Pioneer Memorial Museum — Attraction in Salt Lake City

I visited this museum on a field trip when I was in elementary school and could hardly remember it. Lately, my husband and I have been super into finding our ancestors and learning their stores. We decided it was time to visit this museum. It has free admission as well.

The museum was easy enough to find, but we weren't sure where to park. We didn't see a parking lot, so we parked on a nearby street for 2 hour parking. Later, when walking out, we saw a small parking lot with around 5-7 parking spaces directly north of the museum, FYI. You get to it from the road directly east of the museum (turn into what looks like an alley and it will open up to the small parking lot).

We walked around to the front or south side of the building, and noticed the ramp for strollers/wheelchairs was on the west side. My husband decided he just wanted to carry the stroller up the stairs instead of walk clear around the building for the ramp. The front doors are pretty narrow. Our stroller barely fit. I didn't see a wheelchair/handicap button to push.

We entered and were greeted by two friendly women sitting behind the front desk area. One of the ladies gave us a map of the museum, explained it to us, and asked if we were looking for anything in particular. They had a free coloring book for Pioneer Days and a free Days of '47 newspaper activity thing which we took.

We walked into the first room of the museum and noticed it was jam-packed full of stuff. Pictures of pioneers are all over the walls covering every inch of the museum. There are different glass cases with lots of pioneer clothing, blankets, hats, weapons, tools and a lot more in them. Every item in the glass exhibit cases is labeled with a little piece of paper in front of it, and most included names of who the artifact belonged to.

While we were in the first room, another woman came in and asked if we needed help finding anything. We started talking to her, and she brought out a binder that had names of which pioneers are pictured on the walls. We looked up two ancestors in the binder and she gave us directions where to find the pictures.

It was difficult to find the elevator and bathrooms, and to find our way around. They could use some helpful signage. We were able to find some pictures of our ancestors and some other neat things like John Moyle's wooden leg (a famous pioneer who walked 20 miles each week with a wooden leg to Salt Lake City from Alpine to work on the Salt Lake Temple).

This museum is so rich with pioneer heritage. It honestly was overwhelming how much stuff they have in there. Definitely a great place to learn more about pioneers if you have some time. We spent an hour or two inside and could have spent weeks with how many things they have to see. We had a great...

The Pioneer Memorial Museum is located at 300 N Main Street in Salt Lake City, just a few blocks north of Temple Square and to the west of the Capitol Building. It has an impressive number of items providing a deep understanding of the life of the pioneers during their trek and upon arriving and establishing Salt Lake City. The museum has items that belong to famous Latter-Day Saints such as the spinning wheel of Emma Smith, the wife of Joseph Smith and the wagon that carried Brigham Young into the Salt Lake Valley, among many other relics. There is an old theater seat and the original curtain from the Salt Lake City Theater. Among the many interesting items there is also a horse-pulled fire engine beautifully restored. We were impressed by the size of the museum as well as the many displays. In many cases though, there are too many items side by side competing one with another cluttering the view. This may be too much for young people. There are large items and thousands of small items such as newspapers, books, handmade blankets and clothes, shoes, typical tools and furniture of the time, kitchen appliances and utensils, toys, and many more very interesting pieces of the pioneer’s history. Certainly worth your time while visiting Utah. The...

Wow! I can't believe how much there was to see here! I attended with a 4th grade class and the museum kept the kids' attention as well. There was a fun scavenger hunt to do where you can search to find items and mark them off like a Bingo game. The kids were seeing cool stuff all over the place and yelling to each other to come see. "Look, a top hat!" and "look, an old violin!" were some of the phrases I overheard. A tiny sampling of the items there include clothes, wagons, toys, quilts, furniture, genealogical books, old Bibles, weaving looms (one was Emma Smith's), sewing machines, an old fire engine, the golden spike, an old camera, and neat portraits. There are portraits covering the walls of the stair wells. We imagined that the images moved like in the movie Harry Potter. It brought those pioneers "to life." Needless to say, the experience was interesting, educational, and moving. What a legacy those pioneers have...