Eagle Gate Monument
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Eagle Gate Monument today
Eagle Gate Monument and Brigham Young home as seen in 1860
Eagle Monument in 1960
Worker points out the original wooden Eagle's condition as they move the original to Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum as bronze Eagle replaces the old.
The original Eagle as seen in Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The monument was erected in 1859 and was originally topped by a wooden eagle, refurbished several times and eventually replaced by the current 4,000-pound, bronze eagle, with a wingspan of 20 feet. Carved by Ralph Ramsay, the original wooden eagle is on display at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum located at 300 North Main Street.
The first Eagle Gate was remodeled and enlarged with new stone piers and wider inverted arches in the early 1890s (with Ralph Ramsay's eagle rebuilt and fortified); designed by Don Carlos Young, an architect son of Brigham Young. Due to the widening of State Street in the early 1960s, the prior monument including Ramsay's eagle was removed and replaced with a much wider and larger third generation Eagle Gate, designed by Salt Lake City architect George Cannon Young. Young was the son of Don Carlos Young and the grandson of Brigham Young. The monument is one of Salt Lake City's most well known pioneer landmarks, and its current design is one of Salt Lake City's best standing examples of Mid-Century Modern design.