This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
To honor two early explorers, the Capitol Preservation Board voted Monday to override rules that normally limit adding a new statue to Utah Capitol grounds only once every 50 years.
The board action came after the Legislature this year passed HC7, also signed by Gov. Gary Herbert, urging it to add a statue honoring Catholic friars Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, who literally put the Utah area on the map after their explorations in 1776.
The pair already appears in a mural in the Capitol Rotunda.
When the Capitol was renovated about eight years ago, the board — which includes statewide elected officials and some legislators — adopted a policy to add new statues to the grounds only once every 50 years, and new monuments only once every 100 years.
Allyson Gamble, executive director of the board, said that was intended to ensure there would be plenty of space left to represent prominent future events.
The Capitol last added a statue in 2014 to honor Marriner Eccles, a Utahn who was chairman of the Federal Reserve and an advocate of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs to recover from the Great Depression.
Because that statute was added just two years ago, normal policies would require waiting another 48 years before adding one for Dominguez and Escalante.