The founding of Iosepa Colony in 1889 is one of the more fascinating chapters of Mormon pioneers settling the Intermountain West, and an intriguing reversal of missionaries coming to the Pacific:
That year a group of Hawaiians and Samoans joined other Latter-day Saint Polynesians already living in Salt Lake City, Utah, to found a colony in Skull Valley, about 80 miles to the west. Among other reasons, they wanted to be closer to the LDS temples which had been built in Utah. They named their colony Iosepa after Joseph (Iosepa) F. Smith, the nephew of Church founder Joseph Smith Jr., who served as a missionary in Hawaii starting in 1854 and who later became president of the Church. Joseph F. Smith, for example, dedicated the site for the Laie Hawaii Temple in 1915 and authorized its construction.
Though some have felt it incongruous for Polynesians from the tropics to settle in the high Utah desert, according to journals and family traditions the 200-plus of them who lived there at its peak apparently loved Iosepa. They built an extensive irrigation system to bring water from the nearby mountains for their crops, and adjusted their traditional diets to include poi made from locally grown produce. They were also famous throughout the region for playing island music, feasting and hula.
Soon after work started on the LDS temple in Laie, Hawaii, in 1915, most Iosepa residents moved back to the islands. Some of their descendants still live in Laie and the surrounding area, and work at the Polynesian Cultural Center. There is a Iosepa Street in Laie, and the BYU-Hawaii Hawaiian Studies program's 57-foot traditional twin-hulled sailing canoe is also named Iosepa.
