It was in 1849 that welch pioneers came to the valley and they sang in harmony and welch. They decided you need to be the nucleus. It started in 1849. They used to sing in the tabernacle. When that was too small they started building this particular building which was in the late 1860s. It was completed at the end of the civil war. The tabernacle here has been the home of the choir ever since. As we had voisitors come one of the things they first noticed is the organ. It is right there and has been accompanying since the organ was put in. It has been around even longer. This is older than the temple itself. The oldest thing inside is this organ case. These gold pipes next to me here have looked down on decades and decades of history. So a lot of history in this organ case and in the building. The soupd of the tabernacle organist is really unique. This ceiling does a remarkable ceils of projecting the soupd no the back of the room. It is like a warm bath when you hear this organ play. When you hai sit on this befrmn huge wall of sound going over me and out into the room. I have been here 23 years now and im still thrilled as much as i was the first time i heard them. One great story has to do with helen keller who was here in the early 19 hundreds and spoke at the pulpit behind where im seated here, if you can call it speaking. We know she was deprived of her eyesight and learned to speak if a very guttural voice. She gave a presentation to a packed house. They asked if there was anything she would like. The organist came and played come come thee saints. They placed her hands on the wood of the case and the person said she just wept as she felt the throbbing of the great instrument and the pipes playing the song the pioneers had played. There is something unique about this choir that comes across to audiences. I think its a combination of things. Its not just how well trained they are and how professional they are. I think its their sincerity about their message. When they turn to the audience to sing god be with you until we meet again i see tears in the eyes of the people out there. I know the stories of the choir members. I know what they are going through in their families and they are singing from the heart. It comes across when the audience hears them sing. Young was the second president of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. He was living in a Little Community called mendon. When the First Missionaries went out carrying the book of mormon one of the first places they went was to mendon. They talked to his brotherinlaw and he was introduced to it through family relationships. He did not immediately take. He was interested but it took him two years of study and talking to missionaries before he was committed and baptized a member. Once he joined the church he was a fully devoted member. When he is committed to something he is committed whole heartedly. He took many small roles and responsibilities. Young was one of the men that was selected to be an apostal. He took on the Important Role of testifying for christ. In many ways to leave the church. That form of apostals became more and more important in the leadership of the church. Now, there were others. This is a very difficult time for church members, a very confusing time. They with respect even sure we should have another profitable church. How could you replace a man like joseph smith . Young, who is the one that got to majority of the saints, who gathered the majority of the saints together. He was a very interesting man. He was a great leader. There are interesting things about him. He tended to lead by example. If youre going on a trip he is at the forefront. If you to dig out of a mud hole he is the first one there with a shovel. He was just very very capable. He was able to envision a future, envision what they needed to do and how to get it done. I think more than anything else he was also an individual who had a deep spiritual core to him. There were a number of people when he spoke at a very highly contested meeting who said as he was speaking he started to look like joseph smith. They felt that that was a sign that a mantle of leadership young was sustained. That mains he was proposed by the form and the membership voted to sustain him. In 1847 he lead a group of 143 men rn men, three women and two children. They were paving the way. They were finding the best route. They were sent here to find a way and get things started. Once they established and got family settled young and many of the men turned around and went back to the Missouri River because there were approximately a little over 12,000 people who were still waiting there to come. So he went back to help organize the rest of this migration that was going to come more than a thousand miles. The ultimate goal for all of the territory at the time was to establish what the latter day sapts referred to as zion. It was a community that was meant to be a religious city. It was mept to have equality and peace and love. They felt like they needed to lay out this order system where the streets are uniform. It is laid out according to the heart. They were really about trying to build the community of god. Most of the territory officials would be outsiders. They were brought from various places around the United States. So there was a great clash between young and the mormons and these outside territory ya officials. Some were scoundrels. He was used to running things his way. When they came in he wupt as open to working with them. He went ahead and the money for the treasury got here long before the actual treasurer got here. He was spending the money and all of these conflicts started to arise. If youre to say what are the real kind of challenges . I think it is that he was very kind spoken. He said exactly what he thought. He was not one to play political games. When he doesnt get along with the territory officials abdomen then word gets back to d. C. And complaints you just have conflict starting to build and tension building. The president of the United States sent an army to utah, utah expedition, about 3,000 soldiers, to put down the mormon rebelli rebellion. They came into the Salt Lake Valley. They were prepared at the time that if they were attacked they were going to burn their houses. There was a man standing in front of this house ready to burn it to the ground. The army passed through and set up a port south of salt like city. Yu young was relieved of his duties. One was the reports of polygamy. That was disturbing to many people. Also the mormon tendency towards controlling local politics. There were no Political Parties here or there was one political party. It was all part of the church government. All of the other leaders had roles. Thats very concerning to the federal government. Young is probably most well known. It was a doctrine which was revealed by joseph smith. When young was first taught that concept it was very difficult for him to accept. Hell later recall that he looked out the window and saw a hearse carrying a body to the cemetery and he wished he was in the coffin. Over time he came to accept that doctrine and practiced it and became one of the most widely known practitioners of that doctrine. You have to understand the concept which is that people can be sealed for this life. If youre sealed you can also be sealed for eternity. Another option is just to be sealed for eternity. That means that marriage will be continued into the next life. Many were married. He had probably about 24 wives that were wives that he considered. He can argue about what it all means. The idea of salvation was really the core thing that motivated him. You look at his sermons and over and over again he was constantly encouraging and some times b getting people to get on their knees and repent. We dont have a lot of stories about yuoung as a father. Another daughter told a story about how she was out in the stable with her father and a man left the saddle ton floor and it was getting kicked around and dusty. He had a quick temper and a quick tongue. So he chewed out the stable hand who left that there. He stomped in the house. He wept in his bedroom and slammed the door. She could hear him saying brigham, get on your knees and repept. Get on your knees now. Seeing those glimpses helps you get a 2k3w4ri6r78s of how he fe important he felt personal behavior was and how much he yearned of having the accept taps of his father in heaven. He lied in the lion house here in salt liake city. He had been declining for a number of years. At one point he had to have all of his teeth pulled and he wore dentures. So theres no real assurety of what took his life. Young left very strict instructions so if he baptwante he wanted to be comfortable. He wanted a pillow urnder his head. He was finally going home. It was to a Small Cemetery on his own estate. Young remains one of the most influential people in American History because of his vision for what could be built here in the American West it is idaho, nevada, arizona. They spread far and wide and build important infrastructure. He had that vision that brought tens of thousands of people here to the American West to establish these mormon communities and to build a society that was striving to be as christian as they could possibly be. Youre looking at a photograph of woodruff, arguably the most important historian of the first century. Woodruff was a very good journal keeper. He kept journals from the time he joined the church in 1833 and continued keeping them up until his death in 1898. This is his very first journal and it shows you how meticulous he was in his journal keeping. He would spend as much as an hour a day writing in his journal. Here is the industry for his marriage date. He decorated it with things to make it look almost like a little marriage certificate by itself. At the end of his journal he kept statistical acould wacount what happened to him in a given year. Table for 1837 summarizing his life during that period. It tells how many miles he traveled, how many letters he wrote. It was a statistical tabulation. I blessed two children. I wrote 30 letters. I received 13 letters. He kept up this kind of journal keeping his entire life in the church, a period of 65 years. Some of the industries are very poi poignant. He was there after smiths death in 1844. In 1846 the church completed the temple. They devoted an enormous amount of time and effort became a symbol of the great sacrifices they had given. Woodruff made an entry in his jourm. He said i looked upon the temple and city as i retired from it and failed to ask the already to preserve it as a monument. It think its very poignant. He is asking god to protect him as a monument to his peoples sacrifice. The importance is they are the buildings in which they perform ceremonies that they believe will lipg Families Together for eternity. He crossed iowa and in 1847 the following year he crossed the great plains of north america into the great basin and reached the salt like valley. When he reached the Salt Lake Valley he was traveling with young. In his skbrournl for that time period he makes a note of the impression that he and young had. He says president young expressed his full sats faction in the appearance of the valley as a resting place for the saints. He says while we contemplated that in not many years that the house of god would essentially be built here in this valley. So having left their temple the memt th moment they eptntered, they are already calculating. They arrived on july 24th. It was a saturday. On sunday they paused to worship. On monday they climbed a nearly peak. On that peak they got a look at that valley. And then young went down into the valley. He put his cane into the ground and said here will be our new temple location. Woodruff was there on that occasion and took a stake and drove it into the ground. In 1853 they finally began construction and it took them 40 years to complete. In the meantime the peculiar form of marriage became an object of across the country. It is largely because it wasnt enforced and they believed the law was unconstitutional, that it violated their civil rights. Come bieped with the laws were Supreme Court decisions saying no. These laws are constitution that. They were forced to a voice. He essentially records a document that he released in september of 1890 beginning the ending of that practice. This is the journal in which he recorded that. So urnder the date he recorded n red ink official declaration. So official declaration. He copies into his journal a document that was released and later called the manifesto. It started the ending of plural marriage in the church. The most important was this language which basically says i here by declare my intepntion t submit to thouse laws and to hae them do likewise. Thats the operative language. As i mentioned, it Department End immediately. People who made marriage covenants continued to support them. The number of new marriages began to decline between them and a period of roughly 14 years until 1904 when there was a second manifest toe issued. After that they dropped out considerably. And the fact not om is it prohibited in the church but anyone found practicing is from the church. That decision to choose the preservation of the temples, he fell inspired to say if things continued to go the way they were they would make it impossible to have to ceremonies that would join Families Together forever. He and the members of the church were able to complete the salt like temple. When they finished the exterior they had a ceremony which they put the angel statue over on the capstone. There were 50,000 on the temple grounds. So this was a huge public event to that point. So here later they completed the temple and dedicated it. From that time to the present it has undergone a number of remodellin remodellings. It is the exterior you see today. This is a photograph of woodruff and his wife. He was a man who had piercing eyes. All of the photographs show eyes of a man who seemed to be able to look through people. He was a very jegentleman. Woodruff was in many ways the most important historian. He was the most important historian because he experienced many of the churches events. He recorded these events in his journal off spending a tremendous amount of time doing that. It was this journal on his part that causes us today to be able to climb deep into these events. Its the only mission that has continuously operated as a church from the founding to the presented day. The group of indians came from the area north of malibu to south month rerey county. They inhabited this area inland. When they established this mission there were pretty good relationships going on. That deteriorated over time as the populations dwindled. More and more came from the later mexican government. They were very very welcoming. They enjoyed trade. It grew because there was more and more restrictive life. They had more laws and rules that were problematic to them. They were being cut off for many of their hunting and gathering places. We v eventually we see the revolt. I think the spanish wanted to control the Santa Barbara channel. They actually put more missions than any other group in california. There is five missions. The idea was to control the central part of the coast which shipping would need in order to go from north to south and south to north. It gave them a good deal of control which is what they wanted to do and control of middle of california. We are in this out its door museum. This small connectisection whic standing which was used in their world and their culture and produced the foods and so on that were important to them. And then the other part of the garden which is below us here is all plapnts that were introduce by the spanish and the beginnings in california. All of those plants were brought here and represent a Cross Section from across the pacific from north and south america. Those plants were brought by the spanish who then gave them and said see if you can make it grow. The tree that is right here is a rare island oak. There were many all of which produced wonderful acorns which were the staple food of california. They were mer time people. Lots of fish and lots of acorns. There is a really nutritious diet before the spanish ever showed up. The garden below us features the diet th diet and the things they learned to grow successfully. You can see in the distance there the what that that grove. There were what thbananas growi. They were noted by the french explorer growing between other orchard trees. They would put them in the center with other trees around them to keep them from thesing. It is restoration of the cultural environment. This Cultural Landscape is important. Many times we walk up to an old landmark building and sur roupdroup sur rourounded by modern cultur. You can see noeks me the grapes. They are just getting their autumn look. We have had a long drought. The Mission Grape is infamous for being terrible for wine and wonderful for cognac. Their diet was used it was used at prisons. This is the Mission Early olive growth from the late 17 hundreds. Down at the very end is one from northern california. They are all the same variety. Of course citrus along with groups are two of the major crops still making a major part of our success in agriculture. So the fruit is fabulous and then the little pads, you can cut them up and fry them up with your breakfast eggs. They are terrific. It is also producing the bugs that are on it. These guys produce a red die. I dont want to put my fuinger n it but when you break it open, if you put it on a piece of paper it will come a bill i cant red. The bright red color came from the bug. They would produce the dye for the fabrics they were weaving. You get clothes die achb aye an kinds of food from this. Its not a surface you want to purpose your way through push your way through. It will keep the cows and sheep and Everything Else out of your fields and protect the crops. What we really need to recognize is they are responsible for agriculture. The local ipd yndians are who ma success out of this agriculture. We are standing on Observatory Hill in madison. We are approaching chamberlain rock. Coming up on the wing tip built here around a thousand years ago. They are very difficult to photograph. They are quite shy. They sinening down into the earth and hide