On the morning of October 30, 2024, a crowd gathered on North 100 West in Kanab to witness the dedication of the monument to Kanab’s - and Utah’s - first and only all-women town council.
Left to right, photos courtesy of the Office of Lieutenant Governor of Utah:
Lieutenant Governor Dierdre Henderson addresses the audience at the All-Women Town Council Monument (below) dedication.
Students from Kanab Elementary School sing “Utah! This is the place.”
The lovely reenactors of the original all-women town council.
Susan Honey of the Kanab Preservation Foundation addresses the crowd as the rest of the Foundations board listens behind her.
Planning and construction for the monument was spearheaded by the Kanab Preservation Foundation (KPF) and has been years in the making. Kane County and Kanab City event organizers assisted the KPF in the event, which also featured Utah’s state song as sung by local elementary schoolers, a color guard post, the national anthem as performed by Kanab local Kaylen Troutman, an address from the members of the KPF (including a performance by the ladies of the town council reenactment group), a dedicatory prayer by a representative of the Chamberlain family and an address by Utah Lieutenant Governor Dierdre Henderson. Despite a chill in the air, the event was well attended, with a casual headcount showing at least a hundred in the crowd.
Susan Honey, with the KPF, gave the initial address, introducing the monument and providing some historical context for its location and design - the monument is placed at the location where the home of Mary Wooley-Chamberlain stood. Wooley was the first woman to hold the position of County Clerk in Kane County following a campaign for women’s suffrage, as well as the Mayor of the memorialized town council. Honey said of the monument, “If you look at it from the street, it does look like a little house,” referring to the brickwork of the monument which incorporates bricks and foundation stones from Wooley-Chamberlain’s original home on the site. Honey invited the descendants of that original council to stand and represent the legacy of the women who served. Honey’s comments, as well as those of former Kanab Mayor Nina Laycook, framed the monument in the context of Utah’s history of women voters, recounting how Utah was one of the earliest states to allow women to participate in elections - a sentiment reinforced by Lt. Governor Henderson, who reiterated how Utah women voted until that right was taken away by federal mandate, and how Utah risked its attempts at statehood to keep suffrage on their ballot.
Lt. Governor Henderson addressed the crowd toward the end of the event, stating, “I want to congratulate you on this wonderful day. You can tell a lot about people by their monuments, by who they remember. When I look at this monument, I see the people of Kanab, I see the values of courage, hard work and determination, I see the value of community service. These women may have been elected as a joke, but they stood when they were called, stood to ensure the people of Kanab had opportunity, and had dignity … these women were firsts, they represent values that every single one of us should emulate today.”
Monty Chamberlain, a descendant of the Chamberlain family and representative of Thomas Chamberlain - husband of Mayor Mary Wooley-Chamberlain - foundation, offered a dedicatory prayer, after which Laycook addressed the crowd. Laycook’s remarks were accompanied by the reenactors of the original all-women city council, who celebrated by sharing Oreo Cookies with the crowd. When Laycook protested that Oreos might be a bit anachronistic for the ladies of the council, the women of the council replied that no, indeed Oreos were created in the same year the all-women town council was elected!
The monument stands on North 100 West in Kanab, just off Center Street and adjacent to the Comfort Suites, across from the State Bank site.
