Stoned Immaculate: The Wonder of Gilgal Gardens

By Contributing Writer, 12-06-05

	Caption: Gilgal Gardens

Story and photos by Clint Wardlow, UtahGothic.com

For many years it was of Salt Lake City’s best-known secret. Tucked between the Wonder Bread factory and Chuck-A-Rama near 700 South, most Salt Lake City residents had no idea such a bizarre animal existed. Gilgal Gardens, a plot of strange sculptures with a weird Mormon ambience, is the creation of Thomas Battersby Child Jr., a former LDS bishop.

Child spent nearly twenty years working on the garden, located on about a half-acre behind his home. He filled it with twelve original sculptures and over seventy engraved stones. The most arresting of his creations is a sphinx with the head of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Faith.

However, the garden is filled with strange carved images, such as grasshoppers and disembodied heads (there is even a life-size statue of Childs). A visitor must walk a stone path to view these works of art. Each stone is engraved with biblical and literary quotes.

For years the park was open to the public only on Sundays. If someone wanted to view the wonders of Gilgal on a day other than the Sabbath, he would need to call a phone number listed on a sign that adorned the non-descript gate that closed off the gardens

That didn’t stop all curious folk. Many, who only knew the place as Stoner Park, would hop the fence at night to get high amidst the bizarre surroundings. Most had no clue about Gilgal or how it had come into being. It was just one of those weird quasi-Mormon places that pepper Utah.

Filmmaker Trent Harris (Rubin & Ed, The Beaver Trilogy) used the garden to memorable effect in his cult movie Plan Ten From Outer Space. Gilgal epitomized everything weird and wonderful about Utah and its dominant religion.



The history of Gilgal begins in 1945 after Child retired from his role as a bishop of the Mormon Church. He remained active in the Church, serving as the director of the bishop’s warehouse and co-chair of Pioneer Day activities but, to fill his otherwise spare time and re-avow his faith, he would create a monument to the Church—one unlike any other in Mormondom.

Child enlisted the help of Utah sculptor Maurice Brooks. The two men often drove into the canyons to acquire the materials required to accomplish this mammoth work. Child would haul the stones (some boulders weighed as much of 72 tons) in the bed of his truck. He named this wonderland after the fabled gardens near the River Jordan where the Israelites had crossed on their way to the Promised Land: Gilgal Gardens.



Gilgal was a work in progress. Child added to the garden right up to his death in 1963. After that, Gilgal fell into limbo. Rumor has it he tried to give it to the Church, but they didn’t want it. Mormonism was trying to embrace a clean-cut image—they didn’t need any works that emphasized their strange history.

So there Gilgal sat for thirty years, pretty much ignored, in the shadow of the Wonder Bread factory.

But people—folks that love the strange side of Utah the Church takes such pains to hide, found out. They were Gilgal’s champions and spread the word about this mondo weirdo garden to anyone that would listen. Through word-of-mouth (usually stories of inebriated nocturnal visits to the eerie garden), Gilgal’s mystique grew.

When, in early 2000, rumors surfaced that Gilgal was to be razed for a condominium development, these champions leapt into action. The Friends of Gilgal came to the rescue of their beloved garden, working tirelessly to promote awareness of the unique sculpture garden and solicit donations to save it. And they succeeded.

The Friends raised $600,000 (including $100, 000 ponied up by the LDS church) to purchase Gilgal and save it from developer’s bulldozers. Gilgal’s saviors donated the park to the city. It has since been turned into a public park (tended by volunteer master gardeners educated by the city) where visitors can browse its strange wonders at will. Ironically, the one day it is not open is Sunday.

Gilgal Gardens, 452 S. 800 East [End of article]