Promoted by social media influencers as a free, secret wedding spot in the upper elevations of the Wasatch Mountains, the Church of Dirt in Park City has exploded in popularity in recent years, especially during the pandemic, when indoor venues were closed and people were advised to social distance.
Park City Councilmember Max Doilney said the church is a perfect example of a public space being loved to death due to overuse.
“I want to try and make sure that we don’t have that impact on all our trails, don’t have that impact on the entire area,” Doilney said. “We’ve seen that it’s been abused, and to me that has exceeded our capability to manage… People will find places to have free weddings.”
The makeshift venue with 10 wooden benches has caused a variety of issues, Park City Trails and Open Space Manager Heinrich Deters told the city council Thursday. Those include overloaded parking lots, blocked roads, trash, scheduling conflicts, and a perception that the church is a private venue.
“Because we don’t permit it or approve it, then people believe that actually it is approved and sort of have this ownership associated that this is a private use up there - which it isn’t,” Deters said.
People would “schedule” weddings by signing a book and leaving a rock or wood plank with a name, date and time. Everything ran on the honor system.
Utah Open Lands Executive Director Wendy Fisher said it was clear people were trying to take advantage of the hype.
“We did find that there were people that actually had out-of-state numbers, encouraging people to reserve their wedding site through them," Fisher said. "So maybe they thought they got an approval there.”
In 2021, the city asked a part-time resident to shut down an ad hoc website created to reserve weddings at the Church of Dirt.
The city council unanimously recommended to shut down the church.
“Yeah, I think it’s time,” councilmember Becca Gerber said. “It was a really cool local thing, and now it’s not a really cool local thing.”
Deters with the city’s trails department said they plan to contact anyone who appears to have scheduled a wedding in the coming months.
