Pilgrimage

There is no formal or institutional pilgrimage required in the LDS Church, not even to Salt Lake City, where the Church is headquartered. God can be found anywhere, so they do not need to go on a specific journey to a specific place to find him. However, in Utah the Church has built memorials to the early pioneer history that members visit if they wish to, and individuals may view such visits in terms of their personal relationship with God. One such monument was built in 1947 in Emigration Canyon in the hills above Salt Lake City. It is a 60-ft stone pylon with statues of Brigham Young, Woodruff Wilson, and Heber C. Kimball, all early prophets of the Church. It marks the place where Young declared they would build their Zion and gather the faithful. Echoing Young’s famous declaration, it is called “This is the Place”. Mormons liken it to their Plymouth Rock, the place where the Puritan pilgrims first landed on the North American continent.

Other places of significance for Mormons to visit include early Church history sites where Joseph Smith and early Church members lived, worshipped and suffered, including major memorials in upstate New York, Illinois and Missouri.