CHAPTER
8
THE BOX ELDER TABERNACLE
W,
hen William Davis, James Brooks, and Thomas Pierce came to Box Elder to locate a settlement, they chose a site on the alluvial fan formed by the larger predecessor of Box Elder Creek. The alluvium lifts the townsite above the lakebed plain to the west. The old Indian trail, which became the Gold Road, crossed the Box Elder Creek alluvium from south to n o r t h . W h e n the main street of Brigham City was laid out, it followed the already-existing trail, from the south side of the alluvium at 11th South to the north side near 9th North. Plat A was laid out with reference to the land which was most easily served by the millrace canal and a network of gravity-fed irrigation ditches. That placed the main intersection, the courthouse, and the business section of town in the center of Plat A. As city building got underway, Brigham Young, as was his custom, came to inspect, to approve, to reassure the settlers, and to give his counsel to the brethren in charge. On one of those early visits, he discussed with Lorenzo Snow the building of a tabernacle. A M o r m o n tabernacle is a structure for large community reli-
