Foundation Mormon
missionaries were sent to Polynesia starting in the 1850s. Many of their converts wanted to emigrate or "gather" to Utah with the main body of the Church, but were restricted by law, particularly in
Hawaii. In the 1870s the Hawaiian government began to allow emigration, and by 1889 some 75
Native Hawaiians had gathered in the northern
Salt Lake City neighborhood near Warm Springs Park. Despite their common faith, the immigrants experienced significant
culture shock, as well as mistreatment by the
white majority. The Polynesians were barred from staying in white-owned hotels and were refused service at restaurants in Salt Lake City. Church leaders began searching for a location to set aside as a Hawaiian
enclave, but four decades of settlement had occupied most of the desirable land in the Salt Lake area. In 1889, a group of three Hawaiian converts and three returned missionaries was assigned to choose a location. After considering possibilities in
Cache,
Weber, and
Utah counties, they selected a August 28 was later designated as Hawaiian Pioneer Day.
Development and growth Iosepa was an inhospitable location for any group of people. Most of the colonists were from Hawaii, though others were from different parts of Polynesia, and Skull Valley is
desert, quite unlike the islands they had left. The Iosepans worked hard to improve their new home and eke out a living. The company purchased a
sawmill and built homes, a church, school, and store. They also developed an extensive
irrigation system to bring water from the
Stansbury Mountains, They did their best to adapt or replace traditional foodstuffs not native to Utah, substituting on a mixture of
flour and
cornstarch for
poi They also built a small
reservoir, called Kanaka Lake, where they could swim and have lakeside
picnics. In 1899, residents of other parts of the state converged on Iosepa for an
Arbor Day celebration in which they planted 300
walnut trees, 300 fruit trees, and 100 ornamental trees. Sensationalized
newspaper reports of the outbreak alienated Iosepa even further from mainstream Utah society. Little remains of the original town other than the cemetery and a fire hydrant. ==Legacy==