About

St. Joseph the Worker was built in 1965 by displaced miners from now vanished towns of Bingham Canyon such as Dinkeyville, Lark and Highland Boy. The miners were forced to leave these towns by the expanding copper mine. Many of them, immigrants and children of immigrants, settled in the south valley areas of West Jordan, South Jordan and Riverton. They were spiritual refugees until Monsignor John Sullivan, an ardent supporter of workers’ rights, led an effort to build a new Catholic church for them in West Jordan. This church would be a home of their own, a welcoming place that would restore their sense of belonging and community. The south valley Catholics didn’t have much money but they were no strangers to hard physical labor. They built the church with their own hands. The church was placed under the patronage of St. Joseph the Worker, patron saint of the working man. In honor of these founders, men, women and children who put in long hours of work and effort for their newly found parish. Building St. Joseph the Worker Church was truly a labor of love by its founders.