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Ensign Peak – A Prophecy Fulfilled

It was long known that Joseph Smith foretold and knew that the Latter-day Saints would settle in the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, it appears that Joseph himself was intent on going west to the Rockies in June 1844. Historian Ron Walker said:

“Several hours before his departure, he asked his followers to make a sixteen-foot emblematic flag “for the nations,” apparently hoping to take a Mormon, scripture-fulfilling banner with him on his journey.”

Of course, Joseph went instead to Carthage. Sometime in late 1845 or early 1846, Brigham Young saw the Prophet Joseph Smith in vision. According to George A. Smith:

“[Brigham] Had a vision of Joseph Smith, who showed him the mountain that we now call Ensign Peak, immediately north of Salt Lake City, and there was an ensign fell upon that peak, and Joseph said, ‘Build under the point where the colors fall and you will prosper and have peace.’”

President Brigham Young did not know where that peak was but he said he would know it when he saw it, and he fully intended to raise an ensign to the nations upon it—a literal banner hoisted into the wind upon its summit. In 1846, Elder Jedediah M. Grant was sent east on a mission to “to secure material for a flag not less than 35 by 15 feet.”

Crossing the plains, President Young assured those with him in regards to that distant envisioned peak that would be their place of gathering: “I have seen it, I have seen it, in vision, and when my natural eyes behold it, I shall know it.”

Accordingly on Saturday July 24, 1847, Brother Brigham entered the Valley and saw and recognized the dome-shaped peak at the north end of the Salt Lake Valley. Days later he would affirm to the Saints in the Valley: “I knew this [was the right] spot as soon as I saw it, up there on the Table ground.”

On Monday morning, July 26, 1849, President Brigham Young and others climbed Ensign Peak. Wilford Woodruff was the first to make it to the top. He wrote: “We all went onto the top of a high peak in the edge of the mountain which we considered a good place to raise an ensign upon– which we named Ensign Peak or Hill.”

Once on top of the eminence, they surveyed the beautiful fertile valley below. Heber C. Kimball later reported that he took out a yellow bandana with black spots and tied it on the end of Willard Richards walking cane and waved it over the Valley as a symbol. “The mount with its provisional flag signified the ensign to which ‘the oppressed of the world should flee for refuge.”’

What did all of this mean and why did it matter? Isaiah foretold: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Beginning with the first Pioneer Day celebration in 1849, a mammoth banner was raised on Ensign Peak each year. It was the symbolic waving to all the world signifying Israel to gather and prepare for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today it no longer holds the significance that it once did and rightly so. Israel is no longer called to rally to this banner and gather into the Rocky Mountains. Instead, the call is now to gather to the Stakes of Zion and to the Lord’s holy temples. Ensign Peak is just another nondescript peak in the Wasatch Range—a curiosity—and an interesting day hike with a great view.

By the way, in the winter of 1852-53, one Latter-day Saint living in Salt Lake City felt a burning desire to write. “The result was a large sheaf of devotional poems, including a dozen devoted to Zion’s ‘Holy Hill’ and its literal and symbolic ensign.”

Out of that sheaf of inspired writing came one poem titled Deseret which would later become these famous words:

High on the mountain top a banner is unfurled.

Ye Nations, now look up; It waves to all the world.

In Deseret’s sweet, peaceful land,

On Zion’s mount behold it stand!

For God remembers still His promise made of old

That he on Zion’s hill Truth’s standard would unfold!

Her light should there attract the gaze

Of all the world in latter days.

His house shall there be reared, His glory to display,

And people shall be heard in distant lands to say:

We’ll now go up and serve the Lord,

Obey his truth and learn his word.