Heber City will soon be home to more than 70 sculptures inspired by the country’s founding and the Book of Mormon.
(Grace Doerfler | KPCW) Sculptor Steven Neal speaks beside a statue of Jesus at the groundbreaking ceremony, May 29, 2025.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
On the dusty hillside above Utah Valley University’s Wasatch campus, sculptor Steven Neal whisked aside two tarps to reveal George Washington and Jesus, each cast in bronze and bound for a one-of-a-kind garden Neal says came to him in a vision.
The Monument of the Americas has been 30 years in the making, and on Thursday, May 29, about 100 people joined Neal in the next step toward making his vision a reality.
Neal is many things – a sculptor, a painter, a retired plastic surgeon, a singer – but on Thursday, he was most of all a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He told the crowd through tears it took a long time to find a home for his sculptures.
“How did I end up doing what I did?” he said. “It’s simple, if you think of it in terms of a covenant. I made a promise to God: if he would bless my talents, I’d just keep at it, never knowing if this would happen.”
Neal used a billboard truck to show a video of what the garden will look like one day.
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