Scout Repairs Enormous Metal Cross for Eagle Project

May 31, 2016 | by Newsroom Blog

At the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah, a 30-ft tall metal cross has stood for three-and-a-half decades. The Dominguez Hill cross, placed there originally in 1981 by the local Knights of Columbus, marked the site of a key part of land traveled during the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.

It was the historic Dominguez-Escalante Expedition, led by two adventurous Franciscan priests, that mapped large parts of the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and California.

Since the cross was placed in its spot in 1981, weather and vandals had taken their toll on the metal cross. Weather eroded the base upon which it sat, making it unsafe and in danger of tipping over, and vandals had defaced the cross with graffiti.

Kenner G., a Scout in the Boy Scouts of America Utah National Parks Council, read all about the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition and was fascinated by the tale of the priests’ journey. The fact that his own town had such rich history was exciting to the young man, and when he learned of the giant metal cross that marked part of the priests’ trail, he wanted to see it.

Of course, accessing the cross was no simple feat. It was at the top of long trail. When Kenner made the hike up the trail and saw that the metal cross was in dangerous disrepair, he knew he had found the perfect Eagle Scout project.

To repair the metal cross, Kenner gathered a team of more than 50 volunteers, all of whom helped with various aspects of the restoration. The location of the cross featured no electricity and no water, but to repair the cement base of the metal cross to make it safe again, it required 120 bags of cement, 120 gallons of water, four cement mixers, four generators, and scaffolding.

The volunteers worked hard on the project under Kenner’s leadership, and, in the end, they spent more than 420 hours of total time restoring the Dominguez Hill cross.

To learn more about Kenner’s Eagle Scout project, be sure to read the full story in the Daily Herald.

To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Kenner, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video: