Walking into the secluded park, we felt a sudden calmness as we settled onto a bench beneath the Eastern redbud trees lining the entryway. The air seemed cooler, as if the temperature had dropped 20 degrees. The constant cacophony of honking horns and roaring engines from nearby 700 East and 400 South melted away, replaced by the hush of a natural recording studio.

Gilgal Park, tucked into the Trolley Square neighborhood of East Central Salt Lake City, has been an eclectic fixture in the city’s landscape for nearly 80 years. In 1945, local mason and visionary Thomas Battersby Child Jr. began shaping a garden of flowers, rocks and trees in his backyard. He chiseled scripture into flat stones and even experimented with fire, using heat to oxidize rock and alter its color. At the entrance, h

See Full Page