summer in 1847.
Consistent with his New
England heritage, President Young
fenced and gated the land for
privacy and also for protection from
City Creek flooding. It was designed
by architect Truman O. Angell and
Hiram B. Clawson.
The original eagle was carved
by Ralph Ramsey and William
Spring from five laminated wooden
blocks and used an actual eagle
that had been found in City Creek
Canyon as its model. The monument
weighed 500 pounds, had
16-foot-wide outstretched wings
and rested upon curved wooden
arches that used 9-foot-high
cobblestone bases as their anchor.
The eagle sat on a beehive and a
star mount.
Large wooden gates closed
the 22-foot-wide opening of the
original Eagle Gate at night. Young
had the Beehive House, Lion
House, private offices, a
flower garden, school, barns,
sheds, greeneries, orchards
and vegetable gardens in
his yard. For many years, the gate
not only marked the entrance to
Young’s property but also to City
Creek Canyon, as the highway was
then the canyon toll road, not State
Street.
Fourteen years after Young’s
death in 1891, the gates were removed
and the street was widened
to two lanes. Soon after, electric
streetcars began traveling the area
and a greater height was needed to
accommodate the overhead wires.
The eagle was then sent back East
to be covered with a layer of copper,
and new supports resting on
stone pillars were added. The gate
was also widened in a new design
by architect J. Don Carlos Young.
It was remodeled another three
times during the next 60
years and eventually became
just wide enough for
four lanes of traffic, but
there was no extra room.
17
On April 18, 1960, a truck
severely damaged Eagle Gate. The
eagle and beehive were removed
later that day. The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, which
owned them, eventually gave the
eagle and beehive to the Daughters
of Utah Pioneers because the
wooden portions had deteriorated
and could not be remounted again.
They are in the DUP museum
today at 300 N. Main.
In succeeding weeks all the
gate structure was removed. A time
capsule dating to 1891 was found
in one of the bases of the old support
columns. For more than three
years, there was no Eagle Gate at
State Street and South Temple.
Architect George Cannon Young,
a descendant of Brigham
Young, began to design a new
frame to support a new Eagle Gate.
Artist Grant R. Fairbanks made
a replica of the original bird out
of bronze, though this one was
larger, with a 20-foot wingspan and
10-foot-long body, and weighed
about 4,000 pounds. The stone
fence near the Lion House was
moved 20 feet west to make room
for a larger five-lane span.
—Deseret News, Friday, Nov. 24,
2006