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History of Iosepa (Yo-see-pa),Utah (Ghost Town)
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Taken
from the Utah Place Names (Links Added)
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IOSEPA Iosepa was twenty miles south of the Great Salt Lake in the center of Skull Valley. In 1889, with the encouragement of the Mormon Church, a group of converts from Hawaii attempted to establish a colony at this location. At one time over 225 Mormon church members lived in the colony. Hansens disease (leprosy) struck the settlement in 1893. When the church built a temple in Hawaii in 1916, many of the Hawaiians returned to their homeland. By 1917 Iosepa was a ghost town centered around a cemetery. The property was later sold to the Deseret livestock Company. "Iosepa" is Hawaian for "Joseph." John W. Van Cott |
The following from Richard J. Waddoups |
LDS Church Missionary William Mark Waddoups, was sent to Iosepa to use his Hawaiian language skills. |
His schooling in agriculture was an asset also. He returned to Hawaii with a group of the Hawaiian Saints |
who were homesick. There they worked on the Hawaii Temple. He later became the first President. |
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