Why Red Butte Garden and Arboretum matters.
Red Butte Garden and Arboretum is a major botanical institution where University of Utah Research Park's Wasatch foothill landscape meets pioneering plant conservation, experimental horticulture, and one of the Intermountain West's most extensive public garden collections.
Occupying 100 acres at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon, Red Butte Garden and Arboretum extends across the eastern edge of the University of Utah campus, with Natural History Museum of Utah immediately south, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail following the surrounding foothills, and the Salt Lake Valley opening westward beneath the Wasatch Mountains. The property combines 21 acres of cultivated gardens with 75 acres of protected natural terrain, establishing a substantial transition between formal horticultural landscapes and the native vegetation of the mountain slopes. Terraced pathways connect flowering borders, ornamental trees, garden pavilions, and planted courtyards, with Red Butte Creek introducing a wooded corridor through the northern grounds. Stone walls, pedestrian bridges, and carefully arranged planting beds organize the cultivated sections around the hillside's natural contours. The Walter P. Cottam Visitor Center establishes the principal architectural entrance, and the Richard K. Hemingway Orangerie contributes a substantial enclosed gathering space overlooking the surrounding gardens. Higher elevations introduce open meadows, oak-covered slopes, and expansive views extending toward Great Salt Lake. The result is an exceptional botanical landscape whose cultivated collections and protected canyon environment establish a direct relationship between horticultural design, mountain ecology, and the natural geography of northern Utah.
What defines Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.
Red Butte Garden and Arboretum is best known for transforming the experimental botanical work of University of Utah professor Walter P. Cottam into a major institution devoted to plant conservation, horticultural education, and the preservation of the Wasatch foothills. The surrounding canyon possesses a much longer human history, with Indigenous communities occupying the eastern Great Basin thousands of years before European American settlement. The Goshute name Mo'ni-wai-ni, translated as Hanging Hands Canyon, preserves an association with an episode of intertribal conflict that preceded nineteenth-century migration. Following the arrival of Latter-day Saint settlers in 1847, Red Butte Canyon became an important source of sandstone for Salt Lake City's expanding building industry. A narrow rail system transported quarried stone through the canyon, contributing to the construction of the developing territorial capital. The United States Army subsequently incorporated the surrounding terrain into the Fort Douglas military reservation, using portions of the watershed for training, ammunition activities, and water supply. A reservoir constructed in 1897 held 700,000 gallons, establishing an important component of the military installation's water infrastructure. Its replacement, completed in 1930, increased storage capacity to 124.8 million gallons. During this period, botanist Walter P. Cottam began developing an influential program of experimental planting at the University of Utah. Cottam joined the university's faculty in 1930 and eventually chaired its botany department, combining academic instruction with investigations into the ecological relationships governing plant survival in the Intermountain West. His conservation work addressed overgrazing, soil degradation, and the importance of protecting native vegetation, establishing him among the region's influential early ecologists. Cottam also became a founding board member of The Nature Conservancy, connecting his university work with the development of a national conservation organization. Across the campus, he planted native and introduced trees to investigate their adaptability to Utah's dry summers, cold winters, and variable growing conditions. His most consequential horticultural achievement involved hybridizing oak species from different ecological regions, particularly Utah live oak and Gambel oak. The resulting hybrids combined characteristics of both parents, producing trees capable of surviving northern Utah winters with distinctive foliage and growth habits. Cottam's experimental plantings became the foundation of a living collection that extended beyond conventional university landscaping. In 1961, he successfully advocated for legislation designating the university campus as the State Arboretum of Utah, establishing a formal institutional commitment to botanical education and the cultivation of diverse tree species. Richard Hildreth became the arboretum's full-time director in 1977, expanding its educational activities and developing plans for permanent public gardens. Philanthropist Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr. joined Hildreth in advocating for a substantial botanical institution along the eastern campus boundary. Their efforts culminated in 1983 when the university dedicated 100 acres near Red Butte Canyon for the development of a regional garden. Red Butte Garden opened to the public in 1985, initially incorporating daylily and conifer collections along the creek. The R. Harold Burton Water Pavilion became one of its earliest architectural features, establishing a gathering point within the developing landscape. Another major investment followed in 1994 with the completion of the Walter P. Cottam Visitor Center, supported by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. The building strengthened the institution's capacity for public education, exhibitions, and organized horticultural programming. Subsequent philanthropy supported an extensive series of specialized gardens, including the Shirley S. Hemingway Four Seasons Garden, the Dr. Ezekiel and Edna Wattis Dumke Medicinal Garden, and the Ruth Pierpont Eccles Herb Garden. The Richard K. Hemingway Orangerie introduced an architectural setting for botanical displays and cultural gatherings, extending the institution's role beyond plant cultivation. Development of the outdoor amphitheater established a substantial summer concert tradition, bringing nationally recognized musicians into the foothill landscape and broadening the garden's cultural significance. The three-acre Water Conservation Garden opened in May 2017, introducing a major demonstration landscape devoted to drought-tolerant planting and responsible irrigation in Utah's semiarid climate. The Six Bridges Trail followed in 2021, creating additional access to Red Butte Creek and the surrounding riparian ecosystem. Conservation work also extended into the waterway through collaboration with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to protect native cutthroat trout. The institution's living collections expanded to more than 3,000 plant species, including 2,000 trees representing 456 taxa within its developed grounds. More than 130 of Cottam's experimental oak hybrids survive in Cottam's Grove, preserving an exceptional botanical legacy that continues to support genetic investigations and propagation work. Red Butte Garden and Arboretum represents an important intersection of university science, private philanthropy, regional conservation, and the development of public horticulture in the American West.
The garden's horticultural program develops the relationship between ornamental planting, botanical diversity, and the environmental demands of the Great Basin through a carefully arranged sequence of specialized landscapes. The Dumke Floral Walk establishes a prominent seasonal display, with extensive spring bulb plantings introducing daffodils, tulips, and other flowering species across the cultivated grounds. Approximately 590,000 bulbs contribute to the annual spring display, producing one of the institution's most recognizable horticultural spectacles. The Sarah J. McCarthey and Family Rose Garden develops another substantial collection through cultivated roses selected for their ornamental qualities, disease resistance, and adaptability to Utah's growing conditions. Its planting combinations incorporate flowering shrubs and perennials, demonstrating the relationship between rose cultivation and broader landscape design. The Fragrance Garden emphasizes aromatic plants through a composition of herbs, flowering shrubs, and ornamental species whose scents change across the growing season. The Medicinal Garden introduces plants associated with traditional healing practices, connecting botanical diversity with the historical use of vegetation in human communities. The Herb Garden develops a complementary relationship between horticulture and domestic cultivation through culinary and aromatic species arranged within formal planting beds. The Four Seasons Garden demonstrates the changing character of ornamental landscapes through combinations of flowering plants, foliage, bark, and structural planting that retain visual interest across different seasons. The Water Conservation Garden addresses one of the most consequential challenges facing horticulture in the Intermountain West. Its Desert Harvest, Groundcover Tapestry, Flowering Shrub Hillside, and Adaptive Beauty sections demonstrate planting strategies that reduce irrigation demands through drought-tolerant species, appropriate soil treatment, and the grouping of plants with compatible water requirements. An elevated viewpoint connects these cultivated demonstrations with the watershed above and the broad valley below, establishing the geographical context for water conservation in northern Utah. The garden's conifer collection carries recognition from the American Conifer Society, contributing a substantial assemblage of evergreen species whose forms and foliage create year-round architectural structure. Native penstemon collections introduce another important dimension through flowering plants adapted to the region's rocky soils and seasonal moisture patterns. Beyond the cultivated sections, natural-area trails extend through foothill vegetation, connecting the designed gardens with oak woodlands, grasslands, and the creek's riparian habitat. The Oak Tunnel preserves an unusual landscape feature created by Gambel oaks growing around the former sandstone transportation route, linking the site's industrial history with its living vegetation. The Six Bridges Trail introduces a closer relationship with the creek through pedestrian crossings and streamside plant communities. The Children's Garden contributes an interactive horticultural environment, connecting botanical education with exploratory activities and seasonal planting. Educational programs extend this work into schools throughout Utah, reaching more than 30,000 students annually through classes, workshops, and horticultural instruction. The outdoor amphitheater introduces a complementary cultural program through concerts held against the surrounding mountain slopes, establishing an important relationship between the institution's botanical setting and Salt Lake City's performing arts community. Red Butte Garden and Arboretum derives its distinctive character from the integration of scientific plant collections, specialized ornamental gardens, water-conscious horticulture, protected natural terrain, and public cultural programming within a single foothill landscape.
How Red Butte Garden and Arboretum fits.
Red Butte Garden and Arboretum works as the botanical centerpiece of an eastern Salt Lake City exploration connecting the University of Utah's scientific collections, the architectural legacy of its military reservation, and the preservation of the region's territorial settlement history.
Begin at Natural History Museum of Utah, the major scientific institution occupying the copper-clad Rio Tinto Center immediately south of the garden. Established through Utah legislation in 1962, the museum opened in 1969 inside the university's George Thomas Building before relocating to its substantial foothill facility in November 2011. Architects Ennead and GSBS developed the $102.5 million building around the contours of the hillside, incorporating terraced exhibition levels and expansive views across the Salt Lake Valley. Its paleontological collections include important discoveries from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, among them the elaborately horned dinosaur Kosmoceratops richardsoni and the tyrannosaurid Lythronax argestes. The Past Worlds exhibition incorporates the world's largest display of horned dinosaur skulls, connecting the museum's scientific work with the prehistoric ecosystems of the American West. Continue west to Historic Fort Douglas, the military installation established in 1862 under the command of Colonel Patrick Edward Connor during the American Civil War. Originally named Camp Douglas in honor of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, the post became an important federal military presence overlooking Salt Lake City during a period of tension between territorial authorities and the United States government. Its surviving nineteenth-century buildings include substantial officers' residences, barracks, and administrative structures arranged around the historic parade ground. The installation's military significance continued through subsequent conflicts, including the Spanish-American War and the two world wars. Portions of the reservation eventually passed to the University of Utah, contributing to the expansion of the campus and the preservation of an architecturally distinctive military district. Conclude at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the university's principal art institution, whose origins reach to a small gallery established in the Park Building in 1914. A substantial gift from Winifred Kimball Hudnut strengthened the developing collection during the 1940s, and the museum formally opened in 1951. Director Frank Sanguinetti subsequently guided a period of professional expansion, strengthening the institution's collecting and exhibition programs. The museum relocated to the Marcia and John Price Museum Building in 2001, occupying a 74,000-square-foot structure designed by Machado and Silvetti with local architectural partners. Its collection exceeds 22,000 works, encompassing ancient Mediterranean objects, Asian art, European painting, American art, and contemporary international production. The progression moves from Natural History Museum of Utah's scientific interpretation of the American West through Historic Fort Douglas's military architecture and culminates at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, where an extensive international collection completes an exploration of the university's scientific, historical, and cultural institutions.
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