On behalf of the IOSEPA FAMILY and it's Board of Directors we want to WELCOME everyone to our NEW WEBSITE!!

Feel free to peruse our site for more information, news and announcements about all of the NEW ventures that IOSEPA will be undertaking! 

IOSEPA Historical Association is a 501-C-3 non-profit organization, as such we will strive to generate revenue through grants, fundraising, gift giving, private donations, to secure the mission statement and future of IOSEPA.

Our Mission

The mission of the IOSEPA Historical Association is to facilitate the progress of the Hawaiian and South Pacific Island peoples. To maintain a proactive direction with all cultural traditions and community development. To educate, tutor, mentor and guide our youth on a course that will enable them to fulfill their dreams and expectations.

Our Story

Iosepa was established in Tooele County's Skull Valley in 1889 as a community for Hawaiian members of the Mormon faith who wished to immigrate to Utah to be close to the temples and headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Iosepa lasted as a community until 1917 at which time the residents returned to Hawaii where the Hawaiian LDS Temple was under construction. The LDS Church paid the travel expenses for those who could not afford to pay themselves.

"Iosepa," meaning Joseph in Hawaiian and named for the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and for Joseph F. Smith, who went to the Hawaiian Islands as a missionary in 1854, is pronounced "Yo-see-pa." The colony was undertaken as a joint stock company incorporated as the Iosepa Agriculture and Stock Company. The LDS Church actually owned the company although individuals subscribed for the stock and held it in trust for the church. H.H. Cluff was president of the corporation and manager and superintendent of the colonizing company. I.W. Kauleinamoku was the leader of the Hawaiian Saints. The land was dedicated by LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff on 28 August 1890, one year after colonization, as a gathering place for the natives of the islands of the sea.

The first group of forty-six settlers arrived on 28 August 1889 and drew lots for the land they were to occupy. Additional settlers arrived, built houses, a schoolhouse, a general store, and an irrigation system which drew water from the Stansbury Mountains to water a variety of crops including lucern, beets, wheat, oats, barley, corn, potatoes, and squash. By 1901 the population stood at about 80 and reached 228 by 1915.

See: Leonard J. Arrington, "The L.D.S. Hawaiian Colony at Skull Valley," The Improvement Era (May 1954); Lambert Florin, Ghost Town Trails (1963); Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country (1942).

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