Culture
Iosepa
Heritage
The cemetery is all that remains of the once "best-kept town in Utah," Iosepa, in Skull Valley. Founded in 1889 by Hawaiian LDS immigrants and later abandoned in 1916, Iosepa lies 20 miles southwest of Great Salt Lake in Tooele County. Each Memorial Day, members of the Hawaiian community gather to clean and decorate the gravesites of these early Utah Polynesian pioneers. While the community at Iosepa was abandoned long ago, Polynesian communities thrive in other Utah locations today. The following photographs display a small portion of Polynesian culture in Utah today.
Courtesy
of the Utah Arts Council
Photo by Joyce Hammond, May 1984
The
Polynesian Gift to Utah is made possible by a
generous grant from the R. Harold Burton Foundation.