Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Sculpture garden in Salt Lake City, US

Gilgal is a sculpture garden in Salt Lake City that displays twelve sculptural arrangements and over seventy stones with carved texts. The works are spread across a landscaped area that borders residential buildings.

Thomas Battersby Child, a masonry contractor and LDS bishop, began the garden in his backyard at age 57, in 1945, and worked on it until his death in 1963. After his death, the property passed to neighbor Henry P. Fetzer, whose family owned it until 2000, when citizens raised $679,000 to buy it and make it a city park. It reopened on October 21, 2000.

Child named the garden after Gilgal, the Biblical site where Joshua set twelve stones as a memorial, and the name is sometimes translated as "circle of standing stones." Many sculptures and quotations refer to LDS themes: the restoration of the priesthood and the Mormon migration west. Child welcomed thousands of visitors during his lifetime and said, "You don't have to agree with me. You may think I am a nut, but I hope I have aroused your thinking and curiosity."

The area is easy to reach on foot and offers open spaces to explore at your own pace. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes and take time at each stone to read the carved texts.

Child cut and finished the stones in a workshop set up in his own yard, and he stated that all finish work on his statues was done on site. He also used an oxyacetylene torch, normally a welding tool, to cut stone. His son-in-law Bryant Higgs and hired helper Maurice Edmunds Brooks assisted with the project.