On Friday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m., Dr. John Alton Peterson will give a free lecture, “Brigham’s Bastion: Winsor Castle at Pipe Spring and Its Place on the Mormon Frontier” at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale. The lecture is sponsored by the Zion Natural History Association—a partner of the National Park Service at Pipe Spring National Monument and Zion National Park—and the Association’s experiential learning subsidiary, the Zion Canyon Field Institute.
Dr. Peterson’s work on the complex history of Pipe Spring and its context within the larger western and Mormon history of southern Utah between 1850 and 1923 resulted from intense personal interest and a long-standing academic and advisory relationship with the National Park Service at Pipe Spring National Monument.
“Dr. Peterson’s investigation and work have revealed a tremendous amount of information and highlighted the local, regional, and national significance of the Pipe Spring story,” said John Hiscock, superintendent of the Pipe Spring National Monument. “The site is so much more than simply a ‘little house on the prairie.’ When Brigham Young stepped off the dimensions and directed the building of the colossal stone structure that would come to be known as Winsor Castle, in September of 1870, he was strategically planning and thinking for the protection and advancement of his people in the Territory of Utah and beyond. Colonial expansion, protection from Indian conflict, protection from potential federal conflict, and building Mormon enterprise via a large scale Church tithing ranch were all in his plans. The entire story revealed through Dr. Peterson’s work is too expansive to cover in one evening’s lecture, but I am certain that John will stimulate much interest in ‘Brigham’s Bastion,’ and Pipe Spring National Monument.”
Dr. Peterson holds a PhD in history from Arizona State University and is the author of “Utah’s Black Hawk War.” He is an instructor of theological history and Mormon history at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints University Institute of Religion, Salt Lake City, adjacent to the University of Utah.
The Canyon Community Center is located at 126 Lion Boulevard in Springdale, Utah. For more information, Hiscock can be reached via email or by calling (928) 643-7105, or you can call the Canyon Community Center at (435) 772-3434.
