Chief Tabby statue adds to Heber City memorial honoring Timpanogos history

A statue honoring Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah stands at the Heber City Cemetery as part of a broader effort to recognize Timpanogos history in the Heber Valley. Photo: Inhabit Park City.

The new sculpture follows a May memorial dedication honoring Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah and his son, Tom Tabby

HEBER CITY, Utah — A new statue of Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah now stands at the Heber City Cemetery, marking a broader effort this year to recognize the Timpanogos leader and his family’s place in Heber Valley history.

Heber City scheduled the statue’s unveiling for Aug. 29 at the cemetery columbarium. Jonathan Andrew LaBenne created the sculpture through a project involving the Wasatch Community Foundation and funding from Heber City and Wasatch County tourism, arts and parks tax programs.

City records show the Wasatch Community Foundation received $25,000 through Heber City’s 2026 TAP tax arts grant program for the Chief Tabby statue.

The project follows a separate memorial at the cemetery earlier this year.

TownLift reported in April that a historical plaque honoring Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah and his son, Tom Tabby, was dedicated May 2 at the cemetery, where Tom Tabby is buried.

The Wasatch Community Foundation and Sons of Utah Pioneers organized the earlier memorial to bring greater public recognition to a chapter of Heber Valley history long marked by Tom Tabby’s simple sandstone grave marker.

Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah, whose name has been translated as “Child of the Sun,” was a Ute leader remembered in local historical accounts for seeking coexistence between Native people and settlers during a period of forced displacement, broken treaties, and conflict in Utah Territory.

As TownLift previously reported, an 1865 treaty sought to move Ute bands to the Uinta Basin in exchange for payments, supplies, and government services. Congress never ratified the treaty, and it failed to deliver the promised provisions.

As conflict intensified during the Black Hawk War era, historical accounts cited by Heber City describe Tabby as choosing to move his people to the reservation rather than join bands engaged in armed conflict, while continuing to advocate for their survival.

The cemetery is also closely connected to the story of Tabby’s son.

According to Heber City and historical sources previously reviewed by TownLift, Tom Tabby died in a hunting accident during the Black Hawk War period in the mid-1860s. Chief Tabby carried his son’s body to Heber City and asked that he be buried according to Mormon customs.

Joseph Stacy Murdock conducted the burial, and Chief Tabby then honored his son in accordance with Ute tradition.

The new statue extends that recognition beyond Tom Tabby’s burial site and places Chief Tabby himself more prominently in the cemetery landscape.

Heber City described the project as an effort to “remember, honor and celebrate an important part of our community’s history.”