Pioneer magazine—the official publication of the National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers—is one of the oldest continually-published periodicals in the state of Utah. Now in its eighty-sixth year of publication, Pioneer was inaugurated in June 1936 as the self-published newsmagazine and “official organ of the Sons of Utah Pioneers.”
Over time, the look, contents, and mission of Pioneer have shifted dramatically. Initially, Sons of Utah Pioneers news dominated the magazine’s content. Beginning in 1995, however, the magazine’s pages—now published in full color—were dominated by articles about Latter-day Saint pioneers and settlements. Within a decade, each quarterly issue of Pioneer was governed by a particular theme—Hole in the Rock, early Latter-day Saint photographers, the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies, and so on—and all articles in each thirty-six-page issue were closely tied to its governing theme.
Although issues of Pioneer are now twice as long as they used to be, each continues to be governed by such diverse and engaging themes as Liberty Jail, early sister missionaries, the Church History Museum, the founding and development of the Tabernacle Choir, the Mormon Battalion, stained glass in early Church buildings, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and This Is The Place Heritage Park.
In March 2021 the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University announced that Pioneer magazine had received the 2020 Clarence Dixon Taylor Historical Research Award for its back-to-back issues on the settlement of Utah County. Pioneer’s well-researched and highly accessible articles, together with its breathtaking illustrations and design, have made it a favorite of Latter-day Saint scholars and lay readers alike.
You may learn more about Pioneer at https://www.sup1847.com/pioneer-magazine—where you may also subscribe to the magazine. We hope you will join us in celebrating the men and women who helped establish the Church of Jesus Christ and create the American West.
