Fielding Garr Ranch, Antelope Island
Syracuse, UT
Fielding Garr, sent by the LDS Church to manage its livestock herds, established the ranch on Antelope Island in 1848. The adobe structure he built that year remains Utah's oldest building still on its original foundation. After the Church sold the island in 1870 to rancher John Dooley, the operation grew into one of the largest sheep ranches in the United States, eventually supporting 10,000 animals. Ranching continued until 1981, when Antelope Island State Park was established. The island's most notorious historical figure is Jean Baptiste, a Salt Lake City gravedigger convicted in 1862 of robbing more than 300 graves; he was tattooed on the forehead with 'Robbing the Dead,' banished to Antelope and then Fremont Island, and vanished within weeks.







