SALT LAKE CITY — As a part of a FOX13 Special Report, Celebrating 175 years of pioneer spirit, We spoke with those who have relatives named among the hundreds on the Pioneer Children's Memorial walls.
“There were thousands of people who crossed the plains from back east to come out here to settle in Utah,” said pioneer history expert Brian Westover. “Of course, that included families with children.”
The memorial was completed in 2019 as a part of partnering with the ‘Days of 47' as a way to honor those children who were lost along the way.
Most were not buried with memorials or even markers, according to Treshea Kramer, one of those who helped design it.
“The project was very warm to my heart, reading many of the journals of the young children and what they faced reading stories from parents who lost their children” she said. “This became a project where we could memorialize them here.”
Both Westover and Kramer had relatives named on the memorial’s walls.
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Tune in Sunday night at 9:30 on FOX 13 News as we share our special report Celebrating 175 years of pioneer spirit.
