Our mission is to document and preserve the history, experiences, and accounts of those who attended Sorenson’s Ranch School and to bring long-hidden information into the public record. We are committed to supporting survivors by providing a place where their voices can be heard, their experiences acknowledged, and the truth of what they endured preserved for future generations. Through transparency, documentation, and accountability, we seek to ensure that the experiences of those who suffered are not forgotten or silenced.
Why We Are Doing This Work
This project exists to pursue accountability for the individuals and those in positions of management who are alleged to have participated in, enabled, or failed to prevent the historic abuse of children at Sorenson’s Ranch School. Just as importantly, we want to create a space where survivors can have their experiences acknowledged, understood, and heard. By bringing these stories into the light, our hope is to support survivors in healing, living healthy and fulfilling lives, and reconnecting with society on their own terms.
The information gathered here provides historical context about Sorenson’s Ranch School, the people connected to its operation, the community in which it was established, and the experiences described by former students and survivors.
We begin with the where: the rural community of Koosharem, Utah, its history, its development by early LDS pioneers, and the way a small, geographically isolated community functioned socially and institutionally. Koosharem is a small, close-knit religious community where generations of families have deep personal and familial connections. In a community where people know one another, families are interconnected, and local relationships can extend across generations, those connections can make it difficult for outsiders to understand what is happening within the community and can make it harder for those who experience harm to be heard or for individuals in positions of power to be held accountable.
From there, we look at the who: the people who founded, operated, managed, and worked within the ranch — and the what: the systems, practices, and conditions experienced by the children placed in its care.
The ranch's rural isolation, close community relationships, institutional connections, and the broader religious and cultural environment in which it operated are important parts of the historical context surrounding Sorenson’s Ranch School. For children brought into the ranch from outside communities, that isolation was compounded by the fact that they were removed from their families, their familiar surroundings, and many of the people who could have advocated for them.
The purpose is not to attribute the actions of individuals to an entire community or religious organization. Rather, the information presented here focuses on the specific people, structures, relationships, beliefs, and institutional conditions surrounding Sorenson’s Ranch School and the circumstances described by former students and survivors.
Ultimately, this work is about documenting what happened to the children placed in the care of Sorenson’s Ranch School, preserving the accounts of those who experienced it, and making information available that can help survivors and the public better understand what is happening at Sorensons Ranch School.
Most importantly, this work is about the survivors, their experiences, their resilience, and their right to have their stories heard.
Contact
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