ZCMI Co-Op Building

In 1868 Brigham Young launched Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution — ZCMI, often called America's first department store — and its network eventually reached more than 150 towns across the Great Basin, this remote one among them. The building carried the co-op idea to the San Juan frontier: it opened as the Grayson City Co-op in 1918, back when Blanding still went by Grayson, and became Parley Redd Mercantile in 1939. Goods that once came by wagon over slickrock arrived here under a name known the length of Mormon country. The building still stands in Blanding.

What the plaque says

Official outlet of ZCMI (Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution), "America's First Department Store". This building housed the Grayson City Co-op from 1918 to 1939 when the name was changed to Parley Redd Mercantile. Both companies were part of the ZCMI co-operative system servicing more than 150 communities in the intermountain area with retail commodities and services beginning in 1868.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum — steps away
  An Ancestral Puebloan ruin you can climb down into

More markers nearby

• Settlement of Blanding — steps away
• Blanding Veterans Memorial — 0.3 mi