Miller Park

Red Butte Creek cuts a green seam through the Harvard-Yale streets, and in 1935 Minnie Miller gave a piece of that ravine to the city as a refuge for birds and children both. Depression-era crews laid the stone stairs, bridge, and retaining walls that still terrace the slope. A riparian ribbon like this covers a sliver of Utah yet feeds most of its bird species. A 2010 crude-oil spill fouled the creek; the restored streambed and native plantings answered it. Today it's the Miller Bird Refuge and Nature Park, walkable and loud with song.

What the plaque says

In 1935, Minnie Miller, who served as State Regent of the Utah State Society, DAR, 1915-1920, donated part of the land for Miller Park in memory of her husband, Lee Charles Miller. This land, along with other city land, was for a nature park to be enjoyed by the children of the area. Red Butte Creek reaches this park after following a southwesterly course from the Wasatch Range. Above Fort Douglas (now known as the Stephen A. Douglas Armed Forces Reserve Center), reservoirs collected potable water from the creek for local use. An invasion of grasshoppers threatened the crops of the Salt Lake region in the summer of 1868. Red Butte Creek was one of the streams used in the destruction of these voracious insects. Armed with sacks and willow branches, local residents forced the grasshoppers into the creek's current, which carried the pests to sieves that trapped them and enabled people to destroy them. Utah State Society Daughters of the American Revolution Centennial Year 1897-1997

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural History Museum of Utah — 1.4 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 1.4 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 1.5 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 1.5 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood

More markers nearby

• Pioneer Silk Industry — 0.3 mi
• Mount Olivet G.A.R. Obelisk — 0.7 mi
• Mount Olivet Civil War Cannon — 0.8 mi
• Peace Child of Hiroshima — 0.8 mi