Gilgal Sculpture Garden

Gilgal Sculpture Garden
Some sculptures, including the Sphinx with Joseph Smith's head
Type	Public park
Location	Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Open	1947

The Gilgal Sculpture Garden is a small public city park, located at 749 East 500 South in

Thomas Child, a masonry contractor and

Many of the sculptures and quotations found at Gilgal refer to LDS themes: the restoration of the Priesthood, the great Mormon migration west, and the many similarities Child saw between the ancient Israelites and his LDS forefathers.

Although Child was not a classically trained artist, he went to great lengths to obtain and shape the perfect stones for his beloved garden. He created a complete workshop in his yard for handling and cutting the stones, proudly stating that all the finish work for his statues was completed on the site. He also used some unconventional tools to cut the stones, including an oxyacetylene torch (usually used for welding). Besides help from his son-in-law Bryant Higgs, Child hired Maurice Edmunds Brooks to help with the Gilgal project.^[2]

The finished statues are likewise unconventional, even eccentric: a sacrificial altar, a shrine to Child's beloved wife Bertha, even a sphinx with the face of Joseph Smith. Child, who shared the garden with thousands of visitors over his lifetime, knew that not everyone would appreciate his particular artistic vision. His primary concern, however, was that the garden would succeed in making people think: "You don't have to agree with me," he said. "You may think I am a nut, but I hope I have aroused your thinking and curiosity."^[3]

Restoration

Until 2000, the garden was owned by the Henry P. Fetzer family. Fetzer was a neighbor who bought the property after Child's death in 1963.^[1] Only open on Sundays, the garden was visited and often vandalized by late night trespassers. The family, tired of keeping up the garden considered making it the centerpiece of an apartment development.^[1] Later a plan was floated by a Canadian company to tear down the garden and put in condominiums.

Instead, a group of citizens called the Friends of Gilgal Garden, headed by

From 2001 to 2005 Utah Master Gardeners reduced the overgrowth of weeds on the property and made the grounds themselves pleasing. By 2005 restoration work had also begun on some of the sculptures.[8]

Visiting hours

Gilgal Garden is open to visitors during the following hours:

• April–September — 8 am to 8 pm daily
• October–March — 9 am to 5 pm, weather permitting

The garden is closed on Christmas, New Year's Day, and Thanksgiving Day.

• 
  Garden Entrance - South
• 
  A statue interpretation of

  King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the Book of Daniel

  .
• 
  Another picture of the Sphinx
• 
  from the last chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. It includes objects from the verse "... the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden... the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bow be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the eistern"
• 
  A statue

References

• Gilgal Garden - an historic sculpture garden created by Thomas B. Child Jr. (1888-1963) (Brochure from the site)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gilgal Sculpture Garden.

• Gilgal Sculpture Garden official website (includes interactive tour)
• Gilgal Garden Education website
• Roadside America article on Gilgal Garden
• Entry in the Inventory of American Sculpture
• Gowalla Page

40°45′33″N 111°52′09″W / 40.75927°N 111.8692°W / 40.75927; -111.8692