Historical Marker
The Mormon Colonists
Lovell, Big Horn County · Wyoming
Erected by The Aaronic Priesthood Quorums of the Big Horn Stake and Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association, 1935
The man this bronze credits led the colony while keeping a secret. Abraham Owen Woodruff was the son of Wilford Woodruff, the church president whose 1890 Manifesto had renounced plural marriage, and in January 1901, while supervising the Big Horn settlements, he took a plural wife, Avery Clark, and afterward moved on the underground under code names. He died of smallpox in El Paso on June 20, 1904, at thirty-one, two weeks after his first wife, Helen. A University of Utah Press history asks whether the colony was meant to keep plural marriage alive.
What the plaque says
No. 58 Erected Sept. 29, 1935 In honor of the Mormon colonists of the Big Horn Basin who, under the leadership of Abraham O. Woodruff, first camped near this site in May 1900. These pioneers, under many difficulties, established towns, notably Byron, Cowley and Lovell, organized the Big Horn Stake of Zion, constructed the Sidon Canal, built railroads and pioneered education through founding the Big Horn Academy. The Aaronic Priesthood Quorums of the Big Horn Stake and Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association
Where it stands
44.84163, -108.43949 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Sidon Canal — 8.0 mi
- Sheep Mountain — 17 mi