BUNKERVILLE MONUMENT DEDICATORY PRAYER
ROBERT E. WELLS October 1991
Brothers and Sisters, you can see that the committee has done a magnificent job on all of this, the organizing, the meeting, the monument itself, the whole concept; and I know that in our hearts we each have a profound debt of gratitude to them for honoring and remembering our forefathers this particular way. I also wanted to mention that I understand the problems the Church had; they don’t allow this very often; and I had nothing to do with it, I wish I could say that I intervened someway, but I did not. I understand that it got all the way to President Hinkley and he approved it. So we all have a debt of gratitude to President Hinkley for breaking through the bureaucracy to allow this kind of a marker to be placed here. I want to thank all of you and all of those family representatives and everyone for being here. If you will now join with me as we bow our heads and offer a dedicatory prayer.
Oh God, Our Eternal Father in Heaven, we Thy children come before Thee in all humility to dedicate this beautiful monument in honor of the founding first bishop and the original families, the two Bunker families, the two Leavitt families, the Lee family, the Crosby family, and the Abbott family. Our hearts are subdued, our spirits sensitive to remembrances renewed on this day of dedication. This deep-cut, solid granite monument with a covered wagon rolling towards the far horizon symbolizes and memorializes the faith, the strength, the will, the courage, the obedience, the suffering of these pioneers. Bishop Bunker and the founding party and those who joined with them in the early years of greatest hardship were noble, faithful, patriotic souls who were part of the pioneer, Latter-Day-Saint, heroic and epic saga of forced exodus from Nauvoo, missionary voyages in different directions, the gathering to Zion here in the mountains, and the handcart companies, the covered wagons, all of the remarkable social and economic programs of polygamy, plural marriage, the United Order, based on the principles of the ancient prophets of Israel and of individual unselfishness.
e give thanks to those who have not allowed the memory of Bishop Bunker and his generation to be forgotten. We give appreciation to those who have labored long and hard to collect funds, stimulate interest, and obtain the required approvals for the monument now standing in this prominent and deserving location. We offer thanks specifically to the chairman and the assistants of the committee and all who have contributed time and means to this historic monument. We thank the sculptor, the engraver, the installers. We thank the officers and the members of this ward and the stake.
Like ancient Israel entering the promised land, symbolically we stand in the shade of trees we did not plant, we harvest from fields we id not clear. We benefit from and are grateful for all they did .. n this valley in the founding of the church so many decades ago.
Now, Heavenly Father, acting in the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, on behalf of all who are here and all who have contributed, I dedicate this monument to the memory of the original families, the two Bunker families, the two Leavitt families, the Lee and the Crosby family listed on the front, the Abbott family on the other side, praying that their faith and diligence and heed to holy principles may be remembered by all who will look upon this beautiful and artistic work of granite from the eternal hills. May all who pass this way pause to remember the heritage, the tradition, the efforts and sacrifices of these early pioneers. May any who might think of marring or desecrating this monument be confounded. May it stand as a memorial as their lives stand to us. May we live worthy of these who have gone before us and all of the other founding families, the early pioneers, in building the kingdom here in these valleys of the west, is our prayer. We dedicate this monument humbly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Source: Brent Bunker