St. Paul Methodist Church

Copperton, Utah

Beginnings

We are very proud of the long, interesting history of St. Paul Methodist Church, and are proud to have the opportunity of sharing it with you. We began in 1874 as the Bingham Canyon Methodist Church. The church was located in the town of Bingham Canyon, a copper mining community and served the residents there for many years. Another Methodist-sponsored congregation, the Highland Boy Community House served residents of the town of Highland Boy, also in Bingham Canyon.

The Bingham Canyon and Highland Boy congregations merged and consolidated at Copperton, Utah, and furnished the building with items, such as the organ, taken from the former church buildings. Those two towns were eventually abandoned, demolished, and covered as the Kennecott Bingham copper mine expanded onto the land that they occupied. Over the years, the name of the church changed to Saint Paul Community Methodist Church and then Saint Paul United Methodist Church.

The black and white historical photos of Bingham Canyon listed below were found in the church records, and will give you a flavor for the community that St. Paul grew up in.

Church Building

At the end of World War Two, the Department of Defense sold the church building to the congregation. The building had originally been built as one of several base chapels for Camp Kearns, an Army Air Corps installation closed at the end of the war. The chapel was used by multiple faith communities at Camp Kearns, including Protestant, Catholic, LDS, and Jewish. The building was transported and placed at its current location on land donated by the Kennecott Copper Corporation (now Rio Tinto). (A similar chapel is located adjacent to the Hill Air Force Base Museum in northern Utah near Ogden .)

An interesting trivia tidbit is that the Army assumed that the buildings they built at Camp Kearns would only last about seven years. Our building is nearing 80 years old and is still much the same in exterior and interior appearance as when it was first built. We continue to maintain and improve upon the building while retaining the original look and feel.

The church houses memorial plaques dedicated to the members of those copper mining communities who served and died in World War Two (see below). The bell from one of the old church buildings is also in the lobby. In February, 2007, our church building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Historical Marker Database site has additional information on the Historical Site designation.

Present Day

St. Paul is a popular location for the makers of movies and television programs filmed in Utah. We have hosted several shooting sessions of the television program “Touched By An Angel, including the final two episodes of the show, entitled “I Will Walk With You, Part 1 and 2” . In addition, in June, 2006 the movie “Dark Matter” filmed a portion of their story at St. Paul. In November, 2012, part of two episodes of the BYU-TV series “Granite Flats” was filmed at St. Paul.

Honor Roll, Memorial Bricks, and Memorial Plaques

There are two memorial plaques in the narthex (front entrance) of the church. One plaque commemorates Highland Boy residents that served in World War 2, and the second plaque commemorates members of Bingham Canyon that served in World War 2. In addition, a memorial roll commemorates family and former members of St. Paul that were remembered at a May 26, 1996, candle lighting ceremony.

There is a memorial pathway on the church grounds that leads from the front of the church to the gazebo.  It contains bricks with the names of people associated with Copperton and the other mining communities in Bingham Canyon.  Also persons associated with the St Paul community.

A link to the plaques and memorial roll listing all the names is below.

• May 26, 1996 Memorial Roll (pdf)
  
• World War 2 Honor Roll Bingham (pdf)
• World War 2 Honor Roll Highland Boy (pdf)
• List of Memorial Brick Names: StPaulBrickNames