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On the Eve of Pioneer Day

On the Eve of Pioneer Day

Last updated on: July 23, 2026 at 4:40 pm by Dan Peterson

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On the Eve of Pioneer Day 2026-07-23T16:40:26-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Thanksgiving Point, at the north end of Utah Valley (fair use)

I want to call your attention to, or to remind you of, FAIR Conference 2026, which will be held at the Thanksgiving Point Showbarn in Lehi, Utah, from the evening of Wednesday, 5 August, through the late afternoon or early evening — it depends, I suppose, on how meandering and long-winded the closing speaker chooses to be — on Friday, 7 August. With one notable exception, the lineup of speakers looks very promising.

In this 1904 cartoon, a servant wearing a fez presents the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II (shown with his head protruding from his harem) a newspaper stating that (according to the then-current Reed Smoot hearings) President Joseph F. Smith had 5 wives and 42 children. The Sultan is stunned to learn that he isn’t the world’s sole practitioner of polygamy. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

As many if not most of you are undoubtedly aware, there is a movement, small but vocal, that denies that Joseph Smith initiated plural marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The motivation for this denial is, typically, a conviction that God would never command such a practice. Thus, accordingly, Joseph Smith must be insulated from it if they are to maintain their faith in his prophetic calling. Instead, say many of them, it was Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who instituted polygamy, either after Joseph’s death or, say a few, surreptitiously during his lifetime.

In the latter case, a few contend that Brigham Young and John Taylor and Willard Richards and perhaps a few others actually killed Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum in Carthage Jail. Plainly these folks have little or no interest in insulating Brigham and the Twelve and their apostolic and prophetic successors down to the present day from charges of gross immorality, deception, and even murder. Unsurprisingly, a number of those leveling such charges against Brigham Young, John Taylor, and the apostles (and Church presidents!) who followed them have either left the Church or been cut off from membership in it. And with good reason: I can scarcely imagine a more clear-cut case of apostasy.

In my judgment, a massive blow against the idea that Joseph Smith was unconnected with the idea and practice of plural marriage was struck by a paper that was published some months ago in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Paul Fields, Steven T. Densley, Jr., Matthew Roper, and Laarry Bassist, “Historical and Stylometric Evidence for the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132,” in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 67 (2025) : 1-70. (I notice, by the way, that Paul Fields will be addressing this topic at the approaching FAIR conference.)

But there’s still more on the way, as witnessed by this recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune: “‘Mormon Land’: His scribe’s diaries provide further evidence of Joseph Smith’s secret polygamy: LDS Church historians say William Clayton’s soon-to-be-published journals add valuable details to the faith’s Nauvoo narrative.”

A “Mormon pioneer” square dance (provenance of image unknown)

Let’s proceed on the quite-safe assumption that Brigham Young and his apostolic associates were not villainous deceivers and murderers, and that what they and those who followed them westward achieved is worthy of our admiration and our celebration. Tomorrow (Friday) is Pioneer Day — a legal holiday in Utah and not uncommonly commemorated elsewhere by Latter-day Saints and by those who descend from or have been deeply affected by the Mormon pioneers. On Sunday, in Latter-day Saint congregations throughout Utah and, to some extent, beyond, sermons and hymns will be tinged, at least, with themes and messages connected to the great trek westward.

I’m very pleased at this. I believe that memory, remembering, is vitally important. It is no mere happenstance that our most sacred rituals in the Church recall God’s creation of the world in which we live and summon us to remember the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think, as I’ve noted here several times before, that it’s altogether fitting that we reenact handcart treks and build monuments at our historic sites and preserve them and visit them as families, and that we celebrate Pioneer Day even when, as often, our own biological ancestors weren’t among those who crossed the plains in the nineteenth century. And I was delighted to see an important article in Tuesday’s edition of the Deseret News. The author is Jewish, and thoughtful Jews have given the subject of historical memory a great deal of thought from which Latter-day Saints can learn: “Opinion: History preserves the past — memory preserves a people: We often assume that historical knowledge is enough, but facts alone do not sustain a civilization”

I honestly cannot think of very much that would be more appropriate for Pioneer Day and its weekend than taking in one or more episodes of Becoming Brigham. Please, moreover, if you haven’t already done so, subscribe to the series. (There’s no charge, and no aluminum-siding salesmen will appear suddenly on your doorstep.) And please, too, call it to the attention of others. And I encourage you, furthermore, to avail yourself of the temporary opportunity to watch the Interpreter Foundation’s 2021 theatrical film, Witnesses, for free.

On my balcony aboard the Coral Princess just off the Alaskan coast. Fair use of a completely genuine and undoubtedly authentic photo taken by the online sleuth whose adopted online pseudonym closely resembles “Everybody’s WC.”

I don’t know how he does it, but my Mini-Stalker over at the Peterson Obsession Board seems, once again, to have accompanied me and my wife on one of our trips — in this most recent case, along with members of my wife’s family, on our just-concluded Alaska cruise. This is demonstrated by his recent posting there at the Obsession Board of an indisputably authentic and accurate photograph of me out on our cabin’s balcony. (His AI camera offers superb resolution, doesn’t it?) The image shows me enjoying some light refreshment to tide me over between meals aboard the Coral Princess. (As those who have been on such cruises will surely understand, it’s difficult to find enough food to eat on cruise ships. One struggles just to keep body and soul together.) From the length of my legs under the blanket, by the way, you will correctly deduce that I’m somewhat less than four and a half feet tall, rather than the roughly six-foot-three height that many have mistakenly attributed to me.

Posted from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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