Pleasant Grove, originally named Battle Creek, is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, known as "Utah's City of Trees". It is part of the Provo–Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 39,604 as of April of 2025.

History

thumb|left|Pleasant Grove Tabernacle circa 1910

thumb|left|[[Pleasant Grove Town Hall|Old Pleasant Grove Town Hall]]

Settlement and incorporation

On July 19, 1850, William H. Adams, John Mercer and Philo T. Farnsworth, Mormon pioneers sent by Brigham Young, arrived at the area now known as Pleasant Grove and staked out farms in what is now the southwest corner of the city. A small community was established September 13, 1850, consisting of George S. Clark and his wife, Susannah Dalley Clark, Richard and Ann Elizabeth Sheffer Clark, John Greenleaf Holman and Nancy Clark Holman, Lewis Harvey and his wife Lucinda Clark Harvey, Johnathan Harvey and Sarah Herbert Harvey, Charles Price and wife and child, Widow Harriet Marler and children, John Wilson, Ezekiel Holman, and possibly one or two others, relatives of those mentioned. Of note, William Fletcher and Anne Hawley Reynolds in 1852 brought Ellis Reynolds Shipp to live, which Shipp became the legendary MD, Obstetrician, and Pediatrician, through the young women's midwife training program of Dr. Richards and Eliza Snow, beginning her training in young women's MIA in Pleasant Grove. Pleasant Grove was officially incorporated as a town January 18, 1855, by which time the settlement had grown to 623 people.

Early relations with Native Americans

The original name of the city was Battle Creek. It was named for a massacre which took place there in 1849 between Mormon settlers and a small band of Ute Indians, wherein all the male Utes were massacred when Brigham Young believed the natives had stolen some of his horses (which were found before the attack on the Utes occurred). The settlers later decided they needed a more uplifting name and began calling their town Pleasant Grove after a grove of cottonwood trees located between Battle Creek and Grove Creek, near the current-day intersection of Locust Avenue and Battle Creek Drive. A monument with a plaque describing this battle is located at Kiwanis Park, at the mouth of Battle Creek Canyon.

During the Walker Indian War in the 1850s, citizens built a fort with walls two or three feet thick and six feet tall that occupied an area the size of sixteen city blocks. The settlers in the area at the time built homes inside the fort. While the fort no longer stands, memorial cornerstones were erected by local historians. The northeast monument was erected near the intersection of 100 North and 300 East streets. The northwest monument was erected four blocks west of that point at 100 West Street and the southeast monument erected four blocks south at 300 South Street. The southwest monument would have been located near 300 South 100 West, the area is now occupied by a large parking lot and retail store.

Media appearances

This city was one of the filming locations for Universal's 1995 film Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain. Portions of the 1994 television series The Stand, adapted from the Stephen King novel, were filmed in Pleasant Grove.

Geography

thumb|The 'G' on Little Mountain, short for "the Grove", a common nickname of [[Pleasant Grove High School (Utah)|Pleasant Grove High School]]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Sloping off the Mt. Timpanogos bench, Pleasant Grove is represented by a large, white hillside letter "G" just above the city. A small distance south on Battle Creek Canyon is the creek of the same name and tall Battle Creek Falls.

Climate

Pleasant Grove's climate features cold winters and hot, dry summers. Under the Köppen climate classification, Pleasant Grove has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa).

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Pleasant Grove had a population of 37,726. The median age was 28.4 years. 32.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 9.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 99.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.9 males age 18 and over.

There were 11,082 households in Pleasant Grove, of which 47.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 65.7% were married-couple households, 12.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 18.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 14.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 31,563 || 83.7%

|-

| Black or African American || 224 || 0.6%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 175 || 0.5%

|-

| Asian || 478 || 1.3%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 299 || 0.8%

|-

| Some other race || 1,687 || 4.5%

|-

| Two or more races || 3,300 || 8.7%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 4,434 || 11.8%

|}

2010 census

As of the census

Strawberry Days

Pleasant Grove is home to the summer festival known as Strawberry Days. The first annual “Strawberry Day” (initially a single-day event) was held on June 21, 1922, with 10,000-15,000 people in attendance. The festival was organized by the Wasatch Club, The festival retains the traditional name, even though large-scale commercial growing of the fruit no longer occurs in the city. The festival is Utah’s second oldest community harvest festival, younger only than Brigham City's Peach Days–a festival Strawberry Days’ founders hoped to rival. The city lost in the Tenth Circuit. However, the city appealed to the Supreme Court which overturned the Court of Appeals decision, citing the permanence of monuments as opposed to forms of constitutionally protected free speech as well as the fact that governments take ownership of monuments on their properties and thus must "take some care in accepting donated monuments."

Education

thumb|250px|Pleasant Grove with Utah Lake in the background. Pleasant Grove High School can be seen in the foreground.

Public schools in Pleasant Grove are part of the Alpine School District. Charter schools include John Hancock Charter School and Lincoln Academy. Liahona Preparatory Academy is an accredited K-12 private school serving the area.

Local schools

Elementary schools

  • Central
  • Grovecrest
  • John Hancock Charter School
  • Mount Mahogany
  • Valley View

Junior high/middle schools

  • Lincoln Academy
  • Pleasant Grove Junior High School

High schools

  • Pleasant Grove High School

Recreation

  • Community Center
  • Veterans Memorial Pool
  • Evermore Park

Notable places and events

  • Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center
  • Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple (on the border in neighboring American Fork)
  • Pleasant Grove Pioneers Parade
  • Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days - 3rd week of June

Notable people

  • Quinn Allman, musician, The Used
  • Howard Roscoe Driggs, Western historian and educator; born in Pleasant Grove; brother of William King Driggs, Sr.
  • Brandon Fugal, businessman and owner of Skinwalker Ranch.
  • Todd Herzog, winner of reality TV show Survivor: China
  • Chelsie Hightower, contestant on So You Think You Can Dance
  • Dane Iorg, former Major League Baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals); World Series champion
  • The King Sisters, and their father, agent and organizer William King Driggs, Sr.
  • A. Ray Olpin, President of University of Utah from 1946 to 1964
  • C. J. Wilcox, 28th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft; shooting guard for the Orlando Magic

<gallery widths="180px" class="center">

File:The Wasatch Front - wickenden.jpg|View of Mahogany Mountain in the Wasatch Range, from Pleasant Grove

File:LA&SL at Pleasant Grove.jpg|The old Utah Southern Railroad (later the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad) line cutting through the city. Currently part of Union Pacific's Provo Industrial Lead.

File:Pleasant Grove Tithing Office.jpg|The historic tithing office

File:Old Bell School - Pleasant Grove, Utah - 14 May 2023.jpg|The historic Old Bell School

</gallery>

References

  • City of Pleasant Grove official website