In 1845, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent its first missionaries to the South Pacific Island of Tahiti. The Mormons weren’t alone. It was a period of zealous Christian proselytizing in the Pacific Islands. But the LDS missionaries had remarkable success in the South Pacific—perhaps because their belief that the native island peoples were descendants of the Lamanites, a group of people in The Book of Mormon, gave LDS missionaries extra zeal. Many of the converted were from the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands, and many of the fresh converts made the perilous journey to Salt Lake City to dwell in the shadow of Temple Square.
In 1879, LDS Church leaders established a colony for Hawaiian immigrants to Utah in Skull Valley, an ominously named and arid place in the western desert near what is today the military-proving grounds and chemical weapons disposal base Dugway. The settlement was named Iosepa, the Hawaiian word for Joseph after Mormon founder Joseph Smith and his descendant, LDS church president Joseph F. Smith, who went to Hawaii on a church mission in 1854.
Iosepa residents celebrating the Pioneer Day of 1913. Photo courtesy of Utah Historical Society.
It’s hard to imagine Hawaiians, coming from such a lush and green island, feeling quite at home there. But religious zeal (and ample support from Salt Lake City) sustained them in a hard-scrabble existence where they farmed, ranched cattle and raised pigs, toiling under harsh conditions.
By 1917, the experiment was abandoned and many of the residents returned to their native islands, drawn back to help work on the LDS Temple being built in Laie on the island of Oahu. At its height, nearly 228 Pacific Islanders lived in Iosepa. The site is a ghost town today on the National Register of Historic Places. There are informational markers and remnants of some structures as well as a forlorn graveyard that continues to bear testimony of the harsh conditions in Iosepa.
Leprosy in Iosepa?
Although it is not officially stated, an irrational fear of leprosy may have been behind the far-flung location of Iosepa. The site is 75 miles from Salt Lake City, an arduous journey in the days of horse-drawn carts. Although three leprosy cases were documented during Iosepa’s lifespan, the fears were largely unfounded.
How to Go
Iosepa, an abandoned Hawaiian colony in Utah’s Skull Valley, is located off of Interstate 80’s exit 77. After the exit, travel south on Utah Highway 196 for 15 miles. A large sign marks the dirt road that leads to the cemetery.
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